I would like to see our squad of players be mentally tough next year. i think that was lacking in those close games when it was so bad we usually didnt get a shot off and/or turned it over. It has been seriously lacking for atleast 5 years. I think being mentally tough starts with the teams approach to defense. Its that will to say to the opponents best player your not going to score tonight and no team will get more the 65 points in our building period. Everyone on the team needs to make the committment to not let the other team find a way to score. You can almost force your will and break there will throughout the game by playing suffocating defense.
How many times did we have a player go off on us. I believe it was about 5 games in row where teams scored almost 90 points against us. Ya 90!! I would love to hear from Allen and White about the teams committment to how there going to approach the defensive end of the ball next year.
We all loved when we saw Coach Hoiberg's style of play go to more of a run and gun and shooting the open three. More opportunities will present itself by getting turnovers. Offensive will be fine its the players talent and skill set that find its way to score points. I have seen so many times when we break down mentally and give up layup after layup or wide open shots. We need to play with some defensive moxy and integrity.
From what I can tell, this is what Hoiberg wants as well. We will have a pretty potent offense, but balance will win us tough games down the road. Never really liked the high octane offense and slack D type teams.
Kelvin Cato type player would be great to have down low. Cato was so raw, but dude would reject your crap everytime you came down the lane, except that UCLA guard that beat us in the Sweet 16. I still have nightmares over that game and how it ended and its been 13 years or so.
hoiberg is focused on making us more defense oriented but theres nothing he can do since we have almost no size from our big men. JVB isnt as big as say the morris twins from KU. once we can bulk up guys like railey we will be fine as long as they handle their own against other bigs
I think he said he wants our team to play defense - not play McDermott ball where you slow the tempo of the game down as you're suggesting. There's a big difference between what he wants (winning games 80-40) and what you're interpreting (winning games 42-40 - if we're lucky).
Chuck Lidell: I paint my toenails with pink and black polish. Problem is, I get more paint on my toes and on the carpet than on my nails. Any advice? Maria Sharapova: Don't you beat up other guys for a living? I don't know how to answer this.
Coach wants uptempo, generally numberswise you won't see good defense with the uptempo team. Thats not to say we can't be better than this years team. I think they are just too gassed right now.
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Originally Posted by Treytros 
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