The defense is terrible

[uh-no]

They look better because we won

exactly.

Don't get me wrong, there are still strong signals, less getting lost, less fouling....but we still didn't close out well on threes, still allowed way too much penetration, and were not as effective as we need to be on the defensive glass.

The fact that Baylor put up such a high number despite us not sending them to the line is a sign that we focused on not fouling....but in doing so, the defense on the floor is still not effective.

A lot of work to do here yet.

 

[auror]

Aspects of the defense were better. It also looked better because a good team finally shot less than 48% from 3 against us.

But it was not good. It was not significantly improved.

We were at home in a raucous crowd, and this was a Baylor team that for most of the second half had its 2 most dynamic offensive players out hurt (Roach, Edgecombe), a key contributor still on the mend from an ankle injury but playing (Love), their other main bench piece in foul trouble and then fouled out after only playing 5 minutes in the 2nd half (Celestine), and their freshman PG rolled his ankle but had to keep playing.

They didn't sub a guard/wing out the last 16 minutes of the game. Love played the entire 2nd half. Wright played the last 16 minutes straight despite the bum ankle. Nunn played 19 minutes in the 2H. Ojianwuna played 18 minutes in the 2H, Omier 16.

They were the walking wounded and tired, and they still put up 1.09 PPP on us in the 2nd half. We should've won this game by 15.

 

[bmayuc]

Our defense was a lot better than it has been for a significant portion of that game.

I really disagree with this take - the only real difference between this and memphis was the whistle. In Maui we were getting called for our sloppiness, last night we were getting a home whistle last night and alot of the handsy stuff wasn't being called on us.

There were 3-4 samson helpsides where he came over out of control or wasn't disciplined staying vertical and he got away with it. Some other specifics:

- Tarris needs to start. will stabilize the entire team and defensive rotations and is very clearly our best big and shot at reaching our upside on defense(and offense). I feel just like i did Adamas freshman year - what are we waiting for let the big guy eat and become a core part of this machine. Tarris can wall up, can provide athletic weakside help. Rugged. Boards. Get him 25+ and start him. make the other team gameplan for the hoss.

- Liam is going to be good eventually. He is very disciplined and has good contact strength. Does a really good job of staying on a drivers hip and using his length to cut off easy scoring angles, then walls up and stays on his feet when he gets near the rim. Rugged kid. This is going to sound weird but reminds me of Caron. Solidly built.

- Solo is an absolute catastrophe. He looks strong but his contact strength to anchor - core/base/lateral mobility - is pretty poor. He just gets pushed around whether off the dribble or under the rim.

- Aidan is just little, but he has some fight in him. I think he will improve over time and be a scrappy defender over time. His real problem is that he really needs to play off the ball, and that means he's paired with diarra or ahmad and those guys are small so one of them usually is significantly undersized and prone to getting steamrolled.

- Diarra is a gamer and can make some splash defensive plays. sometimes gets way to far up in offensive players grill leading to blow bys and hand check fouls but whatever - he's not the problem.

- Jaylin is rock solid and a gamer and needs to play more

- Jayden looks like a 16 year old playing a bunch of 22 year olds. Just a bouncy baby deer with poor composure/confidence. Same as solo with the poor playing strength just gets moved out of the way on drives and compensates by fighting(good) but leads to tonssss of fouls on drives and pump fakes(bad). Just not ready.

 

[Mr. French]

The perimeter D is worse than last year, no question.

Guess what else is worse? The rim protection and rotations.

Guys like Ball and Mahaney may get beat, just like Newton or Spencer may have, but the rest of the D isn’t up to last year’s level…yet.

Probably won’t ever, but certainly not at this stage. That’s making our perimeter D look even worse.

 

[JerseyAlum]

despite the win, the defense was still awful last night. we gave up 1.2 points per posession last night, which when adjusting for baylor's offense, comes to ~1.05ppp...both worse than we were rated and barely a top 100 defense. Our defense dropped from 88 to 92 on kenpom.

on the good side, we were playing without karaban....so we might have expected some improvement from being healthy, but baylor was also short handed.

