Why was the defense so bad last season?

[K_TIME]

PG....Reed (Not a bad defender)
SG...Dilly (Small for a SG )
SF...Reeves (slightly slow of foot....but had plenty of length and wasn't a bad defender)
PF....THiero (plenty strong and athletic to guard PF)
C....Ugo (fine for defensive end)

Depth
DJ...(NO reason he wasn't able to guard that spot)
Edwards (Not a plus athlete....but plenty big enough to be passable for a Forward)
Mitchell (Not a plus athlete....but he would have been fine as a backup)

In the end, insisting on playing nearly equal minutes for guys like Edwards and DJ didn't help the defensive end. Also, playing Mitchell way too much (especially when he came back late in year) was another coaching decision that never helped the squad perform. FInally, the merry-go-round at Center....never allowed a player to settle in and gel. In particular Ivisic and Ugo made sense for rotation but for some reason Bradshaw was getting his empty minutes along wtih Mitchell.

Alot of bad coaching decisions.

 

[howitis]

the defense we played (or didn't play) last year was the worst i've ever seen from a basketball team at any level. our players usually gave the other teams guards 4 feet or more of space, perhaps in an effort to stay in front of them. but would still easily get burnt to the rim by having a full run toward the rim at a completely stationary player guarding them. since we are playing man to man against a team usually going 5 out it was an easy lay up. don't want a lay up? take the wide open 3 we always give you. We had to of told our players to play off like this. no way you play basketball at any lvl and not learn some kind of defensive technique. it was infuriating. Since we played no defense in man the fact that we wouldn't go zone to solve our coaches obvious incompetence was criminal.

 

[Cats192]

The NBA didn't seem to mind, drafting two of those defenders #3 and #8 in the draft.

Let's cut the BS and call it for what it was: our bad defenders never improved defensively all season. Not even a fraction.

That's ultimately coaching.

This.

If we're really saying "The players are so inept that they could never play good defense." Well, who brought in those awful, inept defensive players?! John Calipari did.

If you believe that they can become better defenders with the appropriate coaching (and the NBA CLEARLY does), then why didn't they get better under Calipari? Because he didn't coach them up.

People also love to say "He can't make shots for them." Who recruited players that can't make shots? Who failed to coach them up to where they could hit shots with the lights on?

At some point, preparedness falls on the guy who gets paid to prepare you. But some on this board STILL give Calipari a pass.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

Because Cal wouldn't play zone or press.
Pope will do both!

 

[know1]

There's no argument/point about the defense that can possibly be made without pointing straight back to Cal. He wasn't coaching college basketball. He was collecting a paycheck and NBA Draft notches on his belt.

 

[Slowwalker]

The NBA didn't seem to mind, drafting two of those defenders #3 and #8 in the draft.

Let's cut the BS and call it for what it was: our bad defenders never improved defensively all season. Not even a fraction.

That's ultimately coaching.

The NBA didn’t draft either of them for their defensive abilities.

 

[Wildcat-in-STL]

Did OP forget that Dillingham already told us 2 months ago? That Cal didnt have defensive game plans and the whole team had to guess what the plan was so there would be a few guys doing one defense and the others doing another on certain players etc.

 

[saxonburgcat]

PG....Reed (Not a bad defender)
SG...Dilly (Small for a SG )
SF...Reeves (slightly slow of foot....but had plenty of length and wasn't a bad defender)
PF....THiero (plenty strong and athletic to guard PF)
C....Ugo (fine for defensive end)

Depth
DJ...(NO reason he wasn't able to guard that spot)
Edwards (Not a plus athlete....but plenty big enough to be passable for a Forward)
Mitchell (Not a plus athlete....but he would have been fine as a backup)

In the end, insisting on playing nearly equal minutes for guys like Edwards and DJ didn't help the defensive end. Also, playing Mitchell way too much (especially when he came back late in year) was another coaching decision that never helped the squad perform. FInally, the merry-go-round at Center....never allowed a player to settle in and gel. In particular Ivisic and Ugo made sense for rotation but for some reason Bradshaw was getting his empty minutes along wtih Mitchell.

Alot of bad coaching decisions.

Good analysis. Having said that, it really doesn't explain why in our last game (as just one example) that they had a player go off on us from 3 who later said that he was surprised he wasn't being guarded better. What I saw with my own eyes was a team that was clueless on how to play defense.

 

[fatguy87]

The NBA didn’t draft either of them for their defensive abilities.

Reed's steal rate and high block rate for his position most definitely fueled NBA interest. They are some of the best markers for athleticism and defensive potential in the NBA.

 

[chroix]

Did OP forget that Dillingham already told us 2 months ago? That Cal didnt have defensive game plans and the whole team had to guess what the plan was so there would be a few guys doing one defense and the others doing another on certain players etc.

Yes. When was that? What the hell? You’d think an assistant would jump in with something or I don’t know what. So glad he’s gone.

 

[Slowwalker]

Reed's steal rate and high block rate for his position most definitely fueled NBA interest. They are some of the best markers for athleticism and defensive potential in the NBA.

His 3 pt.%, assist/to, and other offensive numbers are what got him drafted as high as he did. What you pointed out is absolutely valuable, but defense is typically not what garners the attention or big bucks.

Take Dilly, he had nowhere near the defensive capability of Reed, but still was drafted top 10.

 

[The_Answer1313]

His 3 pt.%, assist/to, and other offensive numbers are what got him drafted as high as he did. What you pointed out is absolutely valuable, but defense is typically not what garners the attention or big bucks.

Take Dilly, he had nowhere near the defensive capability of Reed, but still was drafted top 10.

