How much better will our Defense be?

[Lt. John McClaine 542]

We all know how lousy our Defense was last year, so I don't want to beat it to death.  We were undersized, our guards, minus Yogi and sometimes Stan, couldn't keep their man in front of them and gave us easy penetration, we switched between man to man and zone, and with 3 freshman playing heavy minutes and several players playing out of position and having to guard much larger players.  

 

So moving forward, having Thomas Bryant should help provide a shot blocking presence, and if Hanner can stay healthy he can also provide some shot blocking, and if he plays alongside Thomas Bryant then he can come from the Weak Side block and make even more plays.  My question is how does the staff look to improve a Defense that ranked near the bottom of the Conference in many statistical categories as well as ranking very poorly from an All Time Indiana Team Defense perspective?  Is the hope that some of the freshman come back with having a year of valuable experience and gained strength?  Is the thought that playing bigger will allow some guys like Troy, Collin, and Emmitt to play their more natural positions?  Will we hire a Coach to replace McCain that has a Defensive Background?  Just how much improvement do you expect to see next year factoring in that we return a lot of players from last year and that the team should know that Team Defense will be a major goal for improvement....

[HoosierAloha 30,102]

The team needs to start with individual defense i.e keeping your man in front while knowing where the ball is. Individuals need to work on drills over the summer. They also need to get in the film room and watch when the defense was good to understand why it was good. When the team can start working together they need to practice team defensive drills. More important than any of that is a want to be an elite defense.

[Lt. John McClaine 542]

The Purdue games, at Wisconsin, and at Michigan State were so hard to watch just because we were just so overmatched.  It reminded me at times to the 2004-2005 Mike Davis teams that had Sean Kline and Mike Roberts trying to guard an opponents Front Line.  I know that some things that occurred certainly affected our Defensive statistics from last year, IE Devin Davis's bonehead mistake on Nov 1st, Hanner dislocating his knee in January, and even the injury that Robert Johnson sustained in February that affected his play.  I am confident that we improve next season just partly because of better rim protection, bigger size to throw at teams, and a year of valuable experience, but I am curious to see if we change anything fundamentally with our Defense.

[coonhounds 10,559]

It will surely be a point of emphasis and I think will be greatly improved.

[Hovadipo 61,995]

I think we improve simply because we can't be worse.

[Lt. John McClaine 542]

I honestly think that the Defense makes or breaks our chances at another Conference Title and advancing far in the Tourney.  Our offense statistically was in the Top 10 of the NCAA Div 1 and that was with playing 2 freshman in the starting lineup and at times starting a player like Hartman that was a complete after thought at the beginning of the season .  I share your optimism and I'm really looking forward to a more traditional lineup which should allow fewer mismatches on the Defensive side of things. 

[KingPG21 6,606]

They'll be better, I'm still skeptical because our perimeter defense sucked last year. Having a big down low help, but won't completely deter people

I keep seeing people talking about how they think JBJ will make a leap defensively. I just don't really see it. I think he'll be better, but he is always going to be limited due to his athleticism, or in this case lack thereof. Being better at playing angles really can only get you so far

[Beowulf50 816]

I hope that our defense is much improved. TB, I think will help out tremendously. This past year our starting center was a 6'6" kid. Hartman did a great job as far as creating matchup problems for the opposing team but he could not stop a solid big. I'm very excited about our incoming class.

[Lt. John McClaine 542]

I don't think that JBJ is unathletic.  Sure, he's not Victor Oladipo, but he's not Dane Fife either.  I think that his Defensive issues came down more to him being a little soft and not liking too much contact rather than James not being "athletic" enough to check his man. 

[Beowulf50 816]

I don't think that JBJ is unathletic. Sure, he's not Victor Oladipo, but he's not Dane Fife either. I think that his Defensive issues came down more to him being a little soft and not liking too much contact rather than James not being "athletic" enough to check his man.

I would love to have a Dane Fife on the team next year!

[rebelhoosier848891 9,588]

I think we improve a lot just because of experience.  It's tough to play great defense as a freshman or a player who has never played much.  JBJ, RoJo, Holt, and Hartman all struggled with that at times.  Even Troy and Hanner who were improved from a year ago still have work to do. The speed of the game is much higher and the athleticism is so much better. Plus--you have to learn the defensive concepts which take a while to figure out.  Defense definitely needs to be the focus of the off-season.  Bryant needs to get up to speed quickly.  I love his height and motor---just from the few games I have seen him in he needs to work on his positioning. He has the skillset to do it but has to quickly learn how to do it without getting in foul trouble.  I expect to see great improvement.