Our offense is the best it's been in awhile but what ails the D? Teams are shooting astonishing percentages against us! D has been a constant for us even through disappointing times. And this group has played decent defense in the past. Right now we can't seem to stop drives or defend the three point line. Tough combo. The drives are clearly impacted by the tight officiating and that's clearly helping us on offense too, but that can't be the whole thing. I watched closely and it seems a little like we have changed a little philosophically to more packline principles (but still with our switching which isn't packline) but are caught kinda in between. This could get better as we get used to it or it could be the 2 are not so compatible. We can't count on shooting 50% and scoring 90 every night, so we need to figure out some things on D soon!
Defense.
- Thread starter PhillySpider
- Start date
Offense is definitely fun and with all our weapons should avg way more than last few years. Think our D is certainly being impacted by how fouls are being called and teams are exploiting it. We've been vulnerable to physical, driving teams in seasons past as well. Guards have got to do their job to prevent some of those drives and front line has to pack in and even take a charge or two to make opponents simply "think about it". The good news is that we can definitely improve and I'm sure they will.
As long as we score more points than the opposing team I am happy. Would you rather slug out a 54-48 defensive win or watch a fun filled offensive display and win 92-86? I know which one I'd take.
And while we are complaining about the D how about the rebounding turn around of late.
At this point in the season I'd much rather be able to shoot the ball. Our D should continue to get better as the season progresses
And while we are complaining about the D how about the rebounding turn around of late.
At this point in the season I'd much rather be able to shoot the ball. Our D should continue to get better as the season progresses
Rebounding better has not improved our defense at all. Teams are scoring against us easier than they ever have under Mooney despite us rebounding better than we ever have under Mooney. Rebounding is a small part of overall defense, and I would rather have us rebound poorly and actually play good defense (like Mooney's teams usually do) than rebound well and play horrible defense (like we have so far this year).
I guess it depends the result of the good D. Play great D that ends in a TO, or a steal, good. Play great D that ends in a bad shot, but they get the rebound only to get a second chance, not good. Too many chances will ultimately end in a score for the other team.
I wonder
I wonder if it would help if someone would ask these guys to remember what they should have learned about good defensive position and about talking on defense and calling out picks to help their teammates. I learned these things on my fifth grade basketball team and anyone who tried to play defense with his hands at his sides as ALL these guys do would not have been playing long on my team. All of these guys have terrible footwork and constantly give up the baseline when their opponent tries to drive that way, I think they need to watch Meatballs and play close attention to the coach's advice.
I wonder if it would help if someone would ask these guys to remember what they should have learned about good defensive position and about talking on defense and calling out picks to help their teammates. I learned these things on my fifth grade basketball team and anyone who tried to play defense with his hands at his sides as ALL these guys do would not have been playing long on my team. All of these guys have terrible footwork and constantly give up the baseline when their opponent tries to drive that way, I think they need to watch Meatballs and play close attention to the coach's advice.
Agree with the above posters who have noted that as long as we score more points, in the end, we will be fine. However, it is fascinating to see how much better our offense seems to be playing, overall. Second, it is interesting too that we just out-rebounded two NCAA-caliber teams in Las Vegas, suggestng that maybe the coaches are placing greater emphasis on rebounding of late, which would be great news. Finally, the decline of our defense, overall, could be explained by three things: First, the tighter calls by the refs are causing us to back-off, just a bit, to avoid foul trouble, Second, ANO was a nice "fail-safe" to have in the middle, to clean up our defensive mistakes. With him no longer patrolling the paint, we will need to do a better job with our footwork and with our "help" and "double-teami" defense. Third, coaching emphasis. Maybe the coaches have been spending more time during practices to work on the flow of the offense and the rebounding. If so, the emphasis could begin to shift, and more time could be spent coaching defense, which could get us closer to where we have been in past years.
