I can answer the first one

by CW (Rakes) , Harlan County, Saturday, February 04, 2012, 16:17 (5239 days ago) @ BPH

The improvement in defense is All Of The Above. Previously, you had a lot of very skilled offensive players who maybe weren't the best on the other end (Colin Falls, Kyle McAlarney) or were simply undersized (Tory Jackson). Now you have Eric Atkins (good size for a point guard) and the combination of Jerian Grant, Drago and Pat Connaughton, all who have weirdly long arms. Previously, when teams would get hot from three against us, we were always in the area but not contesting that hard. Now? Ask poor Ashton Gibbs what it was like to have Eric Atkins draped on him for forty minutes.

The switch to the burn offense has also helped, as it allows players to rest on offense and put a renewed focus on defense. (Mike Brey 1.0 was not ashamed to say his plan on defense was to score more points than the other team on offense.) It requires superhuman efforts from your ball-handlers to go that hard on both ends (which is what we're getting from Atkins, who plays great defense and handles the ball for 40 minutes with a turnover or two a game, and Jerian Grant, who has one of the best assist:turnover ratios in the land), but it allows the Jack Cooleys of the world to conserve energy.

What we will hopefully be seeing in the next few years is a team that has the depth on the wings to play at an early Brey-style of pace on offense but also maintain this level of intensity on defense. Seems like the right guys are in the pipeline, so fingers crossed.