How does MBB right the ship on defense?

Raid the Congo for raw big men.

Recruit gritty 3-stars.

Profit

I don't know enough, but is it really that good of a stat that we're the best team in the country at not fouling?  I'd like to see Michigan be more physical, and we shouldn't be giving up as many points in the paint as we did against PSU.

I am no Greg Mattison....but an easy fix is getting those damn REBOUNDS. Do Rodman drills everyday...that way they get one shot and we don't need to play D as much.

That will help our interior defense.  I would be in favor of us running more zone defense sets right now.  Other than that, good defense is a large part effort.  So, the coaches need to drill into them that winning this conference will only be achieved by great defense. 

and play crappier teams.

Remember the 3-3-5. Radically changing defensive philosophies in the middle of the season is generally a bad idea. Our players look confused enough on defense that loading them with a whole new series of defensive keys is probably not the thing to do. 

Let's see what happens when Morgan's back to full strength and everyone else gets their legs back. Totally revamping the defense and going predominantly zone seems like a desperation measure. I doubt we'd have enough practice time to get the zone to a point where it was any better than our mediocre man to man the past few games. And it could be worse. It just takes one player confused about their responsibilities in the zone to cause the whole thing to collapse. The good zone teams have been drilling those principles since October. You can't install them in a week.

We were good enough defensively early in the year to make me think that what we need is a few practices where they work intensively on defensive fundamentals, both individually and in the broader team concepts (particularly with the bigs on when to help, hedge, and recover).

Need to start banging bodies and stop being lazy. I would rather have them shooting free throws than to get easy layups.

So take what I have to say however you want, but I don't think the defense gets fixed enough to be a great threat to win the whole thing. Many of the issues are things that take a lot of time and work on to fix, time you don't have during the season when you're constantly prepping for the next team. Now the offense has the talent to get hot and have a chance to win it, and I think the defense is good enough to get through the early rounds, but it's going to be touch sledding to go deep.

I expect Michigan to go to a bit more 1-3-1 zone looks (with an occassional 2-3) come post-season play, just to mix it up a bit, but this is a team that is young and inexperienced on defense. Several players more than occassionally get lost playing man, and playing zone those problems only get intensified (especially when talking about open looks from 3 and rebounding). I think they are better off using their athletic ability and sticking with mostly man, and mixing in a bit more zone and the half court trap fall back into 1-3-1. The hope being just to eat up some shot clock and try to get some cheap victories on defense by delaying the other teams reaction and set or confusing them a bit; maybe get some rushed shots. 

In the end though, defense isn't purely effort. There is skill to it that most players don't really learn in high school. Currently, Stauskas gets lost regularly on defense (his vision isn't great, so when he goes to help he loses track of his man), half the team is awful at closing out (often doing it too hesitantly to not really affect shots and/or jumping at pump fakes to make up for the poor close-out giving open looks in the lane), communication has been poor (probably a bit of a reflection of Morgan being out, but it's pretty clear that McGary isn't ready in this department and Horford has had his issues there as well), and lastly rebounding has been an issue as far as actually finding the body to box out and then holding ground and getting hands up to actually grab the rebound (and frankly, during the PSU game, simply getting the numbers to crash in and attack the ball to even get defensive rebounds was missing, too many players trying to get out in run or simple laziness - which should be able to be fixed but you hate to see - are issues).

For the tourney. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

We finally have the length on the wings that makes the zone so lethal...need to be using it more.  Especially as a change-up look when the opposition starts going on a run.

Stauskas, Levert, Hardaway, and McGary...that amount of length and athleticism is insane and we need to utilize it more.  Getting burned in the man-to-man is depressing.

They are not sound fundamentaly on man defense. Players hands are low all the time, they dont close out well, footwork is bad etc. All those little things matter we have athletic kids not to mention that we have a lot of youth and teams like IU and State and wisky have vets who can expose you at will. The effort is there but the technique is not. This is either from the staff or the kids are just that bad on defense. They could just be that bad because when you are an elite high school player you dont have to play defense like you do in the big ten. Very rarely do you play someone as talented as you so you get lazy and bad on defense.

Does anyone else notice we seem to switch almost every ball screen? This creates matchup advantages for opponents. I personally dislike this strategy, it's kind of "lazy" defense.

They grow up and gain experience.

Seriously, a hefty slice of our team are facing collective talent the likes of which they have never seen in high school play.  They are learning on the job.  

Remember how young this team is.  Experience is going to be a great teacher, so I feel like the problem is solving itself if we can just hang on and bear through the process.

I agree that there are some schematic concepts on defense that young players may be behind on, but this team plays very very soft.  Even on offense, there is a huge tendency towards standing around and looking for a long three vs attacking the basket.

On defense, there are just too many times that players are NOT cutting off the dribble, getting their hands up in the passing lanes, and playing oley defense......basically they should be playing this over and over and over http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ccUDrB_8jQ    until they can get the players to understand you have to get in front of your man on the dribble, keep them out of the lane, and block out on defense.  

On way too many plays, guys are simply watching offensive rebounds multiple players are not even looking to block out on rebounds as well, but they are ready to fly down the court on a fast break, so to me it is an energy and effort issue in both cases.  You cannot let someone beat you to the lane and you cannot let your man go on defense....so yeah, the idea that it is such a huge schematic challenge to get people to play hard is BS in my opinion.

playing more up tempo, pressing a bit here and there. i think michigan's offense is better and more varied when they can run a bit rather than in the half-court. if they pressed more, they might give up a few more transition baskets, but might scrounge a few more turnovers and score more points and get Robinson more involved and Hardaway more involved.

Our defense is never going to be good this season. But we could be average. I do not see the same effort on the defensive end that I see on offense. D is usually the last thing that freshmen develop. It isn't emphasized as much in high school and AAU, with some exceptions. i think we need to mix our defenses more to keep the opposing off balance. I'm not talking every possession, but every once in a while just to mix it up. Stauskas is a liability on d. He's just not good at it. That's alright, he's young. But i think Levert should get a few of his minutes b/c he is a solid defender. We have enough firepower in the backcourt that I am not too worried about the drop off in offense b/w the two. Our big men are overcommitting on the hedge and McGary is out of position quite often. That is something that will get fixed as he gets older, but we need Morgan back b/c, despite his physical limitations, he is usually in position on d.

We give up alot of offensive boards, mostly b/c our big men have to help b/c our guards are letting people by on the perimeter. That has to be fixed. None of our guys are gonna get more skilled over the next few weeks, but they can try harder. It won't fix everything but it will help. We are bad at "fighting" through screens. Just awful sometimes. That may be why our bigs overcommit.

One observation not mentioned yet: Burke takes way too many plays off on defense. Partly, this is a result of him dominating the ball on offense, partly it's the coaches leaving him in for too long, and partly it's just on him not giving the effort he should.

THJr is always going to be a bad on-the-ball defender. This really rears it's head when he's going up against a guy like Olidipo (sic). He's fine against outside shooters, I think.

Stauskas could become a decent defender in a couple years, but it's not going to happen this year.

GRIII needs to play more physical. He also a big culprit with on some of the fundamental issues -- not getting his arms up or closing out quickly on shooters.

How does Michigan turn it's defense around? I don't see it happening with this current group. Outside of McGary, I don't see a guy that's likely to become an elite defender. The good news is that Irvin and Walton are pretty good defenders...I think.