ZorbaGarp wrote:How did you replicate the Amoeba Zone? Tark was always underrated as a defensive coach, folks weren't realizing how he generated turnovers to trigger the transition offense.
Since the Amoeba was essentially a diamond and one that looked to trap in the corners I would combine the 1-3-1 zone with the HC trap about 25% of the time, and M2M the other 75% of the time, which was pretty much what Tark did, occasionally throwing in some m2m pressure as well. It was very effective and I recruited to it. Had HUGE turnover differentials. Tark also looked for some athletic guys down low who could snare defensive rebounds to start the transition offense as well. I was never able to generate the 100+ points/game that Tark had in his heyday(without a shot clock and 3 point shot no less!) but did get it to about 85ppg. You are right though, his defense generated much of his offense. He wasn't run and gun like Westphal. If they couldn't beat the other team down the floor in transisiton, his teams were patient enough to look for the first decent shot. Of course, when he had guys like Theus that usually didn't take long.
Getting the 1-3-1 zone and the HC trap to work together in the same defensive possession was tricky, Most of the time I just manipulated the frequencies in strategy to get them to come out about right, rather than pause the game constantly, but as PG pointed out that will be a little easier to accomplish in CB20.