What has happened to Stansbury on defense?

[Irondawg]

Forget the offense.

In the early Stans years we played exceptional defense on the permiter and we've typically had some good big guys that can block some shots. We took teams completely out of their offense.

But the last 5 yearsor so, ecompassing many different players, we've been horrible with our perimeter defense. We're allowing lots of open looks and allowing people to get into the lane way too easy. It was easy to overlook during the Varnado years b/c he covered a multitude of sins, but the dropoff in defense over the years is really what I don't understand.

 

[MSDawg34]

that actually have knowledge of the game

 

[patdog]

He went from recruiting tough hardnosed players to recruiting finesse shooters. He completely changed his philosophy of the game.

The other poster's answer about losing assistant coaches that actually have knowledge of the game is just ignorant. Stans hasn't lost any assistant coaches other than Kirby, who he just lost a year ago (after the defensive slide was well underway) and Jones many years ago (who was only here for 1 year anyway).

 

[KurtRambis4]

The other poster's answer about losing assistant coaches that actually have knowledge of the game is just ignorant.

*

 

[maroonmania]

Stans hasn't lost assistants that actually have knowledge of the game because apparently he refuses to hire any. Hard to lose what you don't or rarely ever have. But there is no doubt that Kirby was the best of what Stans did have and we replaced him with a coach totally inexperienced at the D1 level.

 

[coach66]

when we had those strong defensive teams and were winning big games. I agree we have lost our way in these two areas some.

 

[Irondawg]

But lately's he's reversed and has basically praised a lot of his recruits for wanting to play defense. Steele for instance (and I know he's coming back from ACL) was lauded for defense and I'm not saying he doesn't give effort (like Ravern), but he's not shut-down like Zim or Frasier was ...even Bowers was well above avg. on defense.

Our technique out there has gotten really sloppy. We overplay a ton of stuff and take chances that burn us more than reward us.And what happened to our beautiful 1-3-1 trap we used to have? That thing was a rally-killer. We couldn't play it the whole game but it was well used in spurts. We have the guys to play it now.

That said I will said Hood, Steele, Smith, etc give much more effort than some of the more recent guys and Bost has come a long way but still lets guys much slower than him get around him too easily.