Hey everyone......been reading the board when I can and haven't posted in awhile so forgive me if this has been covered. I know BU prefers pressure denial man defense which I love, but it seems like I read where he backed off that philosophy at OSU last year when they were struggling. Does anyone know if he plans on the pressure defense this year with our guys or does he feel like he has to play more of a containment style because of our current roster makeup? One more question......what do you guys think we should do, pressure or back off some? Just to be clear I am just curious on opinions. Also curious if anyone has any insight to the mindset of the staff at this point.
Defensive plan/opinions for this year
Not an insider, but I expect some pressure until not being successful with it prompts him to change his mind. Every interview he's done has been about running the court on both sides of the ball and creating turnovers for easy baskets. Additionally, Huggins was his mentor so you know what he has been primarily taught/experienced. Lastly, if you go on YouTube you can find videos of him briefly breaking down his full court pressure defense.
I'm just a fan, not a coach so I won't pretend to know what's best for the team. I want BU to do what he thinks is best, but admittedly, I'd like to see some full court pressure. I have no idea what Groce's philosophy was other than maybe attempt to have opponents shoot bad shots, but that just ended up with Michigan hitting 16+ 3's or whatever that Stauskas team did to us.
I would expect some pressure defense but not full West Virginia press.
Does anyone have an opinion on why it failed with OSU? It would seem to me that a guard capable of staying in front of the point guard in order to maintain ball pressure is an absolute need. Speed with the rest of the players is also a requirement. Do not believe last year's Illini could have been successful. Not expert enough to evaluate this year's team but believe he has a start with TJL.
The pressure defense is his calling card defensively. It's not generally crazy full court trapping like WVU, but more like an in your face full court man pickup that makes you feel uncomfortable. See the tourney game vs West Virginia for examples.
I think he's gonna try to do that until he sees it doesn't work. I also think he's gonna see fairly quickly that we don't have the personnel yet (my opinion) to do that full time. Maybe certain line ups situationally but I have a hard time seeing us go with a full court man for extended periods of time.
Halfcourt, I do think we will see the pressure extended outside the 3 pt line. One of BU's base philosophies defensively is don't let the other team catch the ball where want, and ideally they catch it with their back to the basket in a place they don't want. He will also mix in some 3-2 if we need to or just to switch it up.
My guess is as good as anybody's but I always thought ok st was too short. Generally 2 of Evans, his back up, and Phil forte were on the court. That's 2 5'11-ish in D1 basketball. I think it's just hard to do when lacking length. I don't think Solomon moved well enough in the big spot (similar problem I see with Finke/Black, not so much vessel/Ebo), and the other big just seemed kinda raw. However, I think jeff Carroll is the prototype player for that kind of defense. 6'6, good length, very athletic. That's why I said in my previous post I don't think we have the personnel yet. When we get more jeff Carroll types defensively, we'll have some people who can do it.
In all the negatives though, they were elite at forcing turnovers, just bad with ppg. The Big XII was also really good last year and good teams can carve up pressure.
I don't know --have to see it. That said, I agree with the poster above that it will depend on personnel. If you have the length, IQ, and athleticism to be aggressive, you'll see more. I don't think OSU was a good indicator of where we'll be. They were ranked 154 defensively by KenPom, but his 3rd year at SFA, they were 38. I think the buy-in is really good for our first year, and we have some length and quickness to work with. It'll be interesting to see what kind of pace we play. If you really go up-tempo, you rely on athleticism more than in a half court, and I'm not sure how well we stack up in that regard in the BIG. I do think we'll be better overall defensively than OSU was last year, though.
And this seems to line up with recruiting to the system as well. Nolley, Henry, THT all seem to fit into the long wing category. The bigs aren't highly ranked, but seem to be able to get up & down the floor well for bigs.
I agree with your earlier comments that we will experiment and will probably have to back off a bit. I think some will also depend on how ready the freshman bigs are ready. I think Black/Finke will be fine against most 5, as a 4 it may be more match up dependent, but I also think Black/Finke will need some help if we want to play 40 minutes up tempo.
I read somewhere that he relaxed his perimeter defense a little into the season. apparently the pressure was forcing opponent either to more effectively drive or lob, or both...and they were getting burned more so than when they backed off. when I read this, it was amazing to me that such a subtle change can make such a big difference. Nice to know that we have a coach that is good at tweaking in a subtle way for success.
here is an article that discusses the tweak
http://pickandpop.net/2017/02/underwoods-overnight-defensive-tweak/
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http://pickandpop.net/2017/02/underwoods-overnight-defensive-tweak/
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I see alot off pressure on perimeter, and all of switching. My bet is BU will try to control tempo with defense. Already said he will make it hard for opponents to do want they want with the ball. Shut down passing Lanes, and pressure ball in man, double tempo post when we have big man that gives us trouble. See some full court press, when we have the other team rattled. 3-2 zone to throw them off, or if they get a hot shooter. Ready to see it all happen. 
I think an interesting aspect of this whole pressure D is that there really isn't another B1G team that does this with any kind of consistency. I wonder what kind of advantage in conference that gives us.
Maybe not full court, but a denial defense is not uncommon. I think at the D-1 level of scouting though, you don't just base deny everyone or base play a gap on everyone. How much you help or deny is more determined by scouting.