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[QUOTE="jordoo, post: 5202191, member: 569"]
My take on last years defense:

1. With no center we often had Brown and Taylor guarding bigger players. Brown was still a pest and a very good defender until he was on the block against legit bigs. Taylor in less minutes guarding wings would have been fine IMO.

2. Judah's complaining resulted in 9-12 4on5's a game. He would also have stretches where he didn't play half court defense much because he was upset. He was a good defender when he wanted to be but that was maybe 25% of the time.

3. Bell's effort came around throughout the season and he has the physical tools but didn't seem to understand the concept of defense. Which is to deny the offensive player progress on their intended path and then to contest the shot. He would move laterally with the driving player but never cut off their path or force a wider path. He would also often overplay or bite on fakes allowing straight line drives.

4. JJ rarely lacked for effort on defense and has all the physical tools to be a good defender but like Bell lacks basic defensive instincts and thus always seemed to be chasing or defending hard without deterring the offensive playing in any meaningful way.

5. As far as the rebounding go back to number 1 and add in the fact that Bell is probably the worst rebounding SF I can remember at SU.

The good news is 1 seems to have been addressed which will also boost 5. Judah is gone so 2 will not be a problem. As far as 3 and 4 there is no where to go but up however both players will play big minutes and were extremely poor defenders last year.
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