In the annual competition the media has with itself to choose the mid major flavor-of-the-month, plenty of teams have caught their fleeting attention. UNLV after they knocked off North Carolina. Harvard, for being Harvard, and well, good. Creighton for their Naismith candidate who looks like he’s 14. Murray State for running over 23-straight opponents. But the one who hasn’t gotten much attention is probably the best one. Wichita State lost a couple early, and then lost to Creighton in their 2nd conference game, and just never seemed to pique the media’s interest. Of course, now they have a commanding lead in the brutal Missouri Valley.
To keep with the theme of forgetting about the Shockers I looked at video of their 89-68 dismantling of Creighton this weekend and came away with one dominant thought: the Blue Jays defense is awful.
Do the Shockers deserve credit for destroying a really good team? Of course. Is their offense legit? Of course. They have all the tools necessary to make a deep run into the Tournament. The short form shows that they have a top-10 offense combined with a top-25 defense. But I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in Creighton. They’re a fascinating team because they’re so one-sided. They have an elite offense (7th) combined with a bad defense (140th). Going back to 2003 (the earliest that adjusted efficiency data is available) only two teams have made the Final-4 with a defense ranked worse than 50th. There was last year’s VCU run (86th), and 2003 Marquette (101st). And that Marquette team had the best offense in the nation. So, realistically, Creighton has no chance of advancing that far with such a porous defense.
So I went to the video to figure out why they’re so bad. Bad defense is usually rooted in three things: selfish defense (failure to defend as a team), lazy effort, and poor technique. The Blue Jays have all three in spades. I used the Wichita State game because a precision offense is best to point out flaws, and I stuck to the first half because plenty of players give up in blowouts. Here goes.
On this first play Wichita State has the ball on the right wing and is attempting a post entry to Carl Hall (circled). But they have to swing the ball (arrow) which is their 2nd option because of the solid post defense. Creighton’s Josh Jones has sagged off his man in the right wing to help in the post.
Creighton swings the ball and is still trying to get the ball to Hall (circled). Again, Creighton still has the play well defended, so the Shockers swing the ball once again to big man Garrett Stutz.
Now the first option is still Hall (circled, top) who has now sealed his man and has great position. Josh Jones needs to take an immediate step into the lane to keep the pass from going over the top for an easy bucket. The reaason it’s critical to be there early is so if the Shockers continue to swing the ball to the now open Toure’ Murry (circled, bottom) that Jones will be in position to close out the shooter. Murry is a 28.6% 3-point shooter. Instead Josh Jones plays selfish defense and steps toward his man on the wing. This might keep his man from scoring, but the Shockers get an easy 2, and the Blue Jays even foul to make it worse.
Here’s the video:
This next play begins with the exact same set, except the entry begins from the left wing. Again, Carl Hall, is the intended destination.
Instead of swinging the ball around the perimeter they roll Garrett Stutz (circled) into the post. At 7′, it’s easy for Joe Ragland (#1) to get the ball to him.
Stutz (circled) fumbles with the ball and has to reset at the 3-point line. Now he’s going to hand the ball back to Ragland (arrow) and everyone in the stadium (including the defender) can see that coming, but…
…Gregory Echinique (#0, guarding Stutz) doesn’t hedge to slow Ragland down after the hand off, and Antoine Young (circled) doesn’t fight through the screen and gets hung up. This puts that whole side of the floor out of position.
Antoine Young struggles to recover into the corner and it’s an easy kick out to the now open Stutz.
Here’s the video:
Next is a baseline out-of-bounds play with the Shockers beginning in a double-stack.
The first option is screening for David Kyles (circled) who is an excellent 3-point shooter, but Creighton’s Austin Chatman fights through it.
Option two is a simple screen for Ben Smith (circled) a great shooter, and Doug McDermott is not able to battle his way through the screen in time to stop a jumper.
Here’s the video:
Our final play is the Shockers final possession of their 49-point first half. It begins with Joe Ragland (circled) running clock to get the play down to under-10 seconds on the shot clock (arrow).
Ragland then attacks off a screen from Carl Hall (circled), but the play is intended for David Kyles (above Carl Hall) who is running a curl move from the baseline. Note how much separation he already has from his defender (Doug McDermott), and he got this separation without help from a screen.
McDermott (circled) appears to get there with a proper closeout. The technique here to to close with a hand in the shooter’s face, and to finish with short, low, choppy steps to stay in proper defensive position, and to never leave your feet before the shooter. With only :05 seconds left (arrow) Wichita State is running out of options. Except…
…I was wrong about the proper closeout. McDermott drifts right by Kyles leaving the wide open three (circled).
The video:
