There's sort of two levels here:

1) "Rarely are we turning people over" - This is just objectively false. We're 18th in the country in turnover percentage defense, it's the only reason we're even remotely good from a defensive metrics standpoint, and it's not just the absolutely awful teams turning it over. UCF and Florida State turned it over more than 20% of the time. You could argue it hasn't worked against the two best teams we've faced in SMU and OSU but I'd probably argue that we sucked at it against OSU and it was starting to work against SMU until that game turned into a free throw contest and let SMU off the hook from a conditioning standpoint. And even if it was just the awful teams turning it over, it's a big reason why none of those games have even been remotely close except for Montana.

2) It assumes we'd be better just dropping back into a halfcourt defense, AND it assumes we'd be better overall if we played half court basketball. - We're not very good at half court defense either, and part of the whole idea of pressing with this team is to get the other teams deeper into their bench. We're not going to do that if we're playing a low possession half court game. We're going to sacrifice some defense to try and keep the game at the tempo we want it to be at because we're better on offense if the other team can't set their defense either.

Ags hire Jim Boeheim.

"I don't like the 2-3 zone"

This is kind of a philosophical post that maybe belongs on the vibe check thread, but basketball is an interesting mindset for our fans because men's basketball is really the only major sport that, in a broad sense, we're at a competitive disadvantage in.

In every other sport we're basically at even footing (or better in some cases) with the elite programs in the country from the standpoint of our ability acquire players, hire coaches, build facilities, etc. We do not always maximize this ability all the time, but it's there. Coaches in other sports (with the very famous exception in a very specific situation in baseball) don't generally leave us for other jobs.

But Men's basketball is the exception. Every coach we've had recently with any kind of success has been hired away by someone else.

Which isn't to say we're like the sisters of the poor or anything, but we are not on even footing with the elite programs in this sport. We are not going to put the best roster on the floor, we're not going to hire proven high level coaches (Buzz was about as proven a coach as we could ever dream of hiring), etc.

So that means you can either settle for mediocrity, or you can try to find some way to gain a competitive advantage. With Bucky, that's going to be our style of play. He has been recruiting at a really high level, but we're still not going to put the kind of talent on the floor that the really elite teams are, so we're going to try and make up that gap with a unique playing style.

Our offense is not particularly unique, all of college basketball is trending towards tempo, spacing and three point shooting. But what is unique is the defense we're pairing it with. So we'll see if it ultimately works, but I'm willing to ride or die with it for a couple of years because if we bail on it then we're just trying to play the same game that everyone else is.