In general, the Buffs play excellent defense. But this year has been a work in progress with such a young team (I think we're younger than all but a dozen or so D1 teams this season). It took a while for the young guys to get the principles down and there are still issues with fundamentals.
Three things of note:
1. Getting caught in "no man's land". Perimeter defenders crashing down against penetration to close off driving & passing lanes are part of this defense. Tad doesn't want to give up easy layups. But too often we see guys hesitate (and also ineffective help due to what I discuss in #3 below). When they do that, they don't close down the lanes and they are also unable to react quickly enough on the kick out to get back to their man and contest. There's also been some drifting into the lane from the weak side that gives no help and leaves a guy with 10-15 of space if he gets a weak side skip pass. Results in way too many open 3s.
2. Confusion on switches. This seems to be getting better as players are doing a much better job of fighting over the top of screens and being in position to "slap hands" with a shooter if he catches coming off a screen. Earlier in the year, CU was switching too much instead of fighting through. And whether there was a switch or not, CU defenders weren't closing out well. This has definitely improved, but it's not quite where it has been in past seasons.
3. Playing with hands down. Walton noticed this and called it out last night while UCLA was putting on a passing clinic. CU defenders are playing with their hands down. When hands are down, it creates passing lanes. Our perimeter defenders make it too easy for the guys they are on to find passing lanes. (Spencer was fantastic at this as a defender, btw.) And on the interior, hands down allows too much over the top or through traffic at shoulder level. That type of thing did not happen with Dre and Dufault on the inside as both were great technicians with having their hands up. Scott's pretty good with this now, but Dustin is really struggling at this aspect. Some of the issue may be a matter of playing timidly due to all of the hand check calls with the new rules, but you've got to use your arms & hands to make yourself big. Tad put so much of a premium on recruiting length for a reason and CU defenders are failing to take advantage of their length.
Three things of note:
1. Getting caught in "no man's land". Perimeter defenders crashing down against penetration to close off driving & passing lanes are part of this defense. Tad doesn't want to give up easy layups. But too often we see guys hesitate (and also ineffective help due to what I discuss in #3 below). When they do that, they don't close down the lanes and they are also unable to react quickly enough on the kick out to get back to their man and contest. There's also been some drifting into the lane from the weak side that gives no help and leaves a guy with 10-15 of space if he gets a weak side skip pass. Results in way too many open 3s.
2. Confusion on switches. This seems to be getting better as players are doing a much better job of fighting over the top of screens and being in position to "slap hands" with a shooter if he catches coming off a screen. Earlier in the year, CU was switching too much instead of fighting through. And whether there was a switch or not, CU defenders weren't closing out well. This has definitely improved, but it's not quite where it has been in past seasons.
3. Playing with hands down. Walton noticed this and called it out last night while UCLA was putting on a passing clinic. CU defenders are playing with their hands down. When hands are down, it creates passing lanes. Our perimeter defenders make it too easy for the guys they are on to find passing lanes. (Spencer was fantastic at this as a defender, btw.) And on the interior, hands down allows too much over the top or through traffic at shoulder level. That type of thing did not happen with Dre and Dufault on the inside as both were great technicians with having their hands up. Scott's pretty good with this now, but Dustin is really struggling at this aspect. Some of the issue may be a matter of playing timidly due to all of the hand check calls with the new rules, but you've got to use your arms & hands to make yourself big. Tad put so much of a premium on recruiting length for a reason and CU defenders are failing to take advantage of their length.
