SI: 2017-18's Top 50 Defenses (#11. Minnesota)

[BleedGopher]

per SI:

Minnesota (No. 11) got a boost last season from a low opponent three-point shooting percentage, a statistic over which teams have little control, but ace shot-blocker Reggie Lynch will prop up the Golden Gophers’ two-point defense. Purdue (No. 16) won’t have Caleb Swanigan around to hoard opponents’ missed shots, but pretty much everyone else of note will be back from the squad that rated out second in the Big Ten defensively during conference play. Maybe the most notable feature of Kentucky’s (No. 17) loaded recruiting class is its length: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, P.J. Washington, Kevin Knox, Jarred Vanderbilt (expected to be out until January with a left foot injury) and Nick Richards all have wingspans measured at seven feet or longer. Teams aren’t going to have an easy time finding good looks against the Wildcats, despite the heavy roster turnover they underwent this offseason.

https://www.si.com/college-basketba...m&utm_medium=social&xid=socialflow_twitter_si

Go Gophers!!

 

[Holf]

per SI:

Minnesota (No. 11) got a boost last season from a low opponent three-point shooting percentage, a statistic over which teams have little control, but ace shot-blocker Reggie Lynch will prop up the Golden Gophers’ two-point defense. Purdue (No. 16) won’t have Caleb Swanigan around to hoard opponents’ missed shots, but pretty much everyone else of note will be back from the squad that rated out second in the Big Ten defensively during conference play. Maybe the most notable feature of Kentucky’s (No. 17) loaded recruiting class is its length: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, P.J. Washington, Kevin Knox, Jarred Vanderbilt (expected to be out until January with a left foot injury) and Nick Richards all have wingspans measured at seven feet or longer. Teams aren’t going to have an easy time finding good looks against the Wildcats, despite the heavy roster turnover they underwent this offseason.

https://www.si.com/college-basketba...m&utm_medium=social&xid=socialflow_twitter_si

Go Gophers!!

"a statistic over which teams have little control" - is this guy effed? Why would it be that certain teams consistently hold opponents to lower percentages than others. Coincidence?

 

[BballJones]

"a statistic over which teams have little control" - is this guy effed? Why would it be that certain teams consistently hold opponents to lower percentages than others. Coincidence?

Nope. You just hope they miss. That's all you can do.

 

[Tim1406]

3 pt defense is why length in the guard slots is so important. Watch how Milwaukee plays this year and see how team length impacts 3pt shooting defense.

 

[Cayman]

"a statistic over which teams have little control" - is this guy effed? Why would it be that certain teams consistently hold opponents to lower percentages than others. Coincidence?

I think the idea is that very few teams consistently, season over season, force teams to shoot a low percentage on 3's. Good 3 point defense isn't performed by giving up a low percentage of makes, but by not giving many opportunities for opponents to shoot open 3's. So a poor 3 point defending team would be a team that leaves 3 point shooters open a lot, leading their opponents to attempt a lot of 3's, because open 3's are a good shot to take. A good 3 point defending team is a team that makes sure its opponent's shooters are very rarely getting open looks, leading to a low number of attempts made. You generally don't defend 3's by blocking or altering them, you defend against them by covering shooters and making sure they don't attempt them in the first place, so a low opponent 3 point percentage seems to more imply that our opponents didn't make as many open looks as they should have last year, and we got kinda lucky. We finished top 15 nationally in opponent 3 point percentage last season, and I don't think we've finished better than 170 in any other year that Pitino has been here. It's not uncommon for a team to be top 10 one year and be outside of the top 100 the next, and vice versa.

 

[MRJ]

per SI:

Minnesota (No. 11) got a boost last season from a low opponent three-point shooting percentage, a statistic over which teams have little control, but ace shot-blocker Reggie Lynch will prop up the Golden Gophers’ two-point defense. Purdue (No. 16) won’t have Caleb Swanigan around to hoard opponents’ missed shots, but pretty much everyone else of note will be back from the squad that rated out second in the Big Ten defensively during conference play. Maybe the most notable feature of Kentucky’s (No. 17) loaded recruiting class is its length: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, P.J. Washington, Kevin Knox, Jarred Vanderbilt (expected to be out until January with a left foot injury) and Nick Richards all have wingspans measured at seven feet or longer. Teams aren’t going to have an easy time finding good looks against the Wildcats, despite the heavy roster turnover they underwent this offseason.

https://www.si.com/college-basketba...m&utm_medium=social&xid=socialflow_twitter_si

Go Gophers!!

Yeah, that whole tight defending on the perimeter thing is totally overrated. From now on, I think we should just let the opposition jack up all kinds of shots from out there. After all, we have little control over how well the other team shoots from three-point range.