Noll ready for Park Tudor
Updated: March 28, 2011 9:38AM
A typical practice for Park Tudor includes 75 minutes of individual skill drills such as shooting, footwork and ball-handling.
Ed Schilling, the Panthers' coach, was not likely to go overboard watching film of Bishop Noll.
He is more worried about his team performing the way it is capable of.
If the Panthers shoot the ball with the kind of proficiency they have during the regular season, it's going to be tough for the Warriors to win.
Park Tudor is firing away at a 61-percent clip from the field. From 3-point range, they make 40 percent of their shots.
Bishop Noll coach Drew Trost has watched five of their games on film and he was struck by how quickly and efficiently they pull up from outside normal 3-point range to take shots.
"They have no fear," he said.
Because the Panthers don't play man-to-man, Trost said the potential for a wide-open, high-scoring game exists. Contrast that with the 41-38 victory Wheeler scored in the state championship last year, and you know it's a different kind of team.
Then, Park Tudor was relying mainly on five-star guard Yogi Ferrell.
Schilling said the team sticks with the zone because he figures it takes 75 minutes of practice every day to teach man-to-man principles at a high level. He doesn't have that kind of time if he is working mostly on shooting, ball-handling and footwork.
Trost, meanwhile, is happy to try to outscore another team. He has plenty of high level talent with Adonis Filer, Larry Crisler, Milos Kostic and Ronnye Beamon.
"The way they play, it looks like they take the approach of we're going to try to outscore opponents," Trost said. "We have a lot of offensive weapons. It's not a scary thing for us to get in a shootout."
Trost said he'll throw the whole gamut of defenses at the Panthers to see what sticks.
That means some man-to-man, some zone and even a full-court press.
The Warriors' big problem is they can't over-commit on any of the shooters. That means there will be no doubling off on Ferrell or Trevon Bluiett, their other elite player. Bluiett, a 6-4 freshman, is averaging 13.7 points per game.
The other built-in advantage that Park Tudor has is it just played in the state finals last year.
Bishop Noll can't simulate that, though Trost believes a practice at Conseco earlier this week helped.
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