The more I see, the more I think a lot of the defense issues is a lack of effort and bad technique/coaching.
An example, Fears does whatever he pleased in the first half. Second half Butler started guarding him quite a bit and when he did, Fears had a hard time even getting the ball let alone scoring. Butler would keep his eyes on Fears and the ball at all times and it eventually got to him to a point where he wasn’t even trying to get the ball and would just stand around.
Counter that with our other guards and they rarely ever, if ever, have an eye on the ball. They’re mostly just chasing the guy around not even trying to deny their man from getting the ball and are usually a full step or two behind the guy they’re chasing/guarding. Oweh is the exception to this most of the time. But with them not trying to deny their man the ball and not having the speed to stay in front of the guy, they’re basically cooked when their guy gets the ball. Taking better angles while guarding on the ball would help this but they don’t do that well either. Surely this is stuff they’ve been told to do?
One other little thing. On offense teams are clearly playing to not let us shoot 3’s. If we don’t hit 3’s then we likely aren’t beating decent teams. Our shooters aren’t quick enough to get quality shots running off Amari’s screens so why isn’t Carr or Almanor coming up to set a double screen? The chance to get a good shot from Brea off a double screen, a pass back to Carr/Ansley for a 3 or a good matchup from a switch goes way up. But it seems like we continue to do the same thing we always do regardless of whether it works or not and that goes for both ends of the floor. Early in the year Pope would change things up if needed but that’s been non existent since December pretty much.
An example, Fears does whatever he pleased in the first half. Second half Butler started guarding him quite a bit and when he did, Fears had a hard time even getting the ball let alone scoring. Butler would keep his eyes on Fears and the ball at all times and it eventually got to him to a point where he wasn’t even trying to get the ball and would just stand around.
Counter that with our other guards and they rarely ever, if ever, have an eye on the ball. They’re mostly just chasing the guy around not even trying to deny their man from getting the ball and are usually a full step or two behind the guy they’re chasing/guarding. Oweh is the exception to this most of the time. But with them not trying to deny their man the ball and not having the speed to stay in front of the guy, they’re basically cooked when their guy gets the ball. Taking better angles while guarding on the ball would help this but they don’t do that well either. Surely this is stuff they’ve been told to do?
One other little thing. On offense teams are clearly playing to not let us shoot 3’s. If we don’t hit 3’s then we likely aren’t beating decent teams. Our shooters aren’t quick enough to get quality shots running off Amari’s screens so why isn’t Carr or Almanor coming up to set a double screen? The chance to get a good shot from Brea off a double screen, a pass back to Carr/Ansley for a 3 or a good matchup from a switch goes way up. But it seems like we continue to do the same thing we always do regardless of whether it works or not and that goes for both ends of the floor. Early in the year Pope would change things up if needed but that’s been non existent since December pretty much.
