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When I saw the title I thought “It would be easier to say what they are doing right.” And I was right. 🙂
Was Gottfried at Bama 10 years? There is only 8 years from Bama. (Not being critical, I just w to call out the obvious diminishing returns of his defense the longer he coached his recruits vs. the players he inherited from previous coach.)
These 2 OBs are failures at the wing. Each D coverage was a different call. Either that, or Abu is hopelessly lost on the 2nd play.
It’s man with a big on ball. When you do that you must hang with who ya got til the switch comes.
What’s funny is that had the shots not gone down, the glass issue was in full view, too. Note the awful attempts at boxing out.
Let’s keep it here, X.
These 2 OBs are failures at the wing. Each D coverage was a different call. Either that, or Abu is hopelessly lost on the 2nd play.
It’s man with a big on ball. When you do that you must hang with who ya got til the switch comes.
If that’s the case, 1) Man with big on ball is, and has always been, a terrible strategy, since it trades giving up a mismatch for little marginal gain in ball pressure, 2) We botch the execution of it horrifically.
There’s also still the question of what the heck is going on with the first play, where Henderson appears to be playing man, everyone else kind of looks like they’re playing zone, and #43 runs right through the middle of the defense and goes completely unchecked. That’s kind of what I was getting at at the end. I don’t know if it’s a failure of scheme or of execution (I suspect it’s some of both) since we mangle it so badly, but it doesn’t really matter. Whatever the cause, you shouldn’t be having those kind of fundamental breakdowns on routine plays this far into the season.
X, I say that because I fail to see a single component of the “Standard 2-3”. It’s abundantly clear that they fu#t it up so badly, they might have been in a zone!
That 1st one was not on the scheme. That was good scouting and a quick release. Mind you, I ain’t in the mood to defend coaching, and I’m not.
And Lord knows if’n I know State hoops…we still will have no clue how to defend a baseline OOB play in January. And February. I will scare the everloving crap out of one or both of my cats as a direct result of said failures too, because I simply cannot learn to let that one slide. Just kills me every time.
Let me echo that this stuff is really aces and it’s awesome to have detailed hoops x and o analysis like this on the site. Keep it comin’!!
Really nice lucid job on this, thanks.
In the illustration of fronting the post player by Ted, I’m curious if that was a coaching adjustment or a player just defending based on experience/skill. I think in general for Markell his active hands and bothersome man-to-man is the latter, but would love to see it taught.
I’m no guru but why not just play it safe with man-to-man on inbounds? That in-between defense just looks like confusion.
There were some recent interesting conversations on attacking Virgina’s pack-line defense, and outside of that, what small improvements that have a defensive impact that we just don’t use, like hedging on the pick ‘n roll. If pick n’ roll defense as well as poor or non-existent help defense makes it into your next post, that would be fitting. Often times we see that if the defender is driven past, its automatic points.
Suggestion,
Get Jim Harrick’s email address. Send it to him. He is our “consultant” and the only one that Gottfried will listen to.
This was a great analysis…..not to put it down….but if you break BOTH of your legs (Compound puncture fractures) and are laying on the concrete, then you are NOT going to get up.
Now, the EMS CAN go into an explanation of WHY you can not stand. He can also cite many years of observing folks with broken legs.
Question is….as many have opined….now does you FIXIT?. The answer is simple. Herbie had a set routine and did NOT deviate. GOttfried is a shooter and an offensive “exhibitionist”. If we had hired Whittenberg instead of Lowe, we would have had a team of SHOOTERS and not passers or defenders. You teach what you KNOW (instinctively) and you NEED someone to compliment you. We had (although some would say ineffective) that in Bobby Lutz. Defense and Scouting were HIS assigned duties….BOTTOM LINE. Somewhere, the personalities got into a clash which resulted in shouting matches and name calling in practice….and in the locker room. Every watch a family try to teach or discipline a child when BOTH have different approaches and agendas and then ARGUE about who is right? Are the kids confused? OF COURSE. SO, the axe fell and Bobby is in Chicago or somewhere….and our Defense is still in the box of personal effects that he took when he left the Dail center.
No ONE KNOWS it is missing. NO ONE KNOWS how to teach or coach defense. We went with RECRUITING….of OFFENSIVE stars. The theory is simple….if you score enough, you do NOT have to defend. Ask ORW or Mikey if THEY subscribe to that theory. Jimmy V was a master at sizing up a team (he did not do enough prep) and then adjusting as the game went on. That came from his first years as a Freshman or JV coach. You did NOT have video (back then, film) of your opponents…..so you tried to stay above water during the first half and then make adjustments at the half.
