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This is the second in a series of posts breaking down the defensive deficiencies of State’s men’s basketball team. If you missed part one, check it ou
[See the full post at: A Defensive Breakdown: Part II]Well done! We should rename ourselves the Matadors. Don’t Mr. and Mrs. Wolf wear capes? Can we have a half-time bullfight skit? Something Shakespearean…
It’s clear Gottfried either has never heard of the Shell Drill or refuses to teach it. 1-2 passes away = Up the Line, Off the Line. Be in a position to deflect the pass or drop down for help defense and still be able to recover if the pass makes it to your man. When you’re 2 passes away you should be in the lane.
One other thing is we close out on the ball poorly, too many times State either doesn’t close out on the ball aggressively enough or out of position to allow the dribble drive (which there is no help defense because they are finding out what flavor bubble gum their man is chewing).
I can’t wait for tomorrow so I can get pissed off in a MUCH more informed way now. THANKS!
/old crumudgeon who took WAY too much pride in his rebounding and foul-giving as a low-post guy in pickup ball once I grew out of being a PG my junior and senior year of HS
Enjoyed this and looking forward to Part III.
Also would love it if you would consider grading defense after each game going forward.
Great read! Very nicely done. Hopefully part 3 goes into a look at fouls, and what causes us to foul so much. Yes, there are “tendencies” in officiating, but there are “tendencies” in the way we play our man to man.
This is the quality we used to regularly have at this site. Now it’s kind of turned into game threads and off topic musings. I understand that the moderators can’t carry all the content and have lives, so it’s nice to see some other contributors.
The actual analysis is why I think we should play nothing but zone. At least in zone, we have guys roughly in the right positions with their backs to the basket and facing the ball. Given we switch poorly, don’t help, don’t close out and routinely aren’t aware of what is going on, at least we’ll sort of stay in the right positions. We’re also tall, so if we just keep our hands up and active, things can be made more difficult. We play man to man so poorly, and have for years, that I think it actually hurts us.
Rebounding isn’t going to get any worse. As mentioned here, that’s not a symptom of man defense vs zone defense. It’s a lack of commitment to rebounding or knowing how to do it. They need to bring Howell in to run rebounding drills. He’s still young enough to get out there and show the guys how to do it.
Part of this also comes down to developing a bit of a mean streak. Teams that typically rebound and defend well aren’t necessarily the nicest teams (think Michigan State, Pitt under Dixon, Kansas under Self, Howland’s teams, UVA). We need to get a little bit nasty and treat it like our pride is on the line. I saw that from BJ last game, and I have seen it from DSJ, but it’s an entire team mentality.
xphoenix87, you have managed to verbalize all the frustrations I have felt as I watched our teams under Gottfried. I wondered over the years if it was the nature of the modern players coming up from AAU ball to no longer care about defense or if it was the system (or lack thereof) that didn’t stress good defense. I now believe it’s the coaches who are not pushing the defensive skills development. All that ultimately falls at the feet of the head coach. I have found myself having a hard time watching these games lately. I keep hoping they get better by the time conference games roll around. I still shake my head at the prospect of just squeaking into the NCAA tourney. It seems to be the path that Gottfried’s teams follow each year.
Great read! Very nicely done. Hopefully part 3 goes into a look at fouls, and what causes us to foul so much. Yes, there are “tendencies” in officiating, but there are “tendencies” in the way we play our man to man.
I won’t be talking much about fouls. For one, I don’t think we’re decidedly more foul prone than most teams, and even if we are this year, it hasn’t been a consistent theme among Gottfried’s squads. In fact, if you look at the chart from part 1 of the series, you’ll see that the rate at which we send teams to the free throw line has usually been very good. That’s not a 1-to-1 correlation with fouls committed, but it’s a pretty strong indicator that we’re not fouling at an abnormal rate. I think it’s looked worse than it is the last few years because we’ve had very shallow benches, so the effect of foul trouble is exacerbated.
Also, I think the issues that I’ve already talked about give some indication as to why we sometimes do struggle with fouls. I mentioned in the first section that consistently allowing easy entry passes puts your big men in the tough position of having to continuously defending one on one in the post, which will lead to fouls. Also, giving up offensive rebounds at the rate we do is bound to lead to more fouls. You’re much more likely to foul someone on a rebound putback, because you’re out of position and scrambling to contest shots.
Life kind of got in the way of me getting the next post out as soon as I wanted, but it should hopefully be up tomorrow.
Well done! Great analysis.
It has been clear to me for some time Gott either didn’ t coach defense or didn’t demand it from his players. It has turned me off so much, to be incompetent at defense that it is hard to wTch the team.
What I don’t understand is why he hasn’t tried to fix it. Surely he knows he doesn’t coach it very well. Surely he knows you are not going anywhere without a good defense. Is it an ego problem.
It is clear to me Gott is not a discplininarian. I have just assumed he is hard headed and determine to coach his way regardless of what is obvious to everyone watching his teams play.
Any thoughts as to why we are where we are.
My other theory is that coaches like this are not really analytical thinkers. They just aren’t able to see all the details, logic, geometry, really see what drives winners And losers.
Well you can probably tell I am an engineer.
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