Transition defense a big problem

[UChusky916]

As much as our team likes to get out and run, we have been getting a taste of our own medicine on the break. WVU had their way with us, getting to the hoop at will, especially when Brimah was out with foul trouble. We compounded it by fouling at the rim.

Texas did the same on many possessions in the first half and a few possessions early in the second half. We seemed to get the issue fixed midway through the second half.

However, the problem resurfaced again at the end of the game on a critical possession with under 30 seconds left. Texas cut a 4-pt lead to 2 when T-Sam got BLOWN by easily and very little time went off of the clock (maybe 6 seconds?).

When you don't even stop the ball, it's hard to play any good defense at all. In the second half, when we kept Texas out of transition and started forcing them to execute into their half-court offense, we were able to play relatively good defense. It was no coincidence that when we kept them out of transition we made a run to take the lead.

Say what you want about our offensive struggles, those have been abundantly clear. But those won't matter if we can't stop teams from scoring easy buckets. You can blame the 3-pt shot at the end of the game for the loss, but just ONE less defensive lapse in transition on a possession and we win that game. I hope Ollie gets it fixed.

 

[selles]

You're right about the general problem in the first half and very early second, and that it was a problem against West Virginia too.

The layup near the end of the game doesn't fall into the same category though. The lead was 3 before Felix made his layup. While it would have been nice if T Sam had made the drive more difficult, his main obligations there were to prevent the game-tying 3 and avoid fouling on the drive.

 

[Palatine]

You're right about the general problem in the first half and very early second, and that it was a problem against West Virginia too.

The layup near the end of the game doesn't fall into the same category though. The lead was 3 before Felix made his layup. While it would have been nice if T Sam had made the drive more difficult, his main obligations there were to prevent the game-tying 3 and avoid fouling on the drive.

He still needs to stop the basketball ad prevent an uncontested lay up.

 

[breezy]

He still needs to stop the basketball ad prevent an uncontested lay up.

Felix made a great move past Tsam and then arced it high off the glass to avoid brimah. It sucks it happened but that specific layup was hardly uncontested.

 

[mauconnfan]

Felix made a great move past Tsam and then arced it high off the glass to avoid brimah. It sucks it happened but that specific layup was hardly uncontested.

He did not make a great move at all. He head faked and TSam was not ready and jumped out out of control rather than stopping the ball. His job was not to stop the game tying 3 but instead to keep himself between Felix and the basket. pretty sure we'd rather see a 3 from Felix than an 8 footer. It was huge because if TSam did his job he would've pulled back out and used more clock. Not on TSAm by any means but it was not good D at all.

 

[RipCity]

Being up close and in person, I saw that when we hit rough stretches on offense, body language understandably was more negative, and our guys didn't get back on defense as quickly. The last two games, with us failing to shoot anywhere near efficiently, there have been a lot of fast breaks for our opponents stemming from missed 3 point attempts. If our shooting woes subside at least a little, it will help our defensive play and limit fast breaks.

 

[Gurleyman]

He did not make a great move at all. He head faked and TSam was not ready and jumped out out of control rather than stopping the ball. His job was not to stop the game tying 3 but instead to keep himself between Felix and the basket. pretty sure we'd rather see a 3 from Felix than an 8 footer. It was huge because if TSam did his job he would've pulled back out and used more clock. Not on TSAm by any means but it was not good D at all.

He put a decent hesitation move on him - Samuel was right there with him to cut off the drive to the basket, the hesitation caused Samuel to stop and shift his momentum a little, and then he went to the blow by. It was a decent move going full speed, but Brimah also was a smidgen late and didn't make the shot as tough as maybe he could have.

I'm pretty sure we would not want to see a three up by three in the last 20 seconds. That's also why Boat didn't offer any help on the drive, even though he was in position to sag in and help. He stayed with his man in the corner, as he should have.