What has happened to our defense?

[Creed Bratton]

Since leading the nation in defensive efficiency in 2015, below are our rankings since. The years from 2010-2015 our average defensive finish was 31.50 with 3 years in the top 10. Since 2015 our average defensive finish is 64.4 with the best being 28th in 2017. If you want to know why we have struggled look no further than we can't guard anyone. It doesn't matter what type of offense you run you have to stop the other team.

2016-51
2017-28
2018-80
2019-30
2020-59
2021-110
2022-35
2023-103
This year-84

Rankings here

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Man, I don’t know. Well, not having an elite rim protector for several years now hasn’t helped. Richards was our last one IIRC. Then we had a midget PG for a couple years. This year? Woof! Have a few guys that aren’t strong defensive players. Mitchell is awful IMO on defense.

 

[mcnicKY91]

Since leading the nation in defensive efficiency in 2015, below are our rankings since. The years from 2010-2015 our average defensive finish was 31.50 with 3 years in the top 10. Since 2015 our average defensive finish is 64.4 with the best being 28th in 2017. If you want to know why we have struggled look no further than we can't guard anyone. It doesn't matter what type of offense you run you have to stop the other team.

2016-51
2017-28
2018-80
2019-30
2020-59
2021-110
2022-35
2023-103
This year-84

Rankings here

Thanks for posting. This has been my point of contention with the many fans complaining about UKs offense. While I understand getting upset about Cal's stall ball at the end of games (I am right there with them), UKs offense by in large has not been the issue the past 3 years.

UK has been atrocious defensively. They cannot stay in front of their man to save their lives. When that happens, there is always a trickle down effect. Somebody else on defense has to leave their man to stop the penetrating player. All the other team has to do is swing the ball a few times and they will have an open look for three. Very simple.

Also, not having a shot blocking presence allows these guards to finish in the paint with relative ease. Hoping Bradshaw can be that guy as he gets more acclimated defensively, but the verdict will be out on that for a while.

With that being the case, the Cats have to learn how to stay in front of their man better. It is as simple as that. Take pride in staying in front and not allowing him to get around you. Take it personally...

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Lack of teaching fundamentals. Move your feet. Stay between your man and the basket. Box out until the rebound is secured. Help defense. Controlled close out- don't foul the shooter, but chase them off the 3 point line.

You know......the little things that build champions.

But you need a coach for that.

Talent can only overcome so much.

 

[Creed Bratton]

Man, I don’t know. Well, not having an elite rim protector for several years now hasn’t helped. Richards was our last one IIRC. Then we had a midget PG for a couple years. This year? Woof! Have a few guys that aren’t strong defensive players. Mitchell is awful IMO on defense.

I'm not sure if it's that we aren't recruiting guys who can guard, Cal's defensive philosophy has changed, the staff just is slacking, the lack of a rim protector or what. IMO we haven't had a guy on the perimeter who you could say go shut that guy down and he would do it since MKG. Some guys like Fox and Ulis were pretty good and the 2015 team had several rim protectors. WKS was as good as any big guy on defense but our wing players have been terrible defenders recently and it's been funny to hear them as HS players get labeled as dogs and great defenders and then they get here and can't guard anyone.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I'd like to think if we had even just ONE big, we could get that ranking up into the 50's or beyond, where our defense might be a little more passable for a bunch of freshman.

I also have noticed that Tre Mitchell is a bit of a revolving door on defense.. But I wonder if he's being told to do that because we absolutely can't have our 4th and last big get into foul trouble. In a few games where Tre Mitchel let by an easy bucket, I could tell he was purposely backing off. Lose the battle, win the war kind of thing.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Cal doesn't emphasize defense.

Play guys that are willing to do what it takes to stay in front of their man. Guys that box their man out and don't allow 2nd chance points. Guys that are willing to give themselves up to make a tough stop.

It's been that way for years. No need to expect that to change now.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

But I wonder if he's being told to do that because we absolutely can't have our 4th and last big get into foul trouble. In a few games where Tre Mitchel let by an easy bucket, I could tell he was purposely backing off. Lose the battle, win the war kind of thing.

This approach was developed for Oscar. Keep him out of foul trouble. Play shadow D and don't risk fouls.

It's enraging.

 

[bbncal02]

Cal doesn't emphasize defense.

