[TheFarm07]

The way to defeat this kind of defense is with points in transition, with offensive rebounding, with back door cuts, and with drives to the basket--all those scoring opportunities that do not depend on multiple passes and which can catch defenders beyond the point of recovery.  We certainly tried those things, but did not executive them very well.  We had a couple of back door cuts that were things of beauty, but an equal number of would-be back door cuts that wound up becoming turnovers.

As good of a team we are, that game showed us the limitations of our offense, which is centered around Brink and Iriafen and is made more pronounced when one of them is out. We don't have proven athletic guards that can create on their own and either drive or step back for a jump shot (a la Haley Jones or Kiana Williams). I hate to keep harping back to it, but missing out on JuJu, or the multiple guards currently playing on UCLA and Notre Dame will hurt us at the margins and that could be the difference in the postseason.

Obviously, we've been wildly successful so far, still first in the Pac-12 and a favorite for the conference title and a high, if not #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, so it certainly is not a serious impediment, but it makes us vulnerable to the even better competition we will face next month, especially if we are matched up against a team with that type of swarming defense plus an even better offense on the other side.

[TheFarm07]

The way to defeat this kind of defense is with points in transition, with offensive rebounding, with back door cuts, and with drives to the basket--all those scoring opportunities that do not depend on multiple passes and which can catch defenders beyond the point of recovery.  We certainly tried those things, but did not executive them very well.  We had a couple of back door cuts that were things of beauty, but an equal number of would-be back door cuts that wound up becoming turnovers.

As good of a team we are, that game showed us the limitations of our offense, which is centered around Brink and Iriafen and is made more pronounced when one of them is out. We don't have proven athletic guards that can create on their own and either drive or step back for a jump shot (a la Haley Jones or Kiana Williams). I hate to keep harping back to it, but missing out on JuJu, or the multiple guards currently playing on UCLA and Notre Dame will hurt us at the margins and that could be the difference in the postseason.

Obviously, we've been wildly successful so far, still first in the Pac-12 and a favorite for the conference title and a high, if not #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, so it certainly is not a serious impediment, but it makes us vulnerable to the even better competition we will face next month, especially if we are matched up against a team with that type of swarming defense plus an even better offense on the other side.