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I really don’t have much to say about that one. The Deacs played a solid 35 minutes of basketball, only to go scoreless for the final 4:30 and lose on a ridiculous luck shot from a guy who hadn’t made a 3-pointer the entire game. Everything looked great with about 6 minutes left in the game, as Wake went on a run to take a 59-52 lead. Since the final score was 61-65, you can probably tell that this is when the game started to go south. The Deacs scored just 1 more basket in the rest of the game (which, to be honest, was probably basket interference), allowing BC to go on a 13-2 run and win the game.
After the Deacs went up 59-52, BC went to Nik Popovic 3 straight times and got easy shots in the paint every time.
Our inability to defend the pick and roll has already been well documented. But, here again we basically end up triple teaming the ball handler and Popovic gets a layup. I really wonder why we even try to play man to man defense. This basket started the run that would allow BC to win the game.
Our inability to defend post players is also no secret at this point. We’ve seen big guys from Houston Baptist to Richmond to Tennessee do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted against our defense. Popovic, who is averaging 13 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in conference play, finished the game with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
When your defense allows 6-11, 250 pound centers to drive from the 3-point line to the basket with basically no resistance, you are going to struggle to win games. Again, I have to wonder why we even try to play man to man. Our zone is far from perfect, but — and this is just my opinion — we are leagues better on defense when we use it.
This being a series called “Playbook,” I figured it would a good idea to actually show a play that one might find in a playbook. It has been kind of hard this year since a lot of times teams are just driving or running the pick and roll over and over against us with success. But this time, I will leave you with this beautiful play from Jim Christian.
BC clears out the paint and tries to get a lob to Chatman on the back screen. It’s not there, so he simply reverses and curls back around for a good look at a 3-pointer.