X-Expert wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:37 am
The gist of Madness' post in that the D is horrible is true. I do think that Mack has never had a strong defensive team. X is a very good offensive team but their D keeps every team in the game regardless of the lead (i.e. Seton Hall pulls within 6). X scores and gives up points in bunches. This is who they are. This team can beat anyone because of their offense but my biggest fear is they can lose to anyone because of their D. Their 1-3-1 seemed to give up a lot of wide open 3s. I don't know what the answer is. One thing i would consider is not take JP out so much. I realize he struggles on D but he is a better offensive player and scoring will slow down transition points on the other end. Mack did a great job implementing a 2-3 last year during the tourney run. Perhaps throwing that in from time to time will work a little but not to suggest that zone be their staple defense. they have to figure out the man D or they will struggle during tourney time. I still think they are a FF team but improve a little more on D
our Kenpom AdjD efficiency rank sits at 70. that's out of 351 schools. that's the top 20% of the nation. to compare, Nova sits at 41. our Kenpom AdjD score is 100.3. Nova's is 98. not that far off.
i don't know everything that goes into this formula but the defense isn't as bad some people (aka, madness) are making it out to be. was it great against Nova? no. but it wasn't terrible either. they just shot the sh$t outta the ball at times - even when we did contest their 3's.