Bucking fadgers thoughts

[bilsu]

Hardly. She is tracking to be the next Mrs Crash

So your dating a girl that is about to crash.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

We were a solid defensive team his first year. We were a solid defensive team last year until the last 6 games or so. We have been bad all year this season. But it hasn't been a problem his whole tenure.

I would say it has been though. We looked okay defensively the first year and part of the second because we played zone. Zone can make a bad defensive team look okay. But it killed our offense. When we've used Wojos defense, we've been bad. I think it's a personnel issue. Luke is too slow footed to be effective in this scheme. For better or worse, Wojo has decided to stay the course this season and teach his system. Hopefully it pays off next season.

Buzz was better at matching his schemes to his personnel. I don't know that Wojo can do that yet.

[Loose Cannon]

My Quick overview:

1)  Loss a game we were predicted to Lose.

2)  Team never Folded even with a 17 points to overcome late in the game.

3)  Even with our Bad defense, if Sam could have played more our 3's shooters (Markus, Andrew & Sam) might have overcome our defensive weakness.

4)  It's History, I'm spending more time looking out the Windshield, not so much the Rearview mirror.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

I woke up next to a gorgeous blond 21 years my junior and squeezed in a zesty session before my morning coffee. Today was a great day as I look back.

I've always wanted a golden retriever, but I hear they shed.

[bilsu]

We were a solid defensive team his first year. We were a solid defensive team last year until the last 6 games or so. We have been bad all year this season. But it hasn't been a problem his whole tenure.

As the season goes along offenses get better and I think most teams offenses improve more than the same teams' defenses. This would be in line with your statement. It is not that our defense got worse the last 6 games, it just did not keep up with the overall improvement in the other teams' offenses. There are some posters that did not think Henry was a good defensive player and they have been right when it came to covering certain players one on one, but Henry's 6'11 size greatly helped MU's team defense last year. Hauser would be a better defender, if he was 4" taller.

[wadesworld]

Sorry, but anyone who has seen these three guys play and has a good eye knows that "at this point Markus is our 3rd best (worst) offensive point guard" was wrong a week ago, is wrong today and will be wrong forever going forward.

I can read fine. You, however, evidently can't see.

Yeah...no. Howard had not shown anything at all against teams that were better than his Findlay Prep team. So if you were impressed by his 8 combined points in 3 games against high majors to that point than more power to you.

To that point, Howard had been our 3rd best point guard against any team that mattered. Your inability to read leads you to misinterpret what was accurately stated, that to that point he was our 3rd best point guard.

[Big Papi]

My Quick overview:

3)  Even with our Bad defense, if Sam could have played more our 3's shooters (Markus, Andrew & Sam) might have overcome our defensive weakness.

4)  It's History, I'm spending more time looking out the Windshield, not so much the Rearview mirror.

And if Happ didn't pick up 2 fouls, less then 2 minutes into the game, we might have been losing at halftime.  Hauser had an awful game.  An extra 5 minutes of playing time was not going to solve our defensive problems.

Yes we never gave up and that is great but there was no way we were going to sustain the success we had in the first half for the entire game.  We were giving up layups all game long and the only reason we had the lead was Katin being red hot for 5 minutes and Happ being on the pine for 18 minutes of the first half. 

That we looked bad offensively for 10 minutes is not the problem although it is turning into a trend.  That we can't stop anyone defensively on a consistent basis is a huge problem. 

And you look at history to learn from it.  Otherwise problems never get fixed.

[bilsu]

Happ's two quick fouls were do the Gard's game plan not working. I do not remember a team going so aggresively for a steal everytime Fischer had the ball. It was obvious that UW thought they could get Fischer to turn over the ball and the game plan backfired. Happ got two quick fouls and later on in the half Brown also got in foul trouble.

In the second half I thought Fischer played good defense on Happ without fouling. I still do not know how Happ was able to make those two shots he threw almost straight up off the back board. The first I thought was luck, but then he made the same shot again.

[Marcus92]

Hauser simply couldn't guard Hayes on the drive. He couldn't stay in front of him.

Markus, Haanif, Sam and the rest of the team need to be better man-to-man defenders. The problem isn't that they too slow or too small. Maurice Acker, David Cubillan and Lazar Hayward were all undersized for their defensive positions. And to cite a past Wisconsin example, Mike Kelley was far from the world's greatest athlete. Effort is part of it. But good face-up defense is about knowing your opponent, anticipation, technique — and effective help from the other four guys on the floor.

This team isn't playing good defense individually, and they're not playing together as a team. In my view, that's far more important than scheme. Fortunately, defensive technique, communication and help are all correctable.

[bilsu]

Hauser simply couldn't guard Hayes on the drive. He couldn't stay in front of him.

Markus, Haanif, Sam and the rest of the team need to be better man-to-man defenders. The problem isn't that they too slow or too small. Maurice Acker, David Cubillan and Lazar Hayward were all undersized for their defensive positions. And to cite a past Wisconsin example, Mike Kelley was far from the world's greatest athlete. Effort is part of it. But good face-up defense is about knowing your opponent, anticipation, technique — and effective help from the other four guys on the floor.

This team isn't playing good defense individually, and they're not playing together as a team. In my view, that's far more important than scheme. Fortunately, defensive technique, communication and help are all correctable.

I have watched on TV plenty of Big Ten players who could not cover Hayes.

[Marcus92]

I have watched on TV plenty of Big Ten players who could not cover Hayes.

Good point. Driving to the basket is the strongest part of Hayes' game. He's one of the best in the Big Ten. And the rules of college basketball favor the offense. Everybody gets beat.

If you go by DRtg, Sam is one of the team's top 3 defenders (after JaJuan and Luke). But Sam can definitely improve here. Beyond that, communication and help defense has to get better for the entire team. Let's see how they respond.