I’m no basketball coach but under Pikell our defending of the pick and roll has been terrible and to me that’s on the coaches. Our centers and this goes back to Myles Johnson continuously overplay the pick and get caught 20 feet from the basket and this does 2 things it either leaves the opposing center wide open or it causes another defender to come down into the Key and rotate therefore leaving someone open at the three-point line. In my opinion the center should be hedging more and not automatically going out and playing the guard with the ball. When we set a pick and roll, we set the pick way too far out and our centers cannot roll because they start too far out.
I don’t understand why Pikell cannot teach our centers to Hedge more instead of just automatically committing to the ball handler and causing all these problems and defensive openings. Purdue abused us last night with a simple pass as our centers either Somerville or Ogbole overcommitted every time.
I don’t understand why Pikell cannot teach our centers to Hedge more instead of just automatically committing to the ball handler and causing all these problems and defensive openings. Purdue abused us last night with a simple pass as our centers either Somerville or Ogbole overcommitted every time.