DePaul's defense built on pressure

So you want to know why first-year DePaul coach Oliver Purnell switched to full-court press at Clemson and then brought it to Lincoln Park?

Then start by stepping into associate head coach Dr. Ron Bradley's office, where he earnestly mentions concepts like “the optimal state of arousal” while the well-thumbed Bible on his desk sits open to the book of Timothy.

(It makes sense once you learn the 59-year-old Bradley, the biggest influence on DePaul's defense, earned his Ph.D. in sports psychology.)

Where a conversation about DePaul's wide variety of pressures also meanders into a discussion about New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick's brilliance.

“I love him,” says the Boston native with the Red Sox cap on his office windowsill.

Where that same DePaul conversation takes a cosmic turn with talk of “space and holes” and the “eclipse.”

“To me, the whole game of basketball is space and holes,” Bradley said. “You know, the court is 94 (feet) by 50. You always play with that space. “But then you have holes within that 94 by 50 — and different philosophies in coaching are what you're going to do with those holes.

“There's not a very good hole in certain areas, so the coaches try to open up other holes, so we try to make adjustments to take those holes away from them.”

Confused yet? If so, then you understand exactly how DePaul's opponents are supposed to feel.

Heading into Saturday's home game against No. 10 Connecticut and top-flight scorer Kemba Walker (25.3 ppg), DePaul's defense ranks 20th nationally with a 25.1 percent turnover rate.

What does that mean? Ken Pomeroy's calculations at kenpom.com show 25.1 percent of DePaul opponents' possessions end in turnovers.

That's a 25 percent increase from previous years at DePaul — and it's directly attributable to the presses brought to town by Purnell and Bradley.

After the 2003-04 season, their first at Clemson, they decided to switch to the aggressive style that highlighted their long and lean athletes.

During their last five years at Clemson, the Tigers always ranked among the nation's top eight teams in steals percentage.

Though they're early in the process of reshaping DePaul's roster in Clemson's image — seven new players are slated to be on next year's team — they decided to introduce their diamond presses from the start.

Any DePaul fans who want to learn the basics can search the internet for the head coach's DVD titled “Oliver Purnell: Forcing the Action.”

That's something we try to do: Force action, force tempo,” Purnell said. “Make people play faster than they (want) do. That's a phrase we use early, often, and I'm sure our guys are tired of hearing it.”

They might be sick of hearing “Force the Action,” but they're not tired of doing it.

“Honestly, I love it,” said freshman point guard Brandon Young, who averages 1.5 steals per game. “That's my type of style — getting up and down the court. But as far as pressure defense, it's just a lot of steals for us and a lot of opportunities to score.”

“This particular style helps in recruiting, but it also helps in generating enthusiasm with your fan base,” Purnell said. “It's an exciting style to watch. It certainly lends itself to exciting games and finishes. Great comebacks and big leads and, uh, losing big leads and spurtability and all that stuff. I prefer this style.”

DePaul's base press is a diamond that features the “4 man” at the top — usually uber-athletic freshman Cleveland Melvin.

The 6-foot-8 Melvin's job is to block the vision of the inbounds man to force the initial pass into the corner.

Then Melvin races over to double-team the ball with one of the DePaul wings who serve as the sides of the diamond.

“If we don't get that first trap, then we're still in (Diamond) because they've still got to rotate the ball,” Young said. “We ain't going to stop until they get past half-court.”

Bradley declines to mention the number of presses the Blue Demons have in their arsenal, though he allows there are five or six variations on both their diamond and their man-to-man pressures.

“We talk about the 80/20 Rule,” Bradley said. “Twenty percent of pressure is what we teach: the rotations and everything. But 80 percent of it is just playing hard. That's what Oliver is so great at — getting them to play hard.”

Bradley also reveals the Demons don't always need a steal in order to feel like their pressure works. Here's where the psychological aspect comes into play. Sometimes they'll let opponents break the press consistently to lull them into a false sense of security.

“My Ph.D.'s in sports psychology, so I kind of like the stuff,” Bradley said, “but there's an optimal level of arousal and you can feel kind of good. But if you can get them over the edge there by changing on them when they don't expect it ...”

Suddenly the press helps to turn things DePaul's way. In three games this year (Stanford, Central Michigan and Ball State), the Demons rallied from double-digit deficits to take the lead.

“A lot of them get tired,” Melvin said. “Then we continue to put pressure on them and then we get the steals and I get highlights off it.”