Our defense is...
Aggressive…
Tenacious….
Physical….
Nasty….
Assertive…
Imposing their will, Darth Vader style…
Despite the injuries to Miami, The Hurricanes trotted out a team that featured 4 four star Top 100 recruits including a Top 50 4 star with Harlond Beverly as there was no shortage of talent still on their roster playing in this game. And they did little against our defense to the tune of 32% shooting and 20% from 3. They lost by 15, at home, with a plethora of bad calls from the refs that all went to Miami in this game with a big majority in the first half. Even with all the gift wrapped Christmas presents the refs gave Miami, in the end it didn’t matter. Our defense imposed its will.
Length / Wingspan
When you have a 6’5 point guard with a 6’11 wingspan on top with a pair of defenders on the backline with over 7+ foot wingspans, it’s going to create a bevy of problems for the opposing team on offense. And we are seeing it every game consistently for the past 4 games straight and it continues to improve.
Team DRTG defensive power ranking the last 6 games in order:
St. Francis: 111.8
Drexel: 105
Northern Illinois: 97.4
Northwestern: 87.1
Gardner Webb: 69.7
Miami: 74
The defense is lights years better from the first 2 games of the season and galaxies better than last year. Its not even remotely close. The last 2 games our defense has played at the Death Star level… which has destroyed the opponent. Our defense the last 2 games is Texas Tech territory, who has the #1 defense in the country. Now I want to be clear that I don’t expect our defense to be this good at this level consistently the rest of the season. But what we are seeing on defense is encouraging for the future of the program in the years to come. And it is coming from the underclassmen.
Young Gun Toughness with individual DRTG Power Rating
Coulibaly- DRTG-85.3
Odukale- DRTG- 86.2
Collier- DRTG-89.3
Big John- DRTG- 90.6
Jeffress- DRTG- 91.2
Players on last years team
Mcgowens- DRTG-100.2
Murphy- DRTG-104.6
Coulibaly-DRTG-104.8
Drumgoole-DRTG-107.2
We are light years better than last year on defense. And it isn’t even close.
Additional quick nuggets in the Miami game and other games
-We continue to turn the ball over on the inbounds pass. 6 games and counting we have had 1 or multiple turnovers from this issue. This is on Jeff Capel here to fix…
-We have 3 missed wide open dunks the last 3 games. More points left on the table trying to power slam the basketball instead of lay it in.
-We have had at least 1 basket waived off every game so far, some games have been over 2 baskets waived off in a single game. A majority of these calls to me have been highly questionable. Instead of a 3-point play on offense, we get a foul against us. Capel needs to get another T and start ripping into these refs a little more if this continues because it is happening to us every single game.
-In our last 4 games rebounding, we have been +6, +20, +20, +14 on the glass. Much better rebounding here.
-Our transition offense is a mess. We have 3 plays that work in transition. X coast to coast, Femi crosscourt outlet pass which is consistently getting us to the line, Horton kick out to the wings, where Horton made 2 fantastic passes in the 2nd half last game in transition. Everything else has been very shaky and a lot of turnovers in transition.
Small look at updated ORTG offensive power rating through the first 6 games
AKC-136.2
Champ-116.3
Toney-112.6
X-109.8
Horton-105.6
Big John-83.6
Jeffress-75.6
Femi-61.3
Nike-54.2
We need 8 players to be 100+ ORTG to be NCAA Tournament worthy on offense. If the first 4 numbers come close to holding the rest of the year, AND we get 4 more players to improve to be over 100+ from now through the end of next years season if all players return, we can start talking Sweet 16 potential on the offensive side of the ball. Horton is the wildcard. He has 9 assists and 2 turnovers the last 4 games, which is a monumental turnaround from his first 2 games. Horton’s ball control and passing has been light years better from the first 2 games.
Nike was by far the worst player last game on offense and defense and that is ok for a 1st game against an ACC team on the road. 3 turnovers in 8 minutes alone. He was rusty and will be much better as the season continues.
-Toney is the captain of this team and there shouldn’t be any 2nd guessing that as he is the most complete and consistent player on the team. But Horton was directly responsible for 23 second half points against Miami, 18 of which he scored, 5 of which he assisted on with a pair of beautiful passes in transition. Horton was fantastic in the 2nd half and won the game for Pitt in the 2nd half. We need this to continue from Ithiel Horton to get where we want to be.
