Question about our Man to Man defense

[ucp990411]

Something I have seen last year and this. Our perimeter defenders play their man straight up and do not force their man to use their weak hand. Doing this allows their man to use their strong hand on drives.
Also, as Hurley noted teams are attacking our weak defenders, Ball, Mullins and Karaban. All 3 allow dribble penetration with ease. Mullins came with a reputation as a good defender. He definitely is not. Gets beat constantly off the dribble. He is closer to Solo than he is to Castle.

 

[Vancat]

So I still don’t get the no defense thing. OK so solo “has no lateral quickness”.. got that. So does that mean he’ll never be any good?and what about the others? Is it just a lack of desire? Lack of athleticism? Is it a lack of knowledge of how to do it? What’s the deal?

 

[UCan3]

We run tight on the perimeter on purpose and it is exceptionally effective. We limit 3s and make getting assists impossible. We high hedge to the same effect and this puts a lot of pressure on the 3 and 4 to help.

Our problem is, frankly, our starting SG can't guard a 3rd-grade girls team. And our bench isn't as deep or talented as we thought. Reibe is pulling his weight overall but struggles with the PnR at times. Stewart and Ross are decent. Malachi tends to be our second worst perimeter defender after Solo IMO.

Frankly that we're ranked the 11th defense in the NCAA is a testament to the effectiveness of the system and just how good of defenders Silas and Tarris have been. Silas is particular is crazy underrated defensively on here. And Tarris leads the conference in defensive rating. Head and tail of the dog are phenomenal.

I know this is perceived as a sign of weakness, but would it make sense to play a little zone once in a while? I mean the other night they were coming down scoring in our faces at will over and over and over again. And frankly other teams like to take free throws against us because they know that we stink at it and they’d love to get into free-throw shooting contest. I would think “one on on” D you’re more likely to foul.

I know Dan would not want to do this, but you kind of got to play with the team that you have not the one that you wish you had. We’re deep into season.

 

[RuffRuff]

We can't do it with this unit, but there is a movement back to a more traditional 4 at the top of the game.

Mara/Johnson, Krivas/Peat, Ngongba/Boozer, Cenac/Tugler. Top programs are bringing the hurt at the 4/5.

Hopefully Hurley takes notice. Thank god we missed on Pierce. I for one would look forward to some edge in our roster. The "stretch" 4 is starting to feel like the soft 4.

 

[husky429]

I know this is perceived as a sign of weakness, but would it make sense to play a little zone once in a while? I mean the other night they were coming down scoring in our faces at will over and over and over again. And frankly other teams like to take free throws against us because they know that we stink at it and they’d love to get into free-throw shooting contest. I would think “one on on” D you’re more likely to foul.

I know Dan would not want to do this, but you kind of got to play with the team that you have not the one that you wish you had. We’re deep into season.

Sure it would make sense. It's also just not going to happen because that's not who Hurley is as a coach.

 

[boog204]

two years in a row where we have a few significant personnel/scheme mismatches.

so either we aren’t making the right personnel decisions, or we aren’t good at adapting the scheme to the personnel we have.

my other 2cents is that I wish Hurley gave a little more rope to guys and prioritized season long outcomes vs. near term wins.

I would rather have given Reibe/Stewart/Ross more minutes to work thru things during the course of the season with the hopes that they can figure things out and we peak late.

But I get it is hard to deny the allure of a potential 1 seed in your grasp.

Perfectly stated in personnel and scheme. This portal run should be very interesting.

 

[uconnfan68]

Creighton. They had the record that said 13-13 next to their name if you didn't check the Big East standings before the game

And yet they won.

 

[Palatine]

two years in a row where we have a few significant personnel/scheme mismatches.

so either we aren’t making the right personnel decisions, or we aren’t good at adapting the scheme to the personnel we have.

my other 2cents is that I wish Hurley gave a little more rope to guys and prioritized season long outcomes vs. near term wins.

I would rather have given Reibe/Stewart/Ross more minutes to work thru things during the course of the season with the hopes that they can figure things out and we peak late.

But I get it is hard to deny the allure of a potential 1 seed in your grasp.

