We don't have bad defense. We have bad strategy

[BannerMountainMan]

I like Anderson but he's going to have to stop double teaming and leaving a man wide open. It might get us 2 turnovers all game but it will give 7 or 8 wide open shots. Gotta change it, only double team on full court press then go full man to man

[3of5-2]

The full court press is a mess. Our players are not long enough, not strong enough and are not in shape to play it.

[riccoar]

Zone is this team's best friend.  They really need to learn to stay together.

[Knot2brite]

This team is better when they play a match up zone

[zebradynasty]

I like Anderson but he's going to have to stop double teaming and leaving a man wide open. It might get us 2 turnovers all game but it will give 7 or 8 wide open shots. Gotta change it, only double team on full court press then go full man to man

I didn't understand why we were trapping and double teaming full court with less than 2 minutes. Ole Miss only hope was making threes and we kept giving them looks. I will admit some of them were contested but I think we would have been better off in man and contain the perimeter. There was a period that I thought Ole Miss was tiring mid way through the second half but so were we. If we were a little deeper we might could have kept the pressure up longer. Still amazed at how easy we get beat off the dribble!

[hamsam]

Strategy!! We don't need no freakin' strategy!!!

[pigture perfect]

Selective trapping is a very good scheme. Knowing when to do it was what made Nolan's teams what they were. We have team speed and quickness. That matchup zone should be good enough 90% of the time.

[cardsNhogs]

I like Anderson but he's going to have to stop double teaming and leaving a man wide open. It might get us 2 turnovers all game but it will give 7 or 8 wide open shots. Gotta change it, only double team on full court press then go full man to man

keep watching. You will find more and more you don't like about MA coaching.

[rude1]

If everyone else recognizes this but the coach doesn't, what does that say? Just seems that CMA is hell bent on continuing to doing the same thing over and over defensively but expects a different result...............

[HogBreath]

keep watching. You will find more and more you don't like about MA coaching.

Plain enough, CMA just doesn't coach to his players' strengths.

[3of5-2]

If everyone else recognizes this but the coach doesn't, what does that say? Just seems that CMA is hell bent on continuing to doing the same thing over and over defensively but expects a different result...............

He gets the same results every year, 2.5 million of them.

[labb]

There is nothing wrong with double teaming. The problem is with the rotations when we double. Same thing with dribble penetration, some of the problem is on the on ball defense but when it comes off of a pick then it is on defensive rotation. Now is this on the coach or the players.I don't know because is don't see the practices.

[rude1]

There is nothing wrong with double teaming. The problem is with the rotations when we double. Same thing with dribble penetration, some of the problem is on the on ball defense but when it comes off of a pick then it is on defensive rotation. Now is this on the coach or the players.I don't know because is don't see the practices.

The problem is all the switching, we destroy any attempt to assign best defender against best offensive player because we switch 25' from the basket, and in doing so players lose focus on who the shooters are that you can't double off of, we just double anything in the area and if the shooter is on that side, it's a wide open look coming.

[blu]

Last season about this time, we started playing better defense - and we finished the season on a strong note. I keep waiting for this team to do that.

[razorpimp]

If everyone else recognizes this but the coach doesn't, what does that say? Just seems that CMA is hell bent on continuing to doing the same thing over and over defensively but expects a different result...............

Definition of insanity!!!

[hawginbigd1]

I have been bit&@$?g about it since Powell was here, it's like MA or someone has decided that we can stay on balance and conserve energy if we switch every screen. I just don't get it, we have had very few bigs that can handle it, Gafford does well, but TT gives up a drive and it just completely breaks down the defense or he has to back off and give up a wide open 3.

As far as double teams, I like them, I know we have gotten a lot of steals over the years by the guards digging in the lane, however there are shooters you don't leave, and we are either too cocky or not smart enough to understand that, it is NOT a coincidence that 2 conference players in 2 games in a row have broken through a conference slump and had their best games of the season. There has been a consistent theme over the past few years teams/players get healthy or set some team or season scoring record against us home or away!

