I haven’t had the stomach to watch this team as closely as I have in the past, but one thing I noticed yesterday was that Minnesota was regularly able to take advantage of the Cats’ defensive rotation and isolate a forward on Reid near the basket. It appears to me that this happening because Page isn’t recognizing the offensive spacing, forcing Reid low, but it may just be a problem with the designed assignments. If it can’t be fixed, it seems to me that NU needs to start using a matchup zone when Reid is on the floor.
One small observation of defense against Minnesota
- Thread starter eastbaycat99
- Start date
I'm sorry, but I feel as if our constant switching out top is the problem, not Page. Sure, you can switch some of the time if you get caught, but it seems as if we do it as a matter of strategy. And when Reid is switched onto a big, he rolls down the lane with a huge mismatch. Then our rotations have been bad, and the big who was dominating Reid dumps it off for a layup or dunk.
I mentioned this previously. Unless the opposing center is Luca Doncic, Page should stay at home and allow the guard to deal with the pick . Grove, avg 2 ppg , scored 12 points exploiting Page's switches and double teams for layups and dunks . Page represents an asset around the rim not chasing guards at the high post
So Collins needs to realize we should be playing matchup zone with this crew now stubbornly insistent on man to man. Carmody for all his faults realized this and switched things up defensively to good success mid-season in past years. We should try something different or expect the same garbage.
I mentioned using a zone a month ago with no significant support from other posters but it is obvious that the current players have not adjusted to the switching man defenses that Lowry employs. In the past, NU's switching D lead to open 3s but now it leads to both open 3s and uncontested layups.
Spot on. Countless layups and dunks given up are why we are 0-3 instead of 2-1, even with the atrocious 3pt shooting.
I agree Reid is a major defensive liability. I don't agree a matchup zone is a solution.
I'm not sure if we do a switch-all-the-time defense. It seems to me that the two players involved need to read the situation and then decide to switch. I feel like this inability for all our players to read the situation correctly is what is causing a lot of our problems. Otherwise, I don't understand why so often both our guys switch to the same player and leave a cutter wide open. We saw that all day against Minnesota. I even recall a couple plays where Nick got burned. Now, I'm not sure if he misread it or the other defender involved did, but clearly they weren't on the same page with whether to switch or not.
I think it must be a fairly complicated defensive scheme that you don't notice when the guys execute it well, but looks like crap when they don't. I also think you are right that our 5 should never be switching. He should just hedge and recover to the paint.
All I know is that from my vantage point at W-R, admittedly high up in the rafters, I see countless opportunities to either fight through or easily go under and recover without losing contact, but instead the primary defender just stops and lets the off ball defender switch. . . creating way too many brutal mismatches down low. It's one thing if Troy Audige is being asked to cover forward down low. He had the physical ability to at least fight for position or provide meaningful defense against a bigger player. But that's too much to ask from a small pg like Jayden.