Run and Jump, THe Carolina Way

Japan beating U.S. in the women's World Cup is amazing enough since the average height of each Japanese player is 5'4 while the U.S. is 5'7.  But, they beat Germany in the quarters, and Sweden in the semi's. Both defeated teams had the same height average as the U.S. I'm reminded of a Billy Packer story about Dean Smith when he was a player for the Kansas Jayhawks. Dean's coach, Phogg Allen, would show a film of a snake and a rodent fighting. The snake would always win because it always got down lower. That is what the Japanese women did to all three teams to win the World Cup.

Likewise, it looked like the Japanese took a page out of Dean Smith's jump switch defense with them traps. They always pinned them in a corner by using two or three players and forced them to kick from the weak side. The U.S. players didn't have enough ball-handling skills from their big strikers to be patient. Because after about two dribbles, they would kick it away or the Japanese would steal the ball or force turnovers. Maybe a 2-3 zone every time they got toward the goal with a "set piece." It seemed the Japanese just swarmed Abby Wambach with 2 or 3 players on defense.

Mostly though, it reminded me of Larry Brown's transition to defense to offense. One of Japan's goals was when the U.S. was attacking them but Japan got the ball back and scored off that transition. In Larry's teams, specifically with the Cougars and Nuggets, he had great defenders who were small and quick but great dribblers with speed who could push the ball, score if need to or pass to the weak side for the open man. Japan didn't quiet have those skills on offense but they pushed the ball up field from those take aways and wore down the U.S.

I think this year's U.S. team was better than the team in 1999 which I think was overrated compared to Germany in 2003 and 2007. The 1999 team had great players but the competition wasn't that good. Their finals opponent, China wasn't great in terms of offense but good on defense. However, China couldn't   switch like Japan did with the same quickness and tenacity on defense to create transitions. In short, Germany, Sweden, and the U.S. were the rodents that got snakebitten by Japan. The Carolina way.