Play guys that are willing to do what it takes to stay in front of their man. Guys that box their man out and don't allow 2nd chance points. Guys that are willing to give themselves up to make a tough stop.

It's been that way for years. No need to expect that to change now.

Like everything else, he freaking used to. Dude used to be a renowned defensive guru. As frustrating as rock fights are, we won them. We couldn't even do that Saturday.

Cal gets the blame 10000% but our boys have to share some of that from Sat too. That was pathetic.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

This approach was developed for Oscar. Keep him out of foul trouble. Play shadow D and don't risk fouls.

It's enraging.

But it kind of makes sense. And it also tells us we are sticking to a plan as opposed to just being incompetent.

It does seem our entire roster isnt great on the defensive end. Wadner was looking like maybe the best of the guard for defense. I'm kind of in a wait and see approach. Let's get Bradshaw going. ANd honestly, as long we we can get back to scoring 90 a game, I'm kind of OK with not being great defensively. It's not going to be easy to be a top25 offense and defense.

 

[CatsFanIL]

Well for 2 of these recent seasons, we've had Oscar on the floor for nearly the entire game - and he was TERRIBLE defensively (aside from rebounding)

-We also got away from big guards - Harrison twins, Fox/Monk, or filthy small guards - Ulis, Briscoe. So now we have smaller guards - DJ, Reed, Rob - that aren't especially good on the ball. Rob and Reed LOVE to gamble, and sometimes it pays off - and sometimes it just leads to our opponent getting buckets.

Rob and Reed, even DJ wen he tries to pressure the ball, can be pretty good IF we get an elite rim protector - but we don't have that.

Cal has always used really athletic, long, strong guards to pressure the ball and create chaos. If the chaos is broken, he has AD, Nerlens, Willie, etc protecting the rim.

But the last couple years, we haven't had any of that. Wheeler was tiny, Oscar didn't protect the rim, TyTy could score but wasn't a stopper, etc

 

[Wonky]

What’s really frustrating to me is that we had a great defensive gameplan against Miami and executed it to perfection.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that teams have little chance of beating us if they can’t make a ton of threes. I mean we were well below or scoring average on Saturday and UNCW still barely topped us. Why? Because they made 11 freaking threes.

Against Miami, it was plain as day that we were deliberately forcing them to take 2-point FG’s, and it worked flawlessly. Why we did not employ that same defense against UNCW is mind-boggling.

 

[Creed Bratton]

Cal doesn't emphasize defense.

Play guys that are willing to do what it takes to stay in front of their man. Guys that box their man out and don't allow 2nd chance points. Guys that are willing to give themselves up to make a tough stop.

It's been that way for years. No need to expect that to change now.

While at Memphis his defenses averaged 30th with 4 teams in the top 5. If not for a horrible defense in 2004 that finished 124th they would have averaged closer to the top 20 during his time there.

 

[Creed Bratton]

But it kind of makes sense. And it also tells us we are sticking to a plan as opposed to just being incompetent.

It does seem our entire roster isnt great on the defensive end. Wadner was looking like maybe the best of the guard for defense. I'm kind of in a wait and see approach. Let's get Bradshaw going. ANd honestly, as long we we can get back to scoring 90 a game, I'm kind of OK with not being great defensively. It's not going to be easy to be a top25 offense and defense.

Good offensively but bad defensivley is what gets teams put out in the tournament. Run into a team when you aren't hitting and your defense can't stop them and you are out. It has been the recipe that has cost Duke an early exit a lot of years.

 

[bbncal02]

What’s really frustrating to me is that we had a great defensive gameplan against Miami and executed it to perfection.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that teams have little chance of beating us if they can’t make a ton of threes. I mean we were well below or scoring average on Saturday and UNCW still barely topped us. Why? Because they made 11 freaking threes.

Against Miami, it was plain as day that we were deliberately forcing them to take 2-point FG’s, and it worked flawlessly. Why we did not employ that same defense against UNCW is mind-boggling.

Yep. Imagine cutting that in half. We win by 11 probably.

 

[Wonky]

Yep. Imagine cutting that in half. We win by 11 probably.

And it isn’t just the points… giving up a bunch of 3’s both deflates the crowd and builds our opponents confidence.