While we are making suggestions, I will throw in one more "pitch" that we teach our team how to play one or two versions of zone defenses, in addition to the current one. We have a team that appears to be well-suited to playing a 1-3-1 zone, or some other variation. I still like the idea of teaching your team at least two defensive alignments, if only because most teams can't adjust very well to change. May be worth pulling out some Beilein old (or new) tape to look at the defenses that he so successfully implemented, with teams that had similar personnel to ours.
While we are making suggestions, I will throw in one more "pitch" that we teach our team how to play one or two versions of zone defenses, in addition to the current one. We have a team that appears to be well-suited to playing a 1-3-1 zone, or some other variation. I still like the idea of teaching your team at least two defensive alignments, if only because most teams can't adjust very well to change. May be worth pulling out some Beilein old (or new) tape to look at the defenses that he so successfully implemented, with teams that had similar personnel to ours.
This is a negative post. You are being critical of the team. Your post is not welcomed here. This is an all positive no complaints message board.
That's a negative post. Please refrain from any critique of the team. It is politically incorrect and offensive to some on the board
I just don't see all the bad defense that some of you claim. scores are up. game is called tighter to allow freedom of motion. shot clock is shorter. and as oldie mentioned, we don't have ANO behind us. those are the differences. and yes, ANO back there makes a big difference defensively just as NOT having him on offense is probably helping us offensively.
bong, you must have had a heck of a 5th grade team. I'm sure even the walkons would be the best player ever to set foot on the court in my town. as for talking on screens, we switch pretty much all screens. as for giving up baseline, many coaches today teach to force baseline. not sure if Mooney does. I like it, though. it's an extra defender, and if help gets there like it should the offensive player is trapped. the backboard helps defend too.
Does it appear that individual players aren't playing well enough on D or are they not communicating well enough and therefore not playing well enough as a team? If the latter, it should be improving as we go along. And that is what I am hoping for...
i think it is important to have pressure on the ball passser so the pass into low post is difficult and pivot cannot get best position then.
Good point. D will improve through out season. Better to see offense clicking this early.
How is the baseline a defender if the offensive guy drives right past the defender and doesn't step out of bounds? This has happened several times in the last few games. I wish I had kept the tape of the Cal game because I think there were at least eight or ten drives to the basket by the Cal guys on which no one on the back line came over to help. How is this playing good defense?
Actually that fifth grade team was undefeated, but more importantly everyone on the team learned the basic fundamentals of good defense. Playing defense with your hands down at your sides and then jumping at the shooter after the shot is already off is not good defense.
agreed, but I haven't noticed that. I'll look for it next game.
and agreed, letting a guy go baseline unimpeded to the rim is poor defense. but forcing baseline is one method taught now by some, not all. I didn't notice that many bad plays on the baseline but I may have missed them. but sometimes ... guys make plays. we've played against some good athletes. they're going to score sometimes.
I like to think of it as a fan of the other team. we can fault our defense every time another team scores. so what do fans of other teams think when we're putting up 90? that their defense is that awful? well, sometimes the other team's offense is really good. sometimes guys make plays.
This is my main concern when we head into A10 play. Hopefully by that time - our defense will be better, but playing league opponents, who know our system and players better than OOC opponents, there will be nights when our offense struggles, and that is where our defense will need to step in.
Our offense is probably the best it has been under Mooney, which is great. But I don't like relying on scoring 90 points a night to win games. Good news is - we have some time before A10 play to get the defense up to speed.
Our offense is probably the best it has been under Mooney, which is great. But I don't like relying on scoring 90 points a night to win games. Good news is - we have some time before A10 play to get the defense up to speed.
I think the defense will sort itself out and get better as the season goes on. Do have to say that TJC has been a liability on defense (foot speed and the resulting cheap/silly fouls), Wood is not really there yet defensively (not enough floor time in the CM defensive system), and DT has not really emerged as the "lock down defender/enforcer" that we had all hoped he would by this juncture.
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