Virginia Wins NCAA Basketball, Kiwi Connection

The University of Virginia are the 2019 winners of the United States NCAA men's basketball championship. Turns out there is a Kiwi connection here as New Zealander Jack Salt plays for the team. He came off the bench in the final and put in 4 minutes. Virginia coach Tony Bennett also has a connection with NZ, he played for North Harbour in the NZ National Basketball League and started his coaching career there as well, coaching the team in 1998 and 1999.

The Virginia win affirms the importance of defense. They play a system referred to as the Pack Line D; called Pack Line as the team line up in a pack just inside the three point line when defending. I have no doubt that such a configuration must look intimidating to the team bringing the ball up the court. Apart from that there isn't a lot different to other man-to-man defenses. With the Pack Line they put pressure on the player with the ball and players not guarding the ball-carrier sag off to help out if needed. Then they do not allow any easy looks to the shooter. They double-team any player receiving the ball at the low post, and attach like limpet mines to any cutter. Oh and they prefer to hedge off screens as well. Below I've embedded a useful YouTube description of how Pack Line works. It's a good system, with reservations:

This kind of defense can be exposed if coming up against a team of good perimeter shooters. That double-teaming of the low post leaves an attacker free, the ball can be kicked out to him, and an easy two results. That is if the attacking team has good shooters of course and this is where I think the Pack Line has been so successful. The USA has seen a decline in the accuracy of perimeter shooters, these days players like to drive, cut and take it to the hoop. No doubt the Virginia coach is exploiting this weakness by inviting teams to shoot from outside, and then boxing out to get the rebounds. Virginia then exploit this weakness further at the other end as they have good shooters. It's simple arithmetic.

What could beat Pack Line? Good shooters as said above, as well as wide body post players who are hard to double-team. Maybe a wide body at both low posts. Note I'm talking wide bodies, not just about height. Wide bodies are also hard to deal with in relation to setting screens, making them the key in any team offense (like book ends).