We need to learn to play "Small D"

[SouthBendJim]

Totally porous defense today. OSU must have thought they were playing a practice scrimmage. Actually, their practice probably has more D in them.

Don't care how good your "small ball" offense is, if the other team out scores you, you lose, especially when playing fast leads to committing a ton of turnovers. Thad Matta told his team about IU #5 before the game. Did CTC tell anybody about OSU #0 at halftime?

"Small ball" is fine, but if you're having an off night shooting, you're in trouble, especially when one of your top scorers isn't getting his, and plays 0 defense. TW might as well have sat this one out. Still don't understand the subbing patterns. Down 10 with 3 minutes to go and SR is in the game, and we are dribbling, dribbling, dribbling out front looking for a shot.

Our best lineup going forward: Yogi, JBJ, Troy, Hartman and Holt. Johnson and Ziesloft coming off the bench in tandem at guards. Hoetzel and SR subbing at forward. We need HMP to get well soon.

Won't take this league long to figure out "small ball."

SouthBendJim

 

[JB_Nomee]

No rim protection

Small ball is cute and all and can light up a scoreboard, but when you don't play bigs nobody is there to protect the rim when our guards get beat. And let's be honest, when jb and Zeisloft are out there our guards are getting beat a lot. People love to bash hanner on this board but he brings a lot of intimidation on the defensive end and effects a lot of shots. Hartman has been a nice offensive contributor, especially recently, but he has never heard of help side defense. But it's not like he's a rim protector anyway. I think holt needs to see many more minutes until hanner gets back. We won't stop teams until he does. OSU is not a good offensive team but it sure looked easy today.

Also, idk if it's lack of communication or poor concepts being taught, but we cannot defend high ball screens worth a crap. There's no consistency in how we defend them. Even when they are off the ball how many times is there confusion on who has who? Not good defense.

 

[Historian]

Avoiding turnovers has shielded our porous defense of late. Assume we limit our 15 TO's to the 8 committed by Buckeyes today, that is 7 less shots they take at 62% make rate or 4.2 baskets. That is 8.4 points or round up to 9 in case one is a 3 pointer. Absent those 9 we are right in it at the end.

Solid effort simply won't overcome lack of size and defensive talent in the frontcourt on the road, but limiting turnovers can make every game winnable in remainder of BIG season except at Wisky and Maryland.

Outcome today was predictable, but hoped to see Troy and JBJ play better In hostile environment and lessen load on Yogi. We need that balance going forward, home or away.

 

[IND22]

Re: We need to learn to play " not soft and mentally weak"


dfdf

 

[Rangeline Fan]

Is that the same as "Little D"?

Because we were really good at playing "Very Little D" today...

 

[HoosierRon]

Re: We need to learn to play " not soft and mentally weak"


We appeared mentally unprepared. Lost focus too many times. Too many turnovers. They played like it was a pickup game on a Sunday afternoon.

 

[BizAlum]

Well how about some ball pressure and moving your feet. We seem to be the most unfundamental team when it comes to stopping the ball. No wonder teams can go coast to coast on us. Man to man defense is not just guarding your man unless you are a really bad team. Being able to disrupt passes and ball reversals are necessary. We do not do either right now. We let guys dribble out front without putting any pressure. Our zone defense is even worse as we do not anticipate the entry passes and do not move our feet. Lots of work to be done by CTC and staff. The other thing that hurts our defense is bad shot selection early in the clock and turnovers. We did this a lot today. I say bring Troy off the bench if he is going to play like he did today. Stan should be told that unless he is shooting 5 feet or less. Anything else better be when the shot clock is going to expire. His D could help us less his 2 turnovers an 2 air balls today.