STrib blog: Gophers defense has been atrocious and isn't getting better

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Amelia:

"We are giving up so many easy looks," DeAndre Mathieu said after the Gophers' 55-54 loss against Northwestern at home on Saturday. "Guys are scoring too easy on us."

That's probably an understatement. While Minnesota's offense has been a bright spot early on, the Gophers' defense has been nothing short of atrocious, and it doesn't seem to be getting better.

Currently, Minnesota sits dead last in the Big Ten in defensive efficiency since the start of conference play (all stats according to KenPom.com).

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/243353911.html

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
per Amelia:

"We are giving up so many easy looks," DeAndre Mathieu said after the Gophers' 55-54 loss against Northwestern at home on Saturday. "Guys are scoring too easy on us."

That's probably an understatement. While Minnesota's offense has been a bright spot early on, the Gophers' defense has been nothing short of atrocious, and it doesn't seem to be getting better.

Currently, Minnesota sits dead last in the Big Ten in defensive efficiency since the start of conference play (all stats according to KenPom.com).

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/243353911.html

Go Gophers!!
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Defense was never that good. Peaked at #18 after the Richmond game, but was in the 30s right after that, and hasn't been in the top 50 since Wofford, and has been in steady decline since.
 

"Until the Gophers get those [defensive] problems solved, any talk of the NCAA tournament should be suspended."

Amen to that. Besides us fans with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads, the players might have allowed themselves to get a little drunk on this NCAA Tournament talk. They simply need to get back to playing better ball. They can't use Andre's absence as a crutch; as Austin said, they need to get that out of their minds. It begins anew on each defensive sequence. In the meantime, forget all this bracket talk.

I know it's the coaching staff's strategy to use positive reinforcement to build the players up. Sometimes I wonder if that can be taken too far. Example: no sooner had Pitino called Elliott the best big man in the conference in the locker room after the Wisconsin game that all of a sudden he's not even the best big man on his own team. What the...! Is it possible the players allowed themselves to get TOO full of themselves? Just asking; just throwing that out there.
 

Bad Gopher said:
"Until the Gophers get those [defensive] problems solved, any talk of the NCAA tournament should be suspended."

Amen to that. Besides us fans with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads, the players might have allowed themselves to get a little drunk on this NCAA Tournament talk. They simply need to get back to playing better ball. They can't use Andre's absence as a crutch; as Austin said, they need to get that out of their minds. It begins anew on each defensive sequence. In the meantime, forget all this bracket talk.

I know it's the coaching staff's strategy to use positive reinforcement to build the players up. Sometimes I wonder if that can be taken too far. Example: no sooner had Pitino called Elliott the best big man in the conference in the locker room after the Wisconsin game that all of a sudden he's not even the best big man on his own team. What the...! Is it possible the players allowed themselves to get TOO full of themselves? Just asking; just throwing that out there.
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Legit concern. It's the Minneapolis media that built them up though.... :p <=========== Tongue in cheek!
 

Bad Gopher said:
"Until the Gophers get those [defensive] problems solved, any talk of the NCAA tournament should be suspended."

Amen to that. Besides us fans with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads, the players might have allowed themselves to get a little drunk on this NCAA Tournament talk. They simply need to get back to playing better ball. They can't use Andre's absence as a crutch; as Austin said, they need to get that out of their minds. It begins anew on each defensive sequence. In the meantime, forget all this bracket talk.

I know it's the coaching staff's strategy to use positive reinforcement to build the players up. Sometimes I wonder if that can be taken too far. Example: no sooner had Pitino called Elliott the best big man in the conference in the locker room after the Wisconsin game that all of a sudden he's not even the best big man on his own team. What the...! Is it possible the players allowed themselves to get TOO full of themselves? Just asking; just throwing that out there.
Click to expand...

I think it's really just the ebbs and flows of a season. I really don't think Eliason's getting full of himself and not working hard, just really doesn't seem in his DNA. Now, what you might be seeing is perhaps teams focused more on him, making it more difficult for him to get his production. They know they can get him in foul trouble too, which can take him right out of a game. And this is especially a problem considering teams don't have to worry about Dre right now.

I know people say it can't be a crutch, but the reality is, without him there, other team's gameplan against our offense becomes significantly easier. We don't have another threat like him out there. Combo that with iffy defense, and suddenly games that might be 5, 10 pt wins are nailbiters of which we're ending up on the wrong end, since we don't have our best player on the floor. They gotta find a way to dig in defensively if they wanna come out of this in March with a berth.
 


This team is neither tall (except Elliot) nor super athletic or muscular. So from a physical standpoint, it makes it a little more difficult to be a real good defensive team. Playing zone with our perimeter size- some teams just shoot over the top of us and that includes the Demps game winner. So, what remains is for the team to get better fundamentally. I have been pleased how they have overcome what I thought would be a big rebounding problem but the defense is not great.
 

Yes, it seemed vs. Northwestern, Mathieu was consistently outsized by who he was guarding by at least 6 inches.
 

GopherJake said:
Yes, it seemed vs. Northwestern, Mathieu was consistently outsized by who he was guarding by at least 6 inches.
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He did a nice job on Demps on their last possession, though. It was Malik who was playing off him a little too much when he popped his three.
 

This team is capable of playing very good defense as shown by their game against Wisconsin (which they did without Andre). The struggle comes in simply finding the motivation to play that hard on the defensive end. It's very easy to be motivated to score, but it's much harder to see the tangible effects of good defense. Good defense is not as glamorous. The funny thing is that even non-skilled players can play great defense so it's always odd to me that teams struggle to excel on the defensive end. In the end it may come down to being physically and mentally lazy on the part of the players. I sure would like to see consistent effort, like the Wisconsin game, from this point on, but it may be an Achilles heel for this squad.
 



tinyarch said:
This team is capable of playing very good defense as shown by their game against Wisconsin (which they did without Andre). The struggle comes in simply finding the motivation to play that hard on the defensive end. It's very easy to be motivated to score, but it's much harder to see the tangible effects of good defense. Good defense is not as glamorous. The funny thing is that even non-skilled players can play great defense so it's always odd to me that teams struggle to excel on the defensive end. In the end it may come down to being physically and mentally lazy on the part of the players. I sure would like to see consistent effort, like the Wisconsin game, from this point on, but it may be an Achilles heel for this squad.
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The defense was horrible against Wisconsin. Gophers gave up 1.17 points per possession. That is worse than their average in Big Ten games1.1 poinbts per possession.

It isn't mental or physical lazyness. It is bad defensive players with a bad defensive scheme.
 

From the Barn said:
The defense was horrible against Wisconsin. Gophers gave up 1.17 points per possession. That is worse than their average in Big Ten games1.1 poinbts per possession.

It isn't mental or physical lazyness. It is bad defensive players with a bad defensive scheme.
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We have two good defenders Austin and Elliot and the rest not as good. I like this scheme better than the one from previous years. Is it any better yet? Probably not. But it does produce more steals and it does not seem to require the learning curve that Tubby's did. Furthermore we switch and adjust to the opponent which makes sense to me.
 

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