Amidst all the talk of poor substituting and baffling rotations seen throughout this season, I thought I would look at something Gonzaga did particularly well this season - defend the perimeter.

I wasn't sure where to start until I saw these great posts on perimeter defense on the kenpom blog (a great site, I would highly recommend checking it out if you are looking for a better grasp on CBB stats). To summarize, the numbers suggest that a defense actually has very little control over the opposing team's three-point percentage. This came as a particular surprise to me as that tends to be one of the statistics I have put a fair amount of weight in in judging GU's defensive performance. That being said, it makes complete sense.

3PA%, or the percentage of the opposing team's FG's that are from beyond the arc, is a more useful stat for determining a defenses effectiveness. According to kenpom:

People that are unaware of 3PA% (which is to say nearly everyone) are missing a very telling statistic that explains a lot of how defense works. It’s infinitely more useful than defensive 3P%, anyways. Can coaches use this to their advantage? I’m not sure, except to say that at first glance I think Shulman is crazy for running the system he does. However, I like having him around. The strategic diversity that college hoops offers is part of what make D-I hoops so much more interesting than the NBA to me. I tend to think K, Randy Bennett, and Rick Majerus have it right, but there are national-championship winning coaches (Jim Boeheim and Tubby Smith are two) that run systems that allow a high amount of opponents’ three-point attempts and I’m guessing they have good reasons.

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Haven't seen one in a while, so I thought I'd take a stab at writing one up:

Kevin Foster, the WCC's leading scorer, has been accustomed to giving GU fits defensively.

Then he was introduced to Gary Bell Jr.

Kevin Foster and Evan Roquemore went a combined 6 for 25 as Gonzaga used tight defense to overcome a slow start to cruise by the Broncos 82 - 60. Gary Bell Jr. guarded Foster for the majority of the game, and it was clear from the get-go who the Zags priority was defensively. Foster finished the night with 9 points off of 2-9 shooting, well below his season average, largely because of the pressure defense applied by GU's talented freshman guard. GBJ added 15 points, including his first dunk in a Gonzaga uniform.

After a slow offensive start, who better to bring Gonzaga out of an offensive slump than Mr. Offense himself, Sam Dower? Dower poured in 17 points, including a three pointer to give the Zags the lead at the end of the first half, and they never looked back. Elias Harris had 12 points, Pangos had 10 points and 5 assists, and Gonzaga owned the boards in the second half to cap off a good defensive effort. The Zags are now 3-0 in conference with St. Mary's lying in the wake on Thursday.

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Meech played out of his mind last night.  If he can continue to develop a respectable shot to the point where people actually need to guard him, it's going to free up both him and the offense a little more, and things will move a little more fluidly.  That being said, the fact that Meech was our best shooter and offensive threat last night says a lot about how poorly we executed.  The biggest problem in my mind is strictly fundamentals.  We got a lot of high percentage looks last night that we just could not get to fall.  Two or three shots on the same trip more often than not still ended up with nothing.  

And then there is Harris.  

I want to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and say he is still injured, but I just don't know.  He seems to be settling for the three far too often, committing too many turnovers, and just seeming out of sync both offensively and defensively.  The explosiveness is just not there (leading me to think he's still injured) andI can't say how many times i've seen him get stuck behind a defender out top, and instead of fighting over the screen and getting a hand up he just allows his man to shoot.  I think he still has the raw talent and ability to beat anyone on the floor, but it just seems that the fire we saw last year isn't there.  The bottom line is that without Harris playing at as high of a level as he did last year, we are just an average team.  

Lastly, there's that elbow rule.  

I can understand implementing a rule to prevent major injuries, nobody likes to see someone get hurt.  Concussions especially are getting extra attention for the lasting damage they cause.  But this isn't the NFL, guys aren't getting concussed every game, guys aren't getting destroyed off their blindside, guys aren't getting more than the occasional cut or bruise.  That being said, if the NCAA really wanted to prevent elbows from being thrown and people from getting injured, it seems like the best policy would be to tell officials to get more stringent with the reach in calls. Don't let guys hang all over each other's arms in a poor attempt to play defense and you won't run into nearly as many injuries.  Coaches hate it when players linger back and foul a guy 90 feet from the basket, yet it still happens far too much.  

But that's just the problem.  I don't feel like the rule was made because of an escalating degree of maliciousness amongst players, it was made because of the ineptitude of officiating crews to make the right calls.  Swinging arms are almost always preceded by a reach in.  If they are allowed to review the play, shouldn't they be able to see that a foul was being committed?  Shouldn't they be able to overrule the rule when they realize the elbows were being swung to remove the ball from a defender, not to drop the Peoples Elbow onto his jaw?  

That being said, I don't believe the refs lost us that game, we lost us that game.  GU is better than most teams in the WCC exponentially, and we can't let it get to the point where the refs have an opportunity to decide the game.  Make our free throws, get back to fundamentals, and we'll get back on track.