We lost our defensive identity

[zappaa]

I’m not an Xs and Os guy when it comes to basketball, but I know what I’ve seen here on defense for years…all the way back to Shaq Doorson…No one abused us in the paint.
It was as if I was watching a different team last night. Pretty much one thing has been a constant during the Pike tenure, hi energy, tough, physical defense, you go inside you pay the price.
Last night it vanished into thin air, we played soft inside and ND played tough inside.
If our game plan really was to give up twos and contest 3s, it was done so at the expense of who we are and our earned identity.
I understand we had in-bounds execution difficulties, chances to win the game and chances to rebound…We still could have won.
It still doesn’t explain why for the first game in the NCAA tournament on National TV, where multiple experienced analysts picked us solely because of our defensive toughness, aggressiveness and physicality, we decided to abandon the identity we were being lauded for.

 

[kcg88]

We don't see a team play 5 out in the Big Ten like Notre Dame did.

 

[zappaa]

We don't see a team play 5 out in the Big Ten like Notre Dame did.

It was a tremendous over-think in my opinion.
I don’t care what they play, physical, aggressive and tough always remains a constant with Pike.
It’s our Identity

 

[Scarlet Shack]

It was a tremendous over-think in my opinion.
I don’t care what they play, physical, aggressive and tough always remains a constant with Pike.
It’s our Identity

Thought we were way too cautious and soft worries about foul with different refs ..We didn’t play nearly in your face as we do in big ten games

This comes back to playing your game ..risk foul trouble …and trusting your bench

 

[rufeelinit]

I agree although I think the physical/toughness characteristics attributed to this year's team is a bit overdone. We are not very big or tough. We have length and had jelled into a good team defense unit.

I thought Brey had a nice offensive plan. He realized he did not need to jack up a lot of threes. I think he surprised us by going inside. Many times when Cliff hedged he got caught guarding a perimeter player while a smaller player wound up guarding an ND big. Normally he can rotate back on their big in time. More generally, Cliff was not an effective post defender last night.

We really had trouble with switches on ball and non ball screens and at times seemed genuinely confused, which resulted in two guys trying to guard the same man. I was hoping we would make some adjustments at halftime but I thought we were out of sorts the whole game. ND exploited and took away, what up to this point, had been the strengths of our help defense.

As a result, our deficiencies in being unable able to stop dribble drive penetration, which are well known, reared their ugly head again particularly in some key situations. I thought Geo looked physically sick in the first half given how easily he was getting blown by. He was not the only one as it was an issue all night. Even our bench guys who normally can be counted on to be serviceable on the defensive end seemed ineffective.

 

[fluoxetine]

I’m not an Xs and Os guy when it comes to basketball, but I know what I’ve seen here on defense for years…all the way back to Shaq Doorson…No one abused us in the paint.
It was as if I was watching a different team last night. Pretty much one thing has been a constant during the Pike tenure, hi energy, tough, physical defense, you go inside you pay the price.
Last night it vanished into thin air, we played soft inside and ND played tough inside.
If our game plan really was to give up twos and contest 3s, it was done so at the expense of who we are and our earned identity.
I understand we had in-bounds execution difficulties, chances to win the game and chances to rebound…We still could have won.
It still doesn’t explain why for the first game in the NCAA tournament on National TV, where multiple experienced analysts picked us solely because of our defensive toughness, aggressiveness and physicality, we decided to abandon the identity we were being lauded for.

It was a tremendous over-think in my opinion.
I don’t care what they play, physical, aggressive and tough always remains a constant with Pike.
It’s our Identity

Agree 99%.

I don’t think we really abandoned the toughness, but that was clearly a different defensive strategy and it didn’t work out. I think you have to credit Notre Dame for that to some extent, but I would have liked to see us maintain the defensive identity that got us there.

 

[brookdale-soda]

It was a tremendous over-think in my opinion.
I don’t care what they play, physical, aggressive and tough always remains a constant with Pike.
It’s our Identity

You hit the nail on the head. In hindsight, when it didn't work, Pike tried to substitute his way out of a bad defensive gameplan. The switching, the playing Cliff at the 3 point line. We traded ND 3s for easy boards and put backs and back door cuts.

Who knows if they would've killed us by the 3s but we had been a good 3pt defense before too. My only problem with the game was our weak defense and it had to be scheme to swing that badly in one game. This has got to hurt Pike too.

 

[King of S]

Brey changed his game plan from shooting 3’s to going inside a lot more. Pike didn’t adjust.

 

[whofrewdatmataRU13]

I have never seen us give up so many drives to the hoop that started out from the 3-point line. Also, box out please. Just an awful way to lose

 

[RUSCFORMERLYRULOU]

I’m not an Xs and Os guy when it comes to basketball, but I know what I’ve seen here on defense for years…all the way back to Shaq Doorson…No one abused us in the paint.
It was as if I was watching a different team last night. Pretty much one thing has been a constant during the Pike tenure, hi energy, tough, physical defense, you go inside you pay the price.
Last night it vanished into thin air, we played soft inside and ND played tough inside.
If our game plan really was to give up twos and contest 3s, it was done so at the expense of who we are and our earned identity.
I understand we had in-bounds execution difficulties, chances to win the game and chances to rebound…We still could have won.
It still doesn’t explain why for the first game in the NCAA tournament on National TV, where multiple experienced analysts picked us solely because of our defensive toughness, aggressiveness and physicality, we decided to abandon the identity we were being lauded for.