I want to step on folks throats like we used to. Tired of letting scrub teams hang around and get beer muscles in Rupp Arena.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Good offensively but bad defensivley is what gets teams put out in the tournament. Run into a team when you aren't hitting and your defense can't stop them and you are out. It has been the recipe that has cost Duke an early exit a lot of years.

Well, it also seems some of our early exits were because we just weren't good offensively either. Last year against Kansas St we shot 40/20/75.. You still need offense to win games.

I also don't know if 84th is "bad". Maybe it's bad for being Kentucky, I would agree. But I think if your offense is top25 and the defense is still in the top100, you should be good win most nights.

I'm willing to see what we can do when Bradshaw is acclimated and we maybe.. maybe can get another big back. That could go a long way into fixing things defensively. Jeez just to have a big who could block 2 shots a game and grab 10 boards would be huge.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I didn't get to watch a minute of the UNCW game as I was out for the bar crawl, and spent most of yesterday licking my wounds... So maybe the defense was even worse. I'm just going to pretend UK basketball didn't exist for this weekend lol.

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Like everything else, he freaking used to. Dude used to be a renowned defensive guru. As frustrating as rock fights are, we won them. We couldn't even do that Saturday.

Cal gets the blame 10000% but our boys have to share some of that from Sat too. That was pathetic.

This! So odd to hear that Cal doesn’t emphasize defense, but it seems to line up. We haven’t had an elite defense in years. This team here has got to get better defensively or we are toast.

 

[fatguy87]

Cal's defensive system just sucks. We just so happen to have "awful" individual defenders every year who can't stop drivers or bigs who struggle in pick roll and/or can't block shots. Our bigs are too small! Our guards are too big and slow. Our guards are too small and they get bullied!

A program like Houston doesn't seem to suffer from the same affliction during the same time frame. While we whine about how our big/small/slow/fast guards and bigs can't play, Houston goes 6'1", 6'2'', 6'3", 6'7", and 6'8" in their starting lineup and is the top team in adj. defensive rating so far this year. They are smaller than the 2016 team that common wisdom around here suggests the lack of bigs was a deleterious flaw.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Cal's defensive system just sucks. We just so happen to have "awful" individual defenders every year who can't stop drivers or bigs who struggle in pick roll and/or can't block shots. Our bigs are too small! Our guards are too big and slow. Our guards are too small and they get bullied!

A program like Houston doesn't seem to suffer from the same affliction during the same time frame. While we whine about how our big/small/slow/fast guards and bigs can't play, Houston goes 6'1", 6'2'', 6'3", 6'7", and 6'8" in their starting lineup and is the top team in adj. defensive rating so far this year. They are smaller than the 2016 team that common wisdom around here suggests the lack of bigs was a deleterious flaw.

But those Houston guards are almost exclusively seniors who know what to expect, have experience.

Do we put ANY of the blame on the fact that our team is mostly brand new or in Tre's case, new to the system? All I know is that almost every single year under Cal, we have a few guys who look totally different in March as they did in November.

The problem is this youth bites us early in the year every season, and THAT, we can say, is an issue with coaching in the early going. But I'm not too worried about these guys fixing things as they go, and round into a much more competent team come February and March, We see it almost ever year.

 

[SkyPrince1]

What’s really frustrating to me is that we had a great defensive gameplan against Miami and executed it to perfection.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that teams have little chance of beating us if they can’t make a ton of threes. I mean we were well below or scoring average on Saturday and UNCW still barely topped us. Why? Because they made 11 freaking threes.

Against Miami, it was plain as day that we were deliberately forcing them to take 2-point FG’s, and it worked flawlessly. Why we did not employ that same defense against UNCW is mind-boggling.

UNCW played at a slower pace than Miami and was much better at dribble penetration.
Pack, Miami's pg was pretty much MIA in the UK game.

 

[Creed Bratton]

I do tend to agree with @Cowtown Cat that we haven't had a rim protector since maybe Richards or Isaiah Jackson. Having someone back there to block or at least alter shots when guards get beat goes a long way and we just haven't had that for the past few seasons. If you aren't going to have that rim protector you better have guys who can stay in front of their man and we haven't really had that a lot either.

 

[Creed Bratton]

But those Houston guards are almost exclusively seniors who know what to expect, have experience.

Do we put ANY of the blame on the fact that our team is mostly brand new or in Tre's case, new to the system? All I know is that almost every single year under Cal, we have a few guys who look totally different in March as they did in November.

