Who has the toughest defense....

[Bob_Ballew]

in the Big XII?

I really thought Baylor would be very tough, especially on the perimeter and as YCN pointed out in another thread, they are struggling at this point. A&M played some pretty tough perimeter D when they were in town.

[This message has been edited by Zo3157 (edited 01-31-2003).]

[swok34]

hmmmmmm, right now I'd have to say Texas.

[JohnHenry]

Yeah, i'd have to agree swok - but the Sooners sounded pretty impressive Wed. night, especially on the perimeter. Down low i'd say KSU is a little tighter than us, actually, with Wecker in there.

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http://www.texassports.com/images/photo_gallery/2002_03/001/wbb_122102/images/last_shot.jpg

[This message has been edited by JohnHenry (edited 01-31-2003).]

[swok34]

but the Sooners sounded pretty impressive Wed. night, especially on the perimeter

I'm pretty surprised that the young'uns are playing defense so well, that typically is something that comes later....now, about that offense. And, in earlier games, OU was letting a 3-point shooter get loose...they haven't been doing that as frequently lately. Tomorrow will be interesting though, I'll let you know what I think about Kansas State.

[Jimi]

Kansas State's perimiter defense is not as good without Laurie Koehn (and I think WITHOUT Laurie Koehn is what we will have most of the time). Inside defense is better with Brie Madden IMHO. She is active, deceptively quick, and a first rate shot blocker. Ohlde is a very good defender in many ways but she has been schooled from day one that she is needed ON the floor and must stay out of foul trouble. She won't be as physical as Brie or Kendra Wecker. Kendra is pretty decent but does take some chances that can get her into trouble. Wednesday night her first three fouls were ALL very poor calls on touch fouls. She did commit another hard foul that was NOT called so some of those things eventually even out. (I have now seen the tape) The thing is, it seemed to screw up her head and I am concerned that if she gets in early foul trouble in this game it may continue to throw her off on both ends of the floor. Mahoney is, game in and game out, a very good but not spectacular defender. She is in the right place at the right time, makes very few mistakes and lets nothing bother her. It should surprise no one that she carried KSU on both ends of the floor when the wheels came off for other players. If I didn't know Nicole Ohlde the way I do, my favorite KSU player would be her room mate Megan Mahoney. She is a skilled lunch bucket kind of kid that "brings" it every play of every game. Domenico is coming along nicely but Chelsea can still make mistakes that Laurie would not. Domenico has VERY quick hands and will pick your pocket in a heart beat. Dutmer is a gutty and valuable player who is not quite up to the level of the others on either end of the floor. If you leave her open though it might start raining threes. Kimmery Newsom is very active, quick and has great hops but is a little helter skelter on offense as well as defense. She needs a little more discipline and more PT. Jessica Mcfarland, as a freshman, is a work in process but she can provide good inside play on both ends and I think she is improving rapidly. I think I have a little more faith in her than the coaches do.

My favorite line up for the Wildcats now would be from one to five, Domenico, Mahoney, Wecker, Madden and Ohlde. That leaves Dutmer, Newsom and J-Mac in reserve. I think its time we tell the team to suck it up and forget about any reliance on Laurie. I just don't think she will be able to go much at all. I expect Patterson will start Dutmer in place of Madden and obviously she knows a whole lot more about BB than I do. I just enjoy watching "stick woman" play. She looks all jerky with parts flying around like a thrashing machine but she is effective and passionate plus Chipper referred to her as "Rodman" for her rebounding skill. Thank you Arlington Texas! Madden is an honorary small town Kansas girl now! And as you also know Sturgis is a small town in WAY NORTH west Kansas.

[This message has been edited by Jimi (edited 02-01-2003).]

[JohnHenry]

Wow. I kind of saw KSU as playing a step above the rest of the conference, but without Koehn you guys are basically down here in the dirt with the rest of us. If she really is that ineffective for the rest of the year then this conference is gonna be a REAL dogfight...March 2 and 6 are looming pretty large on the schedule, i'd say - but I guess it was that way from the beginning.

[This message has been edited by JohnHenry (edited 02-01-2003).]

[Bball Girl]

I'd agree that right now Texas has the toughest defense.
I think Tech has the talent and the skills to be one of the toughest defenses in the country...and I'm not saying that as a homer either. Their defense against CU was pretty awesome and if they can keep that up...

So, here's my gripe. Those of you who know more about basketball may be able to explain this to me. Cisti struggled last year in the same way she's struggling now. As a sub off the bench, she was great. Then during mid season when she began starting...she was butter fingers...she couldn't hang onto the ball, she shrank from much contact and she got benched. Then towards the end of the season and in the NCAA tournament, she played great. We've seen the same thing this year.

