Switching on defense

[Palatine]

Against Marquette we changed our primary defense. We played a little man to man. But we switched most of the time. This is a huge departure for Hurley. I haven't seen it talked about much. But it was a major defensive switch (pun intended or not).

And it worked. Our defensive numbers against Marquette were well below the season average. Or maybe Marquette had a horrible shooting night. Or they were surprised. But for me, the eye test said we were guarding better.

With Samson in the game, he was often on smaller players away from the basket. Reed didn't switch as much, staying in the lane. But the rest of the guys were always switching. I'm not the most astute basketball student. I mostly watch the ball. But I believe what I see. And I think this is as good as we have looked on the defensive end. I think we will see it again. Whether it becomes our go to defense remains to be seen. But it is encouraging to know our coach is still trying things and not inflexible.

 

[husky429]

Against Marquette we changed our primary defense. We played a little man to man. But we switched most of the time. This is a huge departure for Hurley. I haven't seen it talked about much. But it was a major defensive switch (pun intended or not).

And it worked. Our defensive numbers against Marquette were well below the season average. Or maybe Marquette had a horrible shooting night. Or they were surprised. But for me, the eye test said we were guarding better.

With Samson in the game, he was often on smaller players away from the basket. Reed didn't switch as much, staying in the lane. But the rest of the guys were always switching. I'm not the most astute basketball student. I mostly watch the ball. But I believe what I see. And I think this is as good as we have looked on the defensive end. I think we will see it again. Whether it becomes our go to defense remains to be seen. But it is encouraging to know our coach is still trying things and not inflexible.

Switching is man-to-man defense.

 

[mauconnfan]

Against Marquette we changed our primary defense. We played a little man to man. But we switched most of the time. This is a huge departure for Hurley. I haven't seen it talked about much. But it was a major defensive switch (pun intended or not).

And it worked. Our defensive numbers against Marquette were well below the season average. Or maybe Marquette had a horrible shooting night. Or they were surprised. But for me, the eye test said we were guarding better.

With Samson in the game, he was often on smaller players away from the basket. Reed didn't switch as much, staying in the lane. But the rest of the guys were always switching. I'm not the most astute basketball student. I mostly watch the ball. But I believe what I see. And I think this is as good as we have looked on the defensive end. I think we will see it again. Whether it becomes our go to defense remains to be seen. But it is encouraging to know our coach is still trying things and not inflexible.

Came down to play a 1-3-1 late which was great for a change but can’t stand that zone it has way too many seams. But I agree seems maybe the switching could be a better answer but let’s see Friday.

 

[alphasigko]

Switching is man-to-man defense.

I agree, but the effectiveness of what they did on Sat evening was the best it has been all season.

 

[Stinger92860]

Switching is man-to-man defense.

but you don’t have to switch every time in man, you can go over or go under or switch. I saw that with Sam against Marquette they switched and dropped vs the normal high edge action.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

One thing to note is that it’s much easier to do that with Gold on the floor because he refuses to take advantage of a smaller guy switching on to him.

 

[UConnSwag11]

Marquette has been a great matchup for us. They never have traditional bigs or forwards and we can switch pretty much 1-5

 

[UConnSwag11]

One thing to note is that it’s much easier to do that with Gold on the floor because he refuses to take advantage of a smaller guy switching on to him.

Shaka just has him stand on the three point line.

I never understand Shaka’s offense

 

[ucp990411]

I agree, but the effectiveness of what they did on Sat evening was the best it has been all season.

It was the most engaged our guys have been with playing defense all year

 

[Hunt for 7]

Marquette is 9th in the BE at 3 pt shooting 32%, St Johns is 11th or last at 30%.

I would think switching is how you would want to defend a team who shoots it well from three.

Maybe it is the opposite and the switching makes sure the defender keeps a better angle which slows down penetration. Also the defender does not have to worry about both the shot or the penetration and their only job is stopping penetration and not worrying about the shot. Not sure how that plays out.

At the levels I coached at we would not switch just go over or under screens and that depended on how good a shooter the player receiving the screen was and how good the on ball defender was.

Plus you need real good athletes to switch all ball screens. At the level I coached at, it was rare that one of the bigger kids had any chance of keeping a quick guard from getting to the hoop if he was trying to guard him 20ft from the basket.

Perhaps @husky429 can help with that assessment.

Anyway switching worked against a bad 3pt shooting team on Saturday seems like we would give it another shot on a team that is even worse from three.

 

[Palatine]

Switching is man-to-man defense.

"Straight" man to man defense. Better?

I think the real difference is that it didn't allow Marquette to go around the screen and beat the defender to the basket. There was always someone there. It made Marquette take tougher shots. Or sometimes keep the ball on the outside.