In short, though things might have "looked" better, they actually weren't.

Don't forget Roach went to the bench injured so they were down both starting guards. That was good for us since Memphis guards were more athletic and beat us. Whew, so glad we got the W!

 

[Lambeau]

Castle was 6'4 1/2" 208 at the NBA Combine--not that big; Ball has a greater vertical.
But Ball's defense on Wright was ludicrous--he needs repeated benching to make the point.
How does 27 mpg make the point that his effort and skill level are unacceptable?

 

[superjohn]

Castle was 6'4 1/2" 208 at the NBA Combine--not that big; Ball has a greater vertical.
But Ball's defense on Wright was ludicrous--he needs repeated benching to make the point.
How does 27 mpg make the point that his effort and skill level are unacceptable?

Castle measured 6'5.5 barefoot at the NBA Combine, 210 lbs.

 

[3rdbass]

Ball may look stronger than Castle, but he surely isn’t.

A year ago Castle was 6’6” 215
A year ago Solo was 6’3” 185

One or both may have put on muscle since then but they are most certainly built different.

I found it funny all the talk about Ball going to the NBA after this year. He was never an NBA player unless he develops some kind of penetration and improves his D drastically. He is a good shooter but not quite Stephen Curry and definitely doesn't have his handle.

 

[3rdbass]

Castle measured 6'5.5 barefoot at the NBA Combine, 210 lbs.

Ball is listed at 6'3' but probably is closer to 6'1.5" too. Thus Castle has 4 inches on him. That is a lot.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

you do you. I won't let actual data get in the way of your feelings.

Reading and understanding data are two completely different things.

Look, I'm one of the nerds in this goofy place who gets geeked by stats. Love 'em.

But there are always limitations and practical considerations in computation and comparisons of stats. That's why you also do objective quantitative and qualitative analyses to come to the most meaningful conclusions. And understand what a stat means and what a meaningful change in a stat would be.

Let me ask you something:

In a 1-game sample, how important do you think having a DRtg of 101.1 compares to a DRtg of 99.1? At face value, that's 2 adjusted pts per 100 possessions. I picked that number because that's the difference between UConn ranked at 92 and the team ranked #70 in DRtg on KenPom (a whopping 22-place difference), Given that the average team has about 70 possessions per game, that works out to be 1.4 pts difference in the course of an average game.

Can you say that this 1.4 point difference in DRtg can be 100% attributed to a defense's performance in a given game? Heck no!!!

In a 1-game sample, players will inherently have variation in their shooting that has nothing at all to do with the defense. Players aren't robots and skill (mostly) & luck (to some degree) dictate whether a shot goes in. Look at Liam's game-to-game wide-open 3pt shooting variation as a recent example.

Using a change in DRTg from 88 to 92 as some definitive measure that "we had a bad defensive game" against Baylor is utter rubbish.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Ball is listed at 6'3' but probably is closer to 6'1.5" too. Thus Castle has 4 inches on him. That is a lot.

Not bashing Mahaney, but I was really surprised that Dan Hurley, who loves big guards, lost Newton, Spencer and Castle and looking at Ball, Diarra and Nowell, all generously listed at 6'3" or less and decided to bring in Mahaney. It was a curious decision. I doubt any of our guards are really even 6'2".

 

[NJHusky]

Mahaney actually played great defense last night. Analytically he was one of the best players on the floor, offensively and defensively. Ball was net negative on both ends.

Everyone wants to slot Mahaney into the ever-overused “Joey Calcaterra” role, but that role fits Ball better.

I know nothing about bball analytics, but I saw Mahaney get blown by at least 4 times....that ain't good defense imo. what happens when he has to guard Kidary???? I'm glad he finally got a few key baskets, but I have no idea how you say he played GREAT defense. Liam on the other hand won that game for us

 

[NJHusky]

Don't forget Roach went to the bench injured so they were down both starting guards. That was good for us since Memphis guards were more athletic and beat us. Whew, so glad we got the W!

really good point about both guards...

