Jackson's Defense

[Husky1]

I really like the kid, but his on the ball is really bad. I'm so tired of hearing of hearing every announcer say how he's an olympic athlete. That may be be true,
but he got beat off the dribble like 10 times last night, resulting in easy shots, fouls, or others that to come off their man leading to assists for them. He's
really good at getting into a good defenses stance but then loses his man. I think he will fix this though next year along with his shooting.

 

[UconnU]

Am I missing something? He’s a defensive freak we’ll often put him on the other teams best player. It’s his offense that needs work.

 

[alphasigko]

This: "... he got beat off the dribble like 10 times last night, resulting in easy shots, fouls, or others that to come off their man leading to assists for them."

 

[aburks41]

Jackson was the only one who could stop Allen. As soon as Jackson picked up his 2nd foul in the first half, Allen got going and never stopped.

 

[mauconnfan]

I really like the kid, but his on the ball is really bad. I'm so tired of hearing of hearing every announcer say how he's an olympic athlete. That may be be true,
but he got beat off the dribble like 10 times last night, resulting in easy shots, fouls, or others that to come off their man leading to assists for them. He's
really good at getting into a good defenses stance but then loses his man. I think he will fix this though next year along with his shooting.

Yep and the crazy thing for the last few games prior he improved dramatically on this from earlier in the year. Not sure why he allowed himself to get beat off the dribble but once again he had trouble keeping his guy in front of him.

 

[Kenny11]

Am I missing something? He’s a defensive freak we’ll often put him on the other teams best player. It’s his offense that needs work.

Guys can get a step onhim but he usually is so disruptive that it doesn’t matter. Thybulle from the 76er’s plays the same way…he almost plays defense from behind and he may be one of the best defenders in the nba already. Just like everything with andre’s game, it’s unconventional. He’s a very good defender

 

[alphasigko]

Guys can get a step onhim but he usually is so disruptive that it doesn’t matter. Thybulle from the 76er’s plays the same way…he almost plays defense from behind and he may be one of the best defenders in the nba already. Just like everything with andre’s game, it’s unconventional. He’s a very good defender

But not last nite

 

[Stinger92860]

Am I missing something? He’s a defensive freak we’ll often put him on the other teams best player. It’s his offense that needs work.

You are missing how often and consistently he gets beat off the dribble and it’s not even close. He is looking at the back of the offensive player. It happened a lot yesterday.

 

[husky429]

Yeah he's a great defender. This is the hottest of takes.

 

[Husky1]

What some of you guys are missing that I'm talking about one thing only - his on the ball D. Yes he very disruptive on the defensive end, and good at help d where he gets a lot of blocks. Great rebounder, great at starting the break, he's long and athletic, but all season and especially last night he's was horrible ON THE BALL. btw, against Nova he played really good on the ball defense and i thought we were making progress. First 2 plays of the game Allen just drove right by him, but missed easy shots. Look at the tape.

 

[3rdbass]

I really like the kid, but his on the ball is really bad. I'm so tired of hearing of hearing every announcer say how he's an olympic athlete. That may be be true,
but he got beat off the dribble like 10 times last night, resulting in easy shots, fouls, or others that to come off their man leading to assists for them. He's
really good at getting into a good defenses stance but then loses his man. I think he will fix this though next year along with his shooting.

I think part of his issue is he thinks he can make up for his mistakes with his speed but unfortunately that doesn't work out a lot of the time. How many times did he try for a steal or let his man get a step hoping to block him from behind with his athletic talent. I just think he has a lazy mindset on defense and that has to change. He needs to get stronger so he can body up bigger players too.

 

[3rdbass]

Guys can get a step onhim but he usually is so disruptive that it doesn’t matter. Thybulle from the 76er’s plays the same way…he almost plays defense from behind and he may be one of the best defenders in the nba already. Just like everything with andre’s game, it’s unconventional. He’s a very good defender

Sorry I see a really bad defender who kept getting beat by his man yesterday for easy baskets. Awful lazy defense.

 

[3rdbass]

Am I missing something? He’s a defensive freak we’ll often put him on the other teams best player. It’s his offense that needs work.

If you really watch his defense it isn't as good as you think. He tries to let his man have a step so he can block or steal the ball from behind. That kind of defense surely didn't work last night and rarely does in most games. Maybe you are thinking of his help defense which is good.

 

[uconngb]

I think part of his issue is he thinks he can make up for his mistakes with his speed but unfortunately that doesn't work out a lot of the time. How many times did he try for a steal or let his man get a step hoping to block him from behind with his athletic talent. I just think he has a lazy mindset on defense and that has to change. He needs to get stronger so he can body up bigger players too.

Correct

 

[bigknight3]

Am I missing something? He’s a defensive freak we’ll often put him on the other teams best player. It’s his offense that needs work.

