Terrific class includes the M&M’s

[GemParty]

Looks like Coach Hurley zeroed in on his top targets Reed, McNeely, & Mahaney to go with his core stars, and got all three. It feels good to be the Kings of basketball. Again.

I’ve seen some highlights and the kids look like they will bring a nice variety of offensive fire power. Love it.

One thing, I don’t want to under appreciate is how important Castle was defensively on this Championship run. Whether it was Shannon, Boo, or the top opposing guard, Castle was incredible at frustrating, overpowering, and eliminating their normal scoring contributions. Plus, he rarely fouled out. Just a terror on D. A huge difference maker.

Does anybody have a sense how good the new group is defensively? They have some big shoes to fill.

 

[UC0NN]

I don't think anyone underestimates SC or DC defensive impact. It allowed us to shoot 3-22 from 3, and win by 30. Those 2 are arguably the 2 best defenders in the country.

 

[husky429]

Looks like Coach Hurley zeroed in on his top targets Reed, McNeely, & Mahaney to go with his core stars, and got all three. It feels good to be the Kings of basketball. Again.

I’ve seen some highlights and the kids look like they will bring a nice variety of offensive fire power. Love it.

One thing, I don’t want to under appreciate is how important Castle was defensively on this Championship run. Whether it was Shannon, Boo, or the top opposing guard, Castle was incredible at frustrating, overpowering, and eliminating their normal scoring contributions. Plus, he rarely fouled out. Just a terror on D. A huge difference maker.

Does anybody have a sense how good the new group is defensively? They have some big shoes to fill.

Donovan was an anchor to our defense that propelled us to #4 in the country. The likelihood of replicating that level of defense is low, especially losing Castle. We dropped to, what was it, #47 in the country when DC went down for that stint?

The good news is we still have some really great defenders on the roster. I think Stewart will be able to do a lot of what Castle did, Diarra will be a dog and Solo/Nowell have potential to be excellent defenders as well with their strength and quicks if they get in the film room and take coaching well. Abraham is going to be a great defender if he earns his minutes too. McNeeley has potential too with his size and strength. Mahaney and Reed will need to be coached up.

We are not going to have the same level of shotblocking as last year, so we're going to need rely more on positional defense and timely rotations like we did in 22-23.

 

[caw]

Donovan was an anchor to our defense that propelled us to #4 in the country. The likelihood of replicating that level of defense is low, especially losing Castle. We dropped to, what was it, #47 in the country when DC went down for that stint?

The good news is we still have some really great defenders on the roster. I think Stewart will be able to do a lot of what Castle did, Diarra will be a dog and Solo/Nowell have potential to be excellent defenders as well with their strength and quicks if they get in the film room and take coaching well. Abraham is going to be a great defender if he earns his minutes too. McNeeley has potential too with his size and strength. Mahaney and Reed will need to be coached up.

We are not going to have the same level of shotblocking as last year, so we're going to need rely more on positional defense and timely rotations like we did in 22-23.

The team should be better than 47th when healthy. A lot of the DC injury time also had Karaban running as a center which shouldn't happen this year. Top 15 is the goal I think.

 

[husky429]

The team should be better than 47th when healthy. A lot of the DC injury time also had Karaban running as a center which shouldn't happen this year. Top 15 is the goal I think.

As it should be. Enough talent to be a top-10 defense on this team. I just don't see us going on a 30-0 run in the elite-8 without a transcendent defender in the middle.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

With Clingan and Castle gone our defense next year won't be able to replicate what we did over the final months of this past season. We need to accept this as seeing players capable of what either was capable of is rare and having both in the same lineup is likely a once in a lifetime occurance.

There is no reason to believe that we cannot still be very good, while at a more mortal level, defensively this upcoming season. Defending is too much a part of DH's personality. It is too much of what the staff teaches and the fan base loves . It is too important a part of the process of winning important games once we transition from winter to spring. Individually and as a component of the team, each player will develop to become as good of a defender as he can become from now through next season.

We will need a different approach. We may play faster (to play to our current strengths), stressing a little more transition offense and defense as we may realize that our half court defense won't be what it had been. We may add more wrinkles to our half court offensive sets as we may have more scoring options than we had. The final scores of our games next season may have an additional eight, ten twelve points for both us and our opponents when compared to this season. Just because we may not be able to win in the same manner that we won this past season doesn't mean we cannot still win.

 

[Fan1978]

I don't think anyone underestimates SC or DC defensive impact. It allowed us to shoot 3-22 from 3, and win by 30. Those 2 are arguably the 2 best defenders in the country.

diarra defense is right there as well

 

[HuskyFich]

Donovan was an anchor to our defense that propelled us to #4 in the country. The likelihood of replicating that level of defense is low, especially losing Castle. We dropped to, what was it, #47 in the country when DC went down for that stint?

The good news is we still have some really great defenders on the roster. I think Stewart will be able to do a lot of what Castle did, Diarra will be a dog and Solo/Nowell have potential to be excellent defenders as well with their strength and quicks if they get in the film room and take coaching well. Abraham is going to be a great defender if he earns his minutes too. McNeeley has potential too with his size and strength. Mahaney and Reed will need to be coached up.

We are not going to have the same level of shotblocking as last year, so we're going to need rely more on positional defense and timely rotations like we did in 22-23.

It still seems to me that Reed is highly underrated in this regard. Everything I read says slow off feet, plays below the rim, etc. But everything I've seen shows me the opposite. I really think the situation at Michigan disastrously hurt him. It's telling to me that he was the staff's top priority the day after the Natty, and had it wrapped up within a couple days.

Hope TR can surprise some people with a more immediate impact. If that's not the case, hopefully SJ has a "Wrench-like" summer and takes on Isaiah Whaley as an alter ego.

 

[auror]

Mahaney tries, but he's not built to be a good 1v1 defender.
McNeeley similarly is a very good team defender and has size, but won't be a shut-down 1v1 guy.
Reed is an excellent post defender, but just an average rim protector.
Samson is a decent rim protector, but a poor post defender.
Ball wasn't as good as he can be last year, I'm hoping for improvements there.
Stewart should be fine, maybe better than fine if he buys in all the way.
Diarra will be incredible.
Ross has defensive upside and drive, but we'll see.
Abraham should be very good by the following season.
Nowell should be alright 1v1 from the jump, but we'll see about the team rotation stuff.
Karaban will be the same as he's been, good team defender, but likely a little stronger and better to hold up as a 4.

 

[Eric K]

Hot take...maybe this year's average margin of victory in the NCAA tourney is 8 or 9, and not a record breaking 20 and 23...it's ok to come back down to earth.