 

[husky429]

but you don’t have to switch every time in man, you can go over or go under or switch. I saw that with Sam against Marquette they switched and dropped vs the normal high edge action.

There's much more complex coverages than over, under or switch at our level. Still all man-to-man defense. It was just confusing the OP implied switching isn't man defense.

 

[husky429]

Marquette is 9th in the BE at 3 pt shooting 32%, St Johns is 11th or last at 30%.

I would think switching is how you would want to defend a team who shoots it well from three.

Maybe it is the opposite and the switching makes sure the defender keeps a better angle which slows down penetration. Also the defender does not have to worry about both the shot or the penetration and their only job is stopping penetration and not worrying about the shot. Not sure how that plays out.

At the levels I coached at we would not switch just go over or under screens and that depended on how good a shooter the player receiving the screen was and how good the on ball defender was.

Plus you need real good athletes to switch all ball screens. At the level I coached at, it was rare that one of the bigger kids had any chance of keeping a quick guard from getting to the hoop if he was trying to guard him 20ft from the basket.

Perhaps @husky429 can help with that assessment.

Anyway switching worked against a bad 3pt shooting team on Saturday seems like we would give it another shot on a team that is even worse from three.

We switched a lot last year because we had so many guys with size 1-3. It's harder now in a lot of matchips because Hass, Mahaney and Solo are all undersized.

 

[Drame]

Solo is undersized at the 2g position but when he was our pg when both Diarra and Mahaney were out, we had decent size all around. Teams have practiced a lot against our high hedge so mixing it up helps. Also with tht eswitching with Diarra, even when he had a bad matchup Marquette could not get Diarras man the ball readily because the rest of the Marquette guys were covered better.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Thought Ross also spent some time at point too

 

[auror]

We switched a lot last year because we had so many guys with size 1-3. It's harder now in a lot of matchips because Hass, Mahaney and Solo are all undersized.

In the Marquette game we switched 1-5 at times, which we didn't do much last year because Clingan was so dominant in drop. Samson and Reed held up pretty well on Kam Jones.

 

[REB1094]

It definitely caught my eye. We switched almost EVERYTHING and Marquette couldn’t take advantage even with our Cs guarding the perimeter. Big shoutout to Samson and Tarris for that

Definitely not a strategy we want for every opponent, but for Marquette it worked to prevent quick looks for threes. Was surprised Joplin played more on the perimeter since he is the only guy that could abuse a mismatch down low

Teams do this to us and it drives me crazy when Karaban or Samson don’t just immediately run to the post against the 6’4 guard that just switched on them. Seems to be an effective strategy for perimeter focused teams

 

[husky429]

In the Marquette game we switched 1-5 at times, which we didn't do much last year because Clingan was so dominant in drop. Samson and Reed held up pretty well on Kam Jones.

Reed in particular is pretty versatile on defense. His hips are quick--I think he could guard 3-5 most nights easily and 1-2 in a pinch.

 

[navery12]

surprised Joplin played more on the perimeter since he is the only guy that could abuse a mismatch down low

He probably should do that, but it's not his game. 70% of his shots are long 2's or 3's, he's pretty much exclusively a perimeter player

 

[djct1999]

We switched a lot last year because we had so many guys with size 1-3. It's harder now in a lot of matchips because Hass, Mahaney and Solo are all undersized.

This. It was so effective vs Marquette because they are relatively small and our length never created poor mismatches.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We switched a lot last year because we had so many guys with size 1-3. It's harder now in a lot of matchips because Hass, Mahaney and Solo are all undersized.

Hurley was complementary towards Kansas switching against us last year (they had a great team for it) and I think he would like to use it more when we have the personnel, and the matchup calls for it. Really disruptive to off the ball screening teams. It's a nice wrinkle even with our undersized group this year.

I expect he'll focus on bringing back bigger back courts if he can.

 

[gsmooth]

It definitely caught my eye. We switched almost EVERYTHING and Marquette couldn’t take advantage even with our Cs guarding the perimeter. Big shoutout to Samson and Tarris for that

Definitely not a strategy we want for every opponent, but for Marquette it worked to prevent quick looks for threes. Was surprised Joplin played more on the perimeter since he is the only guy that could abuse a mismatch down low

Teams do this to us and it drives me crazy when Karaban or Samson don’t just immediately run to the post against the 6’4 guard that just switched on them. Seems to be an effective strategy for perimeter focused teams

Marquette is not a team that can really take advantage of switches with the exception of Kam Jones. If Kam Jones is defended by Karaban he can blow by him or some centers when they are guarding him on the perimeter-that's a mismatch. But a team can have a small guard defending against Ben Gould because Gould doesn't have a back to the basket post up game despite being 6'10. Most of Gould's shots are from 3 point land. Stevie Mitchell, is a very good player that can penetrate to the basket at times against close outs on a defense that is rotating, but he isn't just going take a center or anyone off the dribble and create like a Kam Jones can.

