Looking at a replay of the game, I saw a number of wide-open threes afforded to the Bears. We have to correct our defense so that these are minimized, or we'll be in for a number of unsavory results. The Bears only hit a third of their 3 attempts, but took 36 of them for good reason -- only a very few were difficult and the open ones just stopped falling after a bit.
The things that led to this:
1) Sagging off the off-ball shooter. Mac has done this for most of his time here, and I think it's the one thing I'd most like to see him change. It's as if he's still playing HS ball, where his skills dominated others to the extent that he could sneak in a steal with a resulting runout dunk with regularity. In the college game, with his assignment often being the opponent's best shooter, this becomes a huge liability, allowing easy screen plays that result in a shot before he can recover, whether going around or under, without the likelihood of the steal for which he's hedging, as the combination of opponent skill set and superior coaching tends to negate the slap-away steal threat. Mac isn't the only one who does this (Jamorko comes to mind, too, though with more of a sag-to-defend-straight-up/sag-to-block mentality than sag-to-steal), but he does so most regularly; I saw some from Alexander, too, but more absent-minded at the opening set of their half-court offense than with a particular help intent (I think that's easier to identify and address).
2) Sagging to the lane by BOTH weak-side defenders. I saw a ton of this against the Bears. The baseline weak-side defender can and should sag to be able to provide help if the on-ball defender is broken down for a drive or to negate a slip towards the lane from the strong-side or top-of-the-key off-ball player. The wing weak-side defender has to stay reasonably close to his man, though, and be ready to shift to the baseline player left open by the sagging defender (with the rest of the defense ready to shift to cover the wing). With both players sagging, there are two options for a drive-and-dish in one direction, and that is just too easy. If the baseline weak-side defender sees the wing defender sagging, he's got to bark at him to get out.
3) Sagging/light doubling without a dedicated trap on the strong side out at the arc. Why? It stops the drive (unless the opponent is good enough to split the double-team, which is bad in the first place), but leaves an EASY pass for an open three in the corner, if doubling the wing, or an open three from the wing, if doubling the corner, as soon as the point defender is drawn away with a dive to the lane so that he can't cover. If we're going to do this, we have to pick our places to do so -- only against poor ball handlers and with enough resolve and aggression to give us a good chance at creating a turnover.
4) Guarding the pick-and-roll without recovering for the pick-and-pop. This isn't all that easy, since one has to respect the ball-handler first, then the roll, but there isn't the excuse to think one's job is done there. If the opponent pops out, one mustn't get comfortable defending the lane -- it's been twenty years since big men started to hit that shot with regularity in the college game, but most are still not quick enough with their shot to get it off if the defender doesn't leave them alone. It becomes the same thing as failing to move up from the lane to the trailing opponent as the defense sets up at the beginning of a possession -- the trailer simply stops at the top of the key for an open three. Our bigs are nimble enough to do better, and Pat has to know how to teach this.
There are other aspects of the defense that could use work, but I think the fixes, here, are relatively simple and the improvement would be considerable. In addition to the point swing, open threes are deflating to the team -- one can see that from the exasperated looks on the bench.
Apologies if this is simply a rehash of an earlier post or posts.
Positive notes:
-- Mosely clearly is playing more within himself as a senior, and with great results.
-- Gardner, whatever his freshman flaws, clearly has a nose for the ball. Me likey!
-- Yurt has great post moves, gets up and down the floor and snags the ball well (careful, though, to keep that high until clear -- certain opponents will have folks poking that away immediately after the rebound).
-- Akinjo has been getting it done when we need it (thankfully, certain coincident overconfident moves leading to turnovers haven't been too many and have had much more of a clear plan in the first place).
-- Wahab looks competent as a first year post player, not too often lost on D and clearly putting in effort -- being able to spell Yurt with a big is HUGE for us.
-- It was great to see Josh back.
-- The rest of the rotation in thus far each has shown me something good. I'll take the bad with that, for now, and see how things shake out.
-- Though not always effective, nobody seemed disengaged as was the case in the first half+ against our first opponent.
-- Pat is letting the kids play, and calling it in for discussion when he needs