our issues are minor and correctable

[dwaderoy2004]

-our offense has reverted back to one-on-one too much.  too many quick shots, too much dribbling.  and for god sakes get the ball to matthews.  yea, we put up 84, but when you only take 10 seconds to put a shot up, you're going to spend a lot of time on the defensive end, and you are going to get tired playing so much D.  let your offense create a shot for you...you don't have to create your own on every possesion.  we looked tired today.  just trust the offense.

-free throws...i don;t know.  it's all mental at this point.  james has no clue.  mcneal is not getting any arc on his.  butler feels the pressure.

-defense is B.A.D.  Never thought i would say it, but we are playing better post defense than we are perimeter.  i actually think we are emphasizing too much on post defense.  a guy in the post can only get 2 at a time.  but if you give the other team open threes all game...look out.  use your strengths.  play a straight man to man, switch on everything on the perimeter and stay in front of your assignment.  that's the style we have to play.

-no communication on the court.  how many times did we lose a rebound when two of our own guys were fighting over it?  how many late/poor/non-existent switches did we have, or assignments missed on D?  where was the energy today? 

-This is just a mid-season swoon.  two games at home will snap them out of it.

[lab_warrior]

PREACH!  Our perimeter D was not good tonight, and the O needs to get back to being more balanced.  And enough of saying we need to "practice" FTs.  It's a mental thing, don't you think these guys have practiced FTs?!?

[79Warrior]

The lack of an explosive guy off the bench is so glaring. That we cannot correct because we have no such player. The starting 4 are just getting worn down by the last 10 minutes of the game.

[Big Papi]

-our offense has reverted back to one-on-one too much.  too many quick shots, too much dribbling.  and for god sakes get the ball to matthews.  yea, we put up 84, but when you only take 10 seconds to put a shot up, you're going to spend a lot of time on the defensive end, and you are going to get tired playing so much D.  let your offense create a shot for you...you don't have to create your own on every possesion.  we looked tired today.  just trust the offense.

-free throws...i don;t know.  it's all mental at this point.  james has no clue.  mcneal is not getting any arc on his.  butler feels the pressure.

-defense is B.A.D.  Never thought i would say it, but we are playing better post defense than we are perimeter.  i actually think we are emphasizing too much on post defense.  a guy in the post can only get 2 at a time.  but if you give the other team open threes all game...look out.  use your strengths.  play a straight man to man, switch on everything on the perimeter and stay in front of your assignment.  that's the style we have to play.

-no communication on the court.  how many times did we lose a rebound when two of our own guys were fighting over it?  how many late/poor/non-existent switches did we have, or assignments missed on D?  where was the energy today? 

-This is just a mid-season swoon.  two games at home will snap them out of it.

Good points.

[dwaderoy2004]

The lack of an explosive guy off the bench is so glaring. That we cannot correct because we have no such player. The starting 4 are just getting worn down by the last 10 minutes of the game.

you're insinuating that our lack of offense off the bench is a problem.  that's not true.  I wasn't trying to say that our offense is the problem here, just that we are working too hard and too quickly on offense, thus forcing our guys to have to play a ton of defense.  which is more tiring than playing offense.  while i agree that the starters looked worn down last night, it's not only because of a lack of bench, it's because of a lack of efficiency.  would having some good guards off the bench to spell our players help?  of course.  but we don;t have that, so you have to correct it otherwise.  and it most certainly is correctable.   i think it would be interesting to see a "time of possession" type stat for last night's game.  i think it would be very one-sided.

[CTWarrior]

-defense is B.A.D.  Never thought i would say it, but we are playing better post defense than we are perimeter.  i actually think we are emphasizing too much on post defense.  a guy in the post can only get 2 at a time.  but if you give the other team open threes all game...look out.  use your strengths.  play a straight man to man, switch on everything on the perimeter and stay in front of your assignment.  that's the style we have to play.

