College Basketball - Don’t be a dinosaur

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Ok, how would you of recommended they fix the defense? They were a sub-100 defense with one of the best defensive minds in the country coaching them. Coach is even on record as saying that not being the best at defense may just be who our players were.

Dude.

WSU's defense efficiency went from #13 to #111 WITH THE SAME PLAYERS!

Chris Jans left. His new team rose from #124 defensively to #16 in his first year as head coach.
Greg Heiar left. His new team rose from #280 defensively to #124 in his first year as an assistant coach.

I don't need to give you a single X or O to show you how obvious it is that "one of the best defensive minds in the country" either:
A) Isn't all that great without his wingmen Chris and Greg.
B) Tried something different this year and clearly failed massively.

What to do differently? Whatever they were doing right in 2017.

Why is this so hard?

[jdshock]

WSU's defense efficiency went from #13 to #111
Chris Jans's new team rose from #124 defensively to #16
Greg Heiar's new team rose from #280 defensively to #124

The more I think about it... we never should've let Daishon go. He single handedly caused us to fall 100 spots in defensive efficiency.

[Rlh04d]

MVP, really.

[Dan]

it's pretty simple, we lost 2 great assistant coaches and joined a more athletic league that was able to expose our weaknesses. Coach has said all along we need to bring in higher level players that can better compete in this league. Hopefully we are doing that.

[Rlh04d]

I don't buy the better league argument. We got eviscerated by Marshall, South Dakota St, FGCU, Arkansas State, and California. Only two of those were even a top 100 offense, and Marshall only by the skin of their teeth.

It's not like our problems started when we began league play. The same team that more than held their own on defense in the nonconference last year (except against Oklahoma St) got repeatedly bludgeoned in this year's noncon.

Completely take league play out of the picture and the difference is still striking how much worse this team was defensively. Zero evidence that the league had anything to do with our numbers.

[Cdizzle]

Lots of interesting dynamics in play this year.

Were we way better offensively this year, or did we play a ton of teams that didn't know every play before it started?

Were we way worse defensively, or were we some worse defensively but were scouting 2 new teams every week?

Tough to lose 2 great assistants, one of whom is maybe the best scout assistant out there, going in to a better league and needing a new scout on 11 teams.

It is what it is. Onward and onward!

[Rlh04d]

Again, ignore league play. We were clearly better on offense and worse on defense when you eliminate the conference games. You could blame that on McDuffies absence, and we did, but then he contributed almost nothing after returning.

[Kel Varnsen]

Dude.

WSU's defense efficiency went from #13 to #111 WITH THE SAME PLAYERS!

Chris Jans left. His new team rose from #124 defensively to #16 in his first year as head coach.
Greg Heiar left. His new team rose from #280 defensively to #124 in his first year as an assistant coach.

I don't need to give you a single X or O to show you how obvious it is that "one of the best defensive minds in the country" either:
A) Isn't all that great without his wingmen Chris and Greg.
B) Tried something different this year and clearly failed massively.

What to do differently? Whatever they were doing right in 2017.

Why is this so hard?

Very true. Part of it has been better competition, but part of it is that Chris Jans is one of the best minds in CBB and he is no longer on our bench.

[AZ Shocker]

Losing both those assistant coaches was killer. Wasn't Coach Heiar the coach that had that awesome video of our guys doing a dribble drill video showing how ballhandleling was mastered? Plus...had Jans still been on the bench...I honestly don't think we lose to Marshall. Both those guys were top notch in the biz.

[kochHead]

When Jans left for BG we went from #11 to number #15 in AdjD. Not a statistically significant difference. Also, Jans' BG team dropped from #45 to #105 in AdjD. Overall, they ended much better due to moving up several hundred spots offensively.

Since we still had Hier and a group of gritty veterans, maybe they kept the thing rolling without missing a beat. The point is, Jans is a great coach, but he is not the Albert Einstein of college basketball, and his absence may have contributed to the drop off, but it was just one variable. Whatever the case all these variables should be accounted for by a good leader. If we need better staff, we will get better staff. If we need better players...they're on the way. If we need more cow bell, we'll get more cow bell.

Gregg doesn't settle, and I am willing to bet the necessary changes are being made to address our defensive woes.

[choida]

Without sounding rude.. We all know in the back of our minds that the entire senior class this year was inconsistent... except Shaq & Willis... The best logic I can listen to is that this team regressed from last year... McDuffie and Reaves should be poised to improve but this year both fell short of expectations... especially the last few weeks of the season. The lights seemed to bright for few players... And the fan base was left puzzled due to how we fared against Kentucky last year in March. 3G is bringing in an entire new stable of talent... So here's to 2018-2019

[ShockingButTrue]

If Jans meant so much to the Shockers success, then how did we beat the the Hoosiers and the Chickens without him?

[Aargh]

We still had the on-court coaching of Baker and VanVleet. We might like to think of them as really nice guys, but that wasn't what they brought to practices and games. If Fred or Ron told someone where to be and what to do, there weren't any questions asked. Players wouldn't dare cross those guys.

We could handle losing Jans. We couldn't handle losing Jans, VanVleet, and Baker There was no drop off as long as either Jans or Baker and VanVleet were in the house.

With all the new assistants, the players only had to defy one person (Marshall) in order to do whatever they wanted. There were probably a couple of players this year who didn't have the fortitude and discipline we're used to from former teams.

[jdshock]

If Jans meant so much to the Shockers success, then how did we beat the the Hoosiers and the Chickens without him?

We all know how we beat the bad teams without him. It's just a question of how we beat any good teams without him.

[Cdizzle]

Glad somebody handled that softball.

