Top 40 Defense

[MU82]

When Morsell is not forcing shots he looks pretty smooth on his threes and midrange shots and probably is capable of averaging 15 ppg.   20 ppg was excessive.

I agree. And I certainly allow that players can improve. But it's not as if there was a limited sample size for Morsell before this season. In 4 years as a starter at Maryland, he shot .267 from 3.

As a fan, I want to believe his .182 over the last 4 games was an outlier ... but as a realist, the outlier probably was the .571 over the first 4 games.

Morsell looked real comfortable at the start of the second half against Jackson State. I'll take that all day!

[DoctorV]

All Marquette’s reach equilibrium

[esotericmindguy]

Yep. KenPom is kinda meaningless when it includes last season’s numbers. Especially true with a new coach and almost totally new roster.

How does it include last years numbers? Their raw defensive rankings are based off of points per possession allowed, they're 66th. The adjusted (59th) may take into account last year, but my guess is it has more to do with the quality of schedule.

[Goose]

82

I have seen enough of this team to believe that all of the guys are capable of shooting the 3 better. You normally can tell when a guy shout never take a three and I do not see anyone, aside from Kur, that falls into that camp. I hope they keep firing it up and see what happens.

[Shooter McGavin]

82

I have seen enough of this team to believe that all of the guys are capable of shooting the 3 better. You normally can tell when a guy shout never take a three and I do not see anyone, aside from Kur, that falls into that camp. I hope they keep firing it up and see what happens.

100% agree Goose.  I think our percentage goes up as the year goes on. 

[JakeBarnes]

82

I have seen enough of this team to believe that all of the guys are capable of shooting the 3 better. You normally can tell when a guy shout never take a three and I do not see anyone, aside from Kur, that falls into that camp. I hope they keep firing it up and see what happens.

Same, Goose. I think that they are going to grow into this offense a bit. Assist rate is good. Just need capable shooters to start making em. Justin started to and joplin looks like a frosh year Cain from 3.  Now time for Kolek and Omax to start hitting and I'll feel good.

[Dr. Blackheart]

82

I have seen enough of this team to believe that all of the guys are capable of shooting the 3 better. You normally can tell when a guy shout never take a three and I do not see anyone, aside from Kur, that falls into that camp. I hope they keep firing it up and see what happens.

[Silkk the Shaka]

Just checking in on this again, DRating has slid from 59 when originally posted to 68 now, trending further away from the top 40.

Anyone have any thoughts as to why that's deteriorating? Schedule? Tactics? Morsell limited? We seem to be pressing less just from anecdotal observation. I was lukewarm on the Shaka hire but I was hopeful we'd at least get that top 40 defense we were promised.

Can we get the defense turned back towards the direction of top 40 even if we don't end up there by season's end? What needs to happen? Again I'll hang up & listen.

[Shooter McGavin]

I think so.  D was good against Creighton.  Their half court D will have them steadily moving up.  In my opinion Shaka is getting a better sense of his players and his team as a whole as the year goes on. Less but more timely pressure will help as well and he seems to be doing that now. 

[rocky_warrior]

D is trending up, slowly.  The oscillations are decreasing.  I hope that continues, I don't expect the trendline to change drastically though.

https://www.barttorvik.com/trends.php?y=2022&team=Marquette&type=adjd

[Silkk the Shaka]

D is trending up, slowly.  The oscillations are decreasing.  I hope that continues, I don't expect the trendline to change drastically though.

https://www.barttorvik.com/trends.php?y=2022&team=Marquette&type=adjd

And just like that they turned in an 84.5 on this chart, 2nd only to the Illinois game (which was a bit more fluky with Curbelo seemingly just giving the ball away)

Nice to see!

DRtg down to #59, trending back towards 40

[oilcan]

Smart can’t press like he would like to because he doesn’t have the athletes to pressure people one on one in the back court. They are young and skinny. And they stumble. They can hit the weights and next year they will defend chest to chest and force bad passes. Kolek can’t press anyone physically but he will learn to anticipate an opponent’s moves and be a decent defender.  For now, just play hard defensively and force your opponent to score with five seconds on the clock. Rebound, get it out and pass the ball. Look inside. If you rebound, it’s an easy game. Drip drip drip. Culture. Commitment. Hard work. Success. 

[Dr. Blackheart]

#36 in Haslam. Already there.

https://haslametrics.com/ratings2.php?yr=&tid=561

[LAZER]

#45 in Pomeroy

[JakeBarnes]

#45 in Pomeroy

Came here to post this. Boom

[Silkk the Shaka]

Loving the trend!

On the eye test we seem to be full court pressing at least a touch less, anyone have data to back that up?

Helps to have a couple high level shot blockers like Kur & Oso anchoring the paint!

[Silkk the Shaka]

Up to #34 after last night

That's what holding the #9 offense to 0.89 PPP will do for your rank!

Also #22 in the Haslametrics link from above

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I don't have data to back it up, but we are clearly pressing less.  And that's fine.  Shaka's defensive acumen has "Havoc" as a brand, cause that's cool and fun, but his teams do the hard and dirty work in the half court where it matters a helluva lot more.

[wadesworld]

I don't have data to back it up, but we are clearly pressing less.  And that's fine.  Shaka's defensive acumen has "Havoc" as a brand, cause that's cool and fun, but his teams do the hard and dirty work in the half court where it matters a helluva lot more.

I said early on that I like the 3/4 court "trap" much more than the full court "havoc."  We were giving up layups and dunks in 3 on 1 situations way too much against poor competition with the full court "havoc."  The 3/4 court is much more controlled and leaves less space to try to recover if the press is broken.  It's also easier to match up man to man out of.  It still creates a few turnovers, and it makes the opponent's offensive possession shorter as they take their time getting past half court.

[tower912]

MU has several variations of the press.     The hard trap of the initial pass.    The 3/4 designed to take time off the clock and attack the cross court pass.    The man to man.   IMO, just like getting MU to play fast on offense from the beginning, the goal with this team was to get them in a play fast, always attack, no fear, get everybody involved and comfortable with contributing in different ways from the very start.     
Defensively, having that mindset makes it easier to mix and match presses to keep the opponent off guard.  With the mindset installed, it makes it easier to play an aggressive man to man.

Offensively, getting them in the mindset to attack and fire up the first open look makes it easier later to put in the next layers of the offense, which, similar to the midgets, involves getting into the paint, firing opposite, attacking the recovering defender, knowing when to cut without the ball, all leading to shots at the basket or open 3's.     

So, yes, as the season progresses and the league develops a scouting report and the point guards get better, MU does the hard trap on the initial pass less often, saving it as a surprise.    But forcing the opponent to prepare for it and be wary of it.     

[Silkk the Shaka]

Up to #23 now... the defensive trajectory has been amazing

[JakeBarnes]

Up to #23 now... the defensive trajectory has been amazing

I LOVE the lock down defense to end games. This team really wears down other teams.

[Silkk the Shaka]

https://twitter.com/PaintTouches/status/1487157575741227010?t=EtdTHd2UfD4BFkKVi02tNw&s=19

Paint Touches with some great data on tactic shifts in that thread. Long story short much less pressing of late. Whatever works!

[mileskishnish72]

Given the shooters' histories, I'm not as confident that something suddenly will click. Morsell, for example, appears to have had a revision to the mean these last 4 games after an absurdly good start that was nothing like 4 years of history suggested was possible. But maybe. I hope you're right, Goose.

reversion?

[bilsu]

Marquette has played a very tough schedule and I am assuming that has a negative effect on our defense ranking. Our defense would look even better if our competition was much weaker.