#2, says he.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/14903810/ridiculously-early-preseason-top-25-and-one-uk-no-1-as-of-now

We could explore the the inanity of Mr. Parrish's usual analysis...but isn't he the guy who, before the 2009-10 season predicted Butler was going to the Final Four? [maybe it was Dodd, it was someone at Sportsline]

Neither here nor there about the #2 prediction...what bugged me was this comment from the peanut gallery:

""I'm a die hard Cuse fan, but until Jimmy B leaves or budges on never playing man to man D then They wont even get past the first weekend. Like usual!"

I used to be one of these people. Until I realized how many points are created on the fast break when the zone is executed CORRECTLY. Seldom have we truly gotten burned throughout an entire game by the 3.

Vermont? T-Rex doesn't hang and we win.

Marquette? 18 TOs ain't cuttin' it.

Seton Hall? I'll give you that one.

Point is, Jimmy knows that if we play solid zone, the law of averages will even out hot 3-point shooting over the course of 99% of games.

When we lose, it's not because he won't play man, it's because our players don't trust the zone and fully commit to it. When a guard jumps out too far up top to roll the dice on a steal, he exposes the high pick & roll off the other guard or leaves the opportunity for the PG to blow by him to the hoop.

A friend asked me how many more points would we prevent a hot-shooting team from getting if we went man, I said "it's hard to calculate if it would be worth it, because it would also force us into more half-court offensive sets when the zone creates so many more interception/long rebound opportunities that lead to easy run-outs." Sure we'd defend more threes, but we'd have fewer easy looks on the other end (let's not forget that run-outs lead to the best looks from 3 as well)

Point is, I realized long ago that Jimmy's reluctance to leave the zone isn't stubbornness, it's temperance.