Bad defense??

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ilovethebarn

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It seems that almost every game the opposing team shoots extremely well for a half or the whole game. Last night, PSU last weekend etc. I feel like we play good defense, but am I wrong? Are there things I am missing or is it more common than I think to have teams we play shoot so well so often?
 






ilovethebarn said:
It seems that almost every game the opposing team shoots extremely well for a half or the whole game. Last night, PSU last weekend etc. I feel like we play good defense, but am I wrong? Are there things I am missing or is it more common than I think to have teams we play shoot so well so often?
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Size and athleticism mostly

Hawkins and Mitchell is a tiny back court that any good backcourt with size can attack at will. Christie for all his potential is a string bean. Payne and Garcia are also a flawed defensive front court from a strength and/or height and/or athleticism stand point.

Off the bench Carrington for as overall solid as he is defensively hes still small so certain match ups, think Illinois. He aint stopping a Domask or shannon.
 


MUgopher32 said:
Size and athleticism mostly

Hawkins and Mitchell is a tiny back court that any good backcourt with size can attack at will. Christie for all his potential is a string bean. Payne and Garcia are also a flawed defensive front court from a strength and/or height and/or athleticism stand point.

Off the bench Carrington for as overall solid as he is defensively hes still small so certain match ups, think Illinois. He aint stopping a Domask or shannon.
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Thanks. I don't know ball half as well as I should. Maybe we get lucky with a game or two in the BTT.
 




MU hit on some of the key defensive issues. Our guards are active but they are at a height disadvantage against a lot of other teams. Christie needs to get stronger.

Overall though it feels like our defensive effort is sold but for whatever reason teams seem to make a ton of really tough shots against us.
 

We are giving up 81 points per game over the last 9 games. At the college level - that's really bad. I think we are poor on help defense and we do lack perimeter size. When the defense was at his best- before this stretch, Garcia was really playing D as was Carrington. I hate using Payne on the hard hedge. I think it puts us in scramble mode more often than not.
 

I don't really care for the way they double team the ball out front. Payne goes out to far to cut off the dribble and leaves the middle wide open. How many easy points does the opposition get in the paint.
 

jovs said:
I don't really care for the way they double team the ball out front. Payne goes out to far to cut off the dribble and leaves the middle wide open. How many easy points does the opposition get in the paint.
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Agree 100%, it's pointless 30 feet from the hoop when you never stay with the double and get an occasional turnover. And what says we can't mix in some zone? It can't get worse than our man to man the last month
 



MNVCGUY said:
MU hit on some of the key defensive issues. Our guards are active but they are at a height disadvantage against a lot of other teams. Christie needs to get stronger.

Overall though it feels like our defensive effort is sold but for whatever reason teams seem to make a ton of really tough shots against us.
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Really the only tough shots I have seen teams hit against us with regularity is the little floaters and turnarounds in the lane. The threes we give are wide open and it seems that cuts to the basket are there against us. In our second half comebacks we have done well at shutting those down and making things tough but we don't do it for a full game.
 

jovs said:
I don't really care for the way they double team the ball out front. Payne goes out to far to cut off the dribble and leaves the middle wide open. How many easy points does the opposition get in the paint.
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Payne has picked up numerous needless fouls on the perimeter playing this defense as well. He struggles to recover which leaves Hawkins guarding the opposing team's center. Allows for an easy two or kick out three.
 

GopherBlood777 said:
Payne has picked up numerous needless fouls on the perimeter playing this defense as well. He struggles to recover which leaves Hawkins guarding the opposing team's center. Allows for an easy two or kick out three.
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Yep.
 

A bunch of spot-on posts in this one. Size and Strength being the two main issues, Payne aside. And since Payne's not 6'11"+, they need some other bangers which they don't have.

Hoiberg has showed you can get over the hump in a hurry with the right addition(s). For them it was Rienk Mast to complement an underrated roster, where they can play 8 guys and not drop off much if at all. I bring them up as early in the year many here wanted to compare the two programs and the talk was "we can't finish worse than Nebraska," . . .Hoiberg had not been able to turn them, etc. So in this case, a lot of patience at that school has paid off. We'll see about next year when they lose their slayer Tominaga.

I think hitting on a capable inside player and one big guard, would have the Gophers right there. We'll see!
 

LesBolstad said:
Agree 100%, it's pointless 30 feet from the hoop when you never stay with the double and get an occasional turnover. And what says we can't mix in some zone? It can't get worse than our man to man the last month
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Ben is so predictable which makes other teams prep easier than it should. For what it is our D has transformed into the worse or one of the worse in the zBIG. Glad to see that I’m not the only one calling for a zone if nothing else for the above reason.
 

The defense the past 5 games has been pretty freaking awful! Giving up way too high a % of made shots and 3’s.

Simple fact of why is most likely tired leg syndrome. The top six guys have been logging extremely high minutes and the Gophers finished with two games a week the final two weeks of the season. That’s a lot of burn on the legs playing man to man that frequently for a majority of the game.

Add to that the limitations of our short front and back court players and it’s easy to see.
Garcia is too soft to be an effective big defensively and is slow laterally.

The best way to rest on defense and cover up for physical disadvantages is to play zone. But the type of zone needed is not being used. The players look too tired to make the side to side covers to play an effective zone as well.

We really need to be 8 or 9 players deep to keep the legs fresh.
 

Otis said:
The defense the past 5 games has been pretty freaking awful! Giving up way too high a % of made shots and 3’s.

Simple fact of why is most likely tired leg syndrome. The top six guys have been logging extremely high minutes and the Gophers finished with two games a week the final two weeks of the season. That’s a lot of burn on the legs playing man to man that frequently for a majority of the game.

Add to that the limitations of our short front and back court players and it’s easy to see.
Garcia is too soft to be an effective big defensively and is slow laterally.

The best way to rest on defense and cover up for physical disadvantages is to play zone. But the type of zone needed is not being used. The players look too tired to make the side to side covers to play an effective zone as well.

We really need to be 8 or 9 players deep to keep the legs fresh.
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I agree with this. It's hard to watch the slow response/chasing of shooters. It was really noticeable vs. Northwestern. Opposing team rotates the ball 2-3 times and bang an open 3.
 

The BIG has the Gophers well diagnosed and Ben does nothing else to treat the problem. Thus they are very easy to prep for and in addition Ben is so predictable. Plus we are the worst D team in the league the past 4-5 games and we have obvious weakness's. My concern going into the BIG was how vulnerable we are to the dribble/drive. That has been a factor in us being badly outscored in the paint. Garcia has improved his D but the others have regressed. I have been looking for Ben to show an occasional zone but nada. The results couldn't have been any worse but he sticks with the same approach.
 

There has to be a reason he doesn't want to use a zone if he hasn't switched over these past 5 games. The players are tired and you can tell they have dead legs. Too bad it doesn't add a 3rd consistent bench player to the main rotation like ola joseph. That would be a huge help.
 

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