Houston Game: The Deffensive Effort

[The RUT]

Have we discussed this yet?

Obviously we played unbelievable on the defensive side of the ball on Sunday. For the first time in a long time I really felt like we had some "dawgs" out there on the court.

My question is, why? What happened?

I don't mean to take a great thing and turn it sour, but it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Where was that all season? Even at 75% of that effort I think we win 3-4 more games during the regular season and we don't even run into Houston in the 2nd round.

Thoughts?

 

[RUJMM78]

Its all about match ups and sustaining defense for a full 40 minutes.which is difficult to do against a highly ranked opponent.Too many offensive rebounds by Houston and excessive fouling by Rutgers turned the tide from a win to a loss.The failure to score along with turnovers were also a contributing factors.

 

[MLBash93]

Bc houston is just a bunch of inner city kids (minus grimes) that can't shoot

 

[AreYouNUTS]

What was Chuck’s quote:

“ain’t no way I’m hell they’re holding Houston to 60”???

Well, almost, it truly was one hell of an effort for 95% of the game. Like a PHENOMENAL one. Unfortunately the last few minutes I think our legs got a little tired and tight.

 

[The RUT]

What was Chuck’s quote:

“ain’t no way I’m hell they’re holding Houston to 60”???

Well, almost, it truly was one hell of an effort for 95% of the game. Like a PHENOMENAL one. Unfortunately the last few minutes I think our legs got a little tired and tight.

Maybe so, but the point still stands. If we brought that kind of defensive effort to all of our B1G games I think we add 3-4 wins.

 

[RUPete]

I felt so good about our chances at the half because we looked like we were executing exactly as planned.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Maybe so, but the point still stands. If we brought that kind of defensive effort to all of our B1G games I think we add 3-4 wins.

2 thoughts:

- there were def issues in the locker room that affected our play in many games this past year

- the weight that was on this team’s shoulders didn’t help

But, YES, it would’ve won a few more games.

 

[RUPete]

2 thoughts:

- there were def issues in the locker room that affected our play in many games this past year

- the weight that was on this team’s shoulders didn’t help

But, YES, it would’ve won a few more games.

Regarding the issues in the locker room (not going to ask what they were specifically because I think if posters felt comfortable sharing here they would have already)- do you think the isolation/quarantine played a significant role in that? For example, in a normal year when guys could get their space and have some of their own outlets, would these issues have surfaced or not been a big deal?

 

[The RUT]

- there were def issues in the locker room that affected our play in many games this past year

A few guys said they thought they knew what went down and would speak on it during the off-season.

I would be very curious to hear what they are thinking.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Regarding the issues in the locker room (not going to ask what they were specifically because I think if posters felt comfortable sharing here they would have already)- do you think the isolation/quarantine played a significant role in that? For example, in a normal year when guys could get their space and have some of their own outlets, would these issues have surfaced or not been a big deal?

No doubt Pete! Just like I feel strongly that the B1G’s play in the NCAA tournament was affected by being in the Indy “bubble” for so damn long.

 

[Gudenham]

I agree they looked the best they looked in months, but the end product really wasn't that great. They allowed 1.01 PPP, which is good but not great. They were much better against Indiana in the BTT (.791 PPP), against Clemson (.878 PPP) and Minnesota (.908 PPP).

They were elite earlier in the season against Michigan State (.569 PPP is absurd, probably best defensive performance of any high-major team in the country this season) and Northwestern (.797 PPP).

They rank 17th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency at 91.8 points per 100 possessions. That's not as good as last year, when they finished 8th at 91 P/100, but it's still pretty damn good.

 

[Degaz-RU]

I, too, thought the defense was elite against Houston, perhaps the best of the year.

To answer the OP’s question, I suspect part of it was just being more focused and energized in the NCAA tournament, and part of it was that UH had zero post presence, so we didn’t have to worry about an inside-out game like we did against most of our B1G opponents. Even Simms floated on the perimeter.

 

[RUsojo]

Mathis played more minutes and Young Mathis and McConnell played together for a lot of minutes which is unusual for this team this year.

The perimeter defense was OUTSTANDING for 35 minutes.

 

[bac2therac]

The defense went from elite vs Houston in first 33 minutes to flat awful. Chasing and fouling and not hustling for boards. I truly believe the lack of aggression on offense trickled down into their defense

 

[FrankZ_RU93]

Still too soon...

 

[winfield102]

I only remembered 2 guys on houston. They were impressive and they delivered. No one else stuck out. We gave up very few easy buckets.

 

[Westcoast]

I only remembered 2 guys on houston. They were impressive and they delivered. No one else stuck out. We gave up very few easy buckets.

OP is right. Effort swooned big time after loss at Ohio St. It was just not there very often. This was one of the best rebounding teams in the B1G last year and actually pretty bad this year. Same players. No effort. It seemed like they stopped enjoying basketball. Could be a ton of reasons. But some roster turnover is probably a positive.