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MBB Game 23: @ Duke - Tuesday 7 pm - ACCN

I thought Forbes was a big defense guy. It just makes no sense how the team hasn’t seemed to adjust as the season progresses. Is it all players? Is his defense too difficult to comprehend and execute?
 
WakeFanAdam said:
I thought Forbes was a big defense guy. It just makes no sense how the team hasn’t seemed to adjust as the season progresses. Is it all players? Is his defense too difficult to comprehend and execute?
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Our post guys not being the most mobile definitely doesn’t help matters.
 
WakeFanAdam said:
I thought Forbes was a big defense guy. It just makes no sense how the team hasn’t seemed to adjust as the season progresses. Is it all players? Is his defense too difficult to comprehend and execute?
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Last year, WF was #42 in defense. Same coaching staff, WF is #164 (FWIW, the Deacs are a higher rated offensive team this year #27 this year/#42 last year, which is pretty amazing because WF was more talented last year). The personnel has changed. WF is smaller, not as physically strong and less athletic. As an example, WF's block rate and steal rate have dropped while opponents FG% has risen. It's easier to score against:

Tyree
Cam
Damari
Carr
Marsh

versus

Alondes
Davien (healthy)
Mucius
Jake
Dallas
 
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yeah, we don't have a rim protector and have to collapse on bigs with an inside game. this leaves players open around the 3pt line. it's been killing us lately
 
Not sure how folks are defining "athletic" but to have a UVA-level pack line defense in college you absolutely need good defenders. The entire goal of the pack line is to sag help, force drives into that help, clog up interior passing lanes, etc. By design you'll have kickouts for outside shots with defenders recovering to them. If you have length at the guard spots in particular that works far better than when you don't - and athleticism like Beekman's for example makes up for a lack of length. Look at UVA's NC team - sure Clark was tiny, but after that you had Guy who won dunk competitions in high school, after that 6'5" Jerome was the shortest player who got a minute of playing time.

Forbes and staff aren't morons who don't understand how to play or coach defense. But nifty moves down low for Cam don't make him a post defender or give him 3" of height. We have 3 short guys playing loads of minutes, 2 terrible defenders at the 5 (sadly) who don't rebound and couldn't challenge an outside shot to save their lives, then we have two not-so-athletic guys in Carr and Monsanto. There's a reason we run a zone where the entire point is to force taking advantage of Klintman and Carr's length in the middle of it.

We're in spot where we basically have to play man and our guards really need to deny passes and pressure the ball to be effective defensively. But our 5's are forcing us into doubles, our guards have to get too many rebounds, and we aren't deep. The problem at 5 is so bad we started Carr there last game just so we could get Klintman in to play defense. We had to try Monsanto on Burns. We're simply a team that has to pick our poison defensively, not one that gets to dictate - because of personnel. And honestly having watched some of these teams all year we've been pretty damn snake-bitten by some shooting performances against us.

Forbes is responsible for the personnel, the offense, the defense, etc. I'm not excusing him or whatever. But as Pilch points out with a more athletic group of guys we were good defensively - even without a physical big man. Forbes may have limitations but with the staff he has right now, coaching chops isn't one of them.
 
I'm happy Steve Forbes is our coach. He is doing a lot of very good things and I am still positive regarding his future at WF.

In 17 years as a head coach, Tony Bennett has never had a defense worse than #71 in the country, and he took over a depleted roster from Dave Leitao. I grant that Bennett may be worse than #71 if he had WF's roster right now - but I don't think he'd be #164.

So while I'm happy with Forbes, I believe he could be doing a better job defensively than he currently is.
 
thatguy2016 said:
I'm happy Steve Forbes is our coach. He is doing a lot of very good things and I am still positive regarding his future at WF.

In 17 years as a head coach, Tony Bennett has never had a defense worse than #71 in the country, and he took over a depleted roster from Dave Leitao. I grant that Bennett may be worse than #71 if he had WF's roster right now - but I don't think he'd be #164.

So while I'm happy with Forbes, I believe he could be doing a better job defensively than he currently is.
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Bennett also sacrifices offense for the sake of defense. If we waited until there were 5 seconds left on the shot clock then our defensive numbers would also be better simply because the other team gets less possessions.
 
thatguy2016 said:
I'm happy Steve Forbes is our coach. He is doing a lot of very good things and I am still positive regarding his future at WF.

In 17 years as a head coach, Tony Bennett has never had a defense worse than #71 in the country, and he took over a depleted roster from Dave Leitao. I grant that Bennett may be worse than #71 if he had WF's roster right now - but I don't think he'd be #164.

So while I'm happy with Forbes, I believe he could be doing a better job defensively than he currently is.
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That's fair. Defensive metrics favor teams that play at slow pace; so, Bennett's defensive metrics are pumped up by the fact that Bennett is always the slowest tempo coach in a Power V conference. Also, Bennett admits that he favors defense over offense. Finally, yes, Tony Bennett is a better defensive coach than Steve Forbes. Tony Bennett is probably the best defensive coach in the nation. Love watching UVA, but a lot of people aren't that fired up to watch their team win 58-40.
 
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