No Defense
- Thread starter thundermax
- Start date
Came to HerdNation.com ASAP after the win to see what the latest complaint was. I'm not disappointed.
I would say wku defend was worse than ours was tonight so SUCK IT!!!
This team loves to shoot and score. Defense...not so much. Bad rotations leave players out of position and reaching. Interior defense is weak but guards allow too much penetration. People complain about officiating and I get that but Marshall has playedthis way all year long.
Herd must outscore opponents to win. Simple as that.
Herd must outscore opponents to win. Simple as that.
Basketball 101 - Goal of game: score one more point than your opponent.
Mission accomplished 96-93 Go Herd!
Mission accomplished 96-93 Go Herd!
For those like 429 that have never played any kind of sport. Well in his case pocket pool. If we would play defense we wouldn't be just above .500.
Thunder no doubt we need to improve on defense but don't you think we are light years ahead of where most thought? We were picked to finish 9th this year. This is only year 2 in the DD project. I say the reason we are 13-12 is because we played a very difficult OOC. We could have watered it down and could have had 3-4 more wins. Don't forget we did not have Elmore the first semester either. Hey buddy lets enjoy the w tonight. Great d or great o all I care about is getting the W. I say the d will get better in the future.
I would say defense doesn't have much to do with our record.
Not having a PG is why we started out 0-6 and having one is why we are now 9-3 in CUSA.
The biggest factor is we have kids who love to play the game and like their team mates. Plus a coach who lets them play loose. James Kelly could not hit the broad side of a barn in the first half. Did DD tell him to quit shooting? No and it paid off in the end.
Literally never been a team in the history of sports that this statement was untrue of
I'm more involved in sports than you are. Do I think we can win consistently while allowing 90+ points HELL NO but enjoy the win a little bit. Everyone all year has said we need to improve defensively. It's not like you just us some one of a kind thought. We know we can't play defense but if other teams can't keep us from scoring either then it's kind of a wash
We can't improve on defense and keep Kelly and Taylor in the game. The other coaches aren't dumb. Drive, you'll have Free path to the basket most every time. DD knows that too, and he's willing to gamble that it is better to have them on the court and give ubaskets than on the bench and give up baskets anyway.
Depth is the biggest factor in my opinion in our lack of defense.. Face it we need Kelly, Taylor and Elmore on the floor.. If that means playing lax on defense to make sure those three can stay on the floor than that's the gamble we are gonna have to make.. Because when you go to the bench you're gonna still give up those buckets but you won't have any chance to make up for it on the other end.. I think as DD can get more of his guys in and we can build up to having more depth you'll see the defensive numbers improve as well.. Regardless this team is learning how to win, tonight was a huge step for them.. To win that game on the road with Taylor fouling out with 15 minutes to go and WKU shooting 20 more free throws than us was a big growing up moment for this team!
Fourth highest scoring offense in the nation (85 ppg) - lends itself to not playing a ton of defense. Another road win by THE HERD , impressive as well as substantial with regards to the conference standings.
Great time of the season for a team to gain a lot of confidence and nothing like winning on the road will instill confidence in a team more than road wins.
Said at the beginning of the season that people would need to be patient , many did not care for the comment , attacked Danny and his methodology/recruiting , while one game over 500 is not great , all things considered with 6 to go and 4 of those at home plus the conference tournament following , 20 wins is within the realm of possibility.
Look at it this way , at least the run and gun and fun is back in Herd hoops , that no one can dispute (but I am sure someone will).
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/statistics/team/_/stat/scoring-per-game
Great time of the season for a team to gain a lot of confidence and nothing like winning on the road will instill confidence in a team more than road wins.
Said at the beginning of the season that people would need to be patient , many did not care for the comment , attacked Danny and his methodology/recruiting , while one game over 500 is not great , all things considered with 6 to go and 4 of those at home plus the conference tournament following , 20 wins is within the realm of possibility.
Look at it this way , at least the run and gun and fun is back in Herd hoops , that no one can dispute (but I am sure someone will).
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/statistics/team/_/stat/scoring-per-game
I think the social media culture is to not be happy, to find fault in everything. Marshall basketball is no exception.
When this team started 0-6 in the pre Elmore games the overwhelming majority of our fans felt this season was done. Danny was in over his head, he had poor talent, he can't recruit, he relies on kids from WV and they all suck. Those were the opinions on all the Marshall boards, Twitter and Facebook.
Since those days we have went 13-6. We have lost to two top 25 schools in Maryland and WVU. We lost a nailbiter and an interesting few official calls to the team currently in first place in our conference in UAB. We lost to Grand Canyon University in another nailbiter, in a game we easily could have won. Grand Canyon is 22-4 with a win over Houston. Our other 2 losses were against UTEP in El Paso, a team we have struggled against in the past due to their talent and the distance traveled to play them. We had every chance to win that game and lost another close one. The only game we have lost that has been a head scratcher during this run has been the loss to Charlotte. But I've seen other teams including top 25 teams have stinkers for no reason so I'll let that game slide and something tells we will nail them at the Henderson Center.
