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Why is this UK team so bad on defense?

The last few games I've noticed the opposing team running set plays off of our help defense by leaving a 3 pt shooter on the side opposite the ball, usually in the corner, for a wide open look when they swing it back to him.
I recall Vandy did that to Tubby one year when we doubled their non-scoring big man ever time and they had a bunch of shooters. Some might remember it; Vandy doesn't beat the 'Cats by 40 very often.
 
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That's part of what I don't understand. The fundamentals of man to man defense havn't changed in the past 10 years, just more focus on the 3 point shot. To stay in front of your man you get down in your stance and keep your hands active while taking into account whether or not he can go right or left equally and where your help is; not things you have to be a world class athlete to do. Yet now our guys can't seem to stay in front of guys at all and that didn't just start this year but well after he got here.
Well, take the last bit of defending fundamentals you outlined, "...taking into account whether or not he can go right or left equally and where your help his..." Your teammates have to be in position to give you help. That's a team fundamental. If we have poor positioning off the ball to provide help, that guy playing good individual defending is going to be in a losing position often despite doing everything else right.
 
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I think we are way overcomplicating this. He (Cal) has just gotten too lazy. rich, and comfortable here. His teams have gotten worse every year on defense since 2015, regardless of the personnel.
Is this team any better defensively than they was In October?
Was last year's team any better from the first tip-off to the last?
Year before that?
Almost totally different personnel, yet the patterns repeat.
 
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I think we are way overcomplicating this. He (Cal) has just gotten too lazy. rich, and comfortable here. His teams have gotten worse every year on defense since 2015, regardless of the personnel.
Is this team any better defensively than they was In October?
Was last year's team any better from the first tip-off to the last?
Year before that?
Almost totally different personnel, yet the patterns repeat.
Agree 1,000%!!!

I would LOVE to know what goes on in practice every day. But heck, Cal gives them so many "days off" they don't get much now.

This is apparent with how LOST we look on out-of-bounds plays against opposing teams underneath their basket. The past few seasons teams ABUSE us with either a layup or dunk seems like 90% of the time.

We can't Hedge properly
Don't block out
Give help when help is not needed
Have very little court awareness
Can't keep the opponents best player from getting the ball where they want it, which results in him scoring a game high
Don't run screens away from the ball to free up our best scorers
Our entire team, outside of Reed, are HORRIBLE passers

All of these areas are lacking because of Cal's LAZY coaching, or should I say NON-Coaching!!!!
 
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Well I will just say this; your agenda is truly shining thru. No clue what you are talking about.
1. They SC beat Miss. State.
They have 3 losses. @ ranked Clemson, @ Bama (hey on the road in conference), and Georgia ( don't even try and use Georgia as a bad team. They are very tough out.)
They have some really good wins, a tournament team in 18-2 Grand Canyon, Miss. State, @ Arkansas, and UK. And before you try to discredit GCU, they have a very good win over ranked SD State.
Why is it agenda to state I don’t think usc is a very good team?

They are 4-2 in sec….and lost some ho hum teams. I think they’ll be a 500ish sec team

I think the top of sec will be Tennessee auburn Kentucky and maybe Bama. I think that next tier is going to be Texas am Florida USC ole miss and maybe LSU …Georgia could stick in the middle pack mix. And bottom of league will be mizzou vsndy and looking like Arkansas. Don’t know where miss st will end up as well

I’m not rooting against Ky…it’s just not a good loss is how I’ll see it. There is no agenda…just making a statement middle way thru season snd third way thru sec
 
So are you suggesting one of my last two questions was the right answer? The last one would explain the USCjr
substitution patterns better...
The Meth one? Yeah, we would be erratic, but the defensive intensity would be unreal. Probably get T-d up a lot for biting the other team. 😁. With Cal, I almost get the impression that he gets more confused with too much depth. He just tinkers with line-ups all season and it seemingly gets worse as the season goes on. It's like watching a monkey getting it on with a football.
 
Lateral quickness general ability to defend is a problem. We are far less athletic than we have been in the past. We constantly get beat on straight line drives.

Help defense is absolutely awful probably the worst ever during Cal's tenure. This is magnified by us constantly being in rotation from our inability to guard 1 on 1.

We gamble way too much. Too many times we are going for the steal or ducking in on a post player for no reason.

Rebounding rebounding rebounding we are terrible ending defensive possessions.

We have a lot of issues some can be fixed with coaching others we just have to live with. Focus and effort would help a ton with rebounding. Gambling and helping too much can be fixed with coaching. You can be a decent defensive team without being a great individual defender but you have to play great help defense which we are awful at.
 
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I find it odd there's this weird perception with Cal that his teams play good defense but not great offense when for the past decade or so for the most part it's been the exact opposite.

We haven't really been good on defense since 2015. Conversely we've had a bunch of good offensive teams in that time.
 
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Defense is ALWAYS about effort. I refuse to believe we can't do better on that end of the floor. Use the damn bench if guys don't want to hustle on D.
Could we do better? Sure we could but we won't put in the effort on the defensive end because that is the way these kids learned to play the game. Defense is highly optional at upper level high school and AAU basketball. These 5* know Cal and every other coach can't sit them so they get to choose how they play.
 
1. There are no fundamentals:
- I believe the entire team plays defense with their hands down.
- Pick N Roll defense is better since the A&M game, but still not good. Bradshaw is only big that pushes the guard away from the basket after the initial pick. UGO continually gets caught on wrong side.
2. Cal has no other defense to go to when a team starts getting hot.
3. There is a laziness by the guards to stay in front of the man they are guarding. They don't play smart and gamble way too much. If the guy you are guarding is right handed, then slightly over play the right hand and force him left.

Cal doesn't coach fundamentals or to detail and doesn't correct mistakes. How many times will Arkansas score tonight on inbounds plays? We have 5+ coaches on bench and no one makes any adjustments.
 
We have some lazy players on this team, no sugar coating it. No one is holding them accountable. Defense takes effort.
 
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