IMO though, all the scheme concerns and complaints, don't overcome an overall lack of desire I see especially with the 3 SR guards, at times they look slow and to me that is desire or trying to hold something in reserve.

[ballinhog]

The original post is my exact thoughts. The very few turnovers our trapping creates is simply not worth the dozen or more open shots it leaves teams every single game. That's not on the players.

[HogInThaGrove]

Basketball IQ.  Few of our players have it, and our coach somehow, after all these years, still doesn't have it. 

[greasy_corner]

It is.  If this team can't get it done, it won't get done under Coach.  It stinks.  One of my heroes. 

[hogsanity]

I like Anderson but he's going to have to stop double teaming and leaving a man wide open. It might get us 2 turnovers all game but it will give 7 or 8 wide open shots. Gotta change it, only double team on full court press then go full man to man

Nice of you to join us. Some of us have been saying this for 5 or 6 seasons.

[ParkerSchnabel]

I like Anderson but he's going to have to stop double teaming and leaving a man wide open. It might get us 2 turnovers all game but it will give 7 or 8 wide open shots. Gotta change it, only double team on full court press then go full man to man

I agree. Sometimes I think he keeps it going to get his guys used to doing it then recovering. So that later in the year he can do it less and less but more effectively. I'd like to see the trapping be a few times a game at select times and against certain players. Not as much as we are.

[hogsanity]

I agree. Sometimes I think he keeps it going to get his guys used to doing it then recovering. So that later in the year he can do it less and less but more effectively. I'd like to see the trapping be a few times a game at select times and against certain players. Not as much as we are.

He does it because that is what Mike's teams are known for and he's going to have them do it, results be danged.

[ParkerSchnabel]

He does it because that is what Mike's teams are known for and he's going to have them do it, results be danged.

I am not convinced of that. If you watch us at the end of last season it seems to me like we cut way back on the trapping. I remember a big half court trap that helped seal the deal against Seton Hall. Like another poster said it just needs to be more selective.

[swineology]

If everyone else recognizes this but the coach doesn't, what does that say? Just seems that CMA is hell bent on continuing to doing the same thing over and over defensively but expects a different result...............

Reminds me of Bret, too stubborn to change his ways.

No way Mike gets a sniff of the sweet 16, not here nor any other university.

[hogsanity]

I am not convinced of that. If you watch us at the end of last season it seems to me like we cut way back on the trapping. I remember a big half court trap that helped seal the deal against Seton Hall. Like another poster said it just needs to be more selective.

Out of desperation at half time at LSU last year Mike finally decided, if he wanted to stay employed, he was going to have to do something. The had just lost to OSU Vandy and Mizzu and LSu was thumping them. So they started playing alot of zone and almost no press.

One would think, with the success they had doing that, that Mike would have utilized that strategy more this year, but nope, right back to man trap switch every ball screen and watch as every game some team has a guy go off for a career high.

[ParkerSchnabel]

Reminds me of Bret, too stubborn to change his ways.

No way Mike gets a sniff of the sweet 16, not here nor any other university.

Actually I think Bert lost bc he got away from what he did. We became more of a passing offense. When he was known as a smash mouth kind of guy. It didn't matter though. The guy was out of his league in this conference regardless of style because he was borderline mentally retarded.

[ParkerSchnabel]

Out of desperation at half time at LSU last year Mike finally decided, if he wanted to stay employed, he was going to have to do something. The had just lost to OSU Vandy and Mizzu and LSu was thumping them. So they started playing alot of zone and almost no press.

One would think, with the success they had doing that, that Mike would have utilized that strategy more this year, but nope, right back to man trap switch every ball screen and watch as every game some team has a guy go off for a career high.

So you are saying that he isn't making adjustments fast enough for you. Ok. Maybe there's a reason for it. I couldn't say. Hit him up on twitter.

