In Reply to: Re: More optimism posted by Cachorro on December 04, 2025 at 15:17:26
Oh yeah, the defensive end is probably not going to be good, we have some physical issues there:
1) Most of our guards are short w/o length - this means they will have trouble getting good ball pressure to make post-entry passes difficult
2) Our bigs all have some significant paint defense liabilities - Booker is more of a finesse player than a banger, Jamerson has elements of that as well, and while TB can bang, he's not quick or athletic enough to have a high ceiling.
3) Our bigs are actually pretty good shotblockers, but they don't do so (yet?) in a fashion which allows them to stay in position to box out and get rebounds.
4) the zone is something I think we should use all year as a tool, especially when our interior defense is struggling - but we do have the guard length issues, as well as making sure the guards are diligent about their rebounding responsibilities in the Zone. Both ED and TP should do really well in the zone with their length and quickness.
TBH, from the first 5 minutes of the Eastern Washington game (first of the year)I was in our text chat saying the interior defense and rebounding was a huge issue. It will get better, but we have some personnel issues and it will never be great, but if the offense keeps putting up 80-ish scores, both can be good enough for a run.
If we slow it down again like CMC has done for years, and our offense drops down to playing most games in the 60's? We're in trouble.
Also, for the love of god, practice the fast break! We are quite possibly the worst fast breaking team I have ever seen. We routinely fail to score if there is ever just 1 guy back, our 2 on 1 and 3 on 1 breaks fail more than just about any team I've ever seen, and we have zero secondary break guys running for the 3pt line. Argh!