 

[boog204]

Not bashing Mahaney, but I was really surprised that Dan Hurley, who loves big guards, lost Newton, Spencer and Castle and looking at Ball, Diarra and Nowell, all generously listed at 6'3" or less and decided to bring in Mahaney. It was a curious decision. I doubt any of our guards are really even 6'2".

I thought it was really telling that when Dan Hurley commented on our incoming recruits he said repeatedly how the three "guards" were all big and will enable them to play the lob game again.

 

[3rdbass]

I know nothing about bball analytics, but I saw Mahaney get blown by at least 4 times....that ain't good defense imo. what happens when he has to guard Kidary???? I'm glad he finally got a few key baskets, but I have no idea how you say he played GREAT defense. Liam on the other hand won that game for us

Yeah Mahaney is still our worst Defender or at least 1a and 1b with Ball. The two can't play extended time on the perimeter at the same time. That is why I think Hurley needs to incorporate Nowell more into the lineup to give us better balance. I know Nowell is still learning but not sure playing Diarra extended minutes to help cover the other defensives deficiencies is a good long term solution.

 

[JerseyAlum]

I know nothing about bball analytics, but I saw Mahaney get blown by at least 4 times....that ain't good defense imo. what happens when he has to guard Kidary???? I'm glad he finally got a few key baskets, but I have no idea how you say he played GREAT defense. Liam on the other hand won that game for us

I saw a few times guards driving to his left (to the right if watching TV), and that is used to make sure he fouls or he screens the post player we have. That would nominally be where AK would help, but without him, that was Baylor's plan. It wasn't all against Maheney, but others as well.

We could not get weakside help from Johnson as he patrols up the 3 line and is not often in position to help like Reed would be.

Anyway, Maheney did the right thing and did not foul, expected weak side help, but didn't get it. That cannot be all on Maheney though this is team D.

 

[Frank06830]

question: where do think our Drtg will be around the time we enter the Big East Tournament? What does it have to be to seriously consider sweet 16 round appearance in NCAA tournament

 

[HuskyHawk]

I thought it was really telling that when Dan Hurley commented on our incoming recruits he said repeatedly how the three "guards" were all big and will enable them to play the lob game again.

The system, with all our passing and off ball screens, doesn't work so well with small guys who can't cleanly pass the ball around or over defenders. Means we have to dribble more that is ideal.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

question: where do think our Drtg will be around the time we enter the Big East Tournament? What does it have to be to seriously consider sweet 16 round appearance in NCAA tournament

If you look at last year, DRtg ranged from 1 (Iowa St) to 111 (Alabama) for the Sweet 16 teams. Mean was 26, Median was 14. There were 6 teams with a DRtg of 24 or higher (Creighton, Clemson, NC State, Gonzaga, Illinois, Alabama).

I have no idea where we will end up as we have a 9 game sample that puts us at 92. If our offense continues to get better as the season progresses (highly likely, currently KenPom #5), we probably can tolerate a final rating somewhere in the 30-50 range to be legitimately competitive enough to have a good chance to make it to the 2nd weekend?

That would take shaving about 4 off our current 101.1 DRtg. Seems pretty doable?

 

[JustbrewitMan]

I also watched the Creighton-Kansas and Duke-Auburn games last night.

If it's any consolation, we're not the only team that can't reliably keep guards from driving into the lane. It happened frequently in both those games.

Like I said previously, if we can cut it down by 50% per game, we'll be cooking again!

 

[Seamus84]

If you look at last year, DRtg ranged from 1 (Iowa St) to 111 (Alabama) for the Sweet 16 teams. Mean was 26, Median was 14. There were 6 teams with a DRtg of 24 or higher (Creighton, Clemson, NC State, Gonzaga, Illinois, Alabama).

I have no idea where we will end up as we have a 9 game sample that puts us at 92. If our offense continues to get better as the season progresses (highly likely, currently KenPom #5), we probably can tolerate a final rating somewhere in the 30-50 range to be legitimately competitive enough to have a good chance to make it to the 2nd weekend?

That would take shaving about 4 off our current 101.1 DRtg. Seems pretty doable?