[hogsanity]

So you are saying that he isn't making adjustments fast enough for you. Ok. Maybe there's a reason for it. I couldn't say. Hit him up on twitter.

There is a reason for it, Mike's ego. Only this year the SEC is better so they are not going to have a cream puff section in the schedule this year. They only beat a average om today by 4, and had to shoot 55% make 11 out of 22 3 pt shots and hit 28 of 35 ft's just to do that.

[ParkerSchnabel]

There is a reason for it, Mike's ego. Only this year the SEC is better so they are not going to have a cream puff section in the schedule this year. They only beat a average om today by 4, and had to shoot 55% make 11 out of 22 3 pt shots and hit 28 of 35 ft's just to do that.

I don't know him well enough to say that. Maybe you do. He doesn't seem like an egomaniac to me. Frankly he seems like a pretty humble guy. But I'll take your word for it.

[swineology]

Actually I think Bert lost bc he got away from what he did. We became more of a passing offense. When he was known as a smash mouth kind of guy. It didn't matter though. The guy was out of his league in this conference regardless of style because he was borderline mentally retarded.

He shot his mouth off about the SEC before he got here. He couldn't do what he did at Wisky here because this is the SEC west, not the B1G. Toledo put him in his place and he never recovered.

Mike will be darned to play his fastest 40 BS and continue to leave shooters wide open and not have a presence down low. It will cost him his dream job sooner than later.

I was a huge Mike fan, not so much now.

[hogsanity]

I don't know him well enough to say that. Maybe you do. He doesn't seem like an egomaniac to me. Frankly he seems like a pretty humble guy. But I'll take your word for it.

I don't mean it in a terrible way. Many coaches have a style they want to play and they are going to play it until except in an act of desperation they finally change. If they would have changed earlier, the situation would not have been so desperate.

[ParkerSchnabel]

He shot his mouth off about the SEC before he got here. He couldn't do what he did at Wisky here because this is the SEC west, not the B1G. Toledo put him in his place and he never recovered.

Mike will be darned to play his fastest 40 BS and continue to leave shooters wide open and not have a presence down low. It will cost him his dream job sooner than later.

I was a huge Mike fan, not so much now.

I can't lie. When he ran his mouth about sos to Ohio St then got beat by Toledo I laughed my ass off. Blowhard Bert.

[ParkerSchnabel]

I don't mean it in a terrible way. Many coaches have a style they want to play and they are going to play it until except in an act of desperation they finally change. If they would have changed earlier, the situation would not have been so desperate.

So another Nutt like comparison ? I don't know. I just don't see that in Mike. I see a guy who loves his guys and wants them to win. Maybe its just a matter of being stuck in his ways. Maybe its a method. Hard to tell who is right. As for my part. He's the coach of my team. So I"m just going to choose to love him. I hate mediocrity. But I see things trending up with regard to year after year since that horrid 16-16 season.

Recruiting is up. We had a top 10 RPI earlier. We almost got UNC. We got OU. I see the negatives too. But none of the negatives outweigh the bad of the last 20 years. Am I settling for mediocrity for fear of change ? Maybe so. But I don't think Mike lets his ego or stubbornness harm the team. I just choose to believe the best in him.

[HogBreath]

But none of the negatives outweigh the bad of the last 20 years. Am I settling for mediocrity for fear of change ? Maybe so.

Look Dink...Mike has been here for eleven of those twenty years, either as the head coach or as more or less the coach.

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

I like Anderson but he's going to have to stop double teaming and leaving a man wide open. It might get us 2 turnovers all game but it will give 7 or 8 wide open shots. Gotta change it, only double team on full court press then go full man to man

The trapping on the perimeter drives me insane. It just doesn't work. Ole Miss made some 3s Steph Curry couldn't make in the final minute while well defended.

You are correct, we have got to learn and adjust when teams are going bonkers from 3 on us.

[PORKULATOR]

Our help defense is atrocious. Helping stop a shot in the paint always leads to an open 3.