Pikiell's thoughts on Spain trip
- Thread starter RU-Choppin-Ohio
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I didn't know this, but supposedly Rutgers was pretty bad on defense last year and something like last in the division.
Capable defenders are on this team. I thought McConnell was stand out last year, Harper in the post was usually decent. Baker has to strengthen his legs to improve his defense. Mathis has all the attributes. Young all the attributes.
I heard Pikiell say something like " If they play good defense, i let some of their bad shot attempts go on offense."
Players have the attributes of good defenders. Now, it's discipline. I hope they see the benefit. Good defense is early offense and high percentage shots. Jacob Young should really want to dig in given his speed.
Capable defenders are on this team. I thought McConnell was stand out last year, Harper in the post was usually decent. Baker has to strengthen his legs to improve his defense. Mathis has all the attributes. Young all the attributes.
I heard Pikiell say something like " If they play good defense, i let some of their bad shot attempts go on offense."
Players have the attributes of good defenders. Now, it's discipline. I hope they see the benefit. Good defense is early offense and high percentage shots. Jacob Young should really want to dig in given his speed.
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Our high defensive rating in 2017-18 (28th in the country) was based in large part by playing teams in the OOC that couldn't throw a beach ball in the ocean (ECU, Central Conn, Bryant, Coppin State, Cleveland State).
Being 28th in the country had us 5th among Big Ten teams... but when you look at conference-only games, we rated 9th in the Big Ten. Part of this is that our defense didn't have the luxury of facing our terrible offense, but it goes to show you the overall number can be deceiving.
Last year we ranked 46th in the country on defense, which sounds pretty good. Except that was 10th-best in the Big Ten, and when looking at conference-only games, we rated 12th out of 14.
Definitely need some improvement on that side of the ball.
Cue GreeneRiceFIG to say that Mathis can be that "lockdown defender" that Pike is looking for.
By the way, I don't disagree with the sentiment.
The 12th out of 14th was with Eugene Omoyuri....i don't know if things can get better defensively than 12th but i think the offensive side will improve more than the defensive numbers will.
It's tough to tell. I certainly don't think the average person realizes that Rutgers ranked equally in the conference (12th) on both offense and defense.
The B1G averaged 102.1 points per 100 possessions last year (conference games only). Our offense was 3.4 points worse than that. Our defense was *drum roll* 4.6 points worse. Yes it's true... our offense was closer to league average than our defense.
Thanks! saved me a few minutes. Operative work is can/could be. Needs to be more reliable on a game by game basis and 100% of the 30 seconds be locked in.
He was a freshman and is very emotional. I am hopeful, but not writing it in pen.
BART conference only (adjusted for SOS) not sure this is necessary!
Wisconsin .871 PPP
UM .875
MSU .921
MD .921
PSU .930
PUR .930
NW .935
OSU .943
IU .959
MINNY .965
RU .986
Ill .990
NEB .995
Iowa 1.024
In the games Eugene was out....I get it is a small sample size....we played to 1.046 which would put us 14th.
Caleb McConnell can do a lot for us on the offensive end. His length can help us on D. Caleb was not, last year, a stand out defender.
He was an average defender. 2nd in steals behind Baker. Steals don't make you a great defender, but still.
He stood out to me some games more than others. The team needs a consistent defender.
Don't really have to look at stats for him and Baker. Just watch them - neither can keep their guy in front of them, and both rely on length once they have been beaten.
What happened to Montez Mathis? THought he was the defensive stopper. Hopefully Myles can be an eraser for defensive mistakes.
I don't know how good Yeboah is defensively but he's a good athlete. I also think Jacob Young has the footspeed to defend and Mathis has another year of growth on both ends.
Iowa loses a LOT of scoring from last year to this year and they finished last in defense in league games. Taking a charge can happen less if the defender guarding the player does a better job on the ball. And taking a charge also works both ways....at some point, Eugene's flopping on some of those charges, stopped getting called and teams scored on those possessions. Body up and defending sometimes make more sense, but at 6'6" & not a shot blocker, taking a charge may be the only option.
I think another factor in scoring defense for RU lies with a couple less turnovers per game, resulting in cheap or easy baskets.....and the offense was better, without the need of having to rely on offensive rebounds as a path towards scoring, like the 1st 2 years under Pike, where the roster just didn't have shooters........i didn't think the 21 or so B1G games left me wondering that RU had a defensive problem. I do think teams with better depth have the ability to be more effective on both ends.
Iowa loses a LOT of scoring from last year to this year and they finished last in defense in league games. Taking a charge can happen less if the defender guarding the player does a better job on the ball. And taking a charge also works both ways....at some point, Eugene's flopping on some of those charges, stopped getting called and teams scored on those possessions. Body up and defending sometimes make more sense, but at 6'6" & not a shot blocker, taking a charge may be the only option.
I think another factor in scoring defense for RU lies with a couple less turnovers per game, resulting in cheap or easy baskets.....and the offense was better, without the need of having to rely on offensive rebounds as a path towards scoring, like the 1st 2 years under Pike, where the roster just didn't have shooters........i didn't think the 21 or so B1G games left me wondering that RU had a defensive problem. I do think teams with better depth have the ability to be more effective on both ends.
Defense was a struggle at times last year.
The defense was really bad in the first two games Omoruyi was out, which did a bit to drag down the overall and conference ratings, but there were struggles at other points, too.
- Omoruyi was hobbled the last several games after hyperextending his knee
- Doorson didn't have the foot speed to close out on the perimeter when necessary
- Carter was largely lost on defense last year, and hopefully will have taken a step forward this year
- Johnson struggled with body control at times and committed a lot of fouls, which hopefully are reduced this year
- Kiss struggled a bit defending the perimeter in the earlier part of the year, but improved a little as the season went on (but needs to improve more)
- Other than Omoruyi, we struggled at times with help defense, especially in the paint. Hoping that improves this year, too.
