http://www.collegechalktalk.com/coachesDiary/st._john-s/2009-10_releases/2.16.10caseyBy: Chris Casey, Asst. Coach - St. John's
Every team is different year to year and even within a season. We went in to our conference schedule in early January feeling pretty good about our defense. Our pressure was forcing turnovers and getting us offense off of our defense, teams were shooting a low percentage against us from the floor and from three-point range, and we were outrebounding opponents. We had stressed these areas since our Canada trip in August.
At the start of the conference schedule, our defense became sporadic. We were stopping teams - but not consistently over the course of a 40 minute game. It got us off to an up-and-down conference start and then resulted in a losing streak. We decided to make some changes in our practice structure. Since most of our defensive struggles appeared in the second half of games (we had five games with first half leads and lost), we put our defensive and rebounding drills at the end of practice. We made them all competitive with some type of score being kept. We also lengthened the period of time we used for defense. Any loss in a competitive drill resulted in some type of running.
Suddenly, our defense re-appeared. We've held teams to low shooting percentages and are on a two-game win streak. Hopefully the adjustment will continue to pay dividends. As a coach, it's important to understand why your team is not playing well and structure practice accordingly.