Murphy’s Law Too Much for Bell-Jeff

During Bell-Jeff High’s 59-57 loss to Murphy in boys’ basketball on Friday, Bell-Jeff Coach Eli Essa saw a version of the 2-3 defense that he hadn’t seen before.

The Nobles put two defenders on Bell-Jeff center Mike West and three defenders on guard Ruben Douglas. The other three Bell-Jeff players were left unattended.

The strategy worked.

Douglas, who averages a region-leading 34 points, scored a season-low 21. West had 25. The rest of the team mustered just 11 points.

“That’s all we see now is gimmick defenses,” Essa said. “Other teams are focusing on shutting down Ruben and Mike, and challenging our other three guys to beat them. And so far, those other guys aren’t stepping up, so it’s working.”

The Guards (9-9) won six of their first seven games. But Essa said word got around about how to beat them.

“There weren’t any gimmick defenses then,” Essa said. “It was straight up man-to-man, and Ruben and Mike were going off. Now I can’t run a standard offense anymore. If I call a pick on Ruben’s man, there’s going to be one or two more guys still guarding him.

“What am I going to do, run three picks for one guy? I’ve scoured papers, magazines and the Internet to see if anyone’s written anything on beating these defenses, but there’s nothing out there. By the end of this season, I’ll be able to write the first book on how to beat a gimmick defense.”

Essa said it’s not uncommon for his team to face a box-and-one defense, where Douglas is shadowed by the opponent’s best defender and the rest of the team plays a zone. A triangle-and-two, where two opponents guard Douglas while the other three play zone, is another common strategy against Bell-Jeff.

But Murphy’s interesting 2-3 was a first for the season.

“The first thing we’re doing after tip-off is trying to figure out what kind of defense the other team is playing,” Essa said. “I’ve got assistant coaches going, ‘Ok, they’ve got two guys on Ruben, no they have three on him, no they’re in a soft zone.’

“It’s just a big headache.”