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Defense & Accountability

Rudolph

HR Legend
Oct 18, 2001
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My core frustration with Fran’s program has always been that his is an offense first program. You simply have to build your program on defense and rebounding first—that’s gotta be the foundation.

The accountability thing... so Devonte Green is 4-4 from three. Evelyn is in the game, had been in the game for a minute or two. There’s a dead ball time out. Indiana comes out of the time out obviously running something to get Green a shot. Evelyn is marched up, man to man. Evelyn’s mental laziness, never mind physical shit effort, is obvious... and the play ends up with Till fouling a three, three free throws later... nothing. A program that has accountability takes Evelyn out immediately. That kid’s role, given his offensive limitations, has to be 100% effort on D. No lapses. Make plays on that end.

/rant
 
It's Garza and Wieskamp vs. the other team. Connor, Kriener, Evelyn and Joe T severely limited offensively, like they don't have any. This for a coach who wants to run and shoot 3's. Tough man D and Iowa can't do anything other than hope Garza goes off. Tough break for CJ but Iowa was getting run with him in the game.
 
My core frustration with Fran’s program has always been that his is an offense first program. You simply have to build your program on defense and rebounding first—that’s gotta be the foundation.

The accountability thing... so Devonte Green is 4-4 from three. Evelyn is in the game, had been in the game for a minute or two. There’s a dead ball time out. Indiana comes out of the time out obviously running something to get Green a shot. Evelyn is marched up, man to man. Evelyn’s mental laziness, never mind physical shit effort, is obvious... and the play ends up with Till fouling a three, three free throws later... nothing. A program that has accountability takes Evelyn out immediately. That kid’s role, given his offensive limitations, has to be 100% effort on D. No lapses. Make plays on that end.

/rant
I’ve been frustrated with Evelyn as well. Despite the couple of layups he has had, he has been awful at using screens to get mismatches. I specifically remember multiple possessions where Kriener or Garza we’re setting screens for him and he takes off wide around the screen and the defender slips through like it’s nothing. That’s a wasted five seconds off the shot clock. I was hoping that these nuances wouldn’t be lost on a senior, and that would be one of the huge benefits of Evelyn. I’ve largely been wrong thus far
 
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I don’t give a fûck about offense. Build your program on defense and maybe, just maybe, you’ll not have a limited offensive player like Evelyn be a liability on defense as well—out of sheer bad habits due to lack of accountability.

I think you're spot on. Iowa under Fran has really never made a serious commitment to the defensive end. It's been better this year, but far from consistent.

And I don't think it's a winning formula come February.
 
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Todd Lickliter was a great defensive coach. Want to bring him back?
No. But I’m thinking maybe the performance at the barn had something to do with a renewed focus—maybe even greater sense of accountability—on defense. The play in the Indiana game that touched off this thread, given how many coaches I’ve had over the years, most assuredly was used as a teaching point in film review.

I paid particular attention to Evelyn yesterday. He was locked in.

Also, it’s okay to both support a program and be critical of it.
 
I was at the game at the barn. Defense wasn't much different than it was against Purdue or IU. There were 2 big differences....1) Minnesota didnt make its outside shots 2) Minnesota over dribbled and didnt move the ball the same as IU or Purdue.
 
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No. But I’m thinking maybe the performance at the barn had something to do with a renewed focus—maybe even greater sense of accountability—on defense. The play in the Indiana game that touched off this thread, given how many coaches I’ve had over the years, most assuredly was used as a teaching point in film review.

I paid particular attention to Evelyn yesterday. He was locked in.

Also, it’s okay to both support a program and be critical of it.

agree on a lot on this thread, including you can be an ardent supporter of Fran (TY Fran for making Iowa Relevant Again) but can also be critical of strategy.

In terms of “renewed defensive focus”, could it be possible that playing 2 (and 3 bigs) at a time, all whom are the very best defenders, could have added to the tremendous defensive effort?

There is a reason Daniel Oturu was held to 15 pts, 6 rebounds and 4 TOS, plus getting multiple shots cleanly rejected.
 
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agree on a lot on this thread, including you can be an ardent supporter of Fran (TY Fran for making Iowa Relevant Again) but can also be critical of strategy.

In terms of “renewed defensive focus”, could it be possible that playing 2 (and 3 bigs) at a time, all whom are the very best defenders, could have added to the tremendous defensive effort?

There is a reason Daniel Oturu was held to 15 pts, 6 rebounds and 4 TOS, plus getting multiple shots cleanly rejected.
I don’t think that playing two bigs or playing four guards is a “one size fits all” solution. Against some teams, going two bigs may work better than against others based on matchups. A big factor is whether good Kriener or bad Kriener shows up in a given game
 
I would add that, to support OP’s original point, Iowa’s record under Fran is absurd when holding teams to under 60 points... like to the tune of 5ish losses TOTAL. If it can be a consistent focus, their offense almost always has the guns to pull out the W
 
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I don’t think that playing two bigs or playing four guards is a “one size fits all” solution. Against some teams, going two bigs may work better than against others based on matchups. A big factor is whether good Kriener or bad Kriener shows up in a given game

you maybe right, what we do know is that it worked vs MD and on the road vs MN and Cincinnati, and these are the best post jobo wins

As long as CJF is out , Fran really doesn’t have much of an option

I look forward to seeing it vs tOSU at CHA
 
No. But I’m thinking maybe the performance at the barn had something to do with a renewed focus—maybe even greater sense of accountability—on defense. The play in the Indiana game that touched off this thread, given how many coaches I’ve had over the years, most assuredly was used as a teaching point in film review.

I paid particular attention to Evelyn yesterday. He was locked in.

