Defensive Effort

[shadow force]

The positive thing I liked from the VA Tech win was the improvement and increased effort on defense. That carried over for most of the game against Virginia last night.

If they would have played with the same intensity on defense the whole season, they would very likely have a few more wins under their belt.

In some of the losses, I saw the opponents get uncontested shots/Layups time and again which was very uncharacteristic of past teams. And yes I realize the HOF defensive guru wasnt on the sidelines anymore. At first I thought maybe this team just wasn't capable of playing really good defense but it appears that isn't the case.

 

[mgrody]

I agree! I'm not at all discouraged by the loss. The game was essentially won by Louisville in 39 minutes of great play, then lost by a series of events that aren't likely to recur anytime soon. IF, McMahon made his foul shots as he usually does; OR, the refs don't make three consecutive incorrect possession calls on out of bounds balls; OR Perry doesn't closely guard and foul the 3pt shooter for no purpose; OR if Virginia doesn't commit a lane violation; OR if Adel inbounds the ball without committing a walk violation; OR if Louisville better guards the shooter after the inbounds; OR if Virginia didn't get lucky and make a banked three pointer; then Louisville wins. In essence, Louisville's beat the number 1 team decisively until the planets aligned for the number 1 team and they got lucky. Some of the bad moves were the fault of Louisville, but the rest of the events were out of their control. What I hope was learned is that the team and the coach can play with and beat anyone.

 

[zipp]

Padgett's learning in every game. And you have to step back and take a breath. You don't get to where we were in that game without a coach who knows what he's doing. I saw another pretty good coach fail at that very thing consistently...

 

[David Gilmour]

The positive thing I liked from the VA Tech win was the improvement and increased effort on defense. That carried over for most of the game against Virginia last night.

If they would have played with the same intensity on defense the whole season, they would very likely have a few more wins under their belt.

In some of the losses, I saw the opponents get uncontested shots/Layups time and again which was very uncharacteristic of past teams. And yes I realize the HOF defensive guru wasnt on the sidelines anymore. At first I thought maybe this team just wasn't capable of playing really good defense but it appears that isn't the case.

EXACTLY. If you didn't notice a profound difference in our defensive intensity last night, you weren't paying attention. I thought we pretty much locked em down until late when possibly a few of our kids got tired. Our offense went into prevent a tad early and stagnated as well. But even with all the gaffs the previous poster highlights, we still "should" have won that game. That's what hurts the most. We SHOULD have won that game. Just think of how much better all our outlooks would be at this time. Now, we're crushed and unsure of our destiny.

 

[earsky]

Off the charts defensive performance imo.

 

[shadow force]

If they can keep up the defense from the last two games, they have a pretty good shot to win tonight.