

How David Beats Goliath: When underdogs break the rules (2009) - tablet
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/05/11/how-david-beats-goliath

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vorg
> In the world of basketball, there is one story after another like this about
> legendary games where David used the full-court press to beat Goliath. Yet
> the puzzle of the press is that it has never become popular. People look at
> upsets like Fordham over UMass and call them flukes. Basketball sages point
> out that the press can be beaten by a well-coached team with adept ball
> handlers and astute passers — and that is true. Ranadivé readily admitted
> that all an opposing team had to do to beat Redwood City was press back: the
> girls were not good enough to handle their own medicine.

The full-court press requires every team member to play a specified assembly-
line style role where there's no room for any individual showing off and the
only competition is the other team. Players in zero-sum sports aren't
particular good at that and need to show off on the court or field to impress
the scouts, so they're competing not only as a group against the other team
but also as individuals against other members of their own team. Coaches tend
to cater for this player need with suitable game strategies.

> College coaches of Pitino’s calibre typically have had numerous players who
> have gone on to be bona-fide all-stars at the professional level. In his
> many years of coaching, Pitino has had one, Antoine Walker. It doesn’t
> matter. Every year, he racks up more and more victories.

The only person who really shines in the full court press play is the coach.
Ambitious players don't want to be coached by them.

~~~
Eridrus
I read about half of "The Score Takes Care Of Itself" by Bill Walsh on a
flight a few weeks back, and it makes me question your reasoning.

It sounded like the team that Bill Walsh coached was playing an (at the time)
similarly unloved playing style, and didn't have the favored players in the
NFL (especially before the winning began), but (supposedly, I don't know
anything about NFL) Joe Montana is now seen as one of the best quarterbacks,
despite not being well suited to other teams' strategies.

In that sense the full court press sounds like a similar strategy to the west
coast offence where you can take what are otherwise seen as poor players and
transform a sport by taking championships.

