Dave in Green

Proof point #2 in favor of defense: Underdog Northern Iowa leads consensus #1 team Kansas at the half, 36-28. The announcers made the point that Northern Iowa is the #2 defensive team in the country, and that "they hang their hat on defense." Listen, like everyone else here, I prefer watching a high-powered offense over a stifling defense. But as long as the rules are set up and enforced the way they are in college basketball, a good defense will beat a good offense more often than vice versa. You still need to have a decent offense to score points. But defense is king. It's just the way it is.

Today's Ohio-Tennessee game was more indicative of what happens when a high-powered offense goes up against a team with a good balance of defense and offense. A high-powered offense can only put pressure on another team by shooting at a high percentage. Even the best high-powered offenses cannot consistently put the ball through the hoop game after game, especially when facing a tough defense. Today, against a tough Tennessee defense, Ohio shot 37.9% FG, 38.5% 3-pt, and 53.8% FT. While Ohio deserves all the credit in the world for upsetting Georgetown, they did it with an unreal and unsustainable shooting percentage. Today, the reality of what a good defense can do to a good offense came home to roost.

Ohio started off hot, then started misfiring, and now Tennessee has adjusted and pulled ahead. Absolutely loved Cooper's brilliant play where he went up for a long jumper, realized he didn't have a good look, bounced it off the Tennessee defender, caught it and drove to the basket. How can a freshman have that level of presence? Absolutely love the way the refs are calling this game. Tommy Freeman tried to pull the same trick he was pulling at the Q of stepping in front of a player headed back downcourt. The Tennessee player leveled Freeman, and the refs didn't blow the whistle. The commentators jumped in and said that was a great no-call, and that the stepping in trick to draw a charge under that condition "isn't basketball." Too bad MAC refs fall for "isn't basketball" tricks. Tennessee 26, Ohio 20 with 6 minutes left in the first half.

Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl is a believer: Here are the numbers Pearl does care about: Ohio point guard D.J. Cooper is a 5-foot-11, 165-pound freshman who led the conference in minutes played and steals and assists per game. After watching 20 minutes of film on Friday morning Pearl turned to his staff and said, "Who is this kid? Where is he from? And why didn't we know about him?" ESPN Link

Euton fouls out, but his Scott County team hangs on to beat Christian Country 69-64 in a quarterfinal game Friday despite, can you believe it: Christian County's ultra-quick junior point guard Anthony Hickey was the culprit, drawing foul after foul on daring drives to the rim. Lexington Herald-Leader Link And then the wheels come off in the semifinals this morning as Scott County loses to Ballard 67-62 despite an apparently good performance by Euton. iHigh Link So Jackson's Josh Egner is the last of the 3 Zips recruits still playing this season.

Interesting that in the 2006-2007 season, Bassett was the starting point guard on the Indiana team that beat Gonzaga in the first round of the NCAA tournament before losing to UCLA. According to Bleacher Report, Bassett is currently the 5th most underrated player in NCAA D1 basketball. Bleacher Report Link

I agree it's a bad idea to bring the center out high to harass a guard when used frequently and predictably. The purpose is to disrupt the offense. But consistent and predictable moves are less disruptive than intermittent and unpredictable moves. On defense, Zeke's value is highest when he's closest to the bucket. The further out Zeke gets, the more it opens up the lane for the offense. A good offense will usually burn this defensive move by hitting a cutter to the open basket. I think it's a move that should be used only rarely when the offense is least expecting it, and even more rarely against a quality ball handler who's likely to beat it almost every time.

I hope to read a similar quote from Zeke someday under similar circumstances.

