.PNG&w=244&h=193&zc=1 "Throwback Thursday: Cincinnati vs East Tennessee State March 19, 2004")
Breaking Down the Perimeter Defense
After Cincinnati lost to Syracuse Monday night, Mick Cronin said this “I thought that Scoop (Jardine) made one big shot and our defense was atrocious. They shot lay ups. I don’t care if we’re playing Syracuse or St. Ann’s, where I went to grade school. You let guys dribble in for lay ups, they are going to make them.” And "As a coach you have preparation and there are controllables," Cronin said. "Scoop (Jardine) or Kris Joseph making a tough one-on-one shot is not a controllable. Giving up layups on blown assignments because your head is somewhere else because you missed a shot or they made a tough shot or you're a little tired or I don't know why, that is inexcusable."
That's quite the harsh statement. Like many of you, I want to see it for myself. That's why I fired up ESPN3, got the snipping tool ready and brought you this.
We'll start things in the first half. Namely the 3 possessions where Syracuse took the 6 point lead.
On this play we see an example of the screens Syracuse was running. Kris Joseph (white) starts on the left wing. Brandon Triche (red) sets a screen that gets James Southerland (yellow) to the right wing. UC was switching every screen. Dixon started on Triche, and gave him up to SK. Sanders is on Southerland.
Triche comes up to get the ball from Waiters. Joseph comes around to the right side. James Southerland crashes down and screens Dion Dixon. Joseph is wide open in part because Jermaine Sanders went back to the middle of the lane to stay on Southerland.
Dixon flies out to try and get on Joseph. Kris steps up and buries an uncontested jumper.
Syracuse sets up both bigs at the top of the key.
Waiters starts right. Yancy Gates moves to hedge. Sean Kilpatrick goes to help on Christmas and comes back as the ball is swung to Joseph.
Killa has to rush back to get on Joseph, who threw a shoulder fake. Kris puts the ball on the floor withtheblowby /Raftery voice. Gates can't get back at all. Slam dunk.
Waiters uses the high ball screen. Gates hangs out on the elbow. Cash gets stopped just enough.
Waiters goes to the side of the elbow for an open shot because Gates doesn't move. Cash can't catch up.
To the second half we go. I'll be breaking down the rest of the Syracuse FGs from this point. There ARE a lot of pictures.
This is off a missed 3. Jardine pulls the rebound and runs. Mbodj picks him up at the elbow. UC is way slow getting back. James Southerland seals off Cashmere Wright. Easy pass for Scoop. You don't need to see the dunk.
Here's a great baseline angle of how easy this play was. Cash can't give up the lane. Someone has to stop the ball as well.
This would be the play where Mick said Scoop made a shot I'm guessing, because that's contested.
Syracuse ran a little high screen here that really went nowhere. Triche came from the wing while Jeremiah Davis starred at hot chicks in the stands. Davis was pulled right after.
Off a steal, Triche leads the break. SK decides to try to stop the ball. Joseph (top left) gets a dunk.
ESPN goes wide on us here after the Dixon dunk. Jardine brings the ball up and passes to a guy coming off the wing.
Triche comes around a screen high off the left side, drawing Dixon away. Scoop fakes like he's going around the right wing into the Southerland screen, but cuts back to the basket. Cash is toast. Jardine kind of pushed off.
Scoop brings the ball up and hands off. He goes down the middle as the big man comes to set a screen for Joseph. He would pass to Christmas.
Christmas passed to Jardine, who came off the right side, and set a screen.
Jardine flips to Joseph and sets a screen for him. Look at Christmas seal off Gates (red).
That's the blow by. Cash was not ready for that one. Or he thought he was going to have help from Dixon on the wing. Either way it was an easy layup. You can see Christmas' seal in action.
This isn't a scoring possession, but it's a defensive lapse. Jardine doesn't use the initial screen, which is why Gates is up top. He spins and uses that screen. You can see Dixon and Parker collapse in. So does the point guard.
In this blurry picture, you can see Dixon late to close on Triche.
Jackson challenges the layup, which misses. Triche probably should have kicked to the open guy on the wing. He probably didn't because he was under the clock.
This is after the Jackson layup. Syracuse shows the double bigs up top again.
Boom one dribble and Jardine is gone for a layup. Cash comes out of the game. Mick yelled instructions as Syracuse set the play up. He probably said "He's going to refuse the screen." Cash did not listen.
Jardine brings the ball up, passing to Joseph. Joseph has the ball on the logo. This is going to be the same play they ran earlier, just flipped.
If you look right you see Jardine coming off a Southerland screen. If you look left, you see Brandon Triche faking to do the same. As you can see, he's cutting back.
The view from the backboard as Triche finishes well past Dixon. On the timeout after a UC miss, Dixon came out of the game.
The final play you are about to see is a simple high screen. Yancy is playing the drive, in large part because Mick probably said if you get beat off the dribble he was going to kill them. Hand down, man down.
