How do you coach defense?

[CineSooner]

It may sound somewhat sarcastic, but it's a question I keep asking myself every time I watch this team. Coaching offense seems a bit easier to understand, but I am at a loss at what can be done with this team on the defensive side. Is there anything our staff can do?

What makes someone a good defender? How do you find the line between playing aggressive defense without getting into foul trouble? What did Kelvin say to his teams that isn't being relayed to our current players?

My questions could go on and on. I just don't see what can be done by our coaches (or any coach) to get the guys to "man up" on D. Obviously, there is some answer, I just don't have a clue as to what it is. Hope Capel can figure it out.

 

[seniorsooner]

Well first and foremost you have to have guys that WANT to play defense.

 

[sdcloud9]

Defense is a little bit of technique and understanding concepts but it is mostly desire.

Defense is also about trust. You have to trust your teammates to be a good defensive unit.

 

[SoonerfanTU]

Like play asked the other day, what exactly is our philosophy suppose to be? I have no idea. Seems like Capel doesn't like doubling, unless it's trapping out of some kind of trapping zone. Lots of games I would have run a double at a few guys.

Maybe the guys are confused b/c like us fans, we have no idea what the plan is.

 

[MNsooner]

I think we have been forced into playing a zone because of our thin bench. I think Capel wants to play man defense and use zones and traps situationally, but we have been forced into the zone and we just have guys who don't rotate properly which has lead to teams just killing us on the perimeter.

 

[Sawyer]

I don't really have the answer, but I know there is one.

A huge part of it is finding guys who want to play defense, but that's not the answer to everything.

I remember during Quin's last year when he bemoaned the "fact" that you can't coach effort. He didn't coach effort all the way to 12 wins (5 in Big 12 play.... or 10 and 3 if you want to throw out the games after he quit).

A year later, and after losing the top three players on the team to graduation/NBA, Mike Anderson won 8 more games than Quin (4 more in the Big 12) and, interestingly, seemed to have no trouble getting his players to try hard.

Granted, he had added a couple of his own recruits, but the majority of the roster was still made up of Quin's leftovers. No, the team wasn't great... but they were at least playing defense better. The most significant difference was really just simple effort and toughness.

 

[buttermaker1]

Ask Kelvin Sampson his teams were darn good at it every year.

 

[DenverSooner]

Well first and foremost you have to have guys that WANT to play defense.

I don't agree with this. If they want to play ball and the only way to play is to play defense they will play defense.