People see what they want to see. I went back and watched several cases and games where folks claimed Brunks hedging cost us baskets or was bad enough to cost us 8-10 pts a game.... it just didn't happen that often. If there was 1 game where it cost us 8-10 pts, that would be the anomaly. It in no way came close to costing us 8-10pts a game. And, I agree, he's not good at it and I don't know why the coaching staff didn't allow him to adjust more and stay back (how many guys are threats 20'+ from the basket shooting over bigger screeners and defenders?), but 90% of the time, the other team failed to make the pass that would have taken advantage of it (and yes, before you ask: I counted it as a failure of the hedger if another defender had to help off their man, and the pass swung to them for an open shot). Now, if you want to say that it COULD have cost us 8-10 pts a game, that might be reasonable, but the bottom line is that even when it put us out of position, our opponents rarely were able to take advantage of it. If you don't believe, go back and watch games and actually track it. You'll see many times when it left us vulnerable but I think you'll be surprised how often it actually cost us baskets.
I agree with almost everything you said. When I throw pillows at the TV out of anger over that hard hedge its because how many times it flipped our defense from being locked in to having to chase.
It was awful with Brunk. I constantly asked why in the holy hell is Brunk sticking with his hedge, following the ball handler as he dribbles back out of it, breaking it and then causing our defense to completely collapse like it was a beaten half court press? I just don't understand Brunk sticking with the double team for so long.
Michigan and Simpson completely ate us alive. They were basically playing horse.
Watch the back breaking dunk at Rutgers and you'll again see Brunk about 25 feet from the bucket sticking waay too long with his hedge (to my tastes).
Now it's definitely an Archie thing, as Deron and TJD would hard hedge, but only Brunk stuck with it for as long as he did and as far out of the play which again caused our defense to collapse and chase leaving us with 3 to defend 4 (since our guard and our slow 6'11" center were 5 feet past the three point line.
Watch the beginning of Maryland. Remember Smith and everyone draining three after three? Yeah Smith set the damn screen for Cowan, Brunk stayed with Cowen, Cowen backed up and got the ball to a wing who flipped it to Smith for a wide open three....then Joey came running 20 some feet being and late because he didn't leave his hard hedge.
Iowa does the same thing with Garza but Garza hedges at around a 45 degree angle, staying between the ball and the hoop and in a position to recover quickly while still slowing the ball handler.
Archie at Minnesota stopped with the hard hedges and our defense was much better. He even commented on it in the press. I have no idea why he went back to it.
So I don't know if it's a Brunk thing (Joey is an incredible student so he's smarter than hell) or an Archie thing. My guess it's an Archie thing but with an athletic center. Regardless, it was awful and I hope I don't see Brunk getting pulled out 30 feet from the hoop by a point guard ever again.