[Paint Touches] Can MU improve it's defensive shot quality?

[PaintTouches]

Thanks to AE and Brew jogging the juices, I tried to explain why it's not just the defensive results that have been bad for MU, but the process as well.

https://painttouches.com/2020/12/28/can-marquette-improve-the-shot-quality-it-allows/

It also gave me a chance to dig into https://shotquality.com/team-standings a bit, which is a site I highly recommend, even if some of the back end calculations are still murky. It is 100% process based and not exactly confidence inducing for the rest of the season. Here's a chart I made using their data to help me (and you) visualize it.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Great piece!  Thanks for the time given to this

Remember the days when Scoop made fun of Crean for tracking deflections with his emphasis on ball pressure and pressing out on the passing lanes?  Or when Scoop defended Wojo's scheme by saying the problem was the personnel he recruited (the height of Rowsey and Howard even though the Midgets were a much smaller team)?

The Duke scheme works better with five star Duke recruits.  The Badgers are much less athletically inclined than Wojo's rosters but are so much better defensively. 

I am and was more hopeful after the out of conference games where it was more of a containment defense we were seeing (hat tip to Wojo) but the conference is ripping MU as has been detailed.  January will be telling as to what transpires. I am optimistic  as the schedule turns favorable. At a tipping point.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Or when Scoop defended Wojo's scheme by saying the problem was the personnel he recruited (the height of Rowsey and Howard even though the Midgets were a much smaller team)?

C'mon Dr. B. From year 4 to year 5 MU's defense improved from 182nd on KenPom to 45th. There were no major changes to the scheme that offseason. What did change? Rowsey graduated. No one was arguing that Wojo's scheme was gold or he was a defensive mastermind hampered by a poor defensive roster. The argument was that the defense was SO bad because of the personnel.

And while his height certainly didn't help him, that wasn't the reason Rowdy struggled on defense. He just sucked at it.

[Dr. Blackheart]

C'mon Dr. B. From year 4 to year 5 MU's defense improved from 182nd on KenPom to 45th. There were no major changes to the scheme that offseason. What did change? Rowsey graduated. No one was arguing that Wojo's scheme was gold or he was a defensive mastermind hampered by a poor defensive roster. The argument was that the defense was SO bad because of the personnel.

And while his height certainly didn't help him, that wasn't the reason Rowdy struggled on defense. He just sucked at it.

That best Wojo efficiency that year would have been middling for Buzz and Crean and a worst for Deane.  In the six loses to end that year, MU was at a 108 after they were scouted, collapsed or gave up. The scheme has been consistent all of Wojo's years. Rowsey wasn't good but neither has anyone else been great in it.

I am still hopeful based on some of the changes we've seen this year but we seem to have regressed. We can argue for 7 more seasons but the scheme is not good for MU's talent.