If you ignore the fact were were 5th in the nation defensively for most of the season this makes sense. But I do not believe it is a personnel problem. Every team has weak defenders. The trick is to minimize their weaknesses. We create our own problems by guarding too closely 30 feet from the basket. It spreads the floor. It opens the middle and it gets us in trouble. When we gamble out there it is a disaster. Fix that and we will look like we did earlier in the season.

 

[gsmooth]

two years in a row where we have a few significant personnel/scheme mismatches.

so either we aren’t making the right personnel decisions, or we aren’t good at adapting the scheme to the personnel we have.

my other 2cents is that I wish Hurley gave a little more rope to guys and prioritized season long outcomes vs. near term wins.

I would rather have given Reibe/Stewart/Ross more minutes to work thru things during the course of the season with the hopes that they can figure things out and we peak late.

But I get it is hard to deny the allure of a potential 1 seed in your grasp.

Hurley and his staff have every reason to be confident in their coaching abilities and their work is proof of their elite coaching abilities for sure. I also think Hurley needs to be more flexible at times and not think "teams from 2023 and 2024 were able to do this so I know this works" and find what works, or at least what works best, for the current roster he has.

As for giving more rope to the bench players, I wish he did, too, but I completely understand why he didn't. It seems like whenever he brought in the bench guys, the other team would go on a scoring run and remove any lead or increase their lead. The bench players need to show some positive impact when they are in the game, and Hurley kind of called them out in the post game press conference after the Georgetown game in Gampel. He mentioned earlier in the year about how UConn will wear teams down with their intricate offensive sets, by running opposing players off the 3 pt line (not pressure D to cause turnovers), and with their bench and depth. That is not happening because whenever the games are tight he is dialing back the rotations and not including the bench.

If you ignore the fact were were 5th in the nation defensively for most of the season this makes sense. But I do not believe it is a personnel problem. Every team has weak defenders. The trick is to minimize their weaknesses. We create our own problems by guarding too closely 30 feet from the basket. It spreads the floor. It opens the middle and it gets us in trouble. When we gamble out there it is a disaster. Fix that and we will look like we did earlier in the season.

I think you are both correct. There are personnel and scheme mismatches. He cannot have this team play defense they way he would prefer. It's just too easy to isolate UConn's defenders and play 1v1 because the other defenders off the ball are not a few steps off their man which would leave them in better position to help. Mind you, this doesn't mean give shooters enough time for a slow release 3 pt shot on a kick out pass either. I know UConn lacks the athleticism to help and recover consistenly, but the lane is wide open and opposing players can comfortably dribble and deliberately take the UConn defender 1v1. It's been an issue this year, but this issue persisted last year, too. I noticed it in Maui and in the Providence game at Gampel last year when Providence build a 14 pt lead and players like Ryan Mela, Jayden Pierre, and Wesley Cardett Jr. were cooking our UConn defenders 1v1.

 

[uconnfan68]

Hurley and his staff have every reason to be confident in their coaching abilities and their work is proof of their elite coaching abilities for sure. I also think Hurley needs to be more flexible at times and not think "teams from 2023 and 2024 were able to do this so I know this works" and find what works, or at least what works best, for the current roster he has.

As for giving more rope to the bench players, I wish he did, too, but I completely understand why he didn't. It seems like whenever he brought in the bench guys, the other team would go on a scoring run and remove any lead or increase their lead. The bench players need to show some positive impact when they are in the game, and Hurley kind of called them out in the post game press conference after the Georgetown game in Gampel. He mentioned earlier in the year about how UConn will wear teams down with their intricate offensive sets, by running opposing players off the 3 pt line (not pressure D to cause turnovers), and with their bench and depth. That is not happening because whenever the games are tight he is dialing back the rotations and not including the bench.

I think you are both correct. There are personnel and scheme mismatches. He cannot have this team play defense they way he would prefer. It's just too easy to isolate UConn's defenders and play 1v1 because the other defenders off the ball are not a few steps off their man which would leave them in better position to help. Mind you, this doesn't mean give shooters enough time for a slow release 3 pt shot on a kick out pass either. I know UConn lacks the athleticism to help and recover consistenly, but the lane is wide open and opposing players can comfortably dribble and deliberately take the UConn defender 1v1. It's been an issue this year, but this issue persisted last year, too. I noticed it in Maui and in the Providence game at Gampel last year when Providence build a 14 pt lead and players like Ryan Mela, Jayden Pierre, and Wesley Cardett Jr. were cooking our UConn defenders 1v1.