 

[husky429]

Hurley was complementary towards Kansas switching against us last year (they had a great team for it) and I think he would like to use it more when we have the personnel, and the matchup calls for it. Really disruptive to off the ball screening teams. It's a nice wrinkle even with our undersized group this year.

I expect he'll focus on bringing back bigger back courts if he can.

Recruiting a big scoring PG in the portal is going to be vital this off-season.

 

[6Nattys4Us]

Thought Ross also spent some time at point too

Ross was a PG - then grew to wing size but still has some dribbling chops.

Regarding man-to-main, you have to switch else they run you off screens to free up the matchup 'they' want. While I didn't see them flare cut Kam for a 3, but his game is not the 3 and thankfully not St. John's as well. But that is a 2 man screen staggered to have their shooter 'S' through them. Last saw perfection execution of that with Holloway coached St. Peter's run a few years ago.

 

[DogMania]

In the Marquette game we switched 1-5 at times, which we didn't do much last year because Clingan was so dominant in drop. Samson and Reed held up pretty well on Kam Jones.

I noticed that too. Props to the staff for trying something different. Its good to switch things up throughout the game so that teams don't get used to successfully breaking down our D.

I wonder how much of this change was due to the matchup or just doing something differently since their attempt to get our perimeter players fighting over screens and not letting teams gain the edge and driving it right to the basket has been a problem all season long. It's probably a little bit of both.

I'm not sure switching gives up more perimeter scoring opportunities, but it does make a team vulnerable to adverse matchups.

I did post about this in one of the other threads. Sampson has the length and quickness to defend perimeter players for a short stint. He just needs to stay on his feet and not foul. Reed is nimble for a big dude and has okay lateral movement, but lacks the anticipation sometimes since this is new to him. Although not ideal to have our bigs on smalls, maybe it's better than only hedging all the time. And having our 1 through 3s and even 4s switching seems worth trying more often. It can't be worse than what we've been seeing all season long.

Don't get me wrong. They need to continue to improve their base M2M D, but switching it up with switching 1 through 4 and even with our 5 seems like a good approach to deploy especially if it works well at times.

 

[boog204]

"Straight" man to man defense. Better?

I think the real difference is that it didn't allow Marquette to go around the screen and beat the defender to the basket. There was always someone there. It made Marquette take tougher shots. Or sometimes keep the ball on the outside.

Marquette got to the basket at will in the first half. They were literally in the lane every single play on an ISO. I think Ross made a big difference because Jones got stifled going to the hoop in the second half. And a big part of this is that Ross DIDN'T have to switch and could play through screens where some of our other guys were a mismatch.

I think the switching also worked with the bigs because Marquette is just terrible offensively. Gold and Joplin more or less just stand at the three point line all game.

 

[Iluvsuebird]

You all know that I love Nowell. However, against Marquette and out of necessity, we played with Ross at point, and we looked better than ok. I dont hate that future lineup with Ross at point and all the other sharp shooters.

 

[Stinger92860]

Reed in particular is pretty versatile on defense. His hips are quick--I think he could guard 3-5 most nights easily and 1-2 in a pinch.

IMO he has trouble getting back on the high hedge, otherwise I agree on his versatility

 

[husky429]

IMO he has trouble getting back on the high hedge, otherwise I agree on his versatility

Takes a very high IQ. And that's really his biggest struggle

 

[auror]

I noticed that too. Props to the staff for trying something different. Its good to switch things up throughout the game so that teams don't get used to successfully breaking down our D.

I wonder how much of this change was due to the matchup or just doing something differently since their attempt to get our perimeter players fighting over screens and not letting teams gain the edge and driving it right to the basket has been a problem all season long. It's probably a little bit of both.

I'm not sure switching gives up more perimeter scoring opportunities, but it does make a team vulnerable to adverse matchups.

I did post about this in one of the other threads. Sampson has the length and quickness to defend perimeter players for a short stint. He just needs to stay on his feet and not foul. Reed is nimble for a big dude and has okay lateral movement, but lacks the anticipation sometimes since this is new to him. Although not ideal to have our bigs on smalls, maybe it's better than only hedging all the time. And having our 1 through 3s and even 4s switching seems worth trying more often. It can't be worse than what we've been seeing all season long.

Don't get me wrong. They need to continue to improve their base M2M D, but switching it up with switching 1 through 4 and even with our 5 seems like a good approach to deploy especially if it works well at times.

I think a lot of it was matchup based. Marquette had shooters at the 4 and the 5, so switching helps to stay with popping bigs (dropping puts your big too far away, hedging puts you too far away).