Our defense needs to get better……period
- Thread starter Mike_Edwards
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Bradshaw only has 7 blocks in 153 minutes player.
Onyeno is blocking shots, but hes nowhere the offensive threat. 9 blocks in 53 minutes.
Onyeno is blocking shots, but hes nowhere the offensive threat. 9 blocks in 53 minutes.
Lmao. Dude. I agree with you on the defense thing. I’m just making the point that it doesn’t matter if people have played basketball or not.
I just worry about the game where shots aren't falling. We know that game is coming. Will someone answer the bell on defense?
Maybe so but it shouldn't get any worse.
Theiro in and Edwards out instantly improves it some.
A lot of the problem is that our 5th(or 6th) year senior Reeves doesn't embrace defense.
He should be the defensive "captain" on the court.
That’s been my point and worry all season long. More than likely comes in the round of 32 or sweet 16. Never fails.
All it takes is one off shooting night and we’re done. Just like in 2010. If you play good defense you’re always in the game.
Absolutely it does, I think we score so much we can make a S16 or E8 not playing our best. After that we better start playing a complete game.
Bradshaw has quite the sweet little 15 foot jumper and can hit an open 3. I like seeing his game expand because he’s not gonna get a pass and make a post move quite yet. Not strong enough. He’s getting better though.
I think we will be fine. I feel like there has been a bigger emphasis put into the offense this year. We will start hitting our defensive stride right before the tournament, kinda a reverse of how teams generally “peak”. This team has all the tools to be great defensively, and I just think offense has been the focus so far.
No they won’t, OUR offense gets any shot anywhere they want.
The defense is terrible, it has to get better no doubt.
Our offense is a damn near juggernaut though, I don’t think any team can beat us by 20.
Many play defense like they just want to get the ball, rather than prevent the opponent from getting good shots.
Bradshaw did look like he was more willing last night to play physical and get those rebounds amongst the other bigs. I hope he's willing against some stronger players.
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Yep, defense is not good at all. Rob gets beat a bunch too. I haven't seen his name mentioned. Megablue's post about just wanting the ball back is a good observation. Do we have any good defensive players this year?
The defense looked some better the last 10 minutes of the game I thought. And by some, a tiny amount but at least it’s something.
Couldn't watch last night but didn't need to to understand our defense is not good. Just look at the scores. Our best defender is Thiero and who knows when he comes back. It's been a problem all year but at this point I wonder if it will even get marginally better. Teams spread us out and take us off the dribble at will. Thankfully we have a great offense or we would have a few more losses. It's our only weakness.
I’ll reiterate what I said in another thread. Cal never has and never will have a good defensive team because his teams are consistently young. HS defense and college defense are nowhere close to the same thing. It’s a significantly larger gap than HS to college offense. Teams with great defenses are usually loaded with juniors and seniors that understand their assignments, body position, etc. for all defensive schemes. Since we typically have 1 and done guys (or 2yr guys at the most) we’ll never have a great defense. Anyone who chimes in that Cal needs to change the STYLE of defense still doesn’t understand this point. It has nothing to do with style or even coaching, it has to do with experience. College defense takes time to learn and we’re always one of the youngest teams year in and year out
That would mean Cal has to try something different or make an adjustment and Cal has not been known for doing either
Exactly right - no ball pressure allows the offense to do anything they want - ball reversal- feeding post- getting a running start on drives
We take absolutely nothing away - so poorly Coached it’s sad
This team doesn’t have the tools to be great defensively - it takes little effort for opponent to drive to bucket and there is no team concept to the defense at all
TAM ran the same high pick and roll all day and no adjustment were made
There’s just no magic wand that can turn guys into great defenders. This is especially true with Reeves and Mitchell. I harp on them, 1) because their defense is mind blowingly 2) because they’re veterans who aren’t going to suddenly play D, and 3) because they play 30 and 35mpg respectively.
Wagner, Shep, and Dilly all give up tons of open threes and straight line drives. Bradshaw doesn’t block shots the way we hoped he would. Edwards is bad.
Thiero is the only guy who seems to slow his man down, but he’ll be lucky to be on the floor 15-20mpg when he returns.
Enjoy watching this team. Enjoy the good moments. But know that they have zero chance of winning it all because they can’t change who they are defensively. Could the coach use different defensive strategies? Yes. Will he? No.
Wagner, Shep, and Dilly all give up tons of open threes and straight line drives. Bradshaw doesn’t block shots the way we hoped he would. Edwards is bad.
Thiero is the only guy who seems to slow his man down, but he’ll be lucky to be on the floor 15-20mpg when he returns.
Enjoy watching this team. Enjoy the good moments. But know that they have zero chance of winning it all because they can’t change who they are defensively. Could the coach use different defensive strategies? Yes. Will he? No.
Cal went out and got himself an offensive guru, so sounds like he needs to go get a defensive guru, because he's not really good at either.
If we can’t get to about 35 in kenpom D - we will not get to the final four. Yeah, I’m concerned. And I’m not sure we can. Gonna hurt us. Sucks cause we have a good enough offense to do it.
Currently at 54 in adjusted D. That ain’t gonna do it. We have the length and athleticism to be so much better than we are. How about some pressing and trapping? I know we won’t play zone, but we can put some wrinkles in there that will help. Worst case scenario, sacrifice some transition to make an impact on the defensive boards? Something.
Currently at 54 in adjusted D. That ain’t gonna do it. We have the length and athleticism to be so much better than we are. How about some pressing and trapping? I know we won’t play zone, but we can put some wrinkles in there that will help. Worst case scenario, sacrifice some transition to make an impact on the defensive boards? Something.
CCC just said it again, "...we're just young". Trust the process guys, they will figure it out by March. 🙄 /s
Maybe, maybe not; time will tell. Ready or not, here we come.
Maybe, maybe not; time will tell. Ready or not, here we come.
The biggest area for improvement needs to be defensive rebounding. Our initial defense isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be but teams get way too many 2nd chance points. It’s impossible to hold teams in the 60s if you’re putting up enough shots to score in the 90s, so you have to pick your poison. Either he slows these guys down and we start getting into rock fights or we play it out with as many possessions as possible and hope our athleticism wins out. That’s not to say there aren’t areas on defense where we can improve, but rebounding well would make a huge difference.
When the guards let their man blow by them a big has to (well should) come over to help. That leaves the shot open for offensive rebounds. Our guards getting beat is basically the root of most of our problems defensively IMO.
Most college guards drive by defenders in M2M, especially on screens. The big that comes is on the strong side and most rebounds go to the weak side where we should have rebounding. If you watch our bigs, and even our 3 men, they stand and wait for a board. They don’t block out or move to the ball coming off the rim. It’s frustrating to watch. I think you hit on the issue that helpside defenders are too slow and don’t allow time for proper rotations. I’m not sure if that’s failure or by design though.
It was fine n the first half. Sadly UK thought this game was 20 mins long.
Better in spurts tonight. Lets hope its the beginning of things to come.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling it was more about the mediocrity of the MSU guards than it was about UK's defensive intensity.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling it was more about the mediocrity of the MSU guards than it was about UK's defensive intensity.
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