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Ken Pomeroy on UA's defensive improvement
Kind of interesting.
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Yes it does. The conclusion is this: if you make a high percentage of your shots and have trouble on the defensive end, it's foolish to crash the offensive boards. Let's compare a few stats from 2007 with 2008.
Adj. OE Adj. DE OR%Year Rank Rank Rank2007 7 72 432008 7 50 274
Kevin O'Neill has stopped sending four players to the offensive boards, instead relying on one or two guys for second-shot opportunities. This, in turn, has allowed the defense to prevent transition baskets, which has improved the overall defense slightly without much impact on the offense. I think the fact is, though, that the half-court defense probably hasn't improved all that much, and therefore the notion that O'Neill is some sort of defensive mastermind is misguided.
Almost all of the improvement can be explained by the fact that Arizona is willing to concede defensive rebounds much more so than in the past. Those 2007 figures, by the way, are fairly similar to what's on the record for 2004-2006. It should also be noted that the Wildcats' tempo has dropped by about four possessions per game this season. It's just conjecture on my part, but I'd bet most of the slowdown is the increased amount of time opponents are using when facing a more organized defense."
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The question he was asked was to compare this years Cats to previous years under Lute and comment on if the defense is really better.
He's basically saying yes it's better organized largely because they're dropping guys back to prevent transition baskets.
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“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo
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