Marquette's three point defense

[El Duderino]

I don't want to rain on the team's nice win tonight, but my buddy was over watching the game and we've watched a few MU games together this year. The one thing that generally frustrates us both the most is the number of open three point looks that Marquette's defense seems to allow after sucking in to often on help defense.

Granted though, i know that sometimes fans of a team they follow can sometimes over exaggerate a problem with their team or a certain player out of frustration. So i had two questions.

1. Do others here feel the same way that maybe our defense would be better served not trying to help so much on dribble penetration when the end result is often kick outs to open three point shooters?

2. I was just looking around for a site that lists the defensive 3 point percentages allowed by all Big East teams so i could see if my perception was accurate or just more frustration since three point shots are such daggers, but i can't find one. Anyone know where i should go for that stat?

[T.V. Diener 34]

I also have noticed this problem.  My opinion is that this all starts with the pressure we put on the opposing teams either in the full court or in the half court man.  I almost would love to see them try a man to man defense where they sink down to a little bit above the three point line and clog the driving lanes.  Buzz is all about putting pressure on other teams to take them out of their rhythm but when we full court press, it's very rare to see us get a turnover out of it this year.  We just don't have the caliber of on ball/off ball defenders that we've had in the past with Matthews/Mcneal/James.  A lot of times, it seems that we get beat off the dribble so far away from the basket that other guys need to step up and pick up the man with the ball leaving their guy open and leaving us scrambling to matchup again.

That being said, I am thrilled that we got this win tonight and I hope that we don't relax and really bring it again at Louisville.  I'm sure we will and hopefully we can get this W again tomorrow night!

[ChicosBailBonds]

I don't want to rain on the team's nice win tonight, but my buddy was over watching the game and we've watched a few MU games together this year. The one thing that generally frustrates us both the most is the number of open three point looks that Marquette's defense seems to allow after sucking in to often on help defense.

Granted though, i know that sometimes fans of a team they follow can sometimes over exaggerate a problem with their team or a certain player out of frustration. So i had two questions.

1. Do others here feel the same way that maybe our defense would be better served not trying to help so much on dribble penetration when the end result is often kick outs to open three point shooters?

2. I was just looking around for a site that lists the defensive 3 point percentages allowed by all Big East teams so i could see if my perception was accurate or just more frustration since three point shots are such daggers, but i can't find one. Anyone know where i should go for that stat?

The defense drives me crazy.  We are 11th in the Big East in 3PT %.  I feel like we are often a step late to these shooters and allows them too easy of a look.  If the opposing team shoots poorly, it covers up the holes, but good teams with good shooters typically burn us.

[Silkk the Shaka]

http://kenpom.com/team.php?team=Marquette

We're 240th in the country.  If you click on conference-only it shows we're 11th in the Big East.  It's definitely a weakness.  We seemed to get it under control big time in the 2nd half though - anyone know what the difference was?

[El Duderino]

The defense drives me crazy.  We are 11th in the Big East in 3PT %.  I feel like we are often a step late to these shooters and allows them too easy of a look.  If the opposing team shoots poorly, it covers up the holes, but good teams with good shooters typically burn us.

I'm not trying to imply that none of the other defenders should help on dribble penetration, obviously you can't just give up constant free trips down the lane for easy baskets.

What frustrates me is how often i can see an open three point shot coming about a pass or two before it actually happens. One of our defenders will be playing a bit to far off a guy on the wing standing by the three point line and as soon as an opposing PG/SG starts to penetrate from the top, that defender sags into the paint a little more even though he likely wouldn't have been able to get to and stop the guy penetrating anyways. Plus, there often will already be one of our other guys in the paint right near where our defender is sagging off the opponent standing behind the three point line.

We'll end up with 3-4 guys standing near each other in the paint to stop one guy penetrating and then without fail the ball gets kicked out to a wide open three point shooter. What i can't tell is if it's the half court scheme or it's more that guys simply aren't thinking properly about when it's the right time for that guy specifically to sag off a shooter to provide help on penetration?

[MUSF]

The team defense is my number 1 frustration this year.  It takes five guys to defend and we rarely have all five of our players on the same page each possession.  Guys are constantly slow to rotate to help or make a half ass effort when they do help which leads to open threes or open layups.  Drives me nuts.

We have the same problem on the pick and roll.  If you are going to step out on the ball handler off of the pick then you have to commit to it.  You are leaving your man so you need to make sure you force the ball handler high otherwise you are doing more harm than good.  Crowder I'm talking to you.

That said, I am thrilled with these last two games.  This team showed up in a big way and never hung their heads or bailed on Buzz.  Buzz deserves a lot of credit for trusting his ability and never losing the team.  We have to remember that he is a relatively inexperienced coach with a lot of inexperienced players.  Making the NCAAs this year is no small accomplishment for this team and the future looks brighter than the present.

[GGGG]

It is the same paint touch philosophy in reverse.  Buzz does not want the opposing team to get to the lane and would rather have defenders help, and give up an open 3.  That is why Vander plays so much...he is a very good help defender.  Very aware. 

[willie warrior]

I do worry about the 3 point defense. Louisville will be raining threes tonight. But it will not matter--they are going down! Louisville, not their threes.

[CTWarrior]

We seemed to get it under control big time in the 2nd half though - anyone know what the difference was?

They missed the open 3s.  Don't think we were a whole lot better.  We were very good the last 7-8 minutes of the game on D, though.  When Otule is in the game patrolling the middle, we should be able to stick with the 3 point shooters a little better when dribble pentration occurs.

I think the biggest problem we have on D is controlling dribble penetration with our guards, which breaks the defense down and starts the scrambling.