I figure both can be true. Sure, the NBA prioritizes the offense, but I'm sure Reed's stealing and block rate also did not go completely unnoticed.

 

[yoshukai]

But this highlights the problem right here.

If you want to blame Cal for the poor defense, then you have to credit him for what the offense was able to accomplish.

You either take the stance that A) the coaching plays a huge part in this.........or B) it doesn't and it's mainly based on players.

What you can't do is say Cal is to blame for the defense but then not give credit to him for the offense. That's not logical.

You're correct. It's been awhile since we had a good defensive team under Cal. The main reason we have sucked on defense for so long is the lack of interior presence.

Easy to have a great defense when you had Anthony Davis swatting back every shot.

I'm of the mindset that had a whole hell of a lot more to do with things than Cal's coaching approach.

We had good defense when we had good defensive players. It's funny how that works.

People give way too much credit and way too much blame to coaches.

I do give credit to Cal for hiring Welch . I loved Welch’s offense.

 

[lsvljoe]

Obviously did us in. Was it just lazy coaching, lazy players, or some other X factor? Its not like the kids were slow or unathletic, so what was it?

The coach!!

 

[chroix]

The coach!!

It used to be the one thing he was decent at. The only thing I can figure is he was just totally checked out.

 

[TheBlueMist]

Coaching. /thread

 

[CRZ4UK]

Obviously did us in. Was it just lazy coaching, lazy players, or some other X factor? Its not like the kids were slow or unathletic, so what was it?

I have been screaming this from the mountain top for four years and it is crazy it isn’t common knowledge. About 6 years ago AAU replaced prep schools as the major recruiting services. AAU actually discourages defense. Scouts want to see scoring and athletic ability. Kids are not in the weight room in the offseason they are playing pick up/ blue / white scrimmage AAU.
In Cals first year, Bledsoe, Wall, Cousins lamb. All could play defense and were physical.
By 2020. Ty Ty, Boston, Edward’s. All out of shape rail thin guys who couldn’t play a lick of defense.
The kids coming out of high School today, are not in shape, strong, weak minded and can’t play defense. How you gonna win with 5 of them freshman?? The thing that killed Cal was AAU.

 

[Fox2monk]

I have been screaming this from the mountain top for four years and it is crazy it isn’t common knowledge. About 6 years ago AAU replaced prep schools as the major recruiting services. AAU actually discourages defense. Scouts want to see scoring and athletic ability. Kids are not in the weight room in the offseason they are playing pick up/ blue / white scrimmage AAU.
In Cals first year, Bledsoe, Wall, Cousins lamb. All could play defense and were physical.
By 2020. Ty Ty, Boston, Edward’s. All out of shape rail thin guys who couldn’t play a lick of defense.
The kids coming out of high School today, are not in shape, strong, weak minded and can’t play defense. How you gonna win with 5 of them freshman?? The thing that killed Cal was AAU.

I do believe that is a lot of the issue but he also had good upperclass recruits from the portal and still couldn’t get it done. A great modern coach would have had our team in the final 4 last year.

 

[CRZ4UK]

I do believe that is a lot of the issue but he also had good upperclass recruits from the portal and still couldn’t get it done. A great modern coach would have had our team in the final 4 last year.

Maybe so, even Reed with all his family pedigree couldn’t play a lick of defense. Quick hands yes. Couldn’t stay in front of a stop sign. I haven’t seen a good defensive freshman on any team in 3 years. That Freshman for UCONN was good offensively but was their worst defender. I just think three freshman on a team starting with no defense spells disaster.

 

[Fox2monk]

Maybe so, even Reed with all his family pedigree couldn’t play a lick of defense. Quick hands yes. Couldn’t stay in front of a stop sign. I haven’t seen a good defensive freshman on any team in 3 years. That Freshman for UCONN was good offensively but was their worst defender. I just think three freshman on a team starting with no defense spells disaster.

I agree with our defensive struggles but I believe a different defensive system would have let our offensive prowess overcome those issues. A simple zone could have been the difference in hiding many issues we had. I think our soft rebounding would have always been a problem but it would have allowed Ugo to stay along the back line easier.

 

[CRZ4UK]

I agree with our defensive struggles but I believe a different defensive system would have let our offensive prowess overcome those issues. A simple zone could have been the difference in hiding many issues we had. I think our soft rebounding would have always been a problem but it would have allowed Ugo to stay along the back line easier.

I won’t argue that. Going back and looking at rosters Teague was our last good freshman defender. That was 2012. You could say Maxey was Ok, but he was no lock down like Teague.

 

[Ron Mehico]

I have been screaming this from the mountain top for four years and it is crazy it isn’t common knowledge. About 6 years ago AAU replaced prep schools as the major recruiting services. AAU actually discourages defense. Scouts want to see scoring and athletic ability. Kids are not in the weight room in the offseason they are playing pick up/ blue / white scrimmage AAU.
In Cals first year, Bledsoe, Wall, Cousins lamb. All could play defense and were physical.
By 2020. Ty Ty, Boston, Edward’s. All out of shape rail thin guys who couldn’t play a lick of defense.
The kids coming out of high School today, are not in shape, strong, weak minded and can’t play defense. How you gonna win with 5 of them freshman?? The thing that killed Cal was AAU.

Thank you! Ever since 2018 or so I feel like most of our freshmen have been completely unpredictable from year to year with ranking (Quade Green ranked way above SGA, Boston, Edwards, Hagans, etc etc etc). In the first 7 years with Cal felt like we had very few busts then it was like 80% of all the top recruits seemed to be so so. Somewhere along the line these recruiting services started not being able to determine who was actually good. At least with portal players you know what you’re getting.