I
Ian Pike Hammer
Guest
you hope Iowa improves on defensively next year? I'm going w/ boxing out!
tweeterhawk
Well-Known Member
Keeping the other team from scoring.
D
DDThompson
Guest
My coaches didn’t think boxing out as part of defense; it was it’s own entity.
My coaches #1 defense concept was
“Ball. You. Basket.”
99topdawg
Well-Known Member
Watching the Final Four games, yes, defense will win a lot for you, but those teams have 2 things: the athletes that can play defense at a championship level and athletes with the desire to play defense at a championship level. You see many teams that have 1 but not both.
Other teams rely on scoring as many points as possible or shooting as many 3's as possible and hoping it's going to be enough. Sure, it'll win you a bunch of games, and it'll get you some big wins, but will also get you some bad losses and early exits. Defense like they play will allow you to keep it close long enough to be able to play some bad offense for a stretch and still have a chance. I'm not an advocate for a return to Lickball (get your mind out of the gutter) but I think we can all agree that there are things we lack and need to change/adjust/adapt to.
Other teams rely on scoring as many points as possible or shooting as many 3's as possible and hoping it's going to be enough. Sure, it'll win you a bunch of games, and it'll get you some big wins, but will also get you some bad losses and early exits. Defense like they play will allow you to keep it close long enough to be able to play some bad offense for a stretch and still have a chance. I'm not an advocate for a return to Lickball (get your mind out of the gutter) but I think we can all agree that there are things we lack and need to change/adjust/adapt to.
So does Iowa have either of the two at this point? The athletes and/or desire?
Does Fran recruit for defensive ability/quickness? Does he have the desire, ability, energy, philosophy to coach a tough and fundamentally sound defensive, championship team?
Or is he set on having his "scrimmage" type ball win the day?
I
Ian Pike Hammer
Guest
I sincerely believe he takes the best players WHO WANT TO COME TO IOWA. The problem is, no-one really wants to play here except in-state talent, and there ain't enough of that to sustain winning year in, year out.
NikeHawk21
Well-Known Member
Blocking shots / rim protection. Iowa has had virtually none of that the last couple seasons. When you can’t stop penetration and you can’t protect the rim, it’s a very bad formula. Look at Virginia last night, they are locked in defensively most times but when they do get beat they can block the shot at the rim and save an easy basket.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
In your face deny basketball. Every damn team in the Final Four was this. It should be a wake up call.
MelroseHawkins
Well-Known Member
You have to make them miss first before boxing out comes into play. But they do suck at that to.
Boxing out is critical and it involves thinking and effort. Even foot laggards like Iowa can be proficient if they put their minds to it. It is amazing how little effort/thinking seems to go into it for the Iowa players. If you can excel at boxing out and be in the face of another team, the less than athletic teams can compete.
I agree with this. Our 2 guys that have very limited ability to play defense are Bohannon and Garza. Both were best available players willing to come here. Other than those 2, everyone on the team has enough ability to play good defense.
In addition to losing the top Iowa players that come along every so often to the big $$$ programs.
The answer has to be a stronger commitment to denying dribble penetration and/or easy entry passes to the deep post. Against athletic, high caliber teams, we consistently got killed by dribble penetration and easy baskets. They are back-breakers for flow and progression of our game. It leads to foul trouble for guys like Garza and they also lead to wide open 3 point attempts.
I think many of us have become quite used to the fact that Iowa is a zone team now... but it's still weird. For long stretches of big games, we barely play any man-man defense at all. It's a testament to how bad our perimeter guys were at defending on the ball and keeping quick ball handlers in front of them. But I was actually very impressed with Conor McCaffery's defense. He's athletic and big enough, with a really chippy attitude. The other guards don't bring much to the table on defense.
What are the group's thoughts on the press? Whatever we should call it - 3/4 court trap maybe. It seems that we can make it work with certain lineups and Wieskamp is good at the top of the trap/funnel. We used it well early on, against inferior competition. But as the season progressed, we saw a classic case of athletic guards making mince-meat of our trap attempts. It actually turned into easy baskets for the opponents more often than not.
I think many of us have become quite used to the fact that Iowa is a zone team now... but it's still weird. For long stretches of big games, we barely play any man-man defense at all. It's a testament to how bad our perimeter guys were at defending on the ball and keeping quick ball handlers in front of them. But I was actually very impressed with Conor McCaffery's defense. He's athletic and big enough, with a really chippy attitude. The other guards don't bring much to the table on defense.
What are the group's thoughts on the press? Whatever we should call it - 3/4 court trap maybe. It seems that we can make it work with certain lineups and Wieskamp is good at the top of the trap/funnel. We used it well early on, against inferior competition. But as the season progressed, we saw a classic case of athletic guards making mince-meat of our trap attempts. It actually turned into easy baskets for the opponents more often than not.
Not really. Texas Tech runs a very active switching man to man, from what I have seen in just a few games they do not get caught in many mismatches. They play the hedge on high ball screens very well and these are things every team in the final four, top 10 do for the most part. Tech's defensive footwork is great, the players are low to the court and ready, quick, they do not seem to lose track of the ball and the man they are covering.
Compare that to Iowa where we seem to play high post screens very poorly leading to wide open give and go baskets, mismatches where Garza is guarding a smaller, quicker player 20+ feet from the basket while JBo or a smaller guard gets caught on the opponent big man down low. That is two mismatches in favor of the opponent and it leaves the hawk defense scrambling the rest of the possession. This is why Iowa had to play so much zone which leads to its other problems of poor defensive rebounding leading to a lot of opponent 2nd chance put backs.
So not really. I think we have some rim protectors but the main thing is better defensive speed, footwork, and desire from stopping penetration. Fran needs to develop one on one stoppers at the perimeter so our defense doesnt break down into a series of help double teams when constant penetration occurs.
It is also philosophy as Fran would rather outscore than defend it seems. But it you are a good scoring team and play defense you can be top 10.
Adam
Well-Known Member
Dude! You think Texas Tech is "athletic"? They just do what they are taught. Hawks either aren't taught or don't do what their taught. Athleticism again for the millionth time has no direct correlation to defensive prowess. Cook is more athletic than anyone on Texas Tech roster. He must have been a defensive god.
