Quote:
Originally Posted by skyblade
I'm not convinced the scheme is really at fault. We just have players this year who get lazy on D or try to do too much and make dumb mistakes.
We have guys helping on a driver who is already being doubled by a big or who has no shot or who is going to get a jumpshot at best. We had guys last night stuck in no mans land because they moved to help when they shouldn't be helping and left an excellent shooter wide open. Guys need to know when to help and whether they should help based on how good the guy they are defending is at 3-point shooting.
We have guys who should know better (Broome, Scott) and are plenty experienced who routinely make these mistakes. It's mental where they try to do too much and they end up giving up a wide open 3 to an excellent shooter.
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Agree 100 percent. I will say though that SMU was very good at getting into offense quick and passing the ball multiple times to not let our defense get set. Mainly in the first half. I think they tired out in the second half and did more one-on-one offense. SMU is kind of different because they dont play a normal offense and that hinders our defensive effectiveness. They basically play five long guards. As Mick said in the postgame, they didnt post up once. But to your point, game in game out, we simply are not playing defense like we're used to seeing. We aren't closing the passing lanes and forcing bad shots. And nobody on the bench outside of Nsoseme maybe knows who to cover on switches, etc. This makes it easy for teams to find open shooters and why we're seeing teams shoot high percentage threes against us. Our defense is geared toward making you settle for threes and hopefully contested ones. What we are seeing is teams getting open looks after open looks. Last night we didnt step into the shooters space and continued to let them step into threes. Guards cant worry about being driven on, that's why we have athletic big men in our system. Step into the guards and take away those shots, if they drive, trust the shot blockers behind you. Mick recruits his bigs purposefully to be shot blockers. It is frustrating watching all these games being close but what can you expect when your defense continues to give up 70 points a game. We're not designed to outgun teams. I know fans hate this about Cronin but it is what it is.