Was Our Defense Better?

[bluedog79]

Anytime you have a real shot blocker in there it makes the offense on the other side have to think twice about how they going to run things.
Some teams will still try to go in there and score on him and they learn and they get blocked 10 times. Other teams will almost avoid the shot blocker harming their offense. There's a middle ground to it you got to know what you're doing or a shot blocker can dominate your whole game mindset.
If you can put two in your starting lineup and get away with it that's when you'll dominate.
Example:
Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones. Starters. Team Shot blocking single season record in NCAA history. Ever ever.
Example: karl towns and willie Cauley. 38 straight wins. Starters.

 

[LmdCat]

Or was it a combination of slightly better defense and Auburn missing all their open shots? A lot of both, I think.
Grest road win!

we obviously played much better defense. You could clearly see guys wanting it on defense.

 

[UKAlum84]

Auburn applied pressure as well and made us make some questionable risky passes, luckily it worked out for the most part. Reed on an inbounds play, did not throw the ball far enough and almost went off the back of auburn player....instant turnover. I do believe auburn tried, we just got them frustrated.

 

[LmdCat]

Teams missing open shots are often times impacted by the defense you play throughout the game. Making open shots is about comfort and rhythm. When guys are moving how and where they want and are open, never get bumped or bruised, etc. they are beyond comfortable, no pressure.

But when you are up in their grill and defending your tail off the whole game, when they finally do get free, they tend to rush it or tend to not be in as much of a rhythm because they just haven't had it the whole game.

Basketball is so much a game of rhythm and momentum- when you don't have either one of those things and you get an open shot, you're a lot more likely to miss it.

People never account for that. It's always just "oh they missed shots"

Also- the dudes who did get open shots, were the guys we WANT to get open shots- Holloway, Johnson, etc.- we did a great job on their regular shooters.

It wasn't only the much better defense that we provided; we took a lot out of them offensively by making them work harder than they have all season defensively. We even made them have to run back on defense even after made basket. We gave them no opportunities to rest while on the court.

 

[tmuck]

Just started watching the replay. 10 minutes into the game, Auburn missed like 7 open three's. 4 of them were wide open. 3 were decent to good looks with late closeouts by our guys. Defense has improved, but we may have been a little fortunate that Auburn just missed shots.

 

[UKAlum84]

I think as we get closer to march, you want to focus more on plays impacting an inbounds pass.

It's something that you don't want to think about because it does not happen as much.

We got the pieces to make some waves in march, question is will the coach dial in the right message to get the team ready to battle.

 

[Cowtown Cat]

Wagner was amazing tonight

Yep! We don’t need him to be a scorer. We need him to be a dog on defense, drive and hit the open man if nothing is there. I noticed Cal played him off ball with Reed in the game. Been needing to make that move all season.

 

[JC CATS]

Or was it a combination of slightly better defense and Auburn missing all their open shots? A lot of both, I think.
Grest road win!

Let's see, Auburn was averaging a gazillion points a game, 2 gazillion at-home, they got 59...

 

[Tampa_cat54_rivals112262]

It wasn't only the much better defense that we provided; we took a lot out of them offensively by making them work harder than they have all season defensively. We even made them have to run back on defense even after made basket. We gave them no opportunities to rest while on the court.

100%!

So that is why I hate when people say, "oh they just missed open shots"- dudes this talented don't tend to just miss open shots for no reason. We wore them down and had them off balance all day long. And when that happens- good teams miss open shots.

 

[LmdCat]

100%!

So that is why I hate when people say, "oh they just missed open shots"- dudes this talented don't tend to just miss open shots for no reason. We wore them down and had them off balance all day long. And when that happens- good teams miss open shots.

You are correct. They are used to being the hunter and we made them the hunted which tends to make players uncomfortable. We were in attack mode for most of the game and we were putting bodies on people.

 

[LmdCat]

Wagner was amazing tonight

I don't know what game you were watching to call Wagner amazing. What did he do that was so amazing? He spent most of the game pounding the air out of the ball and when he wasn't doing that he was missing layups. We sealed the game late when Reed Sheppard was running point. He got the ball to Reeves and that was a wrap.

 

[NociHTTP]

We did much quicker at rotating, and staying home.

 

[Shaudylo]

I don't know what game you were watching to call Wagner amazing. What did he do that was so amazing? He spent most of the game pounding the air out of the ball and when he wasn't doing that he was missing layups. We sealed the game late when Reed Sheppard was running point. He got the ball to Reeves and that was a wrap.

This thread is about the defense so I’m pretty sure thar is what he is calling amazing

 

[Ukbrassowtipin]

We also only hit 4 threes. Below the average sp D was better too

 

[trueblujr]

Or was it a combination of slightly better defense and Auburn missing all their open shots? A lot of both, I think.
Grest road win!

