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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Mar 6, 2020 11:10:15 GMT -5
There is a big tendency these days to focus on the lack of roster, and be done with it. But, that hides that incredibly horrific defensive performance we had against Creighton, perhaps the worst I have seen from our team. When Creighton took out their rotation and put in the scrubs, we had had 65 possessions, and Creighton scored 91 points (it was 91-65).
This means that our defense gave up 1.40 points per possession. It is hard to overemphasize just how bad this is. It is literally the equivalent of letting a 70% free throw shooter take two free throws every possession. The very worst defense in Division 1 (Tennessee Martin) gives up bout 1.23 a possession. I realize we have a depleted roster, but this isn't simply not having players. This is objectively terrible, awful, putrid defense.
I have zero faith that the current staff can coach a decent defense, which is a major problem. This is, by far, the worst defensive team Georgetown has had in the last 20+ years, and it has gotten worse every year with this staff. This is not a matter of individuals defending better. The scheme and coaching approach needs to change. If I were Ewing, I would make hiring a defensive guru assistant the top off-season priority.
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guru
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Post by guru on Mar 6, 2020 11:12:39 GMT -5
There is a big tendency these days to focus on the lack of roster, and be done with it. But, that hides that incredibly horrific defensive performance we had against Creighton, perhaps the worst I have seen from our team. When Creighton took out their rotation and put in the scrubs, we had had 65 possessions, and Creighton scored 91 points (it was 91-65). This means that our defense gave up 1.40 points per possession. It is hard to overemphasize just how bad this is. It is literally the equivalent of letting a 70% free throw shooter take two free throws every possession. The very worst defense in Division 1 (Tennessee Martin) gives up bout 1.23 a possession. I realize we have a depleted roster, but this isn't simply not having players. This is objectively terrible, awful, putrid defense. I have zero faith that the current staff can coach a decent defense, which is a major problem. This is, by far, the worst defensive team Georgetown has had in the last 20+ years, and it has gotten worse every year with this staff. This is not a matter of individuals defending better. The scheme and coaching approach needs to change. If I were Ewing, I would make hiring a defensive guru assistant the top off-season priority. The defense has been awful for Ewing’s entire tenure. It’s frustrating.
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drquigley
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Post by drquigley on Mar 6, 2020 11:31:09 GMT -5
This may be a problem with NBA players who become coaches. The philosophy is run and gun and outscore your opponents. It works in the NBA when you have all star caliber players. Mullin seemed to share this philosophy. Don't know what Hardaway's numbers are.
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Post by FrazierFanatic on Mar 6, 2020 12:26:06 GMT -5
A small part of the problem this season is that guys who would have been some if our best defenders left in December. But obviously the problems on that end of the court go beyond that. Effective defense requires (1)personnel, (2)scheme/system, and (3)technique. Agree that this needs to be a major emphasis from here on out, although for next seasin having, so many new guys needing to learn the offensive sets will require practice time that then can't be devoted to defense.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Mar 6, 2020 12:36:58 GMT -5
A small part of the problem this season is that guys who would have been some if our best defenders left in December. But obviously the problems on that end of the court go beyond that. Effective defense requires (1)personnel, (2)scheme/system, and (3)technique. Agree that this needs to be a major emphasis from here on out, although for next seasin having, so many new guys needing to learn the offensive sets will require practice time that then can't be devoted to defense. Clearly, we would have been better off if the 4 guys did not leave. That being said, our defense was pretty bad all season, even when we had them, plus similarly bad the last two seasons. My argument would be that despite our sub-optimal personnel situation, that a well coached defense could have done significantly better than what we saw this season (and last season). Look at Virginia. They are #1 in defense, and #235 in offense, yet they are ranked 45 overall on KenPom, and sit at 22-7, 14-5 in the ACC. I would argue that a good defense is even more important than a good offense, and thus, I think the defensive focus simply needs to be there. Frankly, if we have the 130th best defense, it won't matter if our new guys learn the offense or not. I realize it's a tough spot with young players, since you have limited time, but I think the emphasis needs to be on defense. My biggest concern is that when questioned about it earlier in the year, Ewing often returned to talking about individual defense. I agree that good individual defense is the baseline (and true for every team, that's nothing unique to Georgetown), but frankly, the team coordination and efforts simply have not been there, and after that happens over the course of three seasons, it's not the individual players that are primarily responsible.
