ndjaysfan wrote:A few thoughts on the Jays' defensive woes:
1. CU's interior defense has actually been pretty darn good this year. I can't think of a single big man all year who has had a memorable game against us. Meanwhile, we've produced some very good defensive efforts against some quality interior players (Stutz, Carmichael, etc.). In related news, we are a good but not great defensive rebounding team.
2. Our perimeter defense is definitely below average and the weakness of our team. This has created two main problems. One, we force a disturbingly low number of turnovers largely due to our lack of effective ball pressure. Second, our lack of length and quickness on the perimeter and the fact that we do not have anything close to a defensive stopper leaves us very vulnerable to hot shooters.
3. Everbody in Omaha is up in arms about our bad defense over the last four games and considering our last four opponents have all shot over 50% and three of them have shot better than 58%, it's easy to understand the concern. That said, I think some credit has to be given to our last four opponents. Every opponent that has played us all year has had the opportunity to "go off" from the outside. Our perimeter defense has been sketchy all year. During our 11 game winning streak, teams weren't taking advantage. At the moment, our opponents are red hot - those things happen. Just look at Wichita - I don't think that our defense was significantly worse in Omaha but Ragland, Kyles, etc. were all hitting, whether they were open or not. In Wichita, their shot selection was poor and their shots were off but they had plenty of open looks that afternoon as well.
We are what we are. We are a great offensive team and an average defensive team. But because we're a pretty good defensive team down low, teams have to hit shots to take advantage of our weakness. Teams have been making a lot of shots against us these last couple weeks but who knows if that will continue into March.
Excellent analysis, ndjaysfan. I would add that Hall from WSU had a pretty big game against us in that first match up, and St. Joe's had that freak off the bench (Roberts?) who ate us up inside. But apart from that, our interior D has been solid, particularly Greg E. And the inability to create turnovers is just so frustrating...this is where you can generate points when your shots aren't falling, and I'm pretty sure we are the worst in the league at that.
But you are right: we are what we are: A team with a lot of offensive talent, average or below average athleticism, some glaring weaknesses on defense, but with a fair amount of toughness and tenacity (certainly much more than last year). It's translated to 24-5, 13-4 in a strong year for the conference. I was hoping for an MVC crown, but I'll still take this.
