Team defense lousy

[Conndog]

Broadcasters were right about UConn not having any help defense. Maybe they need to play a zone more? Too many times the UConn player’s guy got past him and had a clear path to the basket with no one else around to help.

 

[auror]

The real adjustment Hurley needed to make wasn't with the lineup. We used the same closing lineup as we did last game. It's probably our best and most balanced lineup. He needed to adjust to Posh coming off a curl screen and driving into the paint with full momentum.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

The real adjustment Hurley needed to make wasn't with the lineup. We used the same closing lineup as we did last game. It's probably our best and most balanced lineup. He needed to adjust to Posh coming off a curl screen and driving into the paint with full momentum.

Polley should be situational. If he’s on, leave him in. But he wasn’t tonight. And his defense was pretty darn poor.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

i would describe our normally superior defense today as ferklempt, particularly on the drive/ help thing. i read that jerry kramer 'instant replay' book aboot the packers (a classic!), and a story from it comes to mind. it seems that early in their 1967 championship year, the o line was unformed, leading to many whacks and sacks on bart starr. someone says sarcastically, after another breakdown, 'and what do you call that block?' i think it was kramer who said 'it's called the lookout bart block. we hit 'em once, fall down, then yell lookout bart!'
today, the drive d stunk. im thinking the guys got blown by, then yelled 'lookout ______! (fill in the blank with our big on the scene).
they all looked like they needed some expresso coffee -black, with a ton of sugar.

whaley was wide open under the hoop for a bunny when tyler launched his 3 brick.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The real adjustment Hurley needed to make wasn't with the lineup. We used the same closing lineup as we did last game. It's probably our best and most balanced lineup. He needed to adjust to Posh coming off a curl screen and driving into the paint with full momentum.

It is with the lineup. It is really hard to protect the rim in man-to-man when there is only one big on the court, because that big also has a defensive assignment of his own. We are a better defensive team when two of Sanogo, Whaley and Carlton are on the court.

 

[Chin Diesel]

There was no attempt at team defense. It was designed to be a gut it out, out tough your man, defense. Unfortunately for Hurley he doesn't have the athletes to do that when teams go with 5 on the perimeter. There was not going to be any help from another defender leaving his man.

Coaches for eons in many sports have done what Hurley did yesterday. Put a team out there and tell them to just be tougher, to be stronger and dig deeper in to their guts to will their way to win. Unfortunately Hurley doesn't have the team built to do that when the "toughness" part involves lateral quickness and isolated man to man defense from the 3 point line to the hoop.

Personally I was looking for Whaley or Akok in there as a rim protector and Sanogo in there for offensive post versatility. As a Husky fan I'd much rather see my team lose because St. John's two worst perimiter players were more effective at beating Sanogo and Akok/Whaley than the UConn combo was at beating them when UConn had the ball.

 

[my2cents]

Adams "waving" at the St John's players as they drove unabated to the basket was terrible.

 

[mauconnfan]

Adams "waving" at the St John's players as they drove unabated to the basket was terrible.

At some point he needed to leave his guy and make them kick out for a 3. I mean I realize they were making them for a while but pick your poison they aren't good shooters. Lay up or 20 foot jumper? I agree he did that 3-4 times at least but didn't change a thing. They all did the same but were spread out and concerned, I get it they made a few. But fact is our guys were beaten badly and needed help eventually.

 

[Viet Vet]

Broadcasters were right about UConn not having any help defense. Maybe they need to play a zone more? Too many times the UConn player’s guy got past him and had a clear path to the basket with no one else around to help.

Matador Defense.

 

[my2cents]

At least the Matadors wave a big red blanket, which would be better than just an arm.