The take away from this is oh my god Cincinnati's guards are terrible at defense. They aren't fast enough to recover when they get out of position. They aren't good enough to get 1 on 1 stops. They have trouble rotating on screens. Mick can talk all he wants about the menality of defense, but talent is a role. There was a reason Larry Davis and Rashad Bishop closed games last year. There may need to be a further look at the opposing guards later in the week. For now, the men have some film study and adjustments to make. Here are my 5 quick fixes.
That's quite the harsh statement. Like many of you, I want to see it for myself. That's why I fired up ESPN3, got the snipping tool ready and brought you this.
We'll start things in the first half. Namely the 3 possessions where Syracuse took the 6 point lead.
On this play we see an example of the screens Syracuse was running. Kris Joseph (white) starts on the left wing. Brandon Triche (red) sets a screen that gets James Southerland (yellow) to the right wing. UC was switching every screen. Dixon started on Triche, and gave him up to SK. Sanders is on Southerland.
Triche comes up to get the ball from Waiters. Joseph comes around to the right side. James Southerland crashes down and screens Dion Dixon. Joseph is wide open in part because Jermaine Sanders went back to the middle of the lane to stay on Southerland.
Dixon flies out to try and get on Joseph. Kris steps up and buries an uncontested jumper.
Syracuse sets up both bigs at the top of the key.
Waiters starts right. Yancy Gates moves to hedge. Sean Kilpatrick goes to help on Christmas and comes back as the ball is swung to Joseph.
Killa has to rush back to get on Joseph, who threw a shoulder fake. Kris puts the ball on the floor withtheblowby /Raftery voice. Gates can't get back at all. Slam dunk.
Waiters uses the high ball screen. Gates hangs out on the elbow. Cash gets stopped just enough.
Waiters goes to the side of the elbow for an open shot because Gates doesn't move. Cash can't catch up.
To the second half we go. I'll be breaking down the rest of the Syracuse FGs from this point. There ARE a lot of pictures.
This is off a missed 3. Jardine pulls the rebound and runs. Mbodj picks him up at the elbow. UC is way slow getting back. James Southerland seals off Cashmere Wright. Easy pass for Scoop. You don't need to see the dunk.
Here's a great baseline angle of how easy this play was. Cash can't give up the lane. Someone has to stop the ball as well.
This would be the play where Mick said Scoop made a shot I'm guessing, because that's contested.
Syracuse ran a little high screen here that really went nowhere. Triche came from the wing while Jeremiah Davis starred at hot chicks in the stands. Davis was pulled right after.
Off a steal, Triche leads the break. SK decides to try to stop the ball. Joseph (top left) gets a dunk.
ESPN goes wide on us here after the Dixon dunk. Jardine brings the ball up and passes to a guy coming off the wing.
Triche comes around a screen high off the left side, drawing Dixon away. Scoop fakes like he's going around the right wing into the Southerland screen, but cuts back to the basket. Cash is toast. Jardine kind of pushed off.
Scoop brings the ball up and hands off. He goes down the middle as the big man comes to set a screen for Joseph. He would pass to Christmas.
Christmas passed to Jardine, who came off the right side, and set a screen.
Jardine flips to Joseph and sets a screen for him. Look at Christmas seal off Gates (red).
That's the blow by. Cash was not ready for that one. Or he thought he was going to have help from Dixon on the wing. Either way it was an easy layup. You can see Christmas' seal in action.
This isn't a scoring possession, but it's a defensive lapse. Jardine doesn't use the initial screen, which is why Gates is up top. He spins and uses that screen. You can see Dixon and Parker collapse in. So does the point guard.
In this blurry picture, you can see Dixon late to close on Triche.
Jackson challenges the layup, which misses. Triche probably should have kicked to the open guy on the wing. He probably didn't because he was under the clock.
This is after the Jackson layup. Syracuse shows the double bigs up top again.
Boom one dribble and Jardine is gone for a layup. Cash comes out of the game. Mick yelled instructions as Syracuse set the play up. He probably said "He's going to refuse the screen." Cash did not listen.
Jardine brings the ball up, passing to Joseph. Joseph has the ball on the logo. This is going to be the same play they ran earlier, just flipped.
If you look right you see Jardine coming off a Southerland screen. If you look left, you see Brandon Triche faking to do the same. As you can see, he's cutting back.
The view from the backboard as Triche finishes well past Dixon. On the timeout after a UC miss, Dixon came out of the game.
The final play you are about to see is a simple high screen. Yancy is playing the drive, in large part because Mick probably said if you get beat off the dribble he was going to kill them. Hand down, man down.
The take away from this is oh my god Cincinnati's guards are terrible at defense. They aren't fast enough to recover when they get out of position. They aren't good enough to get 1 on 1 stops. They have trouble rotating on screens. Mick can talk all he wants about the menality of defense, but talent is a role. There was a reason Larry Davis and Rashad Bishop closed games last year. There may need to be a further look at the opposing guards later in the week. For now, the men have some film study and adjustments to make. Here are my 5 quick fixes.
- Stay in front of the guy dribbling the ball
- Don't fall for shoulder or shot fakes
- Close out screens
- Go over screens instead of behind them. Seems to work for other teams.
- Stop being out of position
