Lack of Defensive Rebounding vs. St. John's at MSG

 "Thanks for Ayers and Zeller for at least dressing in those new road unis, it was the most productive thing they did all day."  

This was said by our buddy Rusty after the horrible showing by the Irish in their 71-65 loss to St. John's Red Storm at Madison Square Garden today.  The game was close for the entire game with neither team able to pull away. As was said throughout the game, it was an old Irish team vs a young upstart St. John's team. St. John's has only 1 senior on their team and relied on a young group of scorers to stay in the game. As with any young quick athletic team, they can use their athleticism to get good looks, get to the lane, and rebound against any team. Most times this does not produce wins unless its against a team playing without composure which is exactly how the Irish played. 

Harangody played well and was fired up the entire game, but St. John's was able to throw enough pressure on him defensively to only hold him to 28 points. This number could easily have been doubled if their bigs did not play great. Numerous times Luke played like a man on fire doing everything to try and keep the Irish in this game. Many times it seemed as if he would jump into the scorers table and rip open his jersey Hulk Hogan-esque. Brey even had to bench him to try and cool off the hulk of a man. 

The problem in this game wasn't a cold shooting night from Kyle McAlarney which will happen from time to time, but the lack of effort and production from Zeller and Ayers. Both guys can't create their own shot, but are rather catch-and-shoot type of players who are especially accurate from downtown if given an open look. We know this, and that's not the problem, but rather their apathy on the defensive end and when shots go up. St. John's sent 3 guys to the offensive and defensive glass on every shot and used their athleticism to get around apathetic Irish players. This is most easily shown when the Irish were on defense. 

A shot would go up and it would turn into a volleyball contest of who could tap the ball around with both the offense and defense just trying to get their fingertips on the ball. This shows a lack of dedication to the fundamentals of rebounding, namely finding a guy and boxing him out. By simply throwing up a hand and jumping to tip the ball into open space, the Irish allowed St. John's superior athleticism to do the same. By doing this, the advantage goes to the offense since they don't even need to rebound the basketball, but by just jumping and tipping, the ball can go through the hoop which happened numerous times. 

By playing zone a good portion of the game, the three baseline defenders are responsible for this and against the penetrating offense. With St. John's being a team with poor outside shooting, the Irish knew they were going to penetrate and their defense wasn't terrible in this regard. But when a team relies on penetrating, it means that there will be at least 3-4 rebounders when the shot goes up in the paint. The Irish got lazy rebounding against a team they thought they should beat and lost their first Big East game. 

Two positive things to mention: The new black road uniforms are sick and definitely want to know if the bookstore could stock at least the shorts. The bright green piping and shamrock are pretty cool. Secondly, I think Tyrone Nash played well in the game, meaning he was calm and played with poise in his 12 minutes. He can be a valued contributor coming off the bench especially when our other guys get into foul trouble, and his two sweet assists show he is learning to trust himself better with the ball