That, plus the lack of a bench and failure to correct in bounds plays, rest squarely in Pike. He got outcoached last night.

 

[Pancho1939_rivals]

We were to worried about the three. That made it easy for guys to simply drive to the basket

 

[Pancho1939_rivals]

That, plus the lack of a bench and failure to correct in bounds plays, rest squarely in Pike. He got outcoached last night.

What inbounds play? You can’t be saying the inbounds play where Ron was open coming to the basketball and paul threw it over his head like he was going away from the basketball.

did you watch the play?

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

We had a weak link on defense last night and unfortunately we dont have a bench. That weak link played out of his mind for a 4-5 game stretch and we wouldn't have gotten to the tournament without that stretch. No doubt he hit a wall.

 

[ImBadRU]

Pike did no adjusting and Brey must have been laughing. Absolutely no zone, tell Cliff to stay with his man and not be at the three point line...ever. Pike did not earn his money last night at all.

 

[wheezer]

I have never seen us give up so many drives to the hoop that started out from the 3-point line. Also, box out please. Just an awful way to lose

If I watched that game without knowing who was who, no identity, I would never guess that was RU on defense...never

all year, we have never been so exposed with drives to the hoop..... that was not our play out there.....has not been for years....

also not an X and O's guy, but, if we started with some sort of defense to stop the threes, and, ND was killing us in the paint, go BACK to the normal tough inside defense and take your chances on the three pointers.

 

[RUJMM78]

Rutgers should have tried some zone defense in the second half because Notre Dame was shredding Rutgers defense with dribble drives to the basket.It would also have been easier on the starters since the bench was non productive on offense or defense.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

We had a weak link on defense last night and unfortunately we dont have a bench. That weak link played out of his mind for a 4-5 game stretch and we wouldn't have gotten to the tournament without that stretch. No doubt he hit a wall.

2 weak links. Cliff was pretty bad too.

 

[Scarlet Blind_rivals]

I've watched enough Princeton games over the years to know what offense that was and you don't even need a PG to run it just.5 good shooters that can pass. They shoot 37.8% on 3s this year for 11th best in the.country, sucked Pikiell to defend the 3 and backdoored us to death. That was the Pete Carril way.

 

[koolraddad]

Brey changed his game plan from shooting 3’s to going inside a lot more. Pike didn’t adjust.

Don't know if this has been said, but I listened to Pike's post game comments. He said, he changed the defense in anticipation of dealing with ND's outside shooting. He NEVER adjusted the D when ND was killing us in the paint.

 

[zappaa]

Don't know if this has been said, but I listened to Pike's post game comments. He said, he changed the defense in anticipation of dealing with ND's outside shooting. He NEVER adjusted the D when ND was killing us in the paint.

Just because it was a game plan doesn’t mean you can’t switch back to what you’ve been doing all year

 

[Anon1751594821]

I’m not an Xs and Os guy when it comes to basketball, but I know what I’ve seen here on defense for years…all the way back to Shaq Doorson…No one abused us in the paint.
It was as if I was watching a different team last night. Pretty much one thing has been a constant during the Pike tenure, hi energy, tough, physical defense, you go inside you pay the price.
Last night it vanished into thin air, we played soft inside and ND played tough inside.
If our game plan really was to give up twos and contest 3s, it was done so at the expense of who we are and our earned identity.
I understand we had in-bounds execution difficulties, chances to win the game and chances to rebound…We still could have won.
It still doesn’t explain why for the first game in the NCAA tournament on National TV, where multiple experienced analysts picked us solely because of our defensive toughness, aggressiveness and physicality, we decided to abandon the identity we were being lauded for.

Many of our guys just don't have the lateral quickness.

Best of Luck,
Groz

 

[Jtung230]

We got lucky because we got huge production from Caleb. Otherwise we would’ve lost by 20. You have to go with what got you there.

 

[tru2ru1]

Pike did no adjusting and Brey must have been laughing. Absolutely no zone, tell Cliff to stay with his man and not be at the three point line...ever. Pike did not earn his money last night at all.

Did you even watch the game??? ND played 5 man out, Cliffs man was outside the 3 point line at the start of every possession, are you suggesting that you do not guard him???

 

[RUinBoston]

Our team clearly wasn't used to all the driving. I don't know s**t about basketball, but if anything, it looked like we were overplaying the defense, and over biting on all their fakes, moves, etc. 'Toughness' on defense is in fact all about being in the right place. Then you can be tough. In hockey we constantly lecture the kids: YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY'RE GOING...THE GOAL DOESN'T MOVE... IF THEY GO ANY OTHER DIRECTION THAN THE GOAL THEY ARE TRYING TO FAKE YOU OUT...DON'T FALL FOR IT...AND DON'T STARE AT THE PUCK ... THE PUCK CAN'T GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT THE BODY SO WATCH THE BODY. Our guys seemed like they needed this lecture last night.