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miracles87
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Post by miracles87 on Mar 6, 2020 13:21:09 GMT -5
The Hoyas ran into a buzzsaw, no doubt. Again, Creighton was on fire, and there is only so much that you can do in that scenario. The Hoyas were without a 7 footer, a couple 6’ 8” guys and a 6’5” guy from the initial roster, and though the D was spotty throughout the early season, the length an physicality was giving teams problems. Guys like LeBlanc, Alexander and Gardner are invaluable when disrupting an opponents offense, I certainly don’t think Ewing recruited them by accident. I have every confidence we will be long and athletic and deep for the remaining, and hopefully many, years with Ewing at the helm.
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Post by FrazierFanatic on Mar 6, 2020 13:27:33 GMT -5
I agree that the staff has not done the job on our defense. And to some extent it is even more important for the players to be able to work together as a unit on defense than on offense; miss an assignment on offense and we have to go through the next option, but miss an assignment on defense and we watch a layup or a three pointer go through the net. Is anyone aware of any specific defense-oriented assistants that might be available in April or May?
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Mar 6, 2020 15:38:58 GMT -5
The Hoyas ran into a buzzsaw, no doubt. Again, Creighton was on fire, and there is only so much that you can do in that scenario. The Hoyas were without a 7 footer, a couple 6’ 8” guys and a 6’5” guy from the initial roster, and though the D was spotty throughout the early season, the length an physicality was giving teams problems. Guys like LeBlanc, Alexander and Gardner are invaluable when disrupting an opponents offense, I certainly don’t think Ewing recruited them by accident. I have every confidence we will be long and athletic and deep for the remaining, and hopefully many, years with Ewing at the helm. The problem is that even when we had those players, the other teams caught fire. When you constantly rotate badly and leave the other team with wide open threes, the odds they will be "on fire" grows substantially. This is why defense is so important. As I've said, I totally agree that losing our better players hurt this year but that ignores that even if you account for the depleted roster, the defense has still be way worse than it should be.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Mar 6, 2020 15:40:43 GMT -5
I agree that the staff has not done the job on our defense. And to some extent it is even more important for the players to be able to work together as a unit on defense than on offense; miss an assignment on offense and we have to go through the next option, but miss an assignment on defense and we watch a layup or a three pointer go through the net. Is anyone aware of any specific defense-oriented assistants that might be available in April or May? Right now, Texas is sort of on the bubble. I don't follow them closely enough to know whether Shaka's recent string of wins will save his job, but if he gets fired, Luke Yaklich would likely be available, and would be a great hire.
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drquigley
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Post by drquigley on Mar 6, 2020 16:09:20 GMT -5
This may be a problem with NBA players who become coaches. The philosophy is run and gun and outscore your opponents. It works in the NBA when you have all star caliber players. Mullin seemed to share this philosophy. Don't know what Hardaway's numbers are. I had second thoughts after posting this. I still believe former NBA players who become coaches probably focus more on offense since most of those players were stars because of their offense. But I also now think that Ewing was loading up on athletic forwards who could have given opponents fits on defense. Would we be #1 in defense if those guys hadn't left? No. But we sure as hell would be a lot better. And don't forget how much better we'd be defensively if guys knew they didn't have to play 40 minutes a game. Could be much more aggressive because they would get breathers and also wouldn't have to worry as much about fouing. I know I've become a broken record but you really have to throw this year out when evaluating PE -- unless these practice injuries and transfers become a recurring theme.
