Last night only cemented what I already believed. This is one of the worse defensive teams that UK has put on the court in quite a while. I did not DVR the game, however if you go back to when we had the 21 pt lead, Tennessee scored on at least 10-12 straight possessions whether it be a FG or making 2 FT's. The inability to string consecutive stops together, with a defensive rebound is the most pressing problem for this team. Many talk about Willis' lack of defensive prowess, which was present last night, but I personally believe Murray is a bigger problem on the defensive side of the ball. Being a basketball coach on the high school and AAU level I often see foreign born players struggle on the defensive side of the ball. (Murray and Skal) These players from Day 1 have been taught and trained to score, however they are not always taught good team defensive principles, such as hedging, helping and jumping to the ball. I hope the staff can eventually transform this team into a better defensive team.
The parts are there for this team to evolve defensively, Briscoe is an excellent on the ball defender, as is Tyler. Alex is a pretty good defender also, but often gets in foul trouble helping our other perimeter defenders who get beat often off the dribble. Skal and surprisingly Marcus are struggling to rebound, which is a problem for a team struggling on the defensive side.
This team is averaging 80 PPG over the last 10 games, which is more than enough to win. We have to get better defensively.
The parts are there for this team to evolve defensively, Briscoe is an excellent on the ball defender, as is Tyler. Alex is a pretty good defender also, but often gets in foul trouble helping our other perimeter defenders who get beat often off the dribble. Skal and surprisingly Marcus are struggling to rebound, which is a problem for a team struggling on the defensive side.
This team is averaging 80 PPG over the last 10 games, which is more than enough to win. We have to get better defensively.
