We won, great, I'm happy, but how long are we going to keep letting teams beat us with the same rinky-dink offensive scheme? How long are we going to keep hanging our point gaurds out to dry defensively? WHY CAN'T WE DEFEND THE PICK AND ROLL? (rhetorical question, I know why) Our defense of the pick and roll is horrendous. When guards like Brent Price are able to get into the lane for open jumpers or pass to other players for wide open shots because our defensive rotation gets thrown off so badly, there is a serious problem. I noticed a few plays in the first half when Kenny Thomas was in the game when we actually switched. Now I'm not sure if Kenny switched at Ruddy's instruction or if Kenny is just unfamiliar with our defense and switched on instinct, but when we did switch, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but it led once to a turnover and another time to a bad shot being taken ( I'm relying solely on my memory of the game here). In any case let's just give Rudy the benefit of the doubt and say he did give the instruction to switch. Well then that just makes the fact that we stopped doing it in crunch time even worse. Notice that when the game got close and even in the overtime the Griz' went to this play instead of giving the ball to their star Abdur-Rahim. Why because they know that they can run this play sucessfully against the Rocks' and that the play works out positively for them because we do not switch. Switch on the picknroll and Francis doesn't foul out trying to make up for being picked off. If a pick is set effectively you are not going to be able to fight through or over it. When will Rudy realize that we have younger, more athletic players. Use them to your advantage and run a high intensity defense that switches and pressures the ball, there by setting up more opportunities to run off of turnovers and missed shots. And I think we all agree that the Rocks' look best when they run. Hate to complain after a win but this just frustrates me to no end. Change the defense of the pick and roll puhlease!
