Where's the missing 0

buckethead

buckethead

Well-known member
I love that we are of to a good start.
I love the offensive potential in many of these young kids.
I love the general vibe around the program
BUT
Why are we 244th in D1 ball with the schedule we have run.
It feels like someone stole the 0 off of the "40 Minutes if Hell" motto and made it "4 minutes of hell."

Has MA given up on D? Again, not being snarky. I'll take 3-0, but if we're giving up 71 points a game to Merr, Laf, and CC, that's kind of scary for when we hit the BE schedule
 
Yes, actually I think it did, or I wouldn't have posted it. Is it buried in all of the posts from the first three games? Yes, but it shouldn't be buried. Just an opinion from an old guy who liked what we were known for the first year or so of MA's tenure and would like to see revitalized.
 
If you’re looking at total points allowed, then we are never going to be near the top. We play way too fast and have way too many possessions to keep that number down. Looking at points per possession will give you a better gauge of this team’s defense.

We are currently 26th in scoring offense, but we have not particularly played well offensively. That is because we play so fast and have more scoring opportunities.
 
SJU14 said:
If you’re looking at total points allowed, then we are never going to be near the top. We play way too fast and have way too many possessions to keep that number down. Looking at points per possession will give you a better gauge of this team’s defense.

We are currently 26th in scoring offense, but we have not particularly played well offensively. That is because we play so fast and have more scoring opportunities.
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I agree to a point. We are 13th in offensive PPP at 1.209. Defensively we still sit at 140th, giving up .995. We're clearly ahead of the game but we need to step D up to stay alive outside of cupcake games.
 
It's early for stats to be meaningful especially given the vastly different SOSes around the country depending on how and against whom you started your season. The defense needs to get better on an efficiency basis for sure. We discussed the zone v helter skelter ad nauseum on other threads but it did seem to work on Tuesday. As has been pointed out the pace of play is going to skew the PPP both for O and D. But the key is to make sure they score more than they give up. ;)
 
Mike Anderson's defensive philosophy is to overplay the ball to force steals and allow for easy buckets.

If an opponent can handle that pressure and space the floor right, our defense becomes susceptible to everything from back door cuts, to wide open 3s, to allowing offensive rebounds.

That was happening in the first half against CCSU.

Then a miracle happened.

MA switched to a zone. And CCSU had no idea what to do against it. We closed down the lane when we had to. We challenged shooters when we had to. And we cleaned the glass.

It was the most exciting thing I saw in a long time from CA and yet it's just a fundamentally-sound defense nothing more.
 
The first 5 minutes in the second half were worse defensively than the first half. Didn’t seem to get noticed as much because they missed some great looks and we scored more consistently.

I want us to use zone and want to see more of it but by the time we used it Tuesday the game was already decided.
 
Amaseinyourface said:
I want us to use zone and want to see more of it
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I've been asking for "more of it" since Anderson came aboard. I just do not like being wedded to one particular defensive scheme as there could be games where you need to switch up based on the opposition strengths or weaknesses and/or you may not have the necessary personnel to consistently play man (if you're mainly or solely a man-to-man defensive team).

Not to mention, throwing different looks here and there can, at times, throw off a team.
 
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