^^^ yeah, that

 

[ucp990411]

Hurley and his staff have every reason to be confident in their coaching abilities and their work is proof of their elite coaching abilities for sure. I also think Hurley needs to be more flexible at times and not think "teams from 2023 and 2024 were able to do this so I know this works" and find what works, or at least what works best, for the current roster he has.

As for giving more rope to the bench players, I wish he did, too, but I completely understand why he didn't. It seems like whenever he brought in the bench guys, the other team would go on a scoring run and remove any lead or increase their lead. The bench players need to show some positive impact when they are in the game, and Hurley kind of called them out in the post game press conference after the Georgetown game in Gampel. He mentioned earlier in the year about how UConn will wear teams down with their intricate offensive sets, by running opposing players off the 3 pt line (not pressure D to cause turnovers), and with their bench and depth. That is not happening because whenever the games are tight he is dialing back the rotations and not including the bench.

I think you are both correct. There are personnel and scheme mismatches. He cannot have this team play defense they way he would prefer. It's just too easy to isolate UConn's defenders and play 1v1 because the other defenders off the ball are not a few steps off their man which would leave them in better position to help. Mind you, this doesn't mean give shooters enough time for a slow release 3 pt shot on a kick out pass either. I know UConn lacks the athleticism to help and recover consistenly, but the lane is wide open and opposing players can comfortably dribble and deliberately take the UConn defender 1v1. It's been an issue this year, but this issue persisted last year, too. I noticed it in Maui and in the Providence game at Gampel last year when Providence build a 14 pt lead and players like Ryan Mela, Jayden Pierre, and Wesley Cardett Jr. were cooking our UConn defenders 1v1.

The bench guys were outscored because they played together and thus who would score? Filter them in with 3 or 4 starters and those runs would not happen.

 

[SaeHusky]

Watched Cincy playi great man to man defense vs Kansas by not covering tight way above the 3pt line and winning on road

 

[dennismenace]

You nailed it! I hope they can fix this. Not expecting perfection. Just some moderate improvement can result in a better outcome.

So if this is the only defense they know why shouldn't they overplay the offensive player and force him to go to the other hand. Perhaps if we did more of that and kept someone in the paint to shot block/rebound we might have a better chance to keep opponents honest. I think it is disturbing and hard headed to say a zone is not an option. That's closed minded if true. You're playing right into the opponent coaches hands. This is going to be interesting to see how it plays out the rest of the season. It reminds me of the time a few years back when Kadary Richmond was playing for Seton Hall against us and must have driven down the lane 7-8 times with no adjustment. It looked ridiculous.

 

[gsmooth]

The bench guys were outscored because they played together and thus who would score? Filter them in with 3 or 4 starters and those runs would not happen.

Exactly. I have been saying he needs to stagger the substitutions instead of bringing 3 off the bench at a time.

 

[gsmooth]

Watched Cincy playi great man to man defense vs Kansas by not covering tight way above the 3pt line and winning on road

Yes we just watched St. John's defend well against Creighton's 3 pt shooting without getting stretched too thin. They are much more athletic than UConn and can help and recover so well.
Hurley is a great coach, no doubt, but he and the staff have to have the off ball defenders be in better help position and not be so scared of the other team's 3 pt shooting. Will it eliminate bad 1v1 defense against dribble drive penetration? No, but it can help mitigate it.

 

[RuffRuff]

Yes we just watched St. John's defend well against Creighton's 3 pt shooting without getting stretched too thin. They are much more athletic than UConn and can help and recover so well.
Hurley is a great coach, no doubt, but he and the staff have to have the off ball defenders be in better help position and not be so scared of the other team's 3 pt shooting. Will it eliminate bad 1v1 defense against dribble drive penetration? No, but it can help mitigate it.

I simply think he hasn’t recruited the right personnel - this is hopefully an opportunity for him to reassess and to mix in some kids that are disruptive defensively with athleticism. You’re just not getting great floor coverage with our 2-4.