If we don't stay in front of people better it could get scary as it winds down in the tourney..Too much fouling.
We cannot contain anyone on the dribble..
- Thread starter wildcatdon
- Start date
It's amazing we still have some posters who fail to understand why we are so good and undefeated.
Let this sink in. What we do well, is enough to beat you. What we don't do well, we make up for with what we do really well, and we beat you.
Don't think past that statement.
Let this sink in. What we do well, is enough to beat you. What we don't do well, we make up for with what we do really well, and we beat you.
Don't think past that statement.
It's called running people off the three point line. If the only way you can be beat is by someone hitting a bunch of threes, you force them to drive into the meat of the D. You can't be that thick OP.
You do realize that Cal's philosophy is to keep teams from beating us from the 3 point line. He also forces opponents to beat our defense off the dribble because we have 2 7-footers at the rim to block shots on dribble penetration.
Some of that is part of the defensive strategy. Cal doesn't want guys gambling out on the perimeter or committing silly fouls trying to contain. What he wants is for them to run shooters off of the three point line and funnel them into the lane where the shot blockers are waiting.
Hard to believe some of our fans don't know that is our strategy.
I suppose people can complain about our rotations or help defense if they want, and we could improve that. Dribble penetration is just a natural consequence of our defensive strategy though.
Refs are not going to call all those BS fouls on UK in the NCAA Tourney. AU shot 33% today from the field, and 30% from 3 point range (after 58% from three in Rupp) and that is great D.
This was our worst defensive game in a while, maybe the entire season, considering opponent and venue.
No defense is perfect. Some teams are so excellent in a couple areas that it completely overcomes glaring weaknesses, for example. Containing dribble penetration is relatively weak compared to all of the other things we do well, but the point is that we do lot's of other things well. We can force turnovers, deny the three point shot, and contest the midrange to cover for deficiencies on dribble penetration.
Switching to a zone, for example, may help reinforce defense against penetration, but teams would likely get more good looks from three and more offensive rebounds. We improve a weakness, but now we gain maybe 1 or 2 additional deficiencies, especially relative to the status quo.
No defense is perfect. Some teams are so excellent in a couple areas that it completely overcomes glaring weaknesses, for example. Containing dribble penetration is relatively weak compared to all of the other things we do well, but the point is that we do lot's of other things well. We can force turnovers, deny the three point shot, and contest the midrange to cover for deficiencies on dribble penetration.
Switching to a zone, for example, may help reinforce defense against penetration, but teams would likely get more good looks from three and more offensive rebounds. We improve a weakness, but now we gain maybe 1 or 2 additional deficiencies, especially relative to the status quo.
Not it wasn't. AU shot 33% and 30% from three...the officiating allowed you to THINK our D was bad. Anyone with a brain knows AU shot about 10-15 more FTS than they deserved.
We can stop anyone we want on the dribble, on the perimeter or in the paint. These teams are scoring when we are playing down them. Look at what we do to those teams late in the game. Auburn, Florida, Georgia all went through 7 to 10 minute scoring droughts at the end of the games. I believe Florida only scored 4 points total the final 8 minutes of the game. When we dial in we shut down everyone. The getting beat off the dribble is what you see when the team is bored.
I'll also add...due to the poor officiating where UK could not look at AU without getting whistled for a foul...that hurt UK's ability to defend at times as well...but overall, UK's D was not bad.
Fat guy, what are you talking about this being our worst defensive game? Are you serious? Did you see their shooting %.
I don't have legitimate evidence for officiating bias so accounting for it would be misguided.
Really though, the poor D didn't bother me that much because of psychology. Why play defense when our offense can score at will? Teams tend to slack a bit on defense when their offense is good.
They scored close to 1 point per possession because of effective use of the free throw line and a lack of turnovers. Shooting is the most important factor, but it's not the only important factor.
My statement is relative, of course, given how good our defense has been this season. A bad defensive game for this team is average or even pretty good for the vast majority of teams.