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hoyainla
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Post by hoyainla on Mar 6, 2020 16:12:55 GMT -5
The Hoyas ran into a buzzsaw, no doubt. Again, Creighton was on fire, and there is only so much that you can do in that scenario. The Hoyas were without a 7 footer, a couple 6’ 8” guys and a 6’5” guy from the initial roster, and though the D was spotty throughout the early season, the length an physicality was giving teams problems. Guys like LeBlanc, Alexander and Gardner are invaluable when disrupting an opponents offense, I certainly don’t think Ewing recruited them by accident. I have every confidence we will be long and athletic and deep for the remaining, and hopefully many, years with Ewing at the helm. Creighton was no doubt hot all night but lets say they just shoot their average from 3. That would've been 5 less makes so 15 points. Even taking those away our PPP against their non scrubs was 1.17. That is AWFUL. BE teams know how to punish Ewing's defense. Last year and this year in conference play we have given up the most 3Pt attempts. This year we have combined that with the worst % against for a hell of a combo. Ewing is going to have to take a long look in the mirror after the season and realize the game done changed and he has to adapt. The 3 pointer is the key to the game, on both offense and defense, no matter if he or anyone here likes it or not.
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Post by professorhoya on Mar 6, 2020 16:17:18 GMT -5
This may be a problem with NBA players who become coaches. The philosophy is run and gun and outscore your opponents. It works in the NBA when you have all star caliber players. Mullin seemed to share this philosophy. Don't know what Hardaway's numbers are. I had second thoughts after posting this. I still believe former NBA players who become coaches probably focus more on offense since most of those players were stars because of their offense. But I also now think that Ewing was loading up on athletic forwards who could have given opponents fits on defense. Would we be #1 in defense if those guys hadn't left? No. But we sure as hell would be a lot better. And don't forget how much better we'd be defensively if guys knew they didn't have to play 40 minutes a game. Could be much more aggressive because they would get breathers and also wouldn't have to worry as much about fouing. I know I've become a broken record but you really have to throw this year out when evaluating PE -- unless these practice injuries and transfers become a recurring theme. John Thomson was a former NBA player
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hoyainla
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Post by hoyainla on Mar 6, 2020 16:21:52 GMT -5
This may be a problem with NBA players who become coaches. The philosophy is run and gun and outscore your opponents. It works in the NBA when you have all star caliber players. Mullin seemed to share this philosophy. Don't know what Hardaway's numbers are. I had second thoughts after posting this. I still believe former NBA players who become coaches probably focus more on offense since most of those players were stars because of their offense. But I also now think that Ewing was loading up on athletic forwards who could have given opponents fits on defense. Would we be #1 in defense if those guys hadn't left? No. But we sure as hell would be a lot better. And don't forget how much better we'd be defensively if guys knew they didn't have to play 40 minutes a game. Could be much more aggressive because they would get breathers and also wouldn't have to worry as much about fouing. I know I've become a broken record but you really have to throw this year out when evaluating PE -- unless these practice injuries and transfers become a recurring theme. There is no way of knowing what would've happened. That being said chances are we would've been better but likely not enough to matter because we were pretty bad with a full roster. Our defense has been a disaster every year Ewing has been coach. This is not a 1 year thing caused by the defections. We were 133 in KenPom last year and 134 now. We are often getting blown out at the beginning of games so the fatigue excuse doesn't work. It's not only a player problem, it's a scheme/philosophy problem.
