Remember being the 1 in KC and playing Oregon?

So Billy Preston's already done in Bosnia. Or Serbia. Or Uzbekistan, wherever he went. What a turd.


In other news we finished #12 in Pomeroy. 9 offense / 45 defense. Our previous worst defense in the 17 years of data was last year #24. In 2014 we were #22. It's weird how Self's calling card of lockdown defense has seen such recent slippage. Hope it's not a trend (in 2016 we did finish #3).


Also, our tempo is snail-slow at #161. Slowest in Self's term here, even slower than that plodding 2005 team at #148.

I'm guessing the low defensive # is mainly because of our lack of depth.

I think the rules changes have made coaching sound defense difficult.

It is reassuring that he can adapt. If he were still trying to play 2010 ball with this group it would be bad.

Last year our only big was Lucas. This year is Doke and Lightfoot, who has overachieved but was a glorified walk-on.

I'm guessing lack of bigs is the biggest factor in any defensive regression.

Well, Udoka and Mitch are plus defenders (barely) in the DRating metric. Our guards are all sub-par. At least they're all good offensive players, even Vick.

The biggest metric that keeps jumping out all year: opponents offensive rebounding. We are still #325 in that category. It's been a killer all year, worse problem than our defense.

Our SRS - another rating metric - has us #6 overall with the #2 SOS. We have played another tough slate, as Self always does.

i dont understand the offensive rebounding. All 5 players need to be crashing the glass if we're that bad at it.

I don’t care if we’re a 1 or a 2. It’s who you play not your seed anyway.

This is such a false narrative.

Mitch Lightfoot was the 67th best recruit in the nation, per ESPN. He was a four star player. Why the **** are people so obsessed with pretending he's Christian Moody?

Because he plays like it. Even looks the part.

I mean honestly, does he look like he was the 67th best HS recruit in the nation? Aboslutely not. Doesn't play like it either. Most people wouldn't have known that by watching the guy play.

wasnt Lightfoot a top 100 recruit nationally at one time during his senior year?

Lightfoot has really emerged down the stretch.

No. Just no. I can’t help it if people have no idea what they should be looking for with players, but my god.

Lightfoot is the next Sasha Kahn!!

I really think that is a big part of it. I kind of feel like we've gotten better defensively the 2nd part of the year (with the exception of maybe 2 of the last 3 games) but the numbers don't show it. I think alot of our guys are taught to not foul, because we don't have the depth to deal with it. Especially Devonte. In the NCAA Tournament, or when our backs are against the wall I'd like to think that we can turn up the defensive intensity. I guess we will see.