Yes, you're missing the fact that the OP is 100% right. AJax was active but overly aggressive, and gave up angles for drives to the basket.

Polley and Martin played better defense by focusing on keeping Allen in front of them.

 

[bigknight3]

Sorry I see a really bad defender who kept getting beat by his man yesterday for easy baskets. Awful lazy defense.

He's a good help defender and he's athleticism allows him to be good recovering on drives to alter or block shots at the rim. And he thinks that counts at good defense.

But once Allen got into a rhythm he either drew fouls or made difficult shots despite of Ajax.

He should've should focused on stopping the drive and then contesting the shot. Polley did that very well a few times when he was switched into Allen.

 

[Fishy]

Defensively, he’s actually quite good.

If he has a flaw, he can be careless at times - like you see on offensive when he throws a pass that is 84% too non-chalant. On D, he’ll reach for absolutely no apparent reason. He’ll learn.

 

[bigknight3]

Defensively, he’s actually quite good.

If he has a flaw, he can be careless at times - like you see on offensive when he throws a pass that is 84% too non-chalant. On D, he’ll reach for absolutely no apparent reason. He’ll learn.

Was he good last night..?

 

[yungdowork]

The idea that Teddy Allen got anything easy is honestly insane to me. He was making deep rainbow threes, finishing through contact near the rim, and we bailed him out a LOT with late fouls. Allen shot 42% on a career night, that's hardly indicative of bad defense. If the opposition's best scorer shoots under 45%, usually that's fine. In this case it wasn't because he also went 13/13 from the FT line and they shot 65% from 3.

The bottom line is that scoring 22 points in any half of basketball during March will pretty much never be good enough, and that's what cost us the game.

 

[husky429]

Sorry I see a really bad defender who kept getting beat by his man yesterday for easy baskets. Awful lazy defense.

Well, every advanced defensive metric, and people a hell of a lot better at coaching basketball than you disagree. It's one bad night. You didn't notice the hundreds of possessions he was easily our best defender on the floor most nights.

 

[Fishy]

Was he good last night..?

You have eyes.

You tell us.

 

[Rumrunner]

In the if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle vein...RJ Cole's body defense is light years ahead of AJ's. RJ seeks a physical confrontation. He loves to man up his body and uses his strength (albeit the strength of a six footer). That something which is hard to teach. One guy is a puncher and another guy is a lover. I wish that Andre could take a bit of Cole's iron will and be more of a puncher and not a lover.

 

[Kenny11]

Sorry I see a really bad defender who kept getting beat by his man yesterday for easy baskets. Awful lazy defense.

Nothing about his defense is lazy. He stands too high which is just an old high school habit that only has improved slightly. He extremely active.

 

[navery12]

Was he good last night..?

Yes

 

[bigknight3]

You have eyes.

You tell us.

Yes

Several commentators have shared that what they saw last night wasn't good defense.

 

[3rdbass]

Defensively, he’s actually quite good.

If he has a flaw, he can be careless at times - like you see on offensive when he throws a pass that is 84% too non-chalant. On D, he’ll reach for absolutely no apparent reason. He’ll learn.

He constantly gets beat off the dribble too so I wouldn't call that being a good defensive player. Part of the problem is he is rarely gets down low on defense to keep that low center of gravity when needing to guard.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

He’ll learn.

He's already improved his D in leaps and bounds. With his athleticism and work ethic it will only continue to improve.

My hope is he spends most of his time practicing his offensive game though, esp. around the rim

 

[WhereistheDove?]

In the if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle vein...RJ Cole's body defense is light years ahead of AJ's. RJ seeks a physical confrontation. He loves to man up his body and uses his strength (albeit the strength of a six footer). That something which is hard to teach. One guy is a puncher and another guy is a lover. I wish that Andre could take a bit of Cole's iron will and be more of a puncher and not a lover.

I don't really even know what to say to this. Andre's defense is significantly better than Cole's. I love Cole and he gives a ton of defensive effort, but he was abused on defense quite a few times this year due to his size and athletic limitations. There's a reason Andre has generally had the assignment of manning up the opposing team's best scorer and it's not because he's a bad defender. It might not look as pretty and it might not be as technically sound, but that is really just an academic debate at that point.

 

[navery12]

In the 1st half while Jackson was playing Teddy Allen had 7 points on 3/8 shooting and UConn was leading 16-15. Jackson then picked up his 2nd foul with 6:18 to go in the half. The last 6 minutes New Mexico State went on a 17-6 run and Allen had 7 points on 2 shots. Maybe it was a coincidence though since he made his last 3 shots before the Jackson foul

 

[mauconnfan]

I’ll tell you one thing. He played very good defense on Allen late game when Allen went to the basket camera side left he cut him off then arms up no foul that was whistled anyway, 2 FTs instead of our rebound. Big play and an awful call, by then the refs were all Teddy Allen.