Originally Posted by
CDu
Georgetown doesn't play the same way that Wisconsin does, nor do they play the same way that NC State does (nor do NC State and Wisconsin play the same way), but the three all have some things in common. They all spread you out and attack from the perimeter. They also had good big men either comfortable shooting or handling the ball on the perimeter (or both), and guards who like to attack off the dribble. Arizona State gave us some trouble with a spread approach, but they didn't have the gifted/versatile big man to make it work (Boateng just isn't in the same category as Leuer, Smith, or Monroe). These characteristics, combined with a good and well-executed gameplan, can illustrate the weaknesses of our defense. For the most part, we're not terribly quick. Smith and Thomas are very quick for their positions, and Scheyer is quick enough and crafty enough as long as he's not trying to guard super-quick guards. But Singler is not quick for a 3, Mason is not quick for a 4, and Zoubek is not quick.
The strength of our defense is our rotations and help defense. We like to bump and play physically defensively, and we do better against teams that crowd the lane. But when you spread us out, you make it much more difficult for our bigs to provide help defense, and you get a lot more one-on-one isolations. That's not the strength of our defense, and it showed in these games. It also didn't help that each of these teams shot pretty well (State and Georgetown shot very well), but even if they didn't shoot that well they still got too many easy baskets.
Against teams that don't spread us out, we do pretty well, because our bigs are pretty good at clogging the lane, providing help defense, and getting defensive rebounds. Thus, we've generally dominated against the teams that play two guys in the paint (because we are still a pretty good team) but struggled against good teams that spread the floor (because we do have weaknesses).
I'm not sure how to fix this, but I do think it will continue to be a problem against such teams. It doesn't mean we can't make a deep NCAA run. If we're fortunate in our matchups and avoid the teams that can exploit our matchup problems, then we certainly have the talent to make it to the Final-4. But if we run across a few teams that spread us out in the second weekend, I think we're likely to there. And if we have a really unfortunate bracket, we could lose in the second round.
I caveat this with a big "if." If the Plumlees can become consistent contributors, we may be able to offset our disadvantage on defense with an advantage on offense. They (especially Mason) can provide a different dimension to the offense that could mean we aren't running essentially the same 3-on-5 offense that we ran last year (just with taller personnel).