Who’s going to be our lock down defender(s) this season?
Basketball News & Notes:
- According to our friends over at PP, we scrimmaged with South Carolina in Rock Hill last Saturday. Final score, 86-78 Gamecocks. As per NCAA rules, very little information is allowed to be shared.
- FWIW – KenPom predicts USC #65 / NC State #52. Torvik predicts USC #55 / NC State #58.
- O’Connell, James, Heard, and Dennis Parker Jr were held out due to minor injuries that are not expected to impact the season. We’ll struggle in any game without those guys.
- We went big with the starting lineup. Hill, Taylor, Styles (16 points), Middlebrooks (13 pts), and Huntley-Hatfield (22 pts). Love to see the “Big B’s” playing together.
Season Previews:
This is the fifth in a series of weekly articles leading up to opening night against USC Upstate on November 4. (Banners will go up!)
- Full Schedule Released – Taking a look at new Wolfpack committment Mikey Wilkins; New schedule released; Analyzing the OOC schedule
- Re-introducing the ‘24-’25 players – Breakdown on all 13 players
- What about rebounding? – This team should be much, much better.
- Where’s the offense going to come from? – We’ve got potential.
- The ‘24-’25 Defense
- Who’s going to be the X-Factor this season?
What kind of defensive team will we be this season?
Casey Morsell has left the building, but RJ Davis has not – and the ubiquitous Cooper Flagg looms. What are we going to do?
If you were paying attention last season, the teams leading the ACC defensive statistics are no surprise. UVA lives and dies by defense, UNC lives and dies by rebounding, and FSU had 4 of last season’s ACC top 20 leaders in steals.
As you can see in the table above, last year’s Wolfpack defense was mediocre, apart from steals. But, as you can also see highlighted in the rightmost column, in our ten postseason games we were about as good as anyone in the ACC defensively. The improvement in our defense got us those rings.
The takeaway from this is, as Coach Keatts has said multiple times, in the postseason the players started more effectively integrating scouting reports into their defensive play. They understood their assignments better and executed them better. Why did it take them so long, you might reasonably ask? Good question.
How do we replicate that postseason defensive quality this season? That’s the eternal question every coach in every sport asks each new season – “How do we replicate last season’s best performance?” The answer to that is always, “we don’t.” At least not immediately, but maybe we can get there?
- One thing that should help us is our five returning players. Not only are each good defensive players, but four are seniors/grads who should provide leadership and great examples. In the ACC Tipoff interviews Coach Keatts said that the returning players are teaching the culture of playing hard, while the coaches teach the system.
- A second thing is that our five returning players cover the court and could be a full lineup. We’ve got guards (O’Connell, Pass, Taylor), a forward (Parker Jr) and a center (Middlebrooks). We have good defensive examples at all positions. The new guys will see how it should be done. During the summer presser Coach Keatts said that when they first arrived they had that lineup of returnees play the transfers to demonstrate how working together and knowing the system makes a difference. (they won!)
- The third thing that should help is the five incoming transfers are experienced – three seniors and two juniors. (BHH, James and Styles each have a couple of seasons in the ACC) All five transfers were starters and know how to play. Styles, Huntley-Hatfield and Hill are joining their third schools, so have been through this ‘different style of play’ learning curve before.
Rebounding
We talked about rebounding in a previous article. Rebounding should be a team strength this season. Our four key rebounding losses (Diarra, Morsell, Burns, Horne) averaged 18.1 total rebounds per game. Their “replacements” (BHH, James, Styles, Hill) averaged 24.2. It would be a surprise if we aren’t one of the better rebounding teams in the league.
Steals
Our four incoming “replacements” did not average as many steals last season as did our outgoing. However, the positive spin is, we are returning Taylor, O’Connell and Middlebrooks who ranked #2, #4, and #5 respectively on the season in total steals. O’Connell and Middlebrooks should average more game time, so should have more opportunities this season.
Blocked Shots
The “replacements” averaged about the same number of blocks last season. Styles had 7 games with two blocks, Huntley-Hatfield had 6. Together they had 47 total on the season. It hurts to remember that Mo Diarra single-handedly had 41.
The Big Question: Full Court Pressure?
One of the things we all noticed during the postseason run was much less use of full court pressure and trapping. We didn’t use it at all in the ACC tournament but went back to it some in the NCAA tournament. (not sure about the Purdue game, couldn’t bring myself to re-watch Michael go down)
We were an excellent defensive team in the postseason, the best of Coach Keatts’ tenure. So you wonder if we will be dialing back on the “speed up the other team’s offense” concept that has been a trademark of Coach Keatts’ system? On the flip side, this team is so deep we might be able to deliver Nolan Richardson’s “40 minutes of hell” like those Razorback teams of old.
Best guess is, we’ll go back to business as usual. Especially since we have a more mobile big man anchoring the lineup, along with quality depth. But hopefully, one lesson learned from last postseason was that sometimes, and against some teams, it’s a waste of energy and too frequently gives the opponent easy baskets. Fingers crossed.
CONCLUSION
Like the offense, there is potential to be a good defensive team. Will they get it? If so, how soon?
Three of last season’s four best defenders (O’Connell, Taylor, Middlebrooks) returned, and Dennis Parker Jr played defense well while he was healthy. That’s a solid returning defensive core. They and Breon are going to have to help teach the 8 new faces how to play high intensity defense.
As much as we all love the legendary DJ Burns, we have to acknowledge that … let’s just say, he was not our best defender. On offense, he wasn’t strong at the P&R and he was often the last player downcourt. Huntley-Hatfield is going to bring an entirely different look to that position, and the contrast should be greatest on the defensive end. He and/or Ben should be tough to score on in the paint.
Depth is our hole card when it comes to defense this season. We have eight players that were starters last season, plus Breon Pass and Ben Middlebrooks who will get a lot of minutes. Barring the inevitable injuries and depending on Diouf, we have the potential to go 9 or 10 (with Diouf) deep every game. On top of that, the freshmen could contribute.