The problem is this youth bites us early in the year every season, and THAT, we can say, is an issue with coaching in the early going. But I'm not too worried about these guys fixing things as they go, and round into a much more competent team come February and March, We see it almost ever year.

I am okay with being young and getting better if it ends in Final Fours but getting better as the year goes when it starts so low with losses at home to mid majors that having double digit losses, losing the first round of the SEC tournament and bowing out of the NCAA tournament the first weekend is still considered getting better.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I do tend to agree with @Cowtown Cat that we haven't had a rim protector since maybe Richards or Isaiah Jackson. Having someone back there to block or at least alter shots when guards get beat goes a long way and we just haven't had that for the past few seasons. If you aren't going to have that rim protector you better have guys who can stay in front of their man and we haven't really had that a lot either.

Heck, just someone who is 6'10 who can grab rebounds, and therefore limit the opponents 2nd chance points. If Kentucky gets 5 more rebounds from that a game, which inherently means 5 less for them, we're probably undefeated.

Just having a big back there, even if he's not a great shot blocker or defender, should still go a long way.

 

[Creed Bratton]

Heck, just someone who is 6'10 who can grab rebounds, and therefore limit the opponents 2nd chance points. If Kentucky gets 5 more rebounds from that a game, which inherently means 5 less for them, we're probably undefeated.

Just having a big back there, even if he's not a great shot blocker or defender, should still go a long way.

Maybe but Oscar would out rebound the other team by himself and we still lost some games that we shouldn't have. 🤣

 

[Walt_McCartys_Attorney]

I’d be interested in seeing our numbers from 2011, 2013, and 2014. I bet they are not good.

Defense is not only effort, but strength and endurance. The 22 year old has four years of conditioning the five star freshman doesn’t have.

The other issue is 2015 is when the Warriors officially blew up post up basketball. Everybody worth their salt has an offense that makes you choose whether to give up layups or open 3s. What was so cool about our offense prior to UNCW is that we were finally running that all game long. Bet we don’t see it again all season with Bradshaw back.

 

[fatguy87]

I’d be interested in seeing our numbers from 2011, 2013, and 2014. I bet they are not good.

Defense is not only effort, but strength and endurance. The 22 year old has four years of conditioning the five star freshman doesn’t have.

The other issue is 2015 is when the Warriors officially blew up post up basketball. Everybody worth their salt has an offense that makes you choose whether to give up layups or open 3s. What was so cool about our offense prior to UNCW is that we were finally running that all game long. Bet we don’t see it again all season with Bradshaw back.

Adjusted defense rankings:

2011 - 16th
2013 - 88th*
2014 - 32nd

*They were in the top 25 pre-Nerlens injury

They were all better on defense than we have been over the last half decade.

 

[fatguy87]

I do tend to agree with @Cowtown Cat that we haven't had a rim protector since maybe Richards or Isaiah Jackson. Having someone back there to block or at least alter shots when guards get beat goes a long way and we just haven't had that for the past few seasons. If you aren't going to have that rim protector you better have guys who can stay in front of their man and we haven't really had that a lot either.

The 2020 team finished 52nd in adjust defensive rating and the 2021 team finished 35th.

The presence of an elite rim protect may help, but it's not a panacea.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

While at Memphis his defenses averaged 30th with 4 teams in the top 5. If not for a horrible defense in 2004 that finished 124th they would have averaged closer to the top 20 during his time there.

So what happened? Did Cal forget how to teach defense? Has he gotten lazy? Is it impossible to teach 5 star players how to play defense as freshman? Or are we just telling guys that it's ok to let your man blow by you- somebody else can pick up the foul?

 

[Cowtown Cat]

What’s really frustrating to me is that we had a great defensive gameplan against Miami and executed it to perfection.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that teams have little chance of beating us if they can’t make a ton of threes. I mean we were well below or scoring average on Saturday and UNCW still barely topped us. Why? Because they made 11 freaking threes.

Against Miami, it was plain as day that we were deliberately forcing them to take 2-point FG’s, and it worked flawlessly. Why we did not employ that same defense against UNCW is mind-boggling.

This! I wondered the exact same thing! Like, just do the exact same thing we did against Miami! Can’t wrap my head around it either.