What is happening, in my opinion, is that we are NOT adjusting at ALL during the half and the OTHER coach is adjusting his Defense and Offense….so we score less and they score more.
However, the stats are great….they show, statistically, what the deficiencies ARE….on paper. They then substantiate the GUT feeling….
This is a fantastic piece and highlights the main problem I have with Gottfrie (no D in that name). It is bewildering why he does not address it. Everyone, and I mean everyone, sees it. I just don’t understand it and it will keep him from every accomplishing anything worthwhile.
Come on, if you played the game, you know the difference between a coach who is passionate about D and one who is not.
And truthfully, that’s a big part of it – the passion and pride you take in stopping your opponent – or at the very least making him uncomfortable. Say what you want about DD and Hux – but I guarantee you no team looked forward to trying to run the ball on us.
I don’t Gott has that inate passion for D. If he was a football coach his teams would look like those Mike Leach Texas Tech teams – where all his good athletes were on offense.
Also, as a result of that lack of passion – our offense and it’s effectiveness “feeds” our d. Translation – you see second halves like we saw vs Illinois and Creighton.
I am not looking forward to watching Kapita’s and Marquell’s defense regress, but I can almost guarantee you that it will.
Thanks for putting this together. I’ll have to take some time to fully digest it outside of work.
There are alot of “advanced” statistical measures that I don’t fully grasp. But State’s defense isn’t good, by even the simplest measures…pts per game.
As of today’s stats from CBS, State ranks 6th in the ACC (59th nationally) in pts per game. Not great, but not horrible.
But on defense, State ranks 15th in the ACC and 286th nationally in opponents pts per game. That translates to State’s defense being in the bottom quarter in all of college basketball (351 teams).http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/teams/rpi/NCST/nc-state-wolfpack
Congrats to xp87 (for short), having been promoted to people’s commisariat (Author/Moderator status) in honor of writing skills, service to wolven proletariat, and of course, commitment to Glorious Soviet Revolution. FORWARD!
/also let us know if you have any questions
State ranks 15th in the ACC and 286th nationally in opponents pts per game. That translates to State’s defense being in the bottom quarter in all of college basketball (351 teams).
Considering the competition we have faced (for most games), that is putrid.
xphoenix’s posts on our defense for several years now have always been spot on. Gott’s response: “somewhere along the line, in third or fourth grade, you learn to not gamble, to stay between your man and the ball,” or “we know what to do, we’re just not doing that” (lack of execution–sound familiar?) and it’s youth…or something to that effect. Uhhh…sorry Gott, the numbers don’t lie. For what it’s worth, Henderson was one of WVU’s better defensive players, often tasked with matching up with the opposing team’s best scorer when on the court.
That was the most interesting takeaway from the article on Gott’s offseason issues/events, that Lutz was replaced by a recruiters. he simply thinks he’s losing because we’ve been getting out-talented, out-scored, and he needs more guns. Never a problem with defense, ever. The excuse this year, already in the works, is that we were young, inexperienced, and our full complement of players wasn’t available, and had trouble meshing..No matter that he always has difficulty meshing players..
My reminder every year…his first team was his best with the Pack, and there’s a reason for that..
The other thing to note is that our FG% defense tracks our allowed OR%. We give up a lot of points via second shots.
Teaching defense is very very simple. Man, ball, basket. You put your back to the basket. You watch your man out of one eye and the ball out of the other. The farther away from the ball and/or the basket your man is, the more you sag off of your man. You have to adjust your sag factor according to his shooting abilities. This creates natural help against dribble penetration. It also creates it from the person whose man is farthest from the ball which allows more time for rotation/recovery when there is a kick out. It creates more opportunities in passing lanes. If you watch film of Bobby Knight’s best Indiana teams, you will see this played almost to perfection.
You play a zone with these very same man-to-man principles, only you don’t follow the same man all over the court.
You also have to drill on foot work and taking the right angles to cut off drives, but that is relatively simple. Other than GFK and KH we put a fairly athletic group out on the floor so all of this can be done if it is demanded.
also, this means you can directly post next installment to front page, if you would like
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For what it’s worth, Henderson was one of WVU’s better defensive players,
Whiteshoes – are you sure about that? I mean, you won’t see the floor if you don’t d up for huggy bear – but if that’s true that really doesn’t say much for what 3 years of tutoring at the gott defensive academy does for you. (Remember, he’s sat out a year, hurt last year, so know he is in his 3rd year of the system.)
I also find the inexperience claim laughable. He has 2 guys who are in their 3rd year in the program, another in his second, another who has 4, and another beginning his second.
Is it any wonder 2 of our more effective defenders have been here the least amount of time (talking the 2 freshmen here.)
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