quote:
It could just mean that we have had a decided height advantage inside and have had relatively short guards, going large stretches with 2 6'1" guards. If we use more Williams and Mwani / Wright at guard that may improve, although I think many of our players aren't particularly skilled at perimeter defense.

I do agree with you that height is an issue. Carlos Stewart tries on defense, but I've seen numerous times this year where he closes out properly, jumps up to contest, but he's just so short that he doesn't impact the shooter. I think better lineups could mitigate the piss poor 3pt defense we've displayed so far.

McMahon cannot repeat himself like a broken record about fixing switching and 3pt defense while consistently running lineups with multiple undersized players and mismatches waiting to happen from an erroneous switch.

Our team does not talk enough on defense. WW switch everything defense worked so well largely in fact due to having leaders on defense who speak, communicate, and lead a defense and tell people where to switch. I noticed communication a lot during the scrimmage against LCU, but it's not been there in the subsequent games. I'm not sure why. What I do know is that we have players who are switchable and communicate on defense, namely Derek and Mwani, but they don't get enough minutes. McMahon cannot force a switching defense while running 3 undersized players and an immobile bigman.

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I don't think McMahon's "plan" is to give up as many 3's as possible.

McMahon has made it clear that 3pt defense is a problem. He's said it in multiple press conferences this season. I agree that I don't think it's his "plan" to allow three pointers. However, I do think that our players aren't coached properly on switching. We often switch two guys or turn help defense into a full on switch when someone cuts or rolls, leaving three pointers open, especially from the corner or wing.

Improvements need to be made. Either change the defensive scheme or run lineups that are more suited to running a switch everything man to man.

This post was edited on 11/28/23 at 11:30 am