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Re: GDT: SDSU Jackrabbits @ Wichita State Shockers
I don't believe us not playing man-to-man defense has anything to do with athleticism, as you are right, we are not less athletic than either of our 1st two tournament teams. The reason in my mind we weren't good at man-to-man earlier in the season lies in a lack of toughness, communication, and awareness.
When we started the season playing man-to-man, it was a super soft version with tons of switching and hardly any fighting through screens and hedging ball screens. Our communication wasn't there either and our new guys just weren't grasping the basic principles of the defense.
What makes man-to-man a good base defense is that you can cater it toward each opposing player's strengths and weaknesses, but that also causes a demand for mental wherewithal and constant communication between teammates. There's also a mental toughness factor because a player is usually charged with stopping a certain player from scoring and their failure to do so can't just be chalked up to the opposing offense player not being in your zone. There has to be an attitude of "Not here, not while I'm guarding you."
I believe the team started playing better after going to the zone not because the zone was overly effective, but rather it allowed our players to think less and react more.
I have to be honest: The first few games this year looked on par with the transition years where we were starting 2 DII walkons at the guard spots. We didn't look like our players never played basketball together before, we looked like we had never played basketball before period. Obviously the individual talent is light years ahead of the transition teams, but we needed to just go out and play and not overthink, and I believe that's where the zone came in and got our season on track.
I'm on record as not being a fan of zone being our base defense, but it has it's positives. It's not like we maxed out how good we can play zone either, as there is so many little things we can do to clean it up, but we are still going to run into trouble when the opposition is shooting and rebounding the ball well.
I think we may be to the point in "the process" in which we could start mixing man-to-man back into the defense when a team is shooting well, but regardless of what defensive set we choose, we're going to have to play it better than how we played tonight if we want to see any kind of postseason games.
Originally posted by MontanaRabbit
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When we started the season playing man-to-man, it was a super soft version with tons of switching and hardly any fighting through screens and hedging ball screens. Our communication wasn't there either and our new guys just weren't grasping the basic principles of the defense.
What makes man-to-man a good base defense is that you can cater it toward each opposing player's strengths and weaknesses, but that also causes a demand for mental wherewithal and constant communication between teammates. There's also a mental toughness factor because a player is usually charged with stopping a certain player from scoring and their failure to do so can't just be chalked up to the opposing offense player not being in your zone. There has to be an attitude of "Not here, not while I'm guarding you."
I believe the team started playing better after going to the zone not because the zone was overly effective, but rather it allowed our players to think less and react more.
I have to be honest: The first few games this year looked on par with the transition years where we were starting 2 DII walkons at the guard spots. We didn't look like our players never played basketball together before, we looked like we had never played basketball before period. Obviously the individual talent is light years ahead of the transition teams, but we needed to just go out and play and not overthink, and I believe that's where the zone came in and got our season on track.
I'm on record as not being a fan of zone being our base defense, but it has it's positives. It's not like we maxed out how good we can play zone either, as there is so many little things we can do to clean it up, but we are still going to run into trouble when the opposition is shooting and rebounding the ball well.
I think we may be to the point in "the process" in which we could start mixing man-to-man back into the defense when a team is shooting well, but regardless of what defensive set we choose, we're going to have to play it better than how we played tonight if we want to see any kind of postseason games.
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