I disagree 100%.  The root cause of all of our defensive problems is our lack of interior defenders.  We get abused inside so we have to help out and then are susceptible to kick outs for open threes.  Against a team like Nova it is tough to get in their grill on defense on the perimeter because if our defender gets beat off the dribble the big help defender isn't there and its layup.  We don't press as much as many would like because if you beat our press it's a layup because Burke or Butler or Hayward aren't stopping anyone at the rim.

If we had a shot blocker in the middle you'd be surprised at how much better our perimeter defense would be.

[ATWizJr]

Glad they are not major.

[MDMU04]

We get abused inside so we have to help out and then are susceptible to kick outs for open threes.  Against a team like Nova it is tough to get in their grill on defense on the perimeter because if our defender gets beat off the dribble the big help defender isn't there and its layup.

That's a good point, though when you have 3 guys on Villanova shoot 12 of 19 from behind the arc it will tend to make your interior defense worse.  Having to guard the perimeter is made a lot easier by having a shot blocker inside, a guy like that could make up for a lot of mistakes.

It's also tougher to guard the perimeter this season because of the lengthening of the 3 pt arc.  It doesn't seem like much, but an extra foot all the way around the court spaces out a team's offense more and makes it more difficult to defend around the arc and recover to help a defender around the basket.

[dwaderoy2004]

I disagree 100%.  The root cause of all of our defensive problems is our lack of interior defenders.  We get abused inside so we have to help out and then are susceptible to kick outs for open threes.  Against a team like Nova it is tough to get in their grill on defense on the perimeter because if our defender gets beat off the dribble the big help defender isn't there and its layup.  We don't press as much as many would like because if you beat our press it's a layup because Burke or Butler or Hayward aren't stopping anyone at the rim.

If we had a shot blocker in the middle you'd be surprised at how much better our perimeter defense would be.

you missed my point.  we don't have really good interior defenders.  what we do have are really good perimeter defenders.  so why take away our strength by forcing our perimeter guys to double down.  as i said, three points > two points.  they got open looks last night because we were doubling down on dante freaking cunningham, leaving wide open threes.  good player, but not worthy of a double down.  in other words, our players are not bad on defense, our defensive scheme is B.A.D.

[CTWarrior]

you missed my point.  we don't have really good interior defenders.  what we do have are really good perimeter defenders.  so why take away our strength by forcing our perimeter guys to double down.  as i said, three points > two points.  they got open looks last night because we were doubling down on dante freaking cunningham, leaving wide open threes.  good player, but not worthy of a double down.  in other words, our players are not bad on defense, our defensive scheme is B.A.D.

But mildly contested low post shots are hit at a much higher percentage (or lead to foul opportunities) than open threes so you pick your poison.  If we let Cunningham go one on one with Burke or Hayward or Matthews he would have scored at will plus the added bonus of landing whoever guards him with foul trouble. 

[1617novakn]

I agree with one of the above posts that our poor perimeter defense stems from what is going on down low.

Early in the game you could see that Marquette guards were flying all over the court trying to get back to their men. Why? Because we were committed to fronting Cunningham and keeping him from getting the ball. Whether or not Nova expected this or saw it right away, they immediately began skipping the ball to the open man and our backside guard would have to sprint back out at full speed. We got out quick enough many times to stop that first shot, but that continual swing pass/back side help is what sucked the gas out of our guys in the second half.

With fresh legs in the first half, we're looking 1 point deficeit (DJ's alley muff and that ridiculous buzzer beater 2= -4 points) The legs weren't there in the second half and it showed. Again, if Nova' shoots like they have for the first 20 games of the season, the second half is a different story.

At some point, you have to identify that they are not going to miss, we can't continue to run that much on defense, and start allowing them to throw the ball down low and deal with the consequences. We were too focused on Cunningham. I would be ok with Lazar doing what he could do and forcing Cunningham to make that 12 footer he made all night. That saves our legs and cuts down the threes.

[GGGG]

The lack of a serious inside game is going to kill us when their guards are shooting well.  This isn't some minor issue...this is a major structural problem that will eventually be our downfall.  I think Villanova exposed what Pitt, Louisville, UConn, and the eventual team that knocks out of the NCAAs will exploit.

There is no Robert Jackson on this team.