I normally agree with Miami's astute observations and commentary 99% of the time but must take exception about his defense reaction and initiation remark....while good defense certainly has the ability to read and react to opposing offenses, exceptional defenses dictate offensive flow through initiation be it pressing to speed up tempo, run time off the 30-second clock or fatigue slower or less-conditioned opponents, trapping, changing defenses, denying opponents their preferred spots, pushing guard play back a step or two further than they normally run their offenses....superior talent often allows teams to take a passive approach on defense and read and react to an opponents offense but the most effective defense occurs when initiation and anticipation rule the roost...I believe that this year's team provides a great example of just how effective, and at times suffocating and dominating, a defense can be when it decides to initiate action....what Geno does better than anyone is to recruit student-athletes who are intelligent enough to anticipate action, athletic enough to implement action, committed enough to execute action and communicate well enough to choreograph action....
I think we are talking two different things - absolutely you can be aggressive on defense and manage to dictate pace, etc. but you are still being reactive to the offensive players and their movement and the ball movement - in full court pressure if an offensive player 'goes long' a defender needs to react to that, if the pass goes into a corner that may be the trigger for the double team, etc.
The issue I was trying to address, is the concept of hedge and recover, or switch on ever screen can sound pretty simple, but the mechanics and coordination and communication of the players involved are just as complex as the offensive moves that cause them, and good coaches can spend hours working with players on those defensive situations - and CD and Geno, Shea and Marisa do just that. And that is so much simpler than the coordination of help defense and the choreography involved in getting the five players rotating based on that help. That has little to do with effort or commitment and everything to do with coaching and basketball intelligence.
I think the reason people talk about defense being effort and commitment comes down to the individual reward motivation inherent in the human psyche - the offensive end of the court has all sorts of 'rewards' for individuals and a team, starting with points being added to the team and individual total, and assists, and offensive rebounds being recorded in the stat sheet. By the end of a 80 point output contest, the offensive players have shared maybe 110+ 'rewards' and the team as a whole has those rewards too. Players from a very early age get recognized for those 'reward points' and a lot of their 'value' on the court is determined by how many they individually get and how many the team as a whole gets. So it is easy for players to focus on that stuff and give effort and commitment at that end. (And size does not dictate who accumulates the most individually - everyone on a team has a pretty equal chance of accumulating those rewards.)
At the other end, on defense the reward points are a lot fewer for the team and the individuals - the stats record steals and blocked shots and defensive rebounds, and there just aren't as many of those to go around - teams probably average 4 or so blocks and maybe 10 steals, and maybe 30 defensive rebounds, and those are offset by the negative rewards of points scored against. So there aren't as many rewards, and the largest number of them get concentrated generally with the tallest players and only a few exceptional defenders get recognized and valued for their individual skill as a defender - Griner and Kiah for their blocks, Moriah for her steals, etc. The reward incentive that is part of our human make-up is pretty weak on that end of the court. So a lot of players who are not well coached figure they don't have to exert themselves at that end - no body talks to them the next day and says 'wow, your played your butt off on defense last night', the comments are instead either 'you were on fire last night' or 'are you feeling OK, you shot really poorly last night!'
So the cliché is that 'defense takes effort and commitment', when the reality is good offense and good defense both take effort and commitment, but coaches don't have to worry about the effort and commitment on offense because offense is incentivized already and very few players have an issue with giving effort and commitment at that end. But at the defensive end ...
And you see it in most commentary and discussion of basketball - you may get one monster block on a highlight reel, but every other play is an offensive move, even the steals are only shown as the start for a great offensive finish. People talk about MD and OSU and their offensive prowess, Deb A. raves about scoring and could care less that player _____ is giving up as many points on defense because she is a swinging gate at that end.
So that was long!!!
