That was pretty good Defense!

[owenhawk]

Teams are running the pick and roll farther out against us. Fran has coached Garza to hedge. Because his foot speed isn't fast enough to recover, it leaves the screener wide open in the lane. Minny used this several times against us last night for wide open dunks. This isn't entirely on Garza, the rest of the team needs to help cover the lane. Or Fran needs to change his defensive plan for pick and roll.

In the post Garza is pretty decent on defense. He isn't going all out to avoid picking up fouls. But he's taken some good centers and disrupted them, plus picked up several blocks along the way.

Joe T had two really nice steals last night when he was a help man on defense. The first one you saw coming for almost 10 seconds as he kept on bouncing back and forth between his zone and the guy with the ball before going in for the swipe. He had a couple of really ugly drives where he just threw the ball up towards the backboard. If he can avoid those types of mistakes he will get more playing time and improve our defense.

One other thing I saw last night was we switched on defense several times and JBo was stuck guarding a big in the post. That is just an unfair matchup right now with his injury and even if healthy would not bode well. Our D communication needs to improve to help him switch off in situations like that.

Having said all of that, we are improving. And if JBo shuts it down like we all are hoping, more minutes for Joe T and Bakari should improve the defense even more. Except for shooting Bakari looks like he belongs out there. He just isn't looking assertive on offense. I think being out there with a bunch of really good shooters is affecting his confidence and making him think twice about forcing a shot. But he moves the ball well otherwise. There is a reason he was on the court late in the game last night and it was for his defense.

Not to go too far of path but this is just another reason that Woodbury was such an undervalued player for Iowa and doesn't get near enough credit for his time at Iowa.

He was great at hedging on the pick-and-roll and pushing the ball handler backwards to mess up the pick-and-roll and allow him to get back to his guy. But because he wasn't a great offensive player and because he didn't block shots, people underestimate how good of a defensive player he was due to little things like that and his communication and leadership on defense.

 

[Rifler]

Well I hear what you're saying....but that brings up a point I've been contemplating....When a guy puts up the positive numbers that he seems to put up regularly but has an off night (in this case turnovers-in other cases it could be shooting or rebounding) does that eliminate him being a stud/high level player because he doesn't perform at 100% efficiency all the time?

No,.. likely just a bad night

 

[walleye hunter16]

I really liked how CJ and Connor were playing in the pocket of the guards even out past the three point line. Dare I say it, MSU style.

I think we have made a move forward with the teaching of defense this year. Not paying lip service but actually making a noticeable change in technique.

I don't think its really that simple. Its a greater number of guys that can guard their guy in that manner. Its Garza being just a little bit better at defense himself.
I don't think what has been taught is really different its just the overall team is better at executing.

 

[RocknRollface]

Teams are running the pick and roll farther out against us. Fran has coached Garza to hedge. Because his foot speed isn't fast enough to recover, it leaves the screener wide open in the lane. Minny used this several times against us last night for wide open dunks. This isn't entirely on Garza, the rest of the team needs to help cover the lane. Or Fran needs to change his defensive plan for pick and roll.

In the post Garza is pretty decent on defense. He isn't going all out to avoid picking up fouls. But he's taken some good centers and disrupted them, plus picked up several blocks along the way.

Joe T had two really nice steals last night when he was a help man on defense. The first one you saw coming for almost 10 seconds as he kept on bouncing back and forth between his zone and the guy with the ball before going in for the swipe. He had a couple of really ugly drives where he just threw the ball up towards the backboard. If he can avoid those types of mistakes he will get more playing time and improve our defense.

One other thing I saw last night was we switched on defense several times and JBo was stuck guarding a big in the post. That is just an unfair matchup right now with his injury and even if healthy would not bode well. Our D communication needs to improve to help him switch off in situations like that.

Having said all of that, we are improving. And if JBo shuts it down like we all are hoping, more minutes for Joe T and Bakari should improve the defense even more. Except for shooting Bakari looks like he belongs out there. He just isn't looking assertive on offense. I think being out there with a bunch of really good shooters is affecting his confidence and making him think twice about forcing a shot. But he moves the ball well otherwise. There is a reason he was on the court late in the game last night and it was for his defense.

Yeah there was a couple times Garza and JBO switched. Kind of mind blowing.

I know sometimes that's unavoidable but other times it looks like they don't know or care what they're doing and just want to get the the possession over with so they can get the ball back.

Because that switch is basically conceding the basket.

 

[haw-key]

I don't think its really that simple. Its a greater number of guys that can guard their guy in that manner. Its Garza being just a little bit better at defense himself.
I don't think what has been taught is really different its just the overall team is better at executing.

Perhaps. Either way I’m happy with the change.

if we can consistently even minimally elevate our defensive game we will vastly increase our chances of winning game to game. Especially on the road.

 

[RocknRollface]

I don't think its really that simple. Its a greater number of guys that can guard their guy in that manner. Its Garza being just a little bit better at defense himself.
I don't think what has been taught is really different its just the overall team is better at executing.

Yep it's the players.

This team is still no where near as good defensively as the Woody Gessel teams.

Fran hasn't changed his defense besides adding more zone these last 3 years to try to help cover for players deficiencies.

 

[HeRKeYHoPeFuL]

Yeah there was a couple times Garza and JBO switched. Kind of mind blowing.

I know sometimes that's unavoidable but other times it looks like they don't know or care what they're doing and just want to get the the possession over with so they can get the ball back.

Because that switch is basically conceding the basket.

It's clear our defensive philosophy is to generally switch high screens. It seems like if there is any resistance, they just switch - Joe T and CJF are the only two that I have seen consistently try to fight through and avoid switches.

What you've just pointed out, in my mind, is one of our biggest issues in our half court defense. We can switch 1-4, but not 1-5. We don't seem to mind switching 1-5, though and it gives up a few easy buckets per game. Not an issue when you're running Minnesota out of the gym, but when Michigan hangs 100+ on you... those buckets matter.

 

[DodgerHawki]

It's clear our defensive philosophy is to generally switch high screens. It seems like if there is any resistance, they just switch - Joe T and CJF are the only two that I have seen consistently try to fight through and avoid switches.

What you've just pointed out, in my mind, is one of our biggest issues in our half court defense. We can switch 1-4, but not 1-5. We don't seem to mind switching 1-5, though and it gives up a few easy buckets per game. Not an issue when you're running Minnesota out of the gym, but when Michigan hangs 100+ on you... those buckets matter.

Giving up layups, dunks and wide-open 3-pointers are death knell to defense. Basically the goa lon defense (if you can't get them to turn it over) is to make the opponent shoot contested jump shots. It's why it drives me nuts when Iowa plays zone and the ball goes into the high post, our post defender comes up to the ball and opens the basket up behind them for the drop pass to the cutter and the dunk. For goodness sake, make the post player make 12 15-footers in a row before we just give up dunk after dunk.