It’s not only the blow-by’s that are frustrating, it’s also the rebounding help. Does anyone know the number of rebounds by our 1 & 2 guards through the first nine games this year vs last year. It may be comparable, but it sure feels like our guards got more last year.

 

[RuffRuff]

 

[HuskyHawk]

Came here to post this. You beat me to it. Our eye test perception has been validated.

 

[DogMania]

I also watched the Creighton-Kansas and Duke-Auburn games last night.

If it's any consolation, we're not the only team that can't reliably keep guards from driving into the lane. It happened frequently in both those games.

Like I said previously, if we can cut it down by 50% per game, we'll be cooking again!

Is there a change in how refs are calling the game making it harder to defend dribble penetration? I've heard more than once that off-ball defenders must be set well before the offense player initiates contact. The eye test seems to support that and even some on-the-ball defenders aren't getting charging calls like last season. Ball used to get that call last season if my memory serves me, but seems to be getting called for blocking just about every time this season.

With that said, the eye test tells us, our individual and team D is subpar, even though the officiating seems to be particularly bad in some of our games. This team simply isn't good or consistent enough at this point to overcome some bad calls, which will happen. Let's hope they can improve.

 

[Edward Sargent]

The perimeter D is worse than last year, no question.

Guess what else is worse? The rim protection and rotations.

Guys like Ball and Mahaney may get beat, just like Newton or Spencer may have, but the rest of the D isn’t up to last year’s level…yet.

Probably won’t ever, but certainly not at this stage. That’s making our perimeter D look even worse.

Another thing we miss is an effective screener

 

[HuskyHawk]

Is there a change in how refs are calling the game making it harder to defend dribble penetration? I've heard more than once that off-ball defenders must be set well before the offense player initiates contact. The eye test seems to support that and even some on-the-ball defenders aren't getting charging calls like last season. Ball used to get that call last season if my memory serves me, but seems to be getting called for blocking just about every time this season.

With that said, the eye test tells us, our individual and team D is subpar, even though the officiating seems to be particularly bad in some of our games. This team simply isn't good or consistent enough at this point to overcome some bad calls, which will happen. Let's hope they can improve.

Yes, they mentioned it on one of the broadcasts last night. Said refs were visiting teams but that players were struggling to adapt to it. I don't like it. Especially if it's being called a block rather than just a no-call. Rewarding players for blindly crashing into defenders doesn't improve the game.

 

[RuffRuff]

Came here to post this. You beat me to it. Our eye test perception has been validated.

Surprising our worst three graded defenders are the sophomore class. What were they doing all last year when watching the 4th best KP defense roll to a NC? I would actually classify best given the missed time of DC and SC.

You do wonder if there is something to how a freshman psyche shapes being on the gravy train between B2B. Must be fun, but not a lot of grit through hardship being built.

Coincidence or 3 misses?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Surprising our worst three graded defenders are the sophomore class. What were they doing all last year when watching the 4th best KP defense roll to a NC? I would actually classify best given the missed time of DC and SC.

You do wonder if there is something to how a freshman psyche shapes being on the gravy train between B2B. Must be fun, but not a lot of grit through hardship being built.

Coincidence or 3 misses?

This is what I suggested earlier. Those 3 all have skills. They all sat for a year. They all have heavy competition at their positions. So they try to do too much at times. Shoot too early, go for the steal instead of just playing straight up D, it's a misunderstanding of what will get them on the court.

 

[jibsey]

We won without Karaban last night. Pretty good.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Basketball is no longer like Hoosiers where you want to just smell what gum the other guy is chewing. Even base man-to-man defenses have complicated reads, traps, weak side fills, and rotations, and Hurley’s seem particularly complex.

Unlike many on this board, I don’t have a quick fix other than play more junk defenses, which only works for stretches of a game, if it works at all.

UConn’s team defense is worse than its individual defense, if that is possible. I got nothing other than out scoring the opponent, because lots of stops do not seem likely.

Hurley is playing some half court trap defenses, at times, and they aren't working. That is the "break glass" solution for coaches whose teams are struggling defensively, and this team doesn't seem able to even do that.

I am at a loss for how to make this better other than lots of practice time.