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So who keeps getting beat on defense?

FeralFelidae

MI Miner Maniac
Sep 1, 2003
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Several teams have made over 50% of their shots against the Miners, and UNT made 50% of their threes in the last game.

Can't blame Efe, since he hardly sees any minutes. So if Terry limits Efe's minutes due to his defense, and THIS is the result, who else isn't doing their job? Who's not hustling to cover his man?

In the past we had a lockdown defensive specialist like Jason Williams or Julian Washburn whom we could put on the opposing team's hot player and shut him down. Do we have anybody on this team we can assign to the hot player? Is there anybody who takes pride in their defense like Jason or Julian?

What the hell is wrong with our defense?
 
Several teams have made over 50% of their shots against the Miners, and UNT made 50% of their threes in the last game.

Can't blame Efe, since he hardly sees any minutes. So if Terry limits Efe's minutes due to his defense, and THIS is the result, who else isn't doing their job? Who's not hustling to cover his man?

In the past we had a lockdown defensive specialist like Jason Williams or Julian Washburn whom we could put on the opposing team's hot player and shut him down. Do we have anybody on this team we can assign to the hot player? Is there anybody who takes pride in their defense like Jason or Julian?

What the hell is wrong with our defense?
IMO We are switching either incorrectly or too much on ball screens up front leading to confusion and mismatches on the back end. To make it worse we have no help on drives/cuts to the basket. Occasionally BW or Sjolund will be in position for a big block, but a high majority of the time its an easy layup that is poorly contested. Either that or we over pursue and its passed out for a wide open 3.

In regards to players Tydus is supposed to be our defensive anchor. He is strong with long arms and has decent timing, but his athleticism is average and he is far from explosive. This is why I keep calling for Onyema to play some minutes too.

We have a decent defense on the perimiter, but poor on the interior. Terry needs to some how figure a way to leave guys at home in the paint until they can figure out their man to man better. I dont think any of the bigs that we have played against are good 3-pt shooters. Why switch or get caught behind up top and give the other team mismatches and easy baskets?

For half-court defense, I would say stop switching on bigs up top and keep our bigs at home. Another option is a 2-3 zone since we have trouble defending the rim and rebounding. Our perimiter D is good enough for both options (or even different variations of pressure D). Either way teams would have to be lights out from deep to beat us. I could live with that.

Interesting Stats:

Overall shooting %
Us .429
Them .451

3pt shooting
Us .327
Them .352

2pt shooting
Us .72%
Them .61%

59% of our shots are 3
46% of our opponents shots are from 3
 
Absolutely correct. The problem is we can't defend a simple pick and roll. Players dot know whether to stick to their assignment or switch and sometimes players do both and someone is left wide open. This is 100% coaching.
Agree. Also, I haven't seen as good an effort on the defensive side of the ball since the first USM game. Ironically, that is the game we ended up losing anyway. I'm not sure if it is the combination back to back games and a short bench that may be a factor, but the decrease in intensity on that side has been pretty glaring. Definitely not the effort we saw against the two Arizona teams.
 
Getting lockdown players like JWash and Stone are not easy to come by. They were 6'6" and it takes a tremendous amount of athleticism and while coachable, a lot comes from talent and ability.

Stone was a recruit on no one's radar that Barbee happened to discover.
 
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Agree. Also, I haven't seen as good an effort on the defensive side of the ball since the first USM game. Ironically, that is the game we ended up losing anyway. I'm not sure if it is the combination back to back games and a short bench that may be a factor, but the decrease in intensity on that side has been pretty glaring. Definitely not the effort we saw against the two Arizona teams.

People need to stop bringing up the Arizona teams because honestly they aren’t very good...
 
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People need to stop bringing up the Arizona teams because honestly they aren’t very good...

Are USM, Rice, and UNT better? Even if the UA and ASU are down this year, they still count as solid out of conference competition. The truth is that we played much better against the UA and ASU than we have since. Many of us want to know why, and hope that it can be fixed - soon.

Last year, post Hawaii, there were arguments on this board as to whether the amount of talent on the team was overrated, or if Terry wasn't using the talent correctly. This debate has resurfaced this year. And, in my opinion, the answer for both years is Yes. At the beginning of each year the amount of talent we had was overstated, yet each of these years the talent was/is much better than our conference record indicates. I have to admit that Terry was my choice when he applied for the job, and admit that I was dead wrong. He is nowhere close to being the right man for this job.
 
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Are USM, Rice, and UNT better? Even if they are down this year, they still count as solid out of conference competition. The truth is that we played much better against the UA and ASU than we have since. Many of us want to know why, and hope that it can be fixed - soon.

Last year, post Hawaii, there were arguments on this board as to whether the amount of talent on the team was overrated, or if Terry wasn't using the talent correctly. This debate has resurfaced this year. And, in my opinion, the answer for both years is Yes. At the beginning of each year the amount of talent we had was overstated, yet each of these years the talent was/is much better than our conference record indicates. I have to admit that Terry was my choice when he applied for the job, and admit that I was dead wrong. He is nowhere close to being the right man for this job.
Absolutely, Maniac. My point was that since conference play started, I have seen a noticeable drop in defensive intensity from some of the earlier games. Terry says his teams hang their hat on defense first. However, the actual on court product this season, particularly in conference, has been poor. It is one thing to say the right things; it is a completely different thing to make it happen on the court. I can give a bit of leeway for poor shooting, etc., but the defensive effort and consistency needs to be better. That's 100% on Terry's coaching.
 
I think utep players, especially those in the perimeter, just value steals and turnovers over making stops and while there's nothing wrong with pressure defense, all too often it comes at the expense of the rest of the defense. I'd rather we play defense straight up and then box out and rebound missed shots rather than cheat off players and miss assignments that lead to use open shots, all for the occasional steal initiating a fast break.
 
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I think utep players, especially those in the perimeter, just value steals and turnovers over making stops and while there's nothing wrong with pressure defense, all too often it comes at the expense of the rest of the defense. I'd rather we play defense straight up and then box out and rebound missed shots rather than cheat off players and miss assignments that lead to use open shots, all for the occasional steal initiating a fast break.
Billy G's teams thrived on that kind of defense: forcing turnovers and transition points. That's why that NCAA team would just take over games and go on long runs. But Billy G put his team through hell during practice and they were always the better-conditioned team on the court, so they were able to apply that kind of pressure the whole game and just wear the opponents down.
 
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