Basketball team defense

[msstate7]

What's going wrong? Through 2 games, we're giving up an avg of 82 points a game against not very good competition. Ray, for all his faults, seemed to always have us play decent team defense with a less talented team. I know games are called tighter, but other sec teams aren't getting shredded like this. Is Howland just spending most our practice time to get the offense like he wants right now? Has Howland got away from what made him successful (defense) to start with?

I'm in no way insinuating that I'm unhappy with Howland... I think he's gonna be successful here

[starkvegasdawg]

I was at the first game and to me it seemed like Eastern Washington was a little too quick for our bigs down in the paint. They were a smaller faster team and I think that gave us problems...especially Ndoye. I've never seen a guy 7' tall have that much trouble playing a game geared towards tall people. It's like watching a fat guy struggling at an eating contest. I also think a lot of it has to do with how little you have to do to get a foul called now. It is obscene how little contact gets a whistle. I'm hoping that now that Newman is able to play and they can practice with their normal rotation and adjust to the new rules that they will gel and get it together. But, the fact remains that this is primarily the same team as last year and we all know what a rip roaring juggarnaut they were on the hardwood. We may have pushed the hype button a little quick on this season. Easy to do with Newman on board and the huge splash in recruiting we are having, but we may need to step back from the ledge just a little bit. I was as caught up in it as the next person but we may want to consider the NIT a success this season.

[Irondawg]

Eastern Washington is a good team that has a good offense. They were 3rd in the nation in scoring last year. I didn't think we played great defense but it was a C effort. Last night was a F effort in the first half and about a C- in the 2nd. We let Southern get extremely comfortable in their sets. We should have tried to press some earlier in the game b/c they struggled with that against our speed and lenght

[maroonmania]

Eastern Washington is a good team that has a good offense. They were 3rd in the nation in scoring last year. I didn't think we played great defense but it was a C effort. Last night was a F effort in the first half and about a C- in the 2nd. We let Southern get extremely comfortable in their sets. We should have tried to press some earlier in the game b/c they struggled with that against our speed and lenght

Well, being honest about what we've seen so far, other than the big run midway through the second half of the EW game, its not been very impressive. We have definitely improved offensively but probably regressed as much defensively. Its still early though and some adjustment period to a new style is understandable.

[smootness]

Ray's teams weren't very good defensively. The overall numbers look decent because we slowed games down and played fewer possessions. We were 5th or 6th in the SEC in scoring defense, but when looking at points allowed per possession, that dropped to T-11th.

We have limitations in that Ware is a big body but only 6'9" and not extremely athletic, so a lot of bigs can get around him; our best perimeter defenders (Thomas and Houston) are often liabilities on offense; and Ready can't really play defense. We need Newman to be a good defender, and I'm not sure he will be.

[rolodawg]

We have no rim protector!

[Prediction? Pain.]

Ray's teams weren't very good defensively. The overall numbers look decent because we slowed games down and played fewer possessions. We were 5th or 6th in the SEC in scoring defense, but when looking at points allowed per possession, that dropped to T-11th.

You're absolutely right. Under Ray, State's point-per-possession defense was awful. In his three years, we never ranked higher than 100th in the country at point-per-possession defense. And it's even worse when you look at our opponents' shooting percentage over those three years -- ranked 212th nationally in '12-'13, 239th in '13-'14, and 103rd in '14-'15. That's pretty horrific. (And yeah, that was awful in the context of the SEC as well. Our field-goal-percentage defense was 10th in the SEC last year, and 13th and 14th the two years before that.) Throw in the fact that our average national rank at defensive-rebounding-percentage in Ray's three years was 228th, and you get a program that was almost as inept on defense as it was on offense. I'm not saying Howland shouldn't take ownership of the loss or that he bears no responsibility for having the team playing like poo on both sides of the floor. But the team in inherited was in really, really rough shape.

[mstatefan91]

We play defense as bad as we did last night but cut turnovers in half, and we win that game.

[Prediction? Pain.]

We play defense as bad as we did last night but cut turnovers in half, and we win that game.

You're right. And unfortunately, that's another terrible habit Howland is going to have to correct. In fact, after looking at the actual numbers, it appears that the turnover monster Ray created is even worse than the other issues we've been talking about.

Get this: In the '12 - '13 season, Ray's first, we were 342nd in the nation at turnovers per possession. That's out of 347 teams, people. In '13 - '14 and '14 - '15, it wasn't really any better -- 292nd and 337th. And no, that wasn't a problem Ray inherited -- in '11 - '12, we were 50th in the same category. (He didn't directly inherit it, that is. I'm sure his roster issues in year 1 made it difficult to do much of anything even halfway well.)

[tcdog70]

We play defense as bad as we did last night but cut turnovers in half, and we win that game.

you are correct Sir. If you fail to play good "D" then have to make free throws and have very few Turn overs. We did neither.

[sleepy dawg]

What's going wrong? Through 2 games, we're giving up an avg of 82 points a game against not very good competition. Ray, for all his faults, seemed to always have us play decent team defense with a less talented team. I know games are called tighter, but other sec teams aren't getting shredded like this. Is Howland just spending most our practice time to get the offense like he wants right now? Has Howland got away from what made him successful (defense) to start with?

I'm in no way insinuating that I'm unhappy with Howland... I think he's gonna be successful here

Not saying our D has been good, but you can expect way higher averages in scoring this year all the way around regardless of the caliber of defense. It's a different game now due to the rule changes.... not a better game, mind you.