Defensive stance/technique

I don't know if this has been discussed but I was curious what everyone thought about our specific technique on defense. I personally think we stand up too tall on closeouts instead of being lower to the ground which leads to getting beat off the dribble. When guarding the man with the ball I think we stare at the opponent's face or the ball too much instead of watching the midsection. Where the midsection goes the body goes. It was really obvious tonight when Tracy was guarding a guy in the corner and he high ball faked middle and Tracy jumped. If you watch the midsection you can still see the ball. As someone who wasn't very fast but could guard quicker players I know these techniques can work.

Thoughts? Am I not seeing things correctly.

Agree wrt closing out on shooters. You want to get a hand up but many times the defensive player is too upright or out of control to respond effectively to a shot fake and dribble drive. Thought they did a much better job closing out against VCU than any other game this year. They also seem to be step slow to cut off a drive or force to help, but not so much in a physical sense but mentally. It seems as if they are still thinking too much both on offense and defense.

Basketball is an overlearned skill for the most part. To play effectively you shouldn't need think at all for about 98 percent of a game; just react based upon the thousands of hours of play and practice that the typical high level player has experienced. Thinking literally doesn't allow that to happen.

Close outs are interesting to bring up. I just watched a video today of Tony Bennett and how he teaches closeouts. They close out chopping the feet with high hands, then an immediate, very small, tiny step back to reset feet and square up their defense.

The other thing is, when you play a pack line defense like we do, every pass requires a close out, because direct help comes from one pass away. Close out defense is exactly the kind of defense I like to create as a coach, because the advantage is 100% to the offense. When you play a packline, you have more closeouts. When you have more closeouts, you have more opportunities to get blown by.

FiveStar said:

The other thing is, when you play a pack line defense like we do, every pass requires a close out, because direct help comes from one pass away. Close out defense is exactly the kind of defense I like to create as a coach, because the advantage is 100% to the offense. When you play a packline, you have more closeouts. When you have more closeouts, you have more opportunities to get blown by.

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This is a great observation. I think all our guys are high center of gravity guys too, even without considering the close out technique, they don't change direction well. Have you ever noticed how often our guys stumble and fall simply because they seem a little off balance. Granted, sometimes there is a little nudge from the opposing team, but it seems to happen way more with Illini than other teams.

I also don't get our positioning in our 2-3 zone....we have the side bigs so high (elbow and higher), the offense is in a 2 on 1 literally every time with that one defender being Morgan or Thorne....which frankly doesn't bode well for anything but easy buckets. If those Side bigs didn't hedge up so much, I swear it would eliminate a ton of easy looks by the opposition.

You know what makes keeping your center of gravity low and lateral quickness on defense tougher?

Adding ridiculous amounts of muscle mass to your frame.

"There will be no tradeoffs!" they said

Second and Chalmers said:

You know what makes keeping your center of gravity low and lateral quickness on defense tougher?

Adding ridiculous amounts of muscle mass to your frame.

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Only if it's mostly upper body muscle mass. :thumb:

Second and Chalmers said:

You know what makes keeping your center of gravity low and lateral quickness on defense tougher?

Adding ridiculous amounts of muscle mass to your frame.

"There will be no tradeoffs!" they said

Click to expand...

BananaShampoo said:

Only if it's mostly upper body muscle mass. :thumb:

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And only if it means overall you weigh more, or have a higher weight/strength ratio. Certainly there is a tipping point where more muscle hinders more than it helps, but I wouldn't guess that is the real issue. I think it's that too many of our guys are starting fundamentally from too low down the "quick and athletic" scale. You can make guys stronger and quicker, but you can't change their fundamental physical abilities. Technique can help a lot, too, and I agree it's not clear at all that our guys use good technique.