Lots of things to work on - but hopefully we see some improvement this year.
The defense was really bad in the first two games Omoruyi was out, which did a bit to drag down the overall and conference ratings, but there were struggles at other points, too.
- Omoruyi was hobbled the last several games after hyperextending his knee
- Doorson didn't have the foot speed to close out on the perimeter when necessary
- Carter was largely lost on defense last year, and hopefully will have taken a step forward this year
- Johnson struggled with body control at times and committed a lot of fouls, which hopefully are reduced this year
- Kiss struggled a bit defending the perimeter in the earlier part of the year, but improved a little as the season went on (but needs to improve more)
- Other than Omoruyi, we struggled at times with help defense, especially in the paint. Hoping that improves this year, too.
Lots of things to work on - but hopefully we see some improvement this year.
It's not surprising we struggled defensively with so many freshman playing last season. Young Mathis Yeboah all could potentially be really tough defenders. Myles Caleb Harper too. Carter and Kiss both played their first B1G ball last season too. Carter is really someone I hope makes a big jump defensively. That would be huge for us.
Young's ability to stop PG penetration and more athletic bigs covering the perimeter and pick n roll are the two areas we should see noticable improvement
Young's ability to stop PG penetration and more athletic bigs covering the perimeter and pick n roll are the two areas we should see noticable improvement
I think we will be a faster team that plays more full and half court pressure and look to run.
More depth gives Pike more leverage with minutes to make sure he is getting their best on the defensive end. In fact, reduced minutes for some like Geo should result in an improved defensive play.
Also having a guy like Young keeps Geo from having to run around for 35 mins against smaller perimeter players. Its easy to forget he played out of position at the 1 last year and while he can handle it offensively he is better suited guarding 2's and smaller 3's.
Also, hopefully Mathis takes the step and further takes the challenge in guarding some of these guys.
Agreed. I think it would be great for Geo and the team if he were playing 25-28 minutes per game instead of 30-34.
We have depth
NO ONE should be playing more than 27-28 mpg
Want guys going completely balls to the walls when they are in for their minutes...then have to conserve some energy to make it through the last 8 minutes on a 34-37 minute night
NO ONE should be playing more than 27-28 mpg
Want guys going completely balls to the walls when they are in for their minutes...then have to conserve some energy to make it through the last 8 minutes on a 34-37 minute night
Interesting, this lineup was Young, Geo, Mathis, Harper and Yeboah. The running lineup.
Shaq Carter was what most JUCOs go through, thinking that their skill and talent can get by and Carter was OK. But in order to play well for 18 to 22 minutes in JUCO is one thing. But he's in much better physical shape and ready now vs arriving last summer.
I don't know if it means the player is an instinctive defender but it's much easier to give the effort, when you're in better physical shape and understand what to expect. That goes for all the newcomers, who were baptized by fire last year.
I don't know if it means the player is an instinctive defender but it's much easier to give the effort, when you're in better physical shape and understand what to expect. That goes for all the newcomers, who were baptized by fire last year.
I'm hoping Carter's struggles stemmed from getting used to the speed of the game and getting enough reps. His defensive issues were usually being out of position and a step too slow to react - which I feel is more mental than physical. If the offseason has helped him know where he's supposed to be, that should help him a lot - just being in position would be a big improvement. He's also going to be playing a lot more the 5 spot this year as the primary big, whereas last year he spent all his time at the 4 as the secondary big - not sure how that's going to impact his defense, either.
I'll also say that last year in the Big Ten had an usually high number of skilled senior big men: Happ, Pardon, Morgan, Murphy. Plus Nick Ward as a junior and Bruno Fernando as underclassmen who are gone. And it was asking a lot of a freshman and a JUCO (Johnson and Carter) to defend them.
Now obviously there are guys like Bezhanishvili, Tillman, Haarms, Williams, etc are back (but they were also there last season, of course) and a guy like Kofi Cockburn could be a problem but I think the overall skill of Big Ten big men will be down this season, meaning the defensive bar doesn't need to be as high.
Now obviously there are guys like Bezhanishvili, Tillman, Haarms, Williams, etc are back (but they were also there last season, of course) and a guy like Kofi Cockburn could be a problem but I think the overall skill of Big Ten big men will be down this season, meaning the defensive bar doesn't need to be as high.
I would imagine nobody was all that motivated to play balls-to-the-wall defense against D2 caliber competition after spending the day sightseeing. The fourth game it seemed like the team found that next gear in the second half when it needed to.
A lockdown defender is typically a player whose 6'5" to 6'7" & can guard players from point guard through Power forward. Jacob Young is a combo guard, not very strong, but extremely quick and agile to generate offense. He could be a good defender in the passing lanes.
Montez Mathis is the guard or player that is closest to being able to be that type of player, but at 6'4" or so, he's probably just best to guard the opponents shooting guard, which is usually the opponents best scorer anyway.
You don't have to be able to guard multiple positions to be a lock down defender. You can 100% be a lockdown defender who only guards one position. Being able to guard multiple positions has to do with versatility. There are versatile defenders who aren't lock down and vise versa. 6'5-6'7 is a good range for a defender bc you still have quickness compared to bigs and have length on smaller guards so that is a nice range to be defensively
Also disagree that young isn't very strong. He's short but he's most definitely not weak. Don't conflate the two
I've been reading about how RHJ has transformed his body, but that's the first look I've had where it's very obvious.