We have a great shot of winning at least 17 regular season games if we take care of things at home the rest of the season and a chance of winning 19 games if we can win out at home and steal 2 at mtsu and UAB which after the start to this season either win totals would be crazy good!
Yes we still don't do some things great, yes our defense is lacking at times but I really think this is a season to savor. We went into it with terrible expectations, to now We have a competitive team, we have a legitimate shot to win the conference tournament and an outside shot to win the regular season. Many people are getting excited about Marshall basketball again sit back and enjoy it!
When this team started 0-6 in the pre Elmore games the overwhelming majority of our fans felt this season was done. Danny was in over his head, he had poor talent, he can't recruit, he relies on kids from WV and they all suck. Those were the opinions on all the Marshall boards, Twitter and Facebook.
Since those days we have went 13-6. We have lost to two top 25 schools in Maryland and WVU. We lost a nailbiter and an interesting few official calls to the team currently in first place in our conference in UAB. We lost to Grand Canyon University in another nailbiter, in a game we easily could have won. Grand Canyon is 22-4 with a win over Houston. Our other 2 losses were against UTEP in El Paso, a team we have struggled against in the past due to their talent and the distance traveled to play them. We had every chance to win that game and lost another close one. The only game we have lost that has been a head scratcher during this run has been the loss to Charlotte. But I've seen other teams including top 25 teams have stinkers for no reason so I'll let that game slide and something tells we will nail them at the Henderson Center.
We have a great shot of winning at least 17 regular season games if we take care of things at home the rest of the season and a chance of winning 19 games if we can win out at home and steal 2 at mtsu and UAB which after the start to this season either win totals would be crazy good!
Yes we still don't do some things great, yes our defense is lacking at times but I really think this is a season to savor. We went into it with terrible expectations, to now We have a competitive team, we have a legitimate shot to win the conference tournament and an outside shot to win the regular season. Many people are getting excited about Marshall basketball again sit back and enjoy it!
Frankly, I didn't think we would win this game as Diddle is a very tough place to play. We were 0-8 before this.
Yes, D will need to improve but a solid win and YES, this team is way ahead of where many thought it would be! Kudos to players and staff.
Yes, D will need to improve but a solid win and YES, this team is way ahead of where many thought it would be! Kudos to players and staff.
To me the biggest thing we need to focus on is team rebounding and I'm sure Dan does every single day. We don't have rim protectors and our bigs have to avoid fouls, so what do you expect? But if we clean the glass, which is tough being undersized, good things will happen.
You guys are right! My bad, I really love the high scoring, I just like to get some stops every now and then. I grew up in the 80's loving and watching the NBA game religiously. I like to see a Lambeer or Brakley hard foul! Go Herd!
I'm fairly certain the defense will improve as we get more players in the program and develop quality depth. You can tell by the way we play man-to-man defense right now that we want to have some controlled aggressiveness. The guards over-play the center and force the perimeter players toward the sideline, setting up the opportunity to trap with one of the bigs. Quite frankly, MU was denied TWO five-second calls yesterday against WKU on the exact set-up. This has the effect of speeding up the offensive players and speeding up the tempo (there is that theme again). Over-playing the center also keeps the perimeter players from penetrating through the center and setting up easy base-line breaks to the hoop. The downside is that the last line of defense is a big that more or less is zoning two offside offensive players, and hoping the trapped offensive player makes the dumb decision to try a cross-court pass (and that the zoning defender can step in the lane and intercept the pass). If the trapped offensive player can get some muscle on the ball (or step between the trapping defenders), then a back-side break to the hoop is there.
Anyway -- with more players, MU's defensive ability will improve just because we'll have more fouls to give at all positions (and not be sensitive to foul trouble in the block positions).
One last thought (I've mentioned before): a healthy Justin Edmonds and a healthy Shawn Smith would make this team REALLY dangerous because of quality depth. Edmonds' cranky knee and Smith's undisclosed health issue kept the Herd from being 9-deep THIS year. What if . . .?
I really think we should clarify that the defensive struggles are interior in nature. We guarded the perimeter well last night holding WKU to another poor three point shooting percentage. Looking at it from the perspective of interior vs perimeter helps define the problem and illustrates this is a depth issue more than philosophy. The philosophy causes the high scores (amount of opponent possessions) but it does not create the poor defense. The lack of depth among our big guys creates the foul trouble which in turn creates the defensive struggles. Trust me...both Kelly and Taylor are excellent defensive players. They just can't always play it. Sometimes that's officials but mostly it is depth.
Like you Cali I was one of those who have always supported DD. The future is bright
Good points GK. It is not a lack of ability or effort - it has become a function of depth and officiating. If we are fortunate to see a well-officiated game in the next couple of weeks (without the touch fouls), fans will get to see Taylor and Kelly be more aggressive in the lane. For the most part, our guards do a pretty good job of defensively agitating opposing guards.
And add to that, what if JP Kambola had not been screwed out of a year's eligibility? He would have provided some solid inside backup for Kelly and Taylor for defensive and rebounding purposes, although with limited offensive assets.
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