"I think we’ve really got to dig into the trenches and become one of those teams that says, ‘You know what? If we don’t score, then you don’t score.’”
On Arkansas’ rough 3-game stretch defensively and what Anderson/Gafford said about it today: http://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2019 … -arkansas/
“If we don’t score, you don’t score.” I only think we have two guys that can play that way.
I’m not sure what to think about our program at this point.
For years I’ve heard “we generate our offense off our defense”
and also heard “we didn’t score so we couldn’t set up our
defense”. So no defense means no offense and no
offense equals no defense. Sound like a very big Catch-22!
I just am begining to wonder if the style of defense we prefer
to play has too many built in disadvantages today compared to
Nolans tenure here. All the rules changes (removed hand check,
can’t imped the drive, can’t defend inside a players halo, etc)
have really helped the offenses and hindered the defenses. Add
in more timeouts, multiple TV stopages, an increase in foul calls
destroying flow and I have to wonder if Mikes style can thrive in
that environment or just mearly survive. Plus teams have the
recipe to beat it now by constantly taking advantage of our
constant switching nature. We seem to hand out the manual
on how to give up driving lay-up from a bad switch, how not
to play the pick and roll, or how to leave a 3pt shooter all alone.
I know I’m just frustrated and they say winning cures all things,
but getting tired of seeing the same failings year after year. I’ll
admit I’m no basketball savant, hell truth be told Coach has most
likely forgotten more then I’ll ever know, that still doesn’t mean
I have to like what I see, and right now what I see these days
does not seem very fundamentally sound on defense or offense.
Just my opine, not even worth a free cup of coffee. But there
it is.
I agree with you on the highlighted portion, the changes would have killed 40 MOH
Very good post ! I’m pretty sure MA has forgot more than both of us ever knew and also a few more on this board that wouldn’t admit come **** or high water ! We should be playing better D than what we have shown so far, my read is we play D with our hands and not with our feet but surely it can’t be that simple. We have a very winnable game coming against Mizzou but if we continue to play the way we have you can chalk up another loss. Something or somebody has to change something for the outcome to turn out differently! WPS
With only 1or2or3 real offensive weapons on any given night and the others marginal. Defense and rebounding is what a team must rely on consistently. That does not require as much skill, but more fundamentals and positioning.
Offenses can be and are streaky, defense shouldn’t be, but rather the 1 constant.
I agree with your post. However, right now that it not a strong suit of this team. I know we’re young and I hope that we will mature and play better defense. If we don’t, it’s going to be a long year.
It will interesting to see if this team responds to their coach for a game or two… the focus just doesn’t seem to be there and at this point in time the youth should be leaving the team at least in stages.
I’m interested in this as well.
We will never be a lockdown defensive team under CMA, the system won’t allow it,all the traps are going to leave wide open shot it’s a math thing 2 guard 1 leave somebody wide open.
I’m actually not concerned with leaving someone open, and I will use the LSU game as an example. They kept leaving a 6’10 big man open, there aren’t many teams who have a big man that is gonna torch us like Reid did, I doubt Reid could do it a second time when we play them. So, if they leave a big open out there, I can handle it,
But if they switch and leave guards open out there, even if they’ve been cold, it drives me absolutely nuts.
I don’t have any numbers to back it, but I believe we have played our best defense in Mike’s match up zone. The young guys seem more comfortable in understanding exactly how to play it and where they need to be. Since we’ve been so poor in the first 5-7 minutes, I’d like to see him use it to start the game. Try something different.
That would also solve the problem of Gafford guarding a quick guard 25 feet from the basket.
You maybe on to something.