[BOBB]

To try to bridge the divide...
I think this article says as much about our defense game plan as our offense. Our players and schemes are designed to defend the old school (pre Golden State) offenses. We have always been susceptible to the spread floor guard drive, even in our good years. Just not a ton of teams ran it.

[proshox]

Exactly. The two concepts are intertwined. The basics of a plus / minus by lineup concept should tell you all you really need to know.

[kellykemnitz]

Really makes me wonder if we will start to see more zone defense, not just us, but overall in college basketball. KU and Duke went to them. With officiating catered to guard play, and guards drawing a foul anytime they drive towards the basket, I think the game may move to more zone. Heck, even the NBA allows it now. Cause and effect of a Golden State offense.

[WuShock Reaper]

Of the 16 teams still left in the NCAA Tourney, according to Kenpom Rankings:

8 of them ranked in the top 25 for offense
10 of them ranked in the top 25 for defense
4 of them ranked in the top 25 for both offensive and defense

Wouldn't we have expected the offensive teams to be more numerous if offense was the driving factor for a team's success?

[Husker4Shockers]

I would say this: if you're gonna play big guys, keep them where big guys belong. Our bigs spent way too much time thinking they were shooting guards.

[12eagle]

Shaq scored at 1.18 points per possession on 3 point attempts vs 1.009 on post ups
Willis Scored at 1.067 on 3 point attempts vs .913 on post ups

Both big men were more efficient from the 3 point line than they were on post ups.

[Rlh04d]

12eagle with numbers! Great point.

[Husker4Shockers]

The point is, if you're going to play an offense where you want to feed the post, it's hard to do when the post player isn't there. I also wonder how many offensive rebounds they missed out on when they were hanging around out there?

[WuShock Reaper]

"Does Defense Win Championships In College Basketball?" - The Sports Quotient

by Joe Ilardi
Posted: 17 February 2018, 11:50 AM

http://thesportsquotient.com/ncaa-bb/2018/2/17/does-defense-win-championships-in-college-basketball

"Defense wins championships.” It’s a universal truth in sports.

At least, that’s what we think. But the phrase really only tells half the story in college basketball.

It’s no question defense is vital for a championship team, but offense is just as important. Squads with both a formidable offense and defense have the best shot at winning it all.

In the KenPom era – from 2002 to present, the past 16 seasons – we can analyze every team’s adjusted offensive (adjO) and defensive (adjD) efficiency. This goes beyond points per game. It’s a measure of how many points a team puts up and allows per 100 possessions.

Teams that bring home the title usually have top-notch defenses. Fifteen of the last 16 champions posted a top-15 KenPom defensive efficiency. It would seem, then, that defense is a vital ingredient for success in March.

But the numbers don’t end there: the same thing can be said about offense. Thirteen of the last 16 champions were top-15 KenPom offenses.

This means that teams who are talented on both sides of the ball will win. In the past 16 seasons, three out of every four national champs ranked in the top 15 for both adjusted defensive and offensive efficiency.

	Final Four	Won Championship
Top 15 both adjD and adjO	11	12
Top 15 adjO only	13	1
Top 15 adjD only	17	3
Top 15 in neither category	7	0

In that same time frame, roughly 22 percent of teams who were top 15 in both categories won the title. Of teams that were only top 15 in one category, just two percent were crowned champions. Squads ranking in both categories have a much higher success rate in bringing home a championship...."

[12eagle]

Here is something interesting, last season we played 12 games against the kenpom top 100 and gave up 99.26 pointer per 100 possessions. This year in 16 games vs the top 100 we gave up 108.97. Now here is where it gets interesting. In our 12 games against the top 100 last year Mcduffie and Zach Brown started together 7 of them and we gave up 94.24 points per 100 possessions. In the 5 games the did not start together we gave up 106.3 points per 100 possessions.
This is a prime example of how playing small helped our defence last season. Time and time again we played two five men together and it rarely worked. Very rarely did Mcduffie and brown ever play together this year let alone start together. I know Mcduffie was hurt some of the year but you would have thought we would have explored this lineup at some point see as how we had so much success the previous year with it.

[12eagle]

To carry this to offence last year we averaged 111.28 points per 100 possessions when Mcduffie and Brown started vs kenpom top 100 teams. Games they didn't start we were 102.2. This season we were 113 points per 100 possessions.

[Aargh]

There are a lot more teams that have a lot more good 3-point shooters than there were a few years ago (I think, I don't have advanced metrics to support or refute this). Either that or maybe we played a lot of teams that have a lot more 3-point shooters this year.

We're seeing skinny posts who are great rim protectors who can hit from 3. Stretch 4's are no longer a novelty. Perimeter players who can hit from 3 at a better rate than Frankamp get to the line a lot because they can drive to the bucket and get fouls when they do.

There are hundreds of guys in gyms every night shooting 500 or 1,000 3 balls. That's led to hundreds of guys who can scorch a D from deep. So, put 4 guys on the perimeter and give the ball to your guy who can drive to the hoop. The Shox reaction to that is to sag into the paint to prevent Morris from fouling out in 12 minutes. That leaves shooters open on the perimeter, and they can hit from there when they're not guarded.

Any more questions about why guys shooting 30% on the season hit 40% against the Shox?

Small guards have to be able to play "in your jock" D to prevent open 3's and still stay between their guy and the basket. If a small guard has to back off a step or two to prevent dribble penetration, he can't get to a shooter in time that the shooter can't shoot over the top of him. Between height and arm length a 6'4" guard has about a 6" advantage over a 6' guard when interfering with a shot. The taller guys can play off a little further and still contest.