Iohn Henson ex UNC Star on Field of 68 has a suggestion for Pope

[twwilliams9]

Says when he was at UNC they were playing terrible defense for a couple of games and at the next practice, they walk into the gym and there were no rims. Roy made em practice for 2 days with no rims, working on defense drills, ran and did sprints. It’s at the 21:00 mark

 

[bkimrey2]

I'd recruit a few bodies from the football team to play against our team in practice or hell, maybe join the team as rotational defensive players.

 

[fatguy87]

Dumb gimmick crap. Jon Henson at UNC played with a core group of players. They played together through thousands of defensive situations together in practice and games. Our current roster was cobbled together in the 11th hour. None of the players ever played together and only 1 player ever played for our coach. Maybe stuff like that can refocus energy for a team that has chemistry forged through years. "Try harder" isn't going to work for a collection of players who don't know how to defend as a team through foundational shared experiences.

 

[twwilliams9]

Dumb gimmick crap. Jon Henson at UNC played with a core group of players. They played together through thousands of defensive situations together in practice and games. Our current roster was cobbled together in the 11th hour. None of the players ever played together and only 1 player ever played for our coach. Maybe stuff like that can refocus energy for a team that has chemistry forged through years. "Try harder" isn't going to work for a collection of players who don't know how to defend as a team through foundational shared experiences.

Maybe Pope can pull a Zen Master Phil Jackson. Jackson would have the Bulls and Lakers meditate before games, burning incense during the sessions to set the mood.

 

[AJG-15]

Okay so have two power 5 coaches on our staff, former nba players , good offensive and sensible coordinators and they should listen to BBN and some guy twitter and YouTube’s?

If it something to figure out they will. Without a PG it’s going to be impossible. Brea and Jr were not re ruined to play at same time but to sub each other. Now because necessity they are playing together and you the result on defense.

 

[UK90]

I'd recruit a few bodies from the football team to play against our team in practice or hell, maybe join the team as rotational defensive players.

Or perhaps we could have them practice against circus animals next. Those lions oughta be able to instill some perimeter toughness!

Spare me the gimmicky nonsense. Yeah, we’re a bad defensive team, but I’m not sure how much we can do about it at this point. We only have about three guys (Butler, Oweh and Williams) who have the physical potential to be top tier D1 defenders, and one of those is out with injury and another seems to now fancy himself as more of a 7 foot tall point guard than a rim protector.

 

[twwilliams9]

Or perhaps we could have them practice against circus animals next. Those lions oughta be able to instill some perimeter toughness!

Spare me the gimmicky nonsense. Yeah, we’re a bad defensive team, but I’m not sure how much we can do about it at this point. We only have about three guys (Butler, Oweh and Williams) who have the physical potential to be top tier D1 defenders, and one of those is out with injury and another seems to now fancy himself as more of a 7 foot tall point guard than a rim protector.

This is true but our worst defense is against 3 pointers where athleticism isn’t required.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

Maybe Pope can pull a Zen Master Phil Jackson. Jackson would have the Bulls and Lakers meditate before games, burning incense during the sessions to set the mood.

And the refs give them every call

 

[Padsfs07]

Dumb gimmick crap. Jon Henson at UNC played with a core group of players. They played together through thousands of defensive situations together in practice and games. Our current roster was cobbled together in the 11th hour. None of the players ever played together and only 1 player ever played for our coach. Maybe stuff like that can refocus energy for a team that has chemistry forged through years. "Try harder" isn't going to work for a collection of players who don't know how to defend as a team through foundational shared experiences.

I completely agree with you. It’s like those Tubby players in the 02-05 era. They played a ton together.

 

[Padsfs07]

This is true but our worst defense is against 3 pointers where athleticism isn’t required.

It’s a pick your poison situation. Back off on 3s or get easily beat off the dribble.

 

[Creed Bratton]

Granted I don't get paid millions to coach but from my time coaching kids and 45+ years of watching basketball I can see 2 things that effects our poor defense that could be an easy fix. First thing is effort and by that I mean it takes a lot of energy to stay attached to your opponents hip the entire possession. We have some guys who don't put forth the effort. Go back and watch last nights game and see how Ole Miss players was up on our guys with active hands even out to 35 feet from the basket. On the other hand our guys stood inside the 3 point line, 3-5 feet away from their man with their hands down most of the time.

Which leads to the second thing and that is their hands are down when they are playing defense. During that 2nd half comeback there were 2 key plays that killed our momentum. The first one was with about 7 minutes or so to go, we had fought back to 11 points and the shot clock was winding down for Ole Miss. Their PG had the ball on the perimeter with Brea, and his 7" height advantage guarding him. Kobe was standing with his arms down at his waist as the kid went up and drained a 3 in his face. They quickly pushed the lead back out to about 16 over the next couple of minutes. We fought back to get it back to 12 again with around 3 minutes or so to go. Then on a switch Garrison wound up on the same kid on the baseline. He did the exact same thing and was guarding him but his hands were literally down at his knees as the kid rose up and drained a jumper before he could get his hands up to contest the shot. Both guys negated their huge height advantage by playing with their hands down which allowed momentum killing baskets. That is just 2 examples of what we do on most every possession. We have terrible defensive technique in my eyes.

 

[TTTblue24]

Defense is alot of want to and intensity, alpha type personalities and mentalities so whether that comes from the players or the staff to instill it…..it has to be fixed. You can be a good defender and not a super athlete or a 5 star recruit, our help side D is like a middle school team right now. There’s zero communication as well, if you guys want to play the “no talent” card that’s fine but then we should be the most fundamentally sound team in the country since there’s no talent there. We miss fts, make stupid passes and turnovers, & are almost always out of position on D so which is it???

 

[Digger-Cat]

It’s a pick your poison situation. Back off on 3s or get easily beat off the dribble.

It's not that simple. Sure, when the defense is set and we're standing inside the arch, you have a point, but our rotations, recovery and fight through screens, is what is not acceptable.

We are so incredibly slow to find shooters, recover to that shooter and make him put the ball on the floor.

Our guys really need to get serious about defense, I don't feel like they do right now and 3>2, we are getting beat by the 3 point shot, that is what is killing us. If we give up a drive, fine, but stop giving up threes. Set the perimeter defenders above the arch and make the offense beat you off the bounce. 3 point hits are daggers.

 

[rolaid]

If I were Pope I would try to take away 3 pointers
Whoever the worst 3 point shooter is we don’t guard that’s Williams man Williams stays in the middle of lane to somewhat protect basket the other 4 stay out on there man and nobody helps
Keep the other team from making 3’s if they can make 2’s fine but do something different
Playing off guys 4’ and they still hit 3’s or blow by ain’t working

 

[FirewithFire]

Our current roster was cobbled together in the 11th hour. None of the players ever played together and only 1 player ever played for our coach.

Lots of truth in this one statement. This team still looks lost when they are on the floor together. They pause to see who is going to get a rebound and passes still go to open air. They get mixed up on defense because they don't talk and that is in no small part because they trust each other. Without Butler everything has been magnified by a thousand.

The part that scares me is that next year is going to be very similar in that we will have to hit the portal hard yet again.

 

[twwilliams9]

It’s a pick your poison situation. Back off on 3s or get easily beat off the dribble.

3 is more than 2