Is Man-On-Man Defense Suitable For Us?

[chrisfisher]

Is man-on-man the best defense for this team at this point? 5-7 players basically get the bulk of minutes each game in a sport with 5 players on the floor at all times. That means our starters and a bench player or two spend a good part of the game chasing around the other team in a man-on-man defensive scheme. Could fatigue be a factor in our sometimes terrible defense? Would our current player roster be more suited to a zone defense?

[CMJ]

I could see us playing spot zone...but to become really proficient at having a zone as your base defense you really need to start implementing it early in the season. We're 2 thirds of the way in now.

[Censored by Laurie]

God, this place turns into a shit hole after a loss.

[FloMoGrad]

God, this place turns into a shit hole after a loss.

True Story.

[Travis]

I expected us to lose a few during conference play. I did not expect us to lose games to 3 and 5 win teams at this point.

[UNT90]

God, this place turns into a shit hole after an extremely bad loss.

Fixed it for you.

Expectations are a B*&#@.

Changing defenses now would be pretty dumb. Defense is all about effort.

[greenminer]

News flash, Marlin is a great coach.

I wonder if in a couple years we will see this loss differently.

[UNT90]

News flash, Marlin is a great coach.

I wonder if in a couple years we will see this loss differently.

No, we won't.

We are vastly more talented than LaLa this year. If you are saying Marlin won the game, then you are saying JJ lost the game.

The game was lost because of a complete lack of effort from the players on the defensive end of the floor.

Edited January 28, 2011 by UNT90

[chrisfisher]

God, this place turns into a shit hole after a loss.

??? I don't get it. Our defense was horrible... we made them appear like a bunch of Michael Jordons... Quite frankly, I was not trying to stir stuff up, but just wanted to talk defense. We have been implementing the 2-3 zone during brief periods all season... I wondered if that might be the more suitable defense for this team given the reasons I stated.... not trying to dog on them, but just to talk defense... geez.

[UNTLifer]

God, this place turns into a shit hole after a loss.

I think it is the fact that we just lost to a team that we beat by 17 earlier in the year and gave up 93 points, which is only 30 more than we gave up in our win against them. As UNT90 stated, this was an extremely bad loss.

We have now lost to:

Kansas: acceptable and expected

Sam Houston State: not acceptable. They are currently 9-10 and recently lost to SFA 63-49

MUTS: Not acceptable. They are 9-12 overall and not that good.

Troy: Not acceptable. Horrid team at 4-16

Ula-La: As noted above, we beat them by 17 earlier in the year.

If your next question is, "Do I expect us to only have one loss at this point in the season?" Based upon how this season has developed, I don't think that is an unrealistic expectation.

[CMJ]

If your next question is, "Do I expect us to only have one loss at this point in the season?" Based upon how this season has developed, I don't think that is an unrealistic expectation.

Show me a team that has no bad losses in a given season, and I'll show you a top 20 ranking.

[FloMoGrad]

4 clunkers out of 21, all in all not too shabby. Where we wanted to be, of course not, anything changed regarding our season goals or ultimate destinations, not at all.

I'd much rather throw our clunkers and head scratchers now rather than come 1st week of March.

[UNT90]

Show me a team that has no bad losses in a given season, and I'll show you a top 20 ranking.

Funny, I thought this was what we were striving for.

[FirefightnRick]

Don't you fret none. We'll get to 20 wins. That's all that really matters isn't it?

Rick

[Censored by Laurie]

Don't you fret none. We'll get to 20 wins. That's all that really matters isn't it?

Rick

See?!?!?! Anyone want to disagree with my statement now?

[CMJ]

Funny, I thought this was what we were striving for.

Sure, but it's a building process to get there.

[UNTLifer]

It is the nature with which we have lost that bothers me the most. If we want to be seen as an elite team, we should expect to beat teams like SHSU and a 4 win Troy team.

[CMJ]

Don't you fret none. We'll get to 20 wins. That's all that really matters isn't it?