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Mar 6, 2020 16:32:31 GMT -5
I had second thoughts after posting this. I still believe former NBA players who become coaches probably focus more on offense since most of those players were stars because of their offense. But I also now think that Ewing was loading up on athletic forwards who could have given opponents fits on defense. Would we be #1 in defense if those guys hadn't left? No. But we sure as hell would be a lot better. And don't forget how much better we'd be defensively if guys knew they didn't have to play 40 minutes a game. Could be much more aggressive because they would get breathers and also wouldn't have to worry as much about fouing. I know I've become a broken record but you really have to throw this year out when evaluating PE -- unless these practice injuries and transfers become a recurring theme. There is no way of knowing what would've happened. That being said chances are we would've been better but likely not enough to matter because we were pretty bad with a full roster. Our defense has been a disaster every year Ewing has been coach. This is not a 1 year thing caused by the defections. We were 133 in KenPom last year and 134 now. We are often getting blown out at the beginning of games so the fatigue excuse doesn't work. It's not only a player problem, it's a scheme/philosophy problem. Yes, it also forgets that the same roster was in place for 2018-2019, essentially. Govan and Yurtseven swapped places (arguably, I think Govan was more valuable, but we can leave that debate for the offseason when we are all bored), Alexander and Gardner were new. Wahab is clearly better than Trey Mourning ever was. And yet, our three point defense % was still pretty bad, though not as bad as it was this year. I feel like too many people are using the "we lost 4 guys" excuse as a way to ignore the fact that real problems exist in our defensive approach, regardless of the departures. Our defense the last three years is ranked 134 (this year), 133, and 119. It's consistently terrible. Put another way, the only major conference teams* with worse defense than us are: Boston College, Wake Forest, St. John's, Utah, Washington St. and California. So, outside the Pac 12, only three teams are worse than us on defense, and one of them is a St. John's team that had been decimated by Mullin. That's not a good place to be. *I did not include the AAC, but even adding them, there are only three more worse than us (SMU, East Carolina, and Tulane).
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rlo24
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Post by rlo24 on Mar 6, 2020 16:33:45 GMT -5
There is a big tendency these days to focus on the lack of roster, and be done with it. But, that hides that incredibly horrific defensive performance we had against Creighton, perhaps the worst I have seen from our team. When Creighton took out their rotation and put in the scrubs, we had had 65 possessions, and Creighton scored 91 points (it was 91-65). This means that our defense gave up 1.40 points per possession. It is hard to overemphasize just how bad this is. It is literally the equivalent of letting a 70% free throw shooter take two free throws every possession. The very worst defense in Division 1 (Tennessee Martin) gives up bout 1.23 a possession. I realize we have a depleted roster, but this isn't simply not having players. This is objectively terrible, awful, putrid defense. I have zero faith that the current staff can coach a decent defense, which is a major problem. This is, by far, the worst defensive team Georgetown has had in the last 20+ years, and it has gotten worse every year with this staff. This is not a matter of individuals defending better. The scheme and coaching approach needs to change. If I were Ewing, I would make hiring a defensive guru assistant the top off-season priority. Totally agree. We give Mac a hard time for his defense, but I feel for him as I don't think he is getting the coaching needed to improve in significant ways. I've said it before, but I put that on coaching rather than him. I think the Creighton game is an example of that. Mac did not play (he is overly blamed for how bad our defense is) and we played horrible defense. There MANY college teams with a ton less talent that play much better defense.. that lands on the coaching.
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Post by FrazierFanatic on Mar 6, 2020 19:11:12 GMT -5
With the exception of Jagan - and time be honest I think he tends to overplay 35 feet from the basket too often - we don't have good positional defenders, which results in getting blown by off the dribble, help defenders leaving their man for open 3's, etc. Couple that with the frequent problems with being overly aggressive on the high hedge - the result is a defensive mess.
A lot of work to do. With a raft of new players coming in, this is the time to emphasize and work on the defensive end right from the start. And a defensive oriented coach would be a huge help.
