re: The change in Will Wade is defense

quote:

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They can't play man to man.

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I agree and they did play a lot of man against Bama, they would fall into switching man after the initial traps when they did do the trapping zones.

The problem is Smart and Watford particularly and to a lesser extent Thomas and Days, just can't stay in front of people.

So take them out and put guys in who can you say? Then you have no offense. Cook and Gaines are better perimeter defenders but have yet to show they can score consistently - at least to this point. Same for LeBlanc.

The biggest issue far and away IMHO is we can't stop dribble penetration on the perimeter. That leads to everything else that's wrong with the defense. Smart is our point guard and he can't stay in front of anyone's point guard defensively.

Could they be better than they are at preventing dribble penetration with better technique and communication? I would say yes but not by as much as is needed to be a consistently good defense. Smart and Watford just don't have the lateral quickness. Teams will continue to exploit that.

We have to outscore people, which I thought and still think us capable of doing against most teams on our schedule. But there are issues there too. Gotta get this Thomas thing fixed, he's too good a talent to be struggling like he is from the field right now. His own shot selection and decision-making is key to that, but I think he must be encouraged to changes there some. That and the other offensive issues like poor spacing and too much ISO where we don't even think of passing, are easier issues to fix IMHO.

Both issues are frustrating. I hope we can improve in both areas and I hope we do. We'll see what happens this evening.