Auburn is the #202 ranked 3 point shooting team. It’s not their strength. Our defense stopped their strength and forced them to try to beat us with their weakness. It was our best defensive effort of the season by far.

 

[bcox13]

Teams missing open shots are often times impacted by the defense you play throughout the game. Making open shots is about comfort and rhythm. When guys are moving how and where they want and are open, never get bumped or bruised, etc. they are beyond comfortable, no pressure.

But when you are up in their grill and defending your tail off the whole game, when they finally do get free, they tend to rush it or tend to not be in as much of a rhythm because they just haven't had it the whole game.

Basketball is so much a game of rhythm and momentum- when you don't have either one of those things and you get an open shot, you're a lot more likely to miss it.

People never account for that. It's always just "oh they missed shots"

Also- the dudes who did get open shots, were the guys we WANT to get open shots- Holloway, Johnson, etc.- we did a great job on their regular shooters.

Well said !

 

[know1]

I thought Ugo is a definite improvement and our rebounding was better. And Auburn was ice cold from three for the first 35 minutes. And they were wide open shots.

 

[LmdCat]

This thread is about the defense so I’m pretty sure thar is what he is calling amazing

I hope you are right, but it is pretty hard to single out one player as amazing when it was truly a collective team effort.

 

[akaukswoosh]

 

[kingdom come cat]

Just started watching the replay. 10 minutes into the game, Auburn missed like 7 open three's. 4 of them were wide open. 3 were decent to good looks with late closeouts by our guys. Defense has improved, but we may have been a little fortunate that Auburn just missed shots.

Overall our defense was much better especially on drives and inside play but in the first half Auburn got lots of open looks from three, and we did a much better job in the second half just two or three wide open looks. I hope the team and Cal understand that we still have a long way to go on defense. We can't rely on most teams to miss the wide open looks from three that Auburn did. Cals still got them pinching down to much on drives and inside play. We now have Onyenso to help intimidate and clean up on some of the drives, and we sure don't need five guys in the paint allowing the kick out for a wide open three. The threes are the killer in todays game.

 

[KYFOSSIL]

Not really Aiburn can’t shoot

I don’t even think you really believe that you’re just bitter if you can’t see that the defense was very good. I don’t know what to tell you. I think all you see is hate right now probably best if yo

I don't know what game you were watching to call Wagner amazing. What did he do that was so amazing? He spent most of the game pounding the air out of the ball and when he wasn't doing that he was missing layups. We sealed the game late when Reed Sheppard was running point. He got the ball to Reeves and that was a wrap.

His defence made all of the difference plus clutch free throws

 

[Soupbean]

Or was it a combination of slightly better defense and Auburn missing all their open shots? A lot of both, I think.
Grest road win!

Its a simple thing. Its all about space and aggression, always has and always will be. The more aggressive (and physical) you are the more you extend the defense and take away the space of the other guys. We started doing that two games ago out of the blue and it worked and now we are seeing that it works.

Reed and others were standing two feet back off the ball before and you cant to that in todays game. Now we are in their jocks and that makes everybody uncomfortable. I used to tell the kids I coached, your first job is t turn the guy with the ball sideways and your second job is to make him pick up his dribble. When a few guys do that it helps but when all five are doing it you've got something. Our light came on in this area and it changed everything. We're playing the same style just so much more aggressively.

The trick is doing that for a lot o minutes without fouling too much because its hard but we seem to be doing it so far.

 

[LmdCat]

I don’t even think you really believe that you’re just bitter if you can’t see that the defense was very good. I don’t know what to tell you. I think all you see is hate right now probably best if yo

His defence made all of the difference plus clutch free throws

I don't think any one player played better defense than the team as a whole. However, if you really want to call out a single player who stood out on defense, it was Ugo. His play under the basket is what prevented Auburn from doing what others in recent games did.

If he had continue running the point instead of Reed late in the game, I am not sure we would have won. DJ and Dilly kept driving into trouble instead of looking for Reeves as Reed did. Sometimes DJ, Dilly, and Edwards seem to just blindly drive into a wall of defenders which results in the ball getting pushed back into their faces or they throw up wild shots.

 

[CincyUKFan]

Going to be hard to keep it up with Tre Mitchell logging major minutes again.

 

[bigblueinsanity_rivals250340]

Like the Arkansas game. Neither them or Auburn have guards that can consistently take the UK guards off the dribble. Makes all the difference in the world

This. They were two very good matchups for us. Throw in their poor shooting night and and it all lined up.

We played better defense and major kudos to Ugo and thiero for not getting buried by their man on those illegal screens/block outs. That killed us all season.