 

[kybassfan]

Thanks for posting. This has been my point of contention with the many fans complaining about UKs offense. While I understand getting upset about Cal's stall ball at the end of games (I am right there with them), UKs offense by in large has not been the issue the past 3 years.

UK has been atrocious defensively. They cannot stay in front of their man to save their lives. When that happens, there is always a trickle down effect. Somebody else on defense has to leave their man to stop the penetrating player. All the other team has to do is swing the ball a few times and they will have an open look for three. Very simple.

Also, not having a shot blocking presence allows these guards to finish in the paint with relative ease. Hoping Bradshaw can be that guy as he gets more acclimated defensively, but the verdict will be out on that for a while.

With that being the case, the Cats have to learn how to stay in front of their man better. It is as simple as that. Take pride in staying in front and not allowing him to get around you. Take it personally...

Good thread Good post. I wonder if the coaching staff succumbed to fan pressure and started emphasizing offensive sets in some way. Also, I think there is a cultural aspect to this. Defense is hard work. No glamour, just bitter hard work. I don’t think players these days take pleasure is completely neutering their opponent. More fun to jack threes.

It has to start with the basics. Coaching staff has to put their foot down. No defense, no play. Then just as you said, you stay in front of your guy. Absolutely nothing is more important. After that you can go into things like rotation, managing picks, area coverage when the ball goes in the corner etc.

This is why we are losing. The OPs numbers bare this out clearly. We can not defend. Every single team has offensive lapses. Those that can not defend, lose.

 

[acatnamedmyra]

Our problem is haven’t ever had good, even fair, defense at any time this year. You don’t need much when you score 95 and more. Problem is, no one always does that.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

Maybe but Oscar would out rebound the other team by himself and we still lost some games that we shouldn't have. 🤣

And the problem there, was our guards sucked. I'm sorry, Cason and Ty may have been talented.. but Ty was injured on and off the 2nd half of the season and Cason really didn't show us much. I think all 4 of our guards might be better than anyone we had over the last 2-3 years, from a production standpoint.

Go figure, that the minute we get our backcourt in order, we lose 3 front court guys.

 

[Creed Bratton]

So what happened? Did Cal forget how to teach defense? Has he gotten lazy? Is it impossible to teach 5 star players how to play defense as freshman? Or are we just telling guys that it's ok to let your man blow by you- somebody else can pick up the foul?

And that my friend is the million dollar question.

 

[aceman509]

It is actually way more simple than we think. Cal has only coached 2 different styles of defense here, and really they are 2 subsets of the same defense depending on the personnel. Either

-Switch every ball screen OR
-Go over every ball screen

In the early days when we had guys like Anthony Davis and WCS we could switch every ball screen because they could defend guards. We also could go over ball screens because we had shot blockers, so the guards would "funnel" the drives towards the shot blockers who would clean up the mistakes.

In recent years we haven't had the bigs to switch every ball screen, but we haven't had the shot blockers either. So instead we are going over every ball screen and we don't have a shot blocker to funnel them to, so it leads to easy layups and drives, or kick out threes because we are playing 5 on 4 after going over ball screens and taking one of our defenders out of the play.

 

[fatguy87]

Our last good defensive team, 2019, had 3 freshman guards and no rim protector.

The good defensive team before that, 2017, was young and small in the backcourt without a great rim protector at the 5.

Size at the guard position and rim protection wasn't necessary for Cal to have an elite defense in the recent past. What has happened post 2019? Cal's coaching toolkit isn't adequate to address the challenges posed by the oppositions offense in the current basketball meta for some odd reason.

 

[Wonky]

This! I wondered the exact same thing! Like, just do the exact same thing we did against Miami! Can’t wrap my head around it either.

It’s honestly how we should have been playing D for the past 7-8 years. The way the game is played nowadays, teams with lesser talent (which, let’s face it, is almost every team we play year in and year our) basically have one chance to win: get hot from 3. And yet Cal just keeps letting it happen, year after year.

 

[rolaid]

The game changed - very few post players
Cal is a horrendous modern day defensive Coach - he doesn’t teach simple principles like hedging or trapping pick & row
In modern ball you better be multiple in your defense - he’s not he’s simply hard headed
I have zero confidence we have a schematic advantage in any game we play

 

[yoshukai]

Cal is always harping about “straight line drives “. And I agree with him . It seems like we give up tons of straight line drives.