(12-03-2012 08:56 PM)Murph29 Wrote:  I think we are legit top 15 or at worst a top 20 team. But what concerns me is the interior game. The lack of post presence to at least dump the ball down to in order to help the offensive flow is disturbing. Those multiple possessions yesterday where we ran zero offense and relied on a no pass one v one possession killed us. If we could at least dump it low to allow us to go inside outside it would really help alleviate the pressure on the guards. We also need to get those bigs to defend better on the drives. They played ole too much letting guys drive for layups and trying to block the dribbler from behind instead of moving over to stop the dribbler.

Gotta agree whole heartedly here. UC is gonna be there all year because of.guard strength and they defend. If they had any semblance of an intetior threat they are a 2-3 seed...

Also, can we please ask Justin Jackson to stop acting like a fool everytime he hacks someone? His act is tired and i wish Mick would make him the 11th man on the bench.

(12-03-2012 09:30 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Yet the coach of every team we have played has raved about how we play D.

Our perimeter D is awesome. We've defended well overall. We do have spells as we did Saturday in the second half where we give up some really easy layups. The bigs need to stop those. To me that's a much smaller problem then our offensive over-reliance on outside shooting and having to get so much scoring through three guards.

You sell out on perimeter D, breakdowns to the lane are inevitable. It's a trade I gladly make.

Im impressed with how tough we make it for the other team to pass to the interior or to make a pass from the interior...our hands and feet are everywhere.

We play some of the most suffocating D I've ever seen....Cronin is a flippin defensive genius


I sure as hell wouldn't want to play us come March....

(12-03-2012 09:57 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  You sell out on perimeter D, breakdowns to the lane are inevitable. It's a trade I gladly make.

Bigs can still defend layups better. Not that hard. They do a good job going for blocks. Those big guys need to just slide over and contest those drives better. They can't allow uncontested easy lay ins.

But the perimeter defense is really really good. We force teams to run a ton of clock and demoralize them at times when they work and work and can't get open shots.

(12-03-2012 10:08 PM)Murph29 Wrote:  

(12-03-2012 09:57 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  You sell out on perimeter D, breakdowns to the lane are inevitable. It's a trade I gladly make.

Bigs can still defend layups better. Not that hard. They do a good job going for blocks. Those big guys need to just slide over and contest those drives better. They can't allow uncontested easy lay ins.

But the perimeter defense is really really good. We force teams to run a ton of clock and demoralize them at times when they work and work and can't get open shots.

I'm telling you it's because our bigs get caught out of position guarding ball screens at the top of the key. It is the reason Bama started basically every possession for the last 30 minutes with a ball screen out top.

Also, JJ and Rubles have been a step slow recognizing when they need to help the helper. I expect Rubles to catch on soon, but that is way beyond JJ.

That said, Rath, they are still a very, very good defensive team mainly because of the ball pressure applied by our guards.