Love that term as it applied to last years hoops team. It's the intangible ingredient that you need to be great. It applies to both offense and defense. When a player with the ball reads the defense, the other four have see it, too, and react. It has to be done in sync. If one player is a second slow or too fast, the opportunity is lost or the play fails. On defense, it's talking, help, rotations, double teams. When Douglass and Novak were upperclassmen, they overcame their measurables by anticipating, seeing the play before it happened. Beat the opponent to the spot. Rotate down to cut off a passing lane.
Sometimes we put too much emphasis on lock down man to man defense or creating a shot one on one. Creating a shot happens when you spread the floor or set a screen. Lock down defense requires a teammate to call out screens, to hedge correctly, leave a gap for pursuit.
The question for this year's players is how long it takes to get connected. Lot of new faces. Unfortunately, connecting does not jus happen, and it may even take longer with Beilein's read and react offensive schemes. My impression is that we have more commitment to defense with this group and that that will come before offense. If true, it might be a case of defense turning into offense, which Beilein seemed to be pressing hard during the scrimmage. A simple thing like running the floor hard can make a big difference. Too often, a player will run at 80% where 100% would get an easy bucket. Wilson finally got that last season. It's something MSU does very well and gives them 3 or 4 easy baskets every game. Davis is someone I noticed loping up the court too often. Beilein has, too.
Sometimes we put too much emphasis on lock down man to man defense or creating a shot one on one. Creating a shot happens when you spread the floor or set a screen. Lock down defense requires a teammate to call out screens, to hedge correctly, leave a gap for pursuit.
The question for this year's players is how long it takes to get connected. Lot of new faces. Unfortunately, connecting does not jus happen, and it may even take longer with Beilein's read and react offensive schemes. My impression is that we have more commitment to defense with this group and that that will come before offense. If true, it might be a case of defense turning into offense, which Beilein seemed to be pressing hard during the scrimmage. A simple thing like running the floor hard can make a big difference. Too often, a player will run at 80% where 100% would get an easy bucket. Wilson finally got that last season. It's something MSU does very well and gives them 3 or 4 easy baskets every game. Davis is someone I noticed loping up the court too often. Beilein has, too.