5-1, onward and upward we go
Aggressive…
Tenacious….
Physical….
Nasty….
Assertive…
Imposing their will, Darth Vader style…
Despite the injuries to Miami, The Hurricanes trotted out a team that featured 4 four star Top 100 recruits including a Top 50 4 star with Harlond Beverly as there was no shortage of talent still on their roster playing in this game. And they did little against our defense to the tune of 32% shooting and 20% from 3. They lost by 15, at home, with a plethora of bad calls from the refs that all went to Miami in this game with a big majority in the first half. Even with all the gift wrapped Christmas presents the refs gave Miami, in the end it didn’t matter. Our defense imposed its will.
Length / Wingspan
When you have a 6’5 point guard with a 6’11 wingspan on top with a pair of defenders on the backline with over 7+ foot wingspans, it’s going to create a bevy of problems for the opposing team on offense. And we are seeing it every game consistently for the past 4 games straight and it continues to improve.
Team DRTG defensive power ranking the last 6 games in order:
St. Francis: 111.8
Drexel: 105
Northern Illinois: 97.4
Northwestern: 87.1
Gardner Webb: 69.7
Miami: 74
The defense is lights years better from the first 2 games of the season and galaxies better than last year. Its not even remotely close. The last 2 games our defense has played at the Death Star level… which has destroyed the opponent. Our defense the last 2 games is Texas Tech territory, who has the #1 defense in the country. Now I want to be clear that I don’t expect our defense to be this good at this level consistently the rest of the season. But what we are seeing on defense is encouraging for the future of the program in the years to come. And it is coming from the underclassmen.
Young Gun Toughness with individual DRTG Power Rating
Coulibaly- DRTG-85.3
Odukale- DRTG- 86.2
Collier- DRTG-89.3
Big John- DRTG- 90.6
Jeffress- DRTG- 91.2
Players on last years team
Mcgowens- DRTG-100.2
Murphy- DRTG-104.6
Coulibaly-DRTG-104.8
Drumgoole-DRTG-107.2
We are light years better than last year on defense. And it isn’t even close.
Additional quick nuggets in the Miami game and other games
-We continue to turn the ball over on the inbounds pass. 6 games and counting we have had 1 or multiple turnovers from this issue. This is on Jeff Capel here to fix…
-We have 3 missed wide open dunks the last 3 games. More points left on the table trying to power slam the basketball instead of lay it in.
-We have had at least 1 basket waived off every game so far, some games have been over 2 baskets waived off in a single game. A majority of these calls to me have been highly questionable. Instead of a 3-point play on offense, we get a foul against us. Capel needs to get another T and start ripping into these refs a little more if this continues because it is happening to us every single game.
-In our last 4 games rebounding, we have been +6, +20, +20, +14 on the glass. Much better rebounding here.
-Our transition offense is a mess. We have 3 plays that work in transition. X coast to coast, Femi crosscourt outlet pass which is consistently getting us to the line, Horton kick out to the wings, where Horton made 2 fantastic passes in the 2nd half last game in transition. Everything else has been very shaky and a lot of turnovers in transition.
Small look at updated ORTG offensive power rating through the first 6 games
AKC-136.2
Champ-116.3
Toney-112.6
X-109.8
Horton-105.6
Big John-83.6
Jeffress-75.6
Femi-61.3
Nike-54.2
We need 8 players to be 100+ ORTG to be NCAA Tournament worthy on offense. If the first 4 numbers come close to holding the rest of the year, AND we get 4 more players to improve to be over 100+ from now through the end of next years season if all players return, we can start talking Sweet 16 potential on the offensive side of the ball. Horton is the wildcard. He has 9 assists and 2 turnovers the last 4 games, which is a monumental turnaround from his first 2 games. Horton’s ball control and passing has been light years better from the first 2 games.
Nike was by far the worst player last game on offense and defense and that is ok for a 1st game against an ACC team on the road. 3 turnovers in 8 minutes alone. He was rusty and will be much better as the season continues.
-Toney is the captain of this team and there shouldn’t be any 2nd guessing that as he is the most complete and consistent player on the team. But Horton was directly responsible for 23 second half points against Miami, 18 of which he scored, 5 of which he assisted on with a pair of beautiful passes in transition. Horton was fantastic in the 2nd half and won the game for Pitt in the 2nd half. We need this to continue from Ithiel Horton to get where we want to be.
5-1, onward and upward we go
