Forget about the defense not being intense the pick and roll killed us the first 30 minutes; Cliff just has no clue how to hedge on the pick and roll and constantly was caught outside when they made the pass to the big man who rolled every time; this in turn caused someone to come off their man every time and sets up rotations which constantly left Iowa wide open for threes or an easy basket; we did not adjust on this till about ten minutes to go when all of a sudden it seemed a lightbulb or finally one of the coaches said something to Cliff but that killed us and we didn't adjust soon enough
Iowa/Cliff/Pick and Roll
- Thread starter richthedentist
- Start date
i agree he definitely overplays the permiter on defense causing people to have to switch or help in scenarios where its not needed. The D we played the last 10 was exactly how u play Iowa.
We did a really bad job there for sure. We ended up chasing people around which you never want to see.
This is Pikiells philosophy. He wants to blitz all ball handlers on P&Rs. We’ve been doing it since we had the personnel to do so (Myles).
Iowa exploited it with short rolls and slips. Having a tall ball handler like McCaffery allows him to get that pass over Cliff.
Rutgers coaches for the first time this year seemed unprepared for that. I get sticking to what got us here, because obviously pike knows what he is doing on D, but we did not make ANY adjustments.
I thought the Iowa game was on the coaching staff as much as the players. Gameplan stunk (even worse on O)
Bingo!!! You nailed it. Same thing happened when Rieber was in also for limited time but he was quicker to recoever.
This is pretty big IMO and reason why they had many open looks along the way
This is pretty big IMO and reason why they had many open looks along the way
Pretty sure this is how Cliff is being coached to defend the PnR
Its been like this most of the year the difference is most teams were not making those 3s so many didnt notice....and even teams that we beat pretty good had success there as well like Wake. Iowa certainly had the capability of hitting those and we played right into their hands
I dont mind Cliff overhedging on the pick and roll. Its been a core philospohy of Pike's and generally its worked pretty well. Keep the ball as far away from the basket as possible with some pressure. The D is predicated on help and communication and we get a lot of steals when they try to feed the post and then pass out and our guys are rotating. I feel we have been pretty elite at that actually. Without going back to rewatch the game, it felt like Iowa knew which help guy was coming to the paint, and they passed out to his man on the perimeter pretty quickly. But not only that, they cleared out that side of the floor, so we didnt have another man there to rotate to him, so either the help man in the paint had to recover, or Cliff had to sprint out to the corner to contest. Added to that, Ulis and Sandfort were hitting those shots, which they havent been doing. I think theres a part of it where maybe they should have adjusted sooner, but also can these guys really keep shooting like this which they havent shown before today. It was just one of those days, I doubt we see the strategy of hedging the picks go away anytime soon
I seriously doubt Sandford had the wide open clean looks he got against us in previous games.
If we got Cam those same looks he’d shoot 75%
You learn from losses like Iowa.
He is a continuing work in progress.
Some have suggested an injury as well.
He is a continuing work in progress.
Some have suggested an injury as well.
Iowa's recognition and ball movement was elite. They ALWAYS seemed to find an open man, whether under the basket on weakside cuts or out on the perimeter after 3 or 4 crisp passes as we chased the ball.
If a team moves the ball quickly enough against us they are going to find an open man. I think that the other night we were a little bit slow in our rotations. When we are at our best, we are causing the shooter to rush the shot.
Another factor is that our defense forces other teams to speed up there offense and takes them out of rhythm. So even when they get an open shot their percentage is going down.
I think Iowa is a bad matchup because they like to play at that speed and they move the ball very quickly. They have interchangeable players who are all good ballhandlers and guys who like to spot up and shoot.
Another factor is that our defense forces other teams to speed up there offense and takes them out of rhythm. So even when they get an open shot their percentage is going down.
I think Iowa is a bad matchup because they like to play at that speed and they move the ball very quickly. They have interchangeable players who are all good ballhandlers and guys who like to spot up and shoot.
Exactly - the best counter for tough, physical defense is ball movement. The defender can't move as fast as a passed ball.
However , other teams could not move it fast against us because we were all over them making it hard to throw a simple pass. Did not happen Sunday , we were a step slow for some reason( 3rd game in 5-6 days ) and our rotations were the worst they were all year. Definitely an outlier. Pike also called off the press letting Iowa get into their sets easily. Also , an outlier as the blueprint for our elite defense has the press as the cornerstone. . Very weird defensive game.
I have enjoyed reading this thread very much, good discussion. Thanks everyone.
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