Defense

[Censored by Laurie]

In reading and participating in some of the post-Texas Tech game discussion, I've seen some posters questioning the defense UNT played last night. What specifically did some of you see?

I saw solid on the ball man and active hands that gave the Tech guards problems...open looks were rarely quality shots...I remember a few looks for Nurse, but from about 25' and one clean look for Lew, but from a bit out side his range at 19' or so. Hogans, Edwards and Niko worked hard against the bigger Lew...but he did a good job of establishing where he wanted and getting either a quality look or getting to the line...good offense coupled with a bigger body, more than poor defense, IMO.

From the numbers it seems the defense was quite salty. In Tech's first game against Troy (a conference foe, so rather a comparable team...I think UNT is better, but Troy does have a returning all-conference player in Will Weathers)

Tech put up 90 points on 61% shooting...hit 10 3's, shooting 50+% from long range...and turned the ball over 18 times against nearly an entire game of full court pressure.

Last night Tech put up 21 fewer points on just 45% shooting...they knocked down just 2 3's (18%) and turned the ball over 20 times...mostly against half-court defense. Also, last night Tech had Jaye Crockett and Kevin Wagner who missed their game with Troy...Crockett scored 9 and pulled 7 boards.

[Army of Dad]

Yeah, but we like, lost and stuff!

[TheTastyGreek]

Sucks to your stats and observations. I'll start believing this team can play defense when they finally manage a shutout.

Serious face: There's a lot about last night that frustrated me, but defense wasn't anywhere close to the top of that list. Loved how we performed in the press, love how aggressive we've been this year in forcing turnovers and disrupting passing. Loved seeing us clamp down and battle back against Tech runs in the first half, and especially the 11-0 run in the second half.

[Harry]

I tend to agree that the defense was pretty salty. I would put that at the bottom of the improvement list, I was much more concerned about the shooting (or lack therof). I will say that I loved the fact they came back and made a game of it at the end. It was a fun game to watch!

[untgeorge]

Sucks to your stats and observations. I'll start believing this team can play defense when they finally manage a shutout.

Serious face: There's a lot about last night that frustrated me, but defense wasn't anywhere close to the top of that list. Loved how we performed in the press, love how aggressive we've been this year in forcing turnovers and disrupting passing. Loved seeing us clamp down and battle back against Tech runs in the first half, and especially the 11-0 run in the second half.

On its way to being the best defensive team in the JJ era.