Defensive adjustments and thoughts

[EliteBlue]

Now that the sample size is larger, what are adjustments you would like to see made?

We have some great individual defenders but we are vulnerable with mismatches off switches and get taken advantage of in that aspect…it isn’t Butler, Oweh, Williams that is the issue playing straight up.

I think it would be interesting to see us commit to the Bohiem/Syracuse matchup flat 3-2/2-3 or a matchup 2-1-2 for extended periods of play (especially if Brea is in the game)…with token pressure to eat some shot clock before falling back into the zone

Basically, against teams that are more penetration and inside out teams that only has 1, maybe 2, real shooting threats…you bait them into getting into a jump shooting contest and we are likely to win more of those than we lose.

Play pressure man w the starters. Zone with the weaker defender subs. Flip flop between defenses randomly to keep teams in a read and react state

 

[yabbadabbadoo]

I’d like to see the press pop on and off some just to keep teams honest. Create a TO here and there.

 

[mcwildcats04]

Now that the sample size is larger, what are adjustments you would like to see made?

We have some great individual defenders but we are vulnerable with mismatches off switches and get taken advantage of in that aspect…it isn’t Butler, Oweh, Williams that is the issue playing straight up.

I think it would be interesting to see us commit to the Bohiem/Syracuse matchup flat 3-2/2-3 or a matchup 2-1-2 for extended periods of play (especially if Brea is in the game)…with token pressure to eat some shot clock before falling back into the zone

Basically, against teams that are more penetration and inside out teams that only has 1, maybe 2, real shooting threats…you bait them into getting into a jump shooting contest and we are likely to win more of those than we lose.

Play pressure man w the starters. Zone with the weaker defender subs. Flip flop between defenses randomly to keep teams in a read and react state

Perfectly sums up my thoughts as well.

 

[BlueSince92]

My thing with our defense is that, while we certainly have lapses from the get go, very often we play very good first-shot defense. But then if that first shot misses and the opponent rebounds, our defense becomes wet toilet paper.

There seems to be something going on there. A defense is always going to deform as play goes on but this seems a little different. The shape of the offense should deform the defense and we do a great job recovering from that before the first shot, at least comparatively, at least when we’re playing what I consider our best defense. But resetting an offense after a shot should not deform the defense, and against us it seems to, way more often than it should.

I can’t put my finger on exactly how that keeps developing in terms of Xs and Os. I’m not that deep a basketball mind. But I would swear it is happening, I would assume it shouldn’t be all that hard to fix since we do have what it takes to make that first shot both hard to get and hard to hit (at least somewhat often we do). And I am totally convinced that if we fix just that one trend, or even just improve it a decent bit, it would help us as least as much as fixing all the individual bonehead things we do sometimes.

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Now that the sample size is larger, what are adjustments you would like to see made?

We have some great individual defenders but we are vulnerable with mismatches off switches and get taken advantage of in that aspect…it isn’t Butler, Oweh, Williams that is the issue playing straight up.

I think it would be interesting to see us commit to the Bohiem/Syracuse matchup flat 3-2/2-3 or a matchup 2-1-2 for extended periods of play (especially if Brea is in the game)…with token pressure to eat some shot clock before falling back into the zone

Basically, against teams that are more penetration and inside out teams that only has 1, maybe 2, real shooting threats…you bait them into getting into a jump shooting contest and we are likely to win more of those than we lose.

Play pressure man w the starters. Zone with the weaker defender subs. Flip flop between defenses randomly to keep teams in a read and react state

Excellent analysis and I agree. I would prefer to also see more trapping of the ball handler. Especially with Butler/Oweh.

 

[ukfan1622]

I don't think the defense is as bad a everybody else seem to think. We're not going to go on the road against a top 15 SEC team and beat people 95-70. If you win by 5 in that situation how bad can the defense really be? Our pace of play means we aren't going to hold good teams in the seventies or less. More possessions equals more shots and MSU was hitting almost all their open shots and some tough ones. Uk isn't as good on defense as on offense but they are not bad on defense.

 

[UKBB4Ever]

My thing with our defense is that, while we certainly have lapses from the get go, very often we play very good first-shot defense. But then if that first shot misses and the opponent rebounds, our defense becomes wet toilet paper.

There seems to be something going on there. A defense is always going to deform as play goes on but this seems a little different. The shape of the offense should deform the defense and we do a great job recovering from that before the first shot, at least comparatively, at least when we’re playing what I consider our best defense. But resetting an offense after a shot should not deform the defense, and against us it seems to, way more often than it should.