Also, it’s okay to both support a program and be critical of it.

Yes he was.
 
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agree on a lot on this thread, including you can be an ardent supporter of Fran (TY Fran for making Iowa Relevant Again) but can also be critical of strategy.

In terms of “renewed defensive focus”, could it be possible that playing 2 (and 3 bigs) at a time, all whom are the very best defenders, could have added to the tremendous defensive effort?

There is a reason Daniel Oturu was held to 15 pts, 6 rebounds and 4 TOS, plus getting multiple shots cleanly rejected.
It's possible. But good defense, ultimately, is about commitment—meaning every possession, don't turn it over. When I coached I used the turnover as a defensive term as well as offensive. I taught that defense is like offense but everybody has the ball always, meaning any mistake, and oversight of a detail or point of gameplan, was a turnover. I wanted 8 or less defensive turnovers per game (high school kids). So if we're playing a team with a post scorer, big point of emphasis was ball pressure on post entry to at least buy post defenders extra moment or two for positioning, and, ideally, make the entry pass a "defensive" pass rather than an "offensive" pass—meaning force a pass that doesn't lead the post into an advantage. So if a kid was lazy on the ball on the perimeter my defensive stats kid would mark a notch in the defensive turnover column.

Anyways, sure, some lineups help versus certain teams, but really it's about attention to detail and accountability to that detail. The play that touched off this thread was Evelyn completely relaxing mentally while intentionally matched up against the guy who had made his first four shots (all threes). It was out of a timeout, Evelyn was on Green for a reason, he fell asleep, and he stayed in the game. As a fan, and someone who coaches, that drives me crazy.

All that said, I love Fran and cheer like hell for him.
 
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It's possible. But good defense, ultimately, is about commitment—meaning every possession, don't turn it over. When I coached I used the turnover as a defensive term as well as offensive. I taught that defense is like offense but everybody has the ball always, meaning any mistake, and oversight of a detail or point of gameplan, was a turnover. I wanted 8 or less defensive turnovers per game (high school kids). So if we're playing a team with a post scorer, big point of emphasis was ball pressure on post entry to at least buy post defenders extra moment or two for positioning, and, ideally, make the entry pass a "defensive" pass rather than an "offensive" pass—meaning force a pass that doesn't lead the post into an advantage. So if a kid was lazy on the ball on the perimeter my defensive stats kid would mark a notch in the defensive turnover column.

Anyways, sure, some lineups help versus certain teams, but really it's about attention to detail and accountability to that detail. The play that touched off this thread was Evelyn completely relaxing mentally while intentionally matched up against the guy who had made his first four shots (all threes). It was out of a timeout, Evelyn was on Green for a reason, he fell asleep, and he stayed in the game. As a fan, and someone who coaches, that drives me crazy.

All that said, I love Fran and cheer like hell for him.

A. I also love Fran, especially when he goes all Franimal...although not always opportune, love it...

B. When I was coaching, middle schools, if we were turning it over, at half time we’d employ the much dreaded ‘TO Rule’, one in which who ever made a TO, got pulled and went to end of bench, and next kid up went in ( of course, everyone got a lot of playing time as we made 20-30 TOS / game) and they hated it, but the kids on bench loved it, as we had a ‘consensus’ on who’s fault it was. I’d just look down the bench, and they all be nodding and pointing. It was Copied from Bo Ryan, who’s team always was good at TO prevention.

C.it should be noted that CJF and BK Both got lit up at Purdue and IU, and I always thought BK was better, but it seems he underperforms versus the eye test, you may have picked up on why... Good catch Coach
 
Todd Lickliter was a great defensive coach. Want to bring him back?

I’ll note that I don’t think Lickliter was a great defensive coach or even a good one. He finished 56, 116, and 196 respectively in adjusted defense. Progressively getting worse each year. He limited possessions by holding on to the ball. Fran has had several seasons with an adjusted defense well above 56.
 
I think you're spot on. Iowa under Fran has really never made a serious commitment to the defensive end. It's been better this year, but far from consistent.

And I don't think it's a winning formula come February.
What’s funny about that (and not that he’s an AWESOME defender), Connor seems to really take pride in it
 
It's possible. But good defense, ultimately, is about commitment—meaning every possession, don't turn it over. When I coached I used the turnover as a defensive term as well as offensive. I taught that defense is like offense but everybody has the ball always, meaning any mistake, and oversight of a detail or point of gameplan, was a turnover. I wanted 8 or less defensive turnovers per game (high school kids). So if we're playing a team with a post scorer, big point of emphasis was ball pressure on post entry to at least buy post defenders extra moment or two for positioning, and, ideally, make the entry pass a "defensive" pass rather than an "offensive" pass—meaning force a pass that doesn't lead the post into an advantage. So if a kid was lazy on the ball on the perimeter my defensive stats kid would mark a notch in the defensive turnover column.

Anyways, sure, some lineups help versus certain teams, but really it's about attention to detail and accountability to that detail. The play that touched off this thread was Evelyn completely relaxing mentally while intentionally matched up against the guy who had made his first four shots (all threes). It was out of a timeout, Evelyn was on Green for a reason, he fell asleep, and he stayed in the game. As a fan, and someone who coaches, that drives me crazy.

All that said, I love Fran and cheer like hell for him.
Take your meds.
Getting this worked up when your NOT the coach is absurd. He!! , doing when you ARE the coach is ridiculous.
Drilling the crap out of defense likely means the offensive producers don't want to play for you.
Do I think Frans success would be greater if the team focused on defense more , absolutely but you act like mentioning something to a player magically make your visions come true.
Calm and level headed you have a point jut you are atill not the coach so there is that.
 
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