Defensive Improvement

@StJohnsBBall: As of today, #SJUBB has the No. 1 scoring defense (66.0 ppg), No. 1 FG pct. defense (.403) & No. 4 3FG pct. defense (.332) in the @BIGEAST.

Now about that offense....

@StJohnsBBall: As of today, #SJUBB has the No. 1 scoring defense (66.0 ppg), No. 1 FG pct. defense (.403) & No. 4 3FG pct. defense (.332) in the @BIGEAST.

Now about that offense....

Guess we get "lucky" a lot and teams miss open shots against us often.

Obepka is the main reason, people rush every shot when he is around. If they had a stat for rushed shots he would lead the country.
Sampson and Harrison are playing no ticably harder on D and that is also a big factor.
I thought Greene last game played good on ball D but he is still real slow fighting through screens. He has to do better at that.
Pointer's D has regressed noticeably.

Defense improved when we started playing man.

This is kind of surprising considering how often our guards seem to get beat off the bounce.  There really are some good screening teams on the Big East.

Jordan has been a very good on the ball defender IMO.

Defense improved when we started playing man.

Defense improved when we started handling screens better...either hedging more aggressively, fighting thru or switching back quickly to avoid prolonged mismatch

Quote from: TONYD3 on February 24, 2014, 04:17:59 PM

Defense improved when we started playing man.

Defense improved when we started handling screens better...either hedging more aggressively, fighting thru or switching back quickly to avoid prolonged mismatch

Basically playing man defense. At the beginning of the season the zone gave up to many open 3's and when we played man we looked lost. Don't think we are doing anything crazy on defense. We have athletes. Just letting them play. Just with some direction .

Quote from: section3 on February 24, 2014, 08:41:25 PM

Quote from: TONYD3 on February 24, 2014, 04:17:59 PM

Defense improved when we started playing man.

Defense improved when we started handling screens better...either hedging more aggressively, fighting thru or switching back quickly to avoid prolonged mismatch

Basically playing man defense. At the beginning of the season the zone gave up to many open 3's and when we played man we looked lost. Don't think we are doing anything crazy on defense. We have athletes. Just letting them play. Just with some direction .

Guys like Sampson are getting after it on d. He's gone from awful d to great d.

Agree Poison.  I think the expectation was that we would play this kind of defense with the athletes/length we have at the guard spots and on the wings, plus CO in the middle.  Just took more time for it to come together.  Defense plus using Jordan and Branch at the point (and a lot less of Phil) has been the key to this turnaround.  There have been other things too, but those are the two biggest differences in my view.  Let's hope it continues.