I can’t put my finger on exactly how that keeps developing in terms of Xs and Os. I’m not that deep a basketball mind. But I would swear it is happening, I would assume it shouldn’t be all that hard to fix since we do have what it takes to make that first shot both hard to get and hard to hit (at least somewhat often we do). And I am totally convinced that if we fix just that one trend, or even just improve it a decent bit, it would help us as least as much as fixing all the individual bonehead things we do sometimes.

You see what I see. Our first shot defense is not great but serviceable.

The offensive rebounds we give up is the real problem. Not only do they get a second or third shot, the defense is broken down.

If we can’t shore up the defensive rebounding then start mixing up the defenses to throw them off.

We have to play team defense and help each other. We only have 2 guys that guard their man straight up.

I actually think Pope would like to have Butler pick up the other teams point guard early and make them run clock and disrupt their timing.

But with Kerr out he can’t wear Butler out.

But that’s just speculation.

 

[jwphelps]

Now that the sample size is larger, what are adjustments you would like to see made?

We have some great individual defenders but we are vulnerable with mismatches off switches and get taken advantage of in that aspect…it isn’t Butler, Oweh, Williams that is the issue playing straight up.

I think it would be interesting to see us commit to the Bohiem/Syracuse matchup flat 3-2/2-3 or a matchup 2-1-2 for extended periods of play (especially if Brea is in the game)…with token pressure to eat some shot clock before falling back into the zone

Basically, against teams that are more penetration and inside out teams that only has 1, maybe 2, real shooting threats…you bait them into getting into a jump shooting contest and we are likely to win more of those than we lose.

Play pressure man w the starters. Zone with the weaker defender subs. Flip flop between defenses randomly to keep teams in a read and react state

Would be happy with switching occasionally to a zone just to change the pace and give the other team something to think about.

 

[GoAndRunIsGoneAndDone]

I don't think the defense is as bad a everybody else seem to think. We're not going to go on the road against a top 15 SEC team and beat people 95-70. If you win by 5 in that situation how bad can the defense really be? Our pace of play means we aren't going to hold good teams in the seventies or less. More possessions equals more shots and MSU was hitting almost all their open shots and some tough ones. Uk isn't as good on defense as on offense but they are not bad on defense.

At times...we're bad. But yes, we are solid more than not.

 

[EliteBlue]

I don't think the defense is as bad an everybody else seem to think. We're not going to go on the road against a top 15 SEC team and beat people 95-70. If you win by 5 in that situation how bad can the defense really be? Our pace of play means we aren't going to hold good teams in the seventies or less. More possessions equals more shots and MSU was hitting almost all their open shots and some tough ones. Uk isn't as good on defense as on offense but they are not bad on defense.

I agree completely that with pace we shouldn’t expect sub 70s. I’d like to see the 75-85 range more frequently even when we score 90.

We aren’t awful defensively but we give up too many easy baskets at times and second chance. I’d like to see if we can eliminate the easy baskets off mismatches and blow bys.

 

[EliteBlue]

My thing with our defense is that, while we certainly have lapses from the get go, very often we play very good first-shot defense. But then if that first shot misses and the opponent rebounds, our defense becomes wet toilet paper.

There seems to be something going on there. A defense is always going to deform as play goes on but this seems a little different. The shape of the offense should deform the defense and we do a great job recovering from that before the first shot, at least comparatively, at least when we’re playing what I consider our best defense. But resetting an offense after a shot should not deform the defense, and against us it seems to, way more often than it should.

I can’t put my finger on exactly how that keeps developing in terms of Xs and Os. I’m not that deep a basketball mind. But I would swear it is happening, I would assume it shouldn’t be all that hard to fix since we do have what it takes to make that first shot both hard to get and hard to hit (at least somewhat often we do). And I am totally convinced that if we fix just that one trend, or even just improve it a decent bit, it would help us as least as much as fixing all the individual bonehead things we do sometimes.

I agree that our first shot defense is often good with our starters. The subs is when we sometimes get mismatched and taken off the bounce for easy buckets….but you HAVE to maximize Breas floor time so I’m not opposed to flip flopping back and forth from man and zone when the backups are in.

We are giving up boards anyways so you likely aren’t sacrificing rebounding for some possessions of zone to protect a less athletic defender on the wing for a couple minutes. May even get more scramble rebounds where we can use our speed instead of relying on bigs if you’re baiting jump shots