Well, the extreme positions on any issues are usually off the mark. When people get into arguments on internet forums, they often try to portray their side as all white and the other side as all black. In reality, the world exists mostly in shades of gray, including people's opinions. I really believe that most forum members here do not hold extreme positions either way, and see the Zips basketball situation in shades of gray. It's absolutely certain that not all dark gray is black and not all light gray is white. For example, I would never say "You can't criticize KD, he's a lot better than Hipsher." What I would say is that "While it's fair to criticize anyone for their shortcomings, including KD, it's only fair and reasonable to also acknowledge that KD has moved the program forward from the Hipsher years." Nor would I say "Why are you complaining? At least we are not Toledo." What I would say is that "While it's fair to complain that the Zips are not as good as we would like them to be, it's only fair and reasonable to also acknowledge that the situation could be much worse, like the one in Toledo." I really don't see anything wrong with people looking at the same data, coming to different conclusions, and expressing themselves differently. I also see no problem in discussing different opinions in a civil and reasonable manner, because we all have much to learn, regardless of our age. Most forum members here do that most of the time. Problems do tend to crop up when one side mischaracterizes the other side's position in order to advance their own position. None of us should stand for anyone else mischaracterizing the intent of our statements.

Hmmm, since the MAC regular-season title results in an automatic invitation to the NIT, I assume that the one-third month of base for making NIT is only applicable in an instance of an NIT invite without winning the MAC regular-season title. Yes, already under discussion in ZN.O's Basketball Recruiting forum.

Ask Georgetown how bad Ohio is, a team the Zips beat twice this season.

Jacob, you have arrived at the same conclusions that many on this forum have also reached. Your conclusions are not at all harsh compared to some of the venting we've seen here. Most of us appreciate how far the Zips have come from the bad old days, but want to see them get even better in the future. Your calm, measured evaluation is much appreciated, and I hope you will continue to post here with suggestions you might have about how to improve the situation.

You never win with just defense or just offense. You win when your combined offense/defense is better than the other team's combined offense/defense. Statistically speaking, the Zips offense was a little better this season than last, and the defense was a little worse. The past two seasons were actually pretty similar, except the Zips performed a little better in the MAC regular season and a little worse in the MAC tournament championship game.

Excellent suggestions. You really nailed it on Nik. He was whirling around some of the MAC stiffs like they were glued to the floor, and scoring almost at will. But toward the end of the season everyone figured out that Nik could be frustrated by a quick-footed big who stayed between him and the bucket. When Nik tried mid-range jumpers, they usually clanked. No wonder Nik was so frustrated and upset in the last few games. His primary game had been neutralized, and he had no backup plan that worked. A truly staggering statistic is that Nik was 1 of 4 from the field in the Zips squeaker win over Western Michigan, and that was his last field goal of the year -- not a one in losses to Ohio and WGB. He absolutely must practice mid-range jumpers all summer, or he's in danger of losing PT to one of the incoming freshmen.

For every offensive play, there are multiple defensive adjustment options. For every defensive adjustment, there are multiple offensive adjustment options. For every offense and defense, you keep running what works until the other team makes an effective adjustment, and then you readjust. It goes back and forth, cat and mouse, as long as teams are smart and talented enough to make effective adjustments. One-dimensional teams will look good until they run into an adjustment that neutralizes all they've got. The best multi-dimensional teams will move on and eventually play for the national championship.

Not as much love for Ohio's offense as disdain for Georgetown's poor defensive effort. KD will read all of this and be vigorously nodding his head up and down: The reason the unthinkable happened is simple: The Hoyas got lazy defensively. Ohio players could've broken a clavicle and would still hotly pursue. Not the Hoyas. The way Georgetown played defense against Ohio typified the Big East's difficulty in the first round this year. The defensive intimidation they displayed against each other all season so far has mostly vanished. The Hoyas allowed Ohio to take wide-open jump shots the entire game. In the second half, Ohio shot 71 percent from 3-point range and 66 percent from the field. The Hoyas looked like they wanted no part of anything physical. CBS Sports Link This might have been the worst defensive effort Georgetown had all season. The Hoyas never could stop ball and didn’t look like they made the attempt. ESPN Link But ultimately, it came down to defense and effort. Fox Sports Link