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miracles87
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Post by miracles87 on Mar 6, 2020 21:00:03 GMT -5
This may be a problem with NBA players who become coaches. The philosophy is run and gun and outscore your opponents. It works in the NBA when you have all star caliber players. Mullin seemed to share this philosophy. Don't know what Hardaway's numbers are. I had second thoughts after posting this. I still believe former NBA players who become coaches probably focus more on offense since most of those players were stars because of their offense. But I also now think that Ewing was loading up on athletic forwards who could have given opponents fits on defense. Would we be #1 in defense if those guys hadn't left? No. But we sure as hell would be a lot better. And don't forget how much better we'd be defensively if guys knew they didn't have to play 40 minutes a game. Could be much more aggressive because they would get breathers and also wouldn't have to worry as much about fouing. I know I've become a broken record but you really have to throw this year out when evaluating PE -- unless these practice injuries and transfers become a recurring theme. Not to mention that those Ewing Knick teams weren't exactly running and gunning. More like plugging and mugging..
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mdtd
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Post by mdtd on Mar 6, 2020 21:03:06 GMT -5
I agree that the staff has not done the job on our defense. And to some extent it is even more important for the players to be able to work together as a unit on defense than on offense; miss an assignment on offense and we have to go through the next option, but miss an assignment on defense and we watch a layup or a three pointer go through the net. Is anyone aware of any specific defense-oriented assistants that might be available in April or May? Right now, Texas is sort of on the bubble. I don't follow them closely enough to know whether Shaka's recent string of wins will save his job, but if he gets fired, Luke Yaklich would likely be available, and would be a great hire. Shaka has a $10.5 Million dollar buyout. It doesn't seem Texas wants to pay that as a football school. Combine that with the fact that they appear on the right side of the bubble, I find the odds pretty slim they fire him. Though Yaklich would work wonders for this defense.
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miracles87
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Post by miracles87 on Mar 6, 2020 23:11:48 GMT -5
There is a big tendency these days to focus on the lack of roster, and be done with it. But, that hides that incredibly horrific defensive performance we had against Creighton, perhaps the worst I have seen from our team. When Creighton took out their rotation and put in the scrubs, we had had 65 possessions, and Creighton scored 91 points (it was 91-65). This means that our defense gave up 1.40 points per possession. It is hard to overemphasize just how bad this is. It is literally the equivalent of letting a 70% free throw shooter take two free throws every possession. The very worst defense in Division 1 (Tennessee Martin) gives up bout 1.23 a possession. I realize we have a depleted roster, but this isn't simply not having players. This is objectively terrible, awful, putrid defense. I have zero faith that the current staff can coach a decent defense, which is a major problem. This is, by far, the worst defensive team Georgetown has had in the last 20+ years, and it has gotten worse every year with this staff. This is not a matter of individuals defending better. The scheme and coaching approach needs to change. If I were Ewing, I would make hiring a defensive guru assistant the top off-season priority. The Hoyas who played at Creighton Wednesday accounted for 73 of the 200 minutes played by Hoyas in the Duke game, and only 2 players of the top 8 in minutes played. The 9th and 10th Hoyas against Duke in minutes played were Jahvon and Terrell, who combined for 73 minutes played against Creighton. Stats As far as objectively terrible, awful, putrid defense, have you heard about that Hoyas team that gave up 75% shooting for the game, and, :::gulp::: 90% shooting in the second half? Now THAT was a terrible, terrible, putrid, rancid, pathetic, lazy and half-hearted Hoya D, I can tell you! Yes, enjoy watching these guys compete over the next two to eleven games they play, and be done with it.
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drquigley
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Post by drquigley on Mar 7, 2020 13:21:19 GMT -5
I had second thoughts after posting this. I still believe former NBA players who become coaches probably focus more on offense since most of those players were stars because of their offense. But I also now think that Ewing was loading up on athletic forwards who could have given opponents fits on defense. Would we be #1 in defense if those guys hadn't left? No. But we sure as hell would be a lot better. And don't forget how much better we'd be defensively if guys knew they didn't have to play 40 minutes a game. Could be much more aggressive because they would get breathers and also wouldn't have to worry as much about fouing. I know I've become a broken record but you really have to throw this year out when evaluating PE -- unless these practice injuries and transfers become a recurring theme. John Thomson was a former NBA player John Thompson averaged 3.5 points per game. Never an NBA caliber scorer.
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