Defensive Execution Under CNO

[BAMARICH]

Last Wednesday's game got me to thinking about the defensive philosophy of Coach Oats. It seems to me, over the past few years especially, that we regularly give up monster offensive games to some opposing players. It's usually the best scorer on the team and it's not usually a case of "they got their's", but rather it's a "career effort" in which one gets the feeling "we can't stop this guy". I was reminded about it again when MSU's Josh Hubbard went for a career high 38 points the other night. Some examples of this on our schedule this year includes:

* Purdue - Kaufman-Renn 26 pts.
* Houston - Cryer 30 pts.
* Rutgers - Harper 37 pts.
* North Dakota - Eaglestaff 40 pts.
* Ole Miss - Dia 23 pts. (lower scoring game)
* MSU - Hubbard 38 pts.

My question is this... is this part of a defensive philosophy or coincidental? I don't think it's always a case of not being able to stop a guy - when we switched to a more physical lineup with about 90 seconds left against MSU we definitely stoned Hubbard. Why didn't we do that before in the game? Is it a case of letting a guy continue to take shots even though he's hot because they'll eventually stop dropping - and the focus is on stopping the other four guys on the team? I don't follow other teams enough to know if this occurs at the same frequency for them... I was talking to it with an AU fan recently and he indicated it's fairly rare for them to give up this type of performance. Just wondering about it...

 

[BhamToTexas]

I have been wondering this too. It is crazy how often it happens. I don't think it is a defensive philosophy but I could be wrong. Just unbelievable bad luck?

 

[cdub55]

I think it is a combination of things...

1) We play the fastest pace in the country which is going to increase the number of possessions for both teams. So naturally someone who is averaging 20 points with 15 shots could get 30 points on 20 shots.

2) I think we philosophically want our defenders to be at the right place and rely on analytics to decide if a shot is "contested" or if one of our defender's is "hustling", etc. The thing I've noticed is, we so many times have a guy who is in the right area and may even have a hand up, but we aren't really causing the shooter any disruption that may cause him to miss. There needs to be a greater emphasis on getting our hand's in shooters faces and making shooter's get uncomfortable.

 

[BamaMoon]

In the most recent case of Hubbard dropping 38 on us, I remember many of those points came from the midrange.

Maybe CNO believes the same analytics applies to the other team's offensive scoring. If they take midrange shots he's OK with that because we don't want them shooting behind the arc or at the rim.

I can't remember how many of these guys torched us from 3 except Eaglestaff, who I hope may get a look from CNO in the transfer portal next year!

 

[BamaMike05]

In the most recent case of Hubbard dropping 38 on us, I remember many of those points came from the midrange.

Maybe CNO believes the same analytics applies to the other team's offensive scoring. If they take midrange shots he's OK with that because we don't want them shooting behind the arc or at the rim.

I can't remember how many of these guys torched us from 3 except Eaglestaff, who I hope may get a look from CNO in the transfer portal next year!

A couple of things here:
1) CNO uses analytics with our defensive style as well. He has said this before in interviews. They want to force as many "non-rim 2's" as possible. So yes that part kind of is a product of the style

2) I know Eaglestaff was great against us but, his 3 point % isn't quite what I would like for a mid-major transfer.

 

[oskie]

A couple of things here:
1) CNO uses analytics with our defensive style as well. He has said this before in interviews. They want to force as many "non-rim 2's" as possible. So yes that part kind of is a product of the style

2) I know Eaglestaff was great against us but, his 3 point % isn't quite what I would like for a mid-major transfer.

I agree with you about Eaglestaff. He had a career game against BAMA, but he has not even come close to putting up those kinda stats in any of his other games this season.
My hats off to him for stepping his game up against BAMA, but that game seems to be the outlier.