Ok, I got frustrated last night. Why does the dribble drive and the high pick and roll cause us so many problems?
Defense
- Thread starter theslickster
- Start date
The "dribble drive", not a fan of that name because it is nothing more than a guard penetrating by spreading the floor. it is 2 things actually that we struggle with in this part of your question. First our defending guard has to stay in front of his driver, we get rubbed off and that forces one of our bigs to rotate over. When the big does rotate we don't always get that weak side coverage for the guy our big rotated away from. What a lot of teams do to us is rub off with the high pick and force a switch, get one of our bigs out in space trying to guard a quicker guy, Hicks picks up a lot of his fouls from this.
But the big problem and just what we miss so much is the lack of a true rim protecting big man, that guy that erases a lot of mistakes, like Henson did for us. We have meeks who does what he can but his inability to elevate makes it hard for him to be that rim protector, Hicks is not really all that long, Tony is and could well be that one day but he is still learning.
Now on the high picks action, we get in to a habit of holding a hedge to long, and that makes our big late in recover back. Some teams do a lot of switching to deal with the high screen, many will show but immediately fall back, some times we get in to this 3/4 action off the screener and just do not divert the driver. Meeks has got a lot better at this but it is still a problem for him and Tony really struggles with it. Hicks tends to take the switch and try to hand back off ASAP but gets driven by the guard and he picks up a lot of those fouls just trying to body out the quicker driver.
But the big problem and just what we miss so much is the lack of a true rim protecting big man, that guy that erases a lot of mistakes, like Henson did for us. We have meeks who does what he can but his inability to elevate makes it hard for him to be that rim protector, Hicks is not really all that long, Tony is and could well be that one day but he is still learning.
Now on the high picks action, we get in to a habit of holding a hedge to long, and that makes our big late in recover back. Some teams do a lot of switching to deal with the high screen, many will show but immediately fall back, some times we get in to this 3/4 action off the screener and just do not divert the driver. Meeks has got a lot better at this but it is still a problem for him and Tony really struggles with it. Hicks tends to take the switch and try to hand back off ASAP but gets driven by the guard and he picks up a lot of those fouls just trying to body out the quicker driver.
Penetration, dribble drive, whatever. We just have always seemed to get abused by this. It can't be a personnel thing every year, and many teams we play do spread and look for the dribble drive then possible kick out for 3. Idk. I just got frustrated last night. It seemed like we were giving up points, fouling, or both the entire second half.
Lot depends on how the game is being called. Moving screens allowed = double trouble for us. Couple that with drivers getting every call and there you go. Meeks shot zero foul shots, how is that even possible?
It has been a while since we had a true rim protector, I would suggest we have not had one since Henson left but I do think in time Tony can become that. Henson was not that as a freshman either but started to become that as a soph and by his jr season, don't bring that mess in here!
I don't know why we even field a team, since the refs are out to get us every game and all.
Well, I'll tell ya this. Wake was throwing up a gauntlet of screens across the top, not just one, which challenges you to maintain discipline. And in fairness we should also note that a good number of those contained hip checks, not one of which was called.
As I mentioned in the OP, I would have liked to have seen more scrambling. Attacking ball-handlers with early doubles can disrupt a lot of that nonsense.
'12 alum. Been watching games since I was 3 years old. Doesn't have anything to do with my post though. If y'all think the refs are out to get us every game, then you need a tin foil hat.
That is going to be especially important against FSU, we really need to disrupt them in the back court and turn them over. They may have size but we have better guard play. I want to see Joel pick his man up at least at the mid court and just pressure pressure pressure him, make him have to work and worry about the pressure as opposed to setting things up.
That not only gives us the ball but it gets us out running and if we can run them we can take them.
Yeah, they run a lotta fresh bodies out there and few are shy about shooting. Important to maintain concentration and BLOCK OUT on the defensive glass. Hopefully we can get them into our tempo and be on point in efficiency.
Great post. I know in theory the same rules apply to everyone, but the fact that so many teams get away with (even teach maybe), stretching the limits of "legal" moving screens, and drivers WHO INITIATE CONTACT getting foul calls, make on ball defense much easier said than done. I HATE both of these rule abuses within the college game today.
