In Reply to: UCLA Defensive Shot Chart posted by Dr.Bruin on March 05, 2025 at 15:07:18
In my opinion, this is by far our biggest weakness. I know the obvious counterpoint is our offense—yes, the lack of a true point guard is a major issue—but I still believe this team shoots the ball fairly well. If we look at the percentage of points coming from three-pointers, I’d guess it's up compared to even some of Cronin’s better teams. Plus, we have solid post-scoring options with Bilodeau and an improving Mara.
Defense, however, is a different story. Any team with even a decent scorer in the post can dominate us. You're right in pointing out that the right side is the biggest issue—most players naturally attack to their strong side, and we haven’t been able to force them left.
A great example of this defensive strategy was in the women's game against USC. I believe the game plan against Watkins was to force her left, but in the first half, we failed miserably. That’s why Close was so frustrated. In the second half, Gabby took the assignment and made a clear effort to deny her strong side. While Watkins still got her points, Gabby at least slowed her down.
This reminds me of an experience I had playing in an adult league in my 30s. We faced a young man with one arm—an incredible player who could shoot and, more importantly, was elite at getting to the rim. He was torching us. After we cycled through defenders, I got the assignment. I felt conflicted about it, but I made a simple adjustment: I took away his strong side. With only one arm, it was significantly harder for him to go the other way. When they called a timeout, a teammate even called me out for “taking advantage” of his disability. Looking back, I have mixed feelings about it—but in that moment, I just didn’t want to get embarrassed.
The point is this: As a defender, you have to take away a player’s best move. If they beat you with their second-best, so be it. Right now, in the post, opponents are going right around or through us, and there’s often nothing we can do. We're just not strong enough down there. That’s why I was surprised Cronin didn’t stick with Kyle on TKR against Purdue. He was the only one who put up a fight. Granted, we couldn’t score much with him in, but he was paired with Mara at the time. I would’ve liked to see him stay in with Bilodeau or Dailey to see if we could have held up better.