Ummm… good scorers are going to score regardless. You are wrong about Clayton’s feet and recovery. Chase down blocks show effort, timing, athleticism and skill. I suppose we will not agree on this, and that is fine.
KenPom’s adjusted efficiency had this as our worst defense since 2008. That metric essentially takes your points given up per possession and accounts for opponent. We were one of the worst teams in the country at forcing turnovers, fouled too much, and despite being a great offensive rebounding team, were average at collecting defensive rebounds. We simply did not get enough stops over the course of the season. You can love this team and the players and still be able to recognize deficiencies, for this year’s squad, it was clearly defense.
Colorado was taking extremely high percentage shots. Our defense is the polar opposite of making teams take tough shots
i don’t know what to tell ya… he, objectively, isn’t a good defender. And it’s kinda been a known achilles heel even during his time at Iona. Heck, Pitino razzed him about it this season. Rick Pitino Sat Courtside At Madison Square Garden To Heckle Former Star Player On New Team
I had a coach tell me I wasn’t athletic when I was the fastest guy on the team, could outrun everyone in distance races, and could dunk at only 5’10” in my mid 30’s. The crazy thing is he really believed it.
I agree, but why? We turned into a pretty solid defensive team a year ago before CC went down (top 20 or so at the time). Clayton and Richard both struggled. Samuel wasn’t bad, but definitely wasn’t great. Handlogten and the freshmen played hard, but fouled a lot and had a hard time with the increased foot speed, which is to be expected. Kugel and Aberdeen were great, and Pullin was very solid until he started facing some more athletic guards. We definitely SHOULD have been better. Fouls and defensive rebounding were the main culprit, to my mind. For now, I will attribute it to lots of new moving parts (only 2 returnees in 8-man rotation). We’ve seen how turnover + youth (at least in the post) can really impact that end (2007-08, 2011-12, 2014-15, 2017-18, 2020-21).
Well, Marquette just scored the same amount we did in the first half vs Colorado, but defended way better and lead by 11. Similar pace of play, but much better defense.
Big East always great defensively. Prob the best basketball conference in college basketball. Imagine if they still had the old Big East...God that was the most fun conference to watch. Todd Golden should be implemented a matchup zone defense this offseason
Somebody asked earlier, so I looked it up. On average, UF's opponents scored 3.09 more points a game than they averaged throughout the season. In all games, we held our opponents below their season average 15 times...and allowed them to eclipse their average 21 times. In SEC games, we held our opponent below their average 9 times and allowed them more than their average 13 times. All in all, not as bad as I expected, but still not good for a team that wants to be successful in March.
