tommy
02-11-2012, 03:20 AM
It's a little hard to engage in close analysis of our defense and its continued shortcomings after the thrilling win over UNC, including the sheer number of 3's that we drained, but still I do think it's worth looking at.
First, the good: Without question, we played 40 minutes of basketball with intensity and focus. Much like we did against Virginia Tech. It's just that UNC obviously is way, way more talented than is Va Tech, so that intensity did not yield the same results, especially defensively. But one of the big questions coming in after the lackluster effort against Miami was: which team will show up? We wanted to believe, given the opponent, that it would be the team that was dialed in like they were against Va Tech and Maryland, but many were not confident of that, and feared that Miami was an indication that this team just might not have the hunger to be great.
Well they certainly displayed that hunger in this game, and got the ultimate result to show for it. That's not to say that we didn't make mental errors on defense -- we did. But they were fewer than in most of our other games, and I did not perceive a lack of focus, intensity, or commitment on the defensive end. At all.
But truth be told, the defensive execution -- not the effort, but the execution -- was not very good. It didn't take much in the way of basketball IQ to see that we were manhandled for much of the game in the paint. We were beaten badly by Zeller on one-on-one post moves. They killed us on the offensive boards, with lots and lots of second chance opportunities. In the second half Barnes was very effective both jumpshooting and around the basket. We had our usual trouble stopping dribble penetration, most notably of course against Marshall.
Though Zeller did have his way in particular in the first half, when I charted this game I did note a number of instances where we actually did a good job in denying entry passes into him and their other guys in the post. Ryan Kelly did that well, in particular, and Miles too. It's just that when Zeller did get it, he scored it. The bigs did a decent job providing help as well. As for the dribble penetration, the main culprit was Thornton, who was beaten four times that I noted.
OK here are the stop percentage numbers for this game. As you can see, they're awful.
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
20
25
44%
Rivers
28
36
44%
Dawkins
13
17
43%
Mason
27
32
46%
Thornton
23
29
44%
Kelly
19
26
42%
Miles
12
20
38%
Cook
3
12
20%
Gbinije
Hairston
0
1
0%
TEAM
29
40
42%
The obvious outlier is Cook. We just didn't get any stops with him in the game. Which might explain why he didn't play in the last 12 minutes of this game.
I'm also disappointed again in Miles on this metric. Though his individual numbers on other measurables that I charted, like help defense, denial, etc. weren't bad, he just got beaten for a lot of baskets in the context of how many possessions he played and how many shots he caused to be missed. Those types of numbers and others, including Defensive Efficiency Ratings for all the guys and the team as a whole will be up very soon at Airowe's dukehoopblog.com.
OK here are the updated cumulative stop % numbers.
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
310
291
51.6%
Rivers
358
325
52.4%
Dawkins
224
229
49.4%
Mason
298
290
50.7%
Thornton
217
184
54.1%
Kelly
282
251
52.9%
Miles
192
186
50.8%
Cook
151
139
52.1%
Gbinije
31
41
43.1%
Hairston
79
67
54.1%
TEAM
430
396
52.1%
First, the good: Without question, we played 40 minutes of basketball with intensity and focus. Much like we did against Virginia Tech. It's just that UNC obviously is way, way more talented than is Va Tech, so that intensity did not yield the same results, especially defensively. But one of the big questions coming in after the lackluster effort against Miami was: which team will show up? We wanted to believe, given the opponent, that it would be the team that was dialed in like they were against Va Tech and Maryland, but many were not confident of that, and feared that Miami was an indication that this team just might not have the hunger to be great.
Well they certainly displayed that hunger in this game, and got the ultimate result to show for it. That's not to say that we didn't make mental errors on defense -- we did. But they were fewer than in most of our other games, and I did not perceive a lack of focus, intensity, or commitment on the defensive end. At all.
But truth be told, the defensive execution -- not the effort, but the execution -- was not very good. It didn't take much in the way of basketball IQ to see that we were manhandled for much of the game in the paint. We were beaten badly by Zeller on one-on-one post moves. They killed us on the offensive boards, with lots and lots of second chance opportunities. In the second half Barnes was very effective both jumpshooting and around the basket. We had our usual trouble stopping dribble penetration, most notably of course against Marshall.
Though Zeller did have his way in particular in the first half, when I charted this game I did note a number of instances where we actually did a good job in denying entry passes into him and their other guys in the post. Ryan Kelly did that well, in particular, and Miles too. It's just that when Zeller did get it, he scored it. The bigs did a decent job providing help as well. As for the dribble penetration, the main culprit was Thornton, who was beaten four times that I noted.
OK here are the stop percentage numbers for this game. As you can see, they're awful.
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
20
25
44%
Rivers
28
36
44%
Dawkins
13
17
43%
Mason
27
32
46%
Thornton
23
29
44%
Kelly
19
26
42%
Miles
12
20
38%
Cook
3
12
20%
Gbinije
Hairston
0
1
0%
TEAM
29
40
42%
The obvious outlier is Cook. We just didn't get any stops with him in the game. Which might explain why he didn't play in the last 12 minutes of this game.
I'm also disappointed again in Miles on this metric. Though his individual numbers on other measurables that I charted, like help defense, denial, etc. weren't bad, he just got beaten for a lot of baskets in the context of how many possessions he played and how many shots he caused to be missed. Those types of numbers and others, including Defensive Efficiency Ratings for all the guys and the team as a whole will be up very soon at Airowe's dukehoopblog.com.
OK here are the updated cumulative stop % numbers.
Stops
Hoops
Stop%
Curry
310
291
51.6%
Rivers
358
325
52.4%
Dawkins
224
229
49.4%
Mason
298
290
50.7%
Thornton
217
184
54.1%
Kelly
282
251
52.9%
Miles
192
186
50.8%
Cook
151
139
52.1%
Gbinije
31
41
43.1%
Hairston
79
67
54.1%
TEAM
430
396
52.1%