Rick

I'm sorry - haven't we won 2 titles in four years?

[UNT90]

Sure, but it's a building process to get there.

It is, but losing to a terrible, 6 win team while allowing 90 plus points is a HUGE step in the wrong direction. A step we can't keep taking year after year if we expect this thing to end up where we want it to end up (top 20).

There was a reason this team was a unanimous selection to win the Belt this year. That looks almost impossible now. THAT is a step in the wrong direction.

[CMJ]

There was a reason this team was a unanimous selection to win the Belt this year.

It was unanimous to win the West, not overall. There wasn't a pick for the combined regular season champion.

WKU was picked 1st in the East with 11 of 12 votes. I guess you could say we're not under performing THAT badly.

[FloMoGrad]

Funny, I thought this was what we were striving for.

Goals are meant to be slightly beyond the reach of acceptable. This was our goal, run the conference table, be a 1-loss team at this point, get ranked in the top 25. Would a 20 win season, conference tourney win and another birth in the NCAA's be seen as a failure. Not at all. Did we fail to achieve our goal, we sure did, but doesn't exclude the positives we can still achieve.

It doesn't have to be so we must be perfect or this season is a bust, does it?

Ranking doesn't get you in the tourney. RPI does. We want the RPI so we can still have a shot as an at large should we fail to win the conference tourney. Our loss to Sam Houston pretty much took care of our RPI dreams.

Season goals haven't changed much, if at all. Win our division, win the belt,(which is still possible), win the conf tourney and make it to the dance. Get to that point and that's 3 times in 5 yrs, outstanding considering the # of schools from our conference that make the tourney each yr.

Edited January 28, 2011 by FloMoGrad

[foutsrouts]

Don't you fret none. We'll get to 20 wins. That's all that really matters isn't it?

Rick

Thank God we don't play the Henderson States and Camerons of the world on the road, since everyone but LSU seems to be a matchup problem for us away from home. Wouldn't expect this from a group of guys who have been playing together for so long.

[mockcode911]

IMO you dont change defense game mid stream. The guys will pull it together. GMG!!

[Green Mean]

These are the kind of losses that may prevent other big time/BCS schools seriously making a legitimate big offer to Johnny Jones. There needs to be a season or two or even three where we run the table and not just win but virtually dominate. We just aren't there at that level yet.

[untjim1995]

It is, but losing to a terrible, 6 win team while allowing 90 plus points is a HUGE step in the wrong direction. A step we can't keep taking year after year if we expect this thing to end up where we want it to end up (top 20).

There was a reason this team was a unanimous selection to win the Belt this year. That looks almost impossible now. THAT is a step in the wrong direction.

Obviously, Johnny Jones must not be the man then to get us to where we want to go. I mean, look at all of the past SBC teams that are regularly ranked in the top 20 each year. If we can't come close to matching that list of teams, then we need some serious changes at the top. Oh wait...

Having expectations raised is great. They should be raised--to realistic levels. We aren't anywhere close to being a top mid-major yet. When we get to a place where we have a deeper team than what we have now, then we can talk about going undefeated in league play and being a serious player in March. Otherwise, a team with 6 (maybe 7) componenets is not going to be able to bring it every night at a high level. It happens to a lot of schools when injuries and other issues pop up. See Western Kentucky the last two years. If this turns out to be a "step-back" year, it doesn't mean that we aren't making strides as a program still. We can't let these losses blind us to the fact that the program has made the Super Pit an awfully tough place to play and that we are getting major attention from recruits that this university would have never gotten before JJ's run over the last 5 years.

If we are just gonna make this a black-and-white issue with absolutely no gray, then see my sarcastic paragraph above and take it to heart. Otherwise, lets let it play out and see where it goes. I know that we have some mind-numbing losses from the last few years and now this one. But it happens everywhere, even to top 10 teams--(Duke lost at Florida State, Villanova lost Providence).