Heard on Jones' show today that we're 74th in defense per Kenpom. Since its inception, a National Champ hasn't been worse than 17th. Dang.
Question for you all who have coached a lot...
- Thread starter H00SIER-Cat
- Start date
If you truly play zone the correct way your players are working just as hard as man to man. Especially if you're running a 1-3-1 or something similar. Those corners are a long sprint when you're on the block.
I just rewatched the 2nd half. Here are the times (seconds) Tchewa spent in the lane by possession without stepping out.
7, 0, 2, 6, 4, 2, 5, 3, 4, 1, out, 2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 0, 3, 0, 6, 5, 7, 4, 4, 0, out
I've bolded the 6 times he went >4 seconds. You could say the 4's I counted fast and were 3. There were others where he came close to going over but did get a foot out momentarily to reset to 0. But those 6 times are inexcuseable for not being called!
You are right you really need to practice a zone to some extent. But Cal doesn't seem to even teach good team man defense, at least I have seen no proof ever with the exception of having a really great shot blocker waiting back there to erase those drives to the basket. And so far he has only had 3 really really good shot blockers.
Cuse made it their identity and did it better than anyone. They haven’t done much really. JB was on equal grounds with cal on being stubborn.
He has a history of having very good defensive teams, especially late in the season. He's said it before that he focuses on teaching the kids offense and playing well together before really focusing on defense. Behind a bit this year with Bradshaw, Z and now Thiero being out or just now getting involved. Not too worried about Thiero. I think he'll be fine and really no idea about Z yet but Bradshaw and the other freshmen are nowhere close yet. But, I do see improvement and it looks to me like they could turn the corner pretty soon. We'll be scary good if we play really good defense too.
Also, I think it was Al McGuire (for what it's worth), who said never play man to man on out of bounds plays under the basket. We got schooled a couple of times the other night.
I’ve coached fairly big HS bball in MO for over 20 yrs now. The ridiculousness that some think you couldn’t just throw a 2-3 out there after a 30 min walk thru is just silly. Like anything else, it takes time and reps to get good. Mainly because you have to understand how to defend all the actions. Overload, short corner touch, middle to reverse, ball screen, high-low…that’s the real bitch, but obviously with the video and staff available to scout it’s not crazy tough. Translation to the court takes time. And it certainly couldn’t be much worse than the current defense even if it’s an epic fail…But here’s the thing. No matter what defense you play, if you can’t put pressure on the ball your defense isn’t going to be worth a damn. Whatever defense you play…man, packline, 2-3, 1-3-1…they all pressure the hell out of the ball if they’re good. Huggys WVU 1-3-1, Boeheims 2-3, Bennett’s packline…all put heavy pressure on the ball. If UK guards try to pressure the ball it typically leads to a straight line drive to the rim. That’s the biggest issue. They can’t guard the damned ball.
Those out of bounds plays.......where we are on defense...we see the usual screens that lead to easy baskets...and our guys never figure it out. In high school you had to switch during man to man.......in a zone you just make sure that no one gets the ball into your area.
you can’t say I’m not playing zone … and at times zones were not allowed (so you figure out how to do so and not get caught). At the end of the day, and for me only, I wanted to play a certain way … but always tried to adjust to what I had …
Prove it, that year we beat Auburn twice then got beat in the tournament because Pearl changed his game plan and drove to the basket type defense is that what you are talking about. His best defenses have had really great shot blockers who knew how to cover the lane. Outside of that I would say most of his defenses have been average at best.
There are some positive qualities of this teams defense.
#62 in steals per game
#9 in blocks per game (and creeping up)
#22 in defensive rebounds per game
#80 in 3pt defense (31%)
Our pace of play also is a part of the higher scoring of opponents. Teams are averaging 64 shots per game against us which is good for Top 10 as an average. We are shooting about 66 shots per game which is Top 5. We are up to #6 in pace of play and less than 1 possession a game from top spot. This is the fastest play in country for any Power5 team.
We have to do an ever better job of defensive rebounding and blocking shots. Despite Georgia pinning guys down we managed to block 6 shots. We don't create a ton of turnovers so someone on the perimeter needs to get better in guarding the straight line drive.
I've said it a few times now...if we can play one good half of defense per game we are going to be incredibly difficult to beat. The offense is just unbelievable. A lot of folks are tossing around "best since when"....well I will tell you I'm 43 and it is the best offense I've ever seen at UK (YTD of course). '96 was incredible as were many of Pitino's teams but so much of what they did on offense came from defense....easy layups, etc. This team is on a whole other level offensively. They scored 95-100 points in the half court the other night. There was hardly no transition. It is beautiful basketball.
One half of good defense per game and this team has the best shot at #9 since at least 2017....maybe 2015.
#62 in steals per game
#9 in blocks per game (and creeping up)
#22 in defensive rebounds per game
#80 in 3pt defense (31%)
Our pace of play also is a part of the higher scoring of opponents. Teams are averaging 64 shots per game against us which is good for Top 10 as an average. We are shooting about 66 shots per game which is Top 5. We are up to #6 in pace of play and less than 1 possession a game from top spot. This is the fastest play in country for any Power5 team.
We have to do an ever better job of defensive rebounding and blocking shots. Despite Georgia pinning guys down we managed to block 6 shots. We don't create a ton of turnovers so someone on the perimeter needs to get better in guarding the straight line drive.
I've said it a few times now...if we can play one good half of defense per game we are going to be incredibly difficult to beat. The offense is just unbelievable. A lot of folks are tossing around "best since when"....well I will tell you I'm 43 and it is the best offense I've ever seen at UK (YTD of course). '96 was incredible as were many of Pitino's teams but so much of what they did on offense came from defense....easy layups, etc. This team is on a whole other level offensively. They scored 95-100 points in the half court the other night. There was hardly no transition. It is beautiful basketball.
One half of good defense per game and this team has the best shot at #9 since at least 2017....maybe 2015.
What drives me crazy is when a team like A&M uses a middle school play over and over to beat us and Cal either has no adjustment or refuses to make one. It’s games like that where I question if he’s clueless or stubborn.
And you can guarantee that Pearl will spread us out and have his guards drive like he does every year. The question is will Cal have an answer?
And you can guarantee that Pearl will spread us out and have his guards drive like he does every year. The question is will Cal have an answer?
It had been getting every game until the last two, now it's regressed from 43 to the 70s.
Prove what? Here's the adjusted efficiency defense rankings of the Cal era. Yes, we need to get better. I've been saying that all season. Read my last post again and here's the numbers. We're getting better and even just getting our bigs going and Thiero back will change our numbers for this season, in time. 2013 was a tough year, NIT kinda bad.
- 2010: 6
- 2011: 16
- 2012: 7
- 2013: 88
- 2014: 32
- 2015: 1
- 2016: 39
- 2017: 7
- 2018: 22
- 2019: 8
- 2020: 52
- 2021: 35
- 2022: 36
- 2023: 89
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