 

[kcc1442]

More than team defense, we need to make a decision on how far out to play on the perimeter with some of our guys. Specifically, Tyler Phommachanh routinely gets beat by quicker guards, which causes problems for our d. And because he is getting beat so far out, the opposing guard has so much down hill momentum that it is hard to play quality help d. They need him to drop back at least to just above the three point arc. He needs to realize that his 6'9 stature and length will still affect guards and SFs jump shots and this way he won't be beat. He is way to slow-footed out there. This was an issue when he was picking up fouls early in the year and now he is just getting blown by with ease. I do agree however, that Whaley and some of our other guys seemed slow to react on help d which is uncharacteristic from what we have seen so far. But DH needs to make an adjustment with some of our guys on the perimeter d. I also agree that although I want to see primarily man to man I think mixing in a few zone possessions wouldn't be a bad idea. Especially when we don't have IW in the game and we have our slower bigs (don't think Akok is fully back to game speed yet).

 

[OkaForPrez]

There appears to be a widespread lack of understanding on this board about the implications of SJU's offensive sets in the 2nd half yesterday and why our defense wasn't its "normal self" against them.

UConn's defense is based on aggressive switching and hedging of ball screens initially, than rotating help secondarily and lastly recovering back to original assignments.

Most offensive sets we've seen this year have tried to attack us in the way we are designed to defend. When SJU spread 5 wide outside the arc and didn't draw help defenders with ball screen action they forced our defenders to play 1 vs. 1 where we weren't quick enough to defend.

Many are talking about putting in a "rim protector". When every defender is on the perimeter there is no such thing. Whaley was in the game and is a serviceable if not plus rim protector. He wasn't there because he had to stay outside.

Some are calling for more minutes from Akok. I'd love for @UConnStats to pull his +/- since he's been back. I think every time he's hit the floor its been an 8-0 run for the other team. In fact, where he's struggled the most is guarding off the dribble which is exactly how SJU was attacking us.

I've read some valid points:

Offense/defense substitutions to get Adama in the game.
Test Adama given we weren't getting stops anyway and see if he can be more effective offensively.

I buy both of those, but neither is a "given" proposition and I don't view it as malpractice to not play him.

For those in the bench Polley the moment his shot isn't falling camp, that's a great way to break a player with hot/cold confidence. He'll go into every game afraid to miss his first few and sit. As a Coach you need a long view mentality to let your shooters play through that.

Here's the positives:

RJ took a step towards finding his scoring. We'll need it.
Adama looked fantastic. Let's hope he keeps it up and continues to earn more minutes.

We have the opportunity to develop into a very balanced team with the ability to score from 5 positions. RJ, Bouk, Martin, Whaley, Sanogo could be a monster starting 5 in March.

Soups not done yet guys, let it simmer.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Adams "waving" at the St John's players as they drove unabated to the basket was terrible.

had to do it. u forgot the kiss for good luck part.

 

[Hi-Low]

I've read some valid points:

Offense/defense substitutions to get Adama in the game.
Test Adama given we weren't getting stops anyway and see if he can be more effective offensively.

I buy both of those, but neither is a "given" proposition and I don't view it as malpractice to not play him.

For those in the bench Polley the moment his shot isn't falling camp, that's a great way to break a player with hot/cold confidence. He'll go into every game afraid to miss his first few and sit. As a Coach you need a long view mentality to let your shooters play through that.

I agree with most of what you said except Polley, not about "benching" him it's the balance of minutes....Polley got 26 mins on a bad night and he closed & Sanogo got 17 mins on a good night & zero mins late. It seems like DH wants to close with Polley but we badly needed Sanogo on offense & not sure his D could be that much worse on perimeter than Polley.

DH knows much more than I ever will about basketball so I moved on from the loss, just think DH could have been more "creative" in closing minute with substitutions.

 

[OkaForPrez]

I agree with most of what you said except Polley, not about "benching" him it's the balance of minutes....Polley got 26 mins on a bad night and he closed & Sanogo got 17 mins on a good night & zero mins late. It seems like DH wants to close with Polley but we badly needed Sanogo on offense & not sure his D could be that much worse on perimeter than Polley.

DH knows much more than I ever will about basketball so I moved on from the loss, just think DH could have been more "creative" in closing minute with substitutions.

I think that's a fair take if you view it as a Sanogo for Polley swap moving Whaley to the 4. The High Low game between the two might have been consistent enough to offset the dribble drive offense for SJU. I wish we got a look at 1-2 possessions to see if it was viable.

I guess it comes down to I trust Hurley.