Ayers was great in the Texas game and I thought she should have started against CU...LT just wasn't ready for that pressure and it showed. So, Ayers started for the Missouri game and did great...but they subbed in Cisti who struggled and left LT on the bench for a long time as if she was being punished for her play against CU...at least that's the way it looked. The fire that LT has brought into every game except for CU...seems to be dimming a bit and that bothers me. I have no problem playing the post by committee, but I think Ayers should continue to start, that LT should be coming off the bench first especially when energies start to lag and that Cisti should be put in last.
Just my opinion..but I'd appreciate knowing what the rest of you think.

[JohnHenry]

Are you questioning Marsha the Master??!! http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif

I'd think that Cisti is just in a bad funk right now and Sharp wants to get her back in the flow of things; if she can it will certainly help come March 2 and 6...

[textom]

Just food for thought, based on data rather than just subjective opinion:


One good measure of a team's defense is the opposing team's shooting percentage -- the lower the better. However, you have to factor in how tough the opponents were, Strength of Schedule. Baylor has the best defensive field goal percentage, holding opponents to just 33.2%. However, they did this against the easiest schedule in the Big 12. Texas Tech is second, holding opponents to 34.4%, against the 5th toughest schedule in the country. (Source for Strength of Schedule: http://www.collegerpi.com/women/ )

<pre>
FIELD GOAL PCT DEFENSE
## Team G FG FGA Pct SOS
---------------------------------------------------
1.Baylor.............. 18 354 1065 .332 141
2.Texas Tech.......... 19 402 1169 .344 5
3.Kansas State........ 20 430 1184 .363 23
4.Texas............... 18 347 945 .367 28
5.Oklahoma............ 19 424 1115 .380 4
6.Nebraska............ 17 389 1020 .381 86
7.Iowa State.......... 17 405 1054 .384 29
8.Colorado............ 18 396 1013 .391 56
9.Texas A&M........... 17 430 1066 .403 115
10.Kansas.............. 18 420 1039 .404 106
11.Missouri............ 17 410 975 .421 84
12.Oklahoma State...... 17 432 1006 .429 41
</pre>

Here are the field goal percentage defense stats for the NCAA leaders (source: http://goomer.ncaa.org:8080/stats/reports/rpts/2003/WBB_2003_6_1_stats115_txt.html )

<pre>
Women's Basketball
Division I
Field-Goal Percentage Defense
Through Games 01/27/03
Rank Team GM W-L OPP FG OPP FGA OPP FG% SOS
1 Connecticut 18 18-0 325 1020 31.9 2
2 Jackson St. 16 12-4 311 973 32.0 256
3 Baylor 17 13-4 333 1015 32.8 141
4 Auburn 18 14-4 340 1023 33.2 50
5 North Carolina 19 17-2 396 1164 34.0 24
6 Troy St. 16 9-7 332 972 34.2 242
7 Liberty 17 14-3 331 965 34.3 222
8 UC Santa Barb. 16 13-3 330 955 34.6 172
9 Texas Tech 18 16-2 382 1103 34.6 5
10 Tulane 17 13-4 348 1001 34.8 55
11 Drake 16 9-7 328 943 34.8 88
12 Louisiana Tech 17 15-2 341 976 34.9 96
13 Tennessee 19 16-3 387 1097 35.3 1
14 Santa Clara 18 13-5 382 1079 35.4 203
15 UNC Wilmington 16 13-3 320 901 35.5 214
16 Kansas St. 19 18-1 404 1135 35.6 23
</pre>

No other Big 12 teams are in the NCAA's top 30. I added Strength of Schedule to the table. It isn't clear how much weight to give SOS, but certainly, for example, Texas Tech's 34.6% against SOS #5 is better than UCSB's 34.6% against SOS #172. My own interpretation is: UConn (31.9% vs. SOS #2) is the best defensive team in the country, followed by either Texas Tech (34.6% vs. SOS #5) or Tennessee (35.3% vs. SOS #1).

(Although Texas beat Texas Tech in Austin, Texas Tech shot 39.7% from the field while Texas shot 34.8%. Texas Tech has shot a higher percentage from the field than every opponent this season.)


[This message has been edited by textom (edited 02-01-2003).]

[This message has been edited by textom (edited 02-01-2003).]

[JohnHenry]

Interesting. What about steals & turnovers?

Damn UConn is good.

[textom]

Those stats are here: http://big12sports.ocsn.com/sports/w-baskbl/stats/confldrs.html#conf.wkt

I'll let you try to figure out what they mean.

[Lone Star Grizzly]

Beacuse of the variance in strength of schedule in non-conference, I would rather look at conference stats, although we have only played 6 or 7 games of our 16.

Here are the top five in scoring defense:
UT 54.7
OU 55.8
TTU 56.7
KSU 57.0
CU 59.5

FG pct defense
TTU .340
OU .347
UT .347
KSU .367
BU .388

Based on these two stats, after 7 games, I would give UT the edge.