Article in the ABJ with 10 photos. Be sure to check all the photos, as Egner is prominently featured in 3, though he's not mentioned in the story. ABJ Link Canton Rep story also doesn't say much about Egner, but does feature a good photo of him. I thought Egner was the one who lit the fire with his huge breakaway slam when Jackson was trailing in the 4th quarter. Canton Rep Link

Hitchens and Steward have both shown on occasion that they can drive through a bunch of defenders and take the ball to the bucket. But neither has done it very often, and when they do, they don't reliably get the ball in the hole. I don't know if they aren't called on to do this very often because they are not reliable enough to be counted on, or if they are not reliable enough to be counted on because they aren't called on enough to become experienced at it. It's the old chicken-egg thing. There's already a player on the roster who has the potential to be a "dribble-drive SG in the 6'3 to 6'5 range for 2010-2011." Brett McClanahan has been stuck behind Jimmy Conyers the same way that Conyers was stuck behind Nate Linhart. I continue to believe that Nitro has the physical tools to be the big guard so many Zips fans covet. He has shown the ability to drive to the basket, but on even fewer occasions than Hitchens and Steward. I'd really like to see him have the opportunity to prove whether or not he could drive to the bucket on a regular basis. I hope that everyone reading this thread occasionally checks in on the Basketball Recruiting forum to see how the 3 new Zips recruits are doing in their final HS seasons. Barring a major change in KD's offensive scheme that would allow some of the returning players an opportunity to show offensive skills that they haven't yet had a full opportunity to demonstrate, the biggest hope for change next season will be with the abilities of the incoming freshmen. In the absence of change, KD will continue to rely on B. McKnight for an abnormally high percentage of the Zips' offensive looks, which will keep him firmly in the top 10 nationally in terms of percentage of his team's shots taken while on the floor -- more than 1 of every 3 shots. 2010 National Leaders: Percentage of Shots Taken

MEMO TO KD: The "Defense First, Last, and Only" philosophy of the beloved Charlie Coles produced the following results on Friday, March 12, at the Q: Team ............... 1st Half ... 2nd Half ... Final Score Ohio Bobcats ........ 21 ............. 33 ............ 54 Miami Redhawks ... 12 ............. 30 ............ 42 Great job of holding the high-powered Ohio offense to just 54 points! But still a 12-point loss, and a virtually unwatchable game for the fans to boot. With 2 minutes to go in the first half, Miami had collected 9 fouls and scored only 7 points. But boy were they playing great defense.

Zips were demonstrably better than Ohio on Jan. 13 and Feb. 14. Unfortunately, March is the time a basketball team needs to be at its best.

KD says thanks but no thanks on the proposition that the offense needs as much work as the defense. I do like some of what he has to say, such as focusing on championships rather than 20 wins. But if the offense suffers as much as the defense improves, you still end up losing, just by lower overall scores. I continue to believe that too much focus on improving the defense at the expense of offense could lead to a very unexciting team that will have little appeal to casual spectators. But if the end result is winning big games, that may be enough to please the old hardcore fans as well as potential new fans who like to ride any winner. KD Interview in ABJ

Most basketball fans prefer watching a good offense over a good defense. Most fans go into fits of ecstasy when an underdog beats a powerhouse with an unbelievable offensive performance. Most unbelievable offensive performances are not repeatable. Most underdogs who upset a powerhouse with an unbelievable offensive performance generally come back to earth in the next game or two and are shut down by a good defense. Most teams that win the national championship have a better combination of offense and defense than other teams, because neither offense nor defense alone is sufficient to win consistently.

Now that Ohio is on the Big Boys' radars, and assuming Tennessee finishes off San Diego State tonight, do you figure Bruce Pearl has the smarts to handle the ball screen and outcoach Groce after outcoaching John Calipari and upsetting Kentucky earlier this season?

How about D.J. Cooper?

I have never in my years on ZN seen this forum as lit up as it is tonight. I swear there are 10 new posts appearing every minute. Imagine what would happen if the Zips ever won an NCAA tournament game!