(12-11-2018 09:27 AM)OldenburgCat Wrote: All I'm saying is the stats are quite skewed. We had a 'good' defense. But I believe saying that we had a GREAT or even 'one of the best defenses in the modern era' is an outlandish statement. Had we played in the BE or some other major conference, there'd be more meat to the argument but we didn't.
It's hard to take you seriously... again I repeatedly cite stats that adjust for competition level. I do that for a reason, because frankly it matters. It's the same reason I think people overrated UC's passing game this year in football, which when you adjust for competition level was pretty bad, but did pile up numbers against bad teams.
But you're argument for the defense not being great, despite the numbers to the contrary, was one 11 minute stretch in one game. That's silly when you have an entire season of evidence, but even that stretch I think was less about defensive issues and more about how UC approached the game from an offensive perspective for a 5-6 minute stretch.
I love numbers as many know, when you are looking at large sample sizes...a season worth of data being a great sample size, but for individual stretches of games there is no substitute for watching and understanding the game. First, we should stress that Nevada was one of the best offensive teams in the country. They finished 7th in kenpom adjusted offensive efficiency. What made them particularly challenging to defend was they were a team that did a lot of isolation and had many guys who could make difficult, contested shots. That means even when they were defended perfectly, they would usually be difficult to stop.
What UC did for 29 minutes in that game was incredible from a defensive perspective, but it was also set up by an offense that played controlled, smart and deliberate. The offense repeatedly moved the ball, moved the defense and then got the ball into the paint either by passing or penetration. By doing this they made it a half court game and forced Nevada to play against UC's set defense. Nevada had a couple runs during those 29 minutes, but even those were runs where they had to work hard to get looks and often hit difficult contested shots. They were a great offensive team, that was to be expected.
The game was lost because for about 5-6 minutes from the 11 minute mark to about the 5 minute mark, UC let Nevada turn it into street ball. Nevada extended the floor with their defense. They sent traps at every ball handler, they kept guys at the rim and they gave UC two point looks early in the clock in scramble situations. UC took those shots and because they missed them and the floor was so scattered Nevada was able to turn those decisions into quick looks on the other end. By the time UC had settled down the lead was down to 6-8 and Nevada's players had gotten hot.
I wouldn't recommend watching the last 5 minutes of that game, but what I notice is UC again playing really good defense, but Nevada hitting some crazy difficult shots. UC could have survived a few of those if it weren't for that prior stretch, but I'd argue it was going away from the offensive gameplan and letting Nevada tempt us to speed up by giving us very specific open looks, that changed the game. I am mostly a Mick defender but I'd also agree that he waited too long to remedy this and then by the time he did our offense seemed to get nervous, missing shots they should have made and Nevada hit really tough shots.
Despite all that Nevada was below their averages on offense for the game because of just how dominant UC was for 29 minutes. I'm as frustrated as anyone by those last 11 minutes, but to say UC did not have an elite defense is just silly. They were elite by any measure. They were the best defense I've seen at UC and one of the best defenses in modern college basketball. Go watch what they do to Wichita (number 4 in kenpom adjusted offense) at Wichita. It's an absolute clinic in team defense against a top flight offense. Nevada should have been the same, but a lack of offensive discpline for 5 or 6 minutes against a streaky hot team with difficult shot makers let it get away. It's no surprise Nevada as a top 5-10 team this year. They have dudes.