The view from the Happy Home

by hobbs, San Diego, CA, Saturday, February 04, 2012, 16:22 (5240 days ago) @ BPH
edited by hobbs, Saturday, February 04, 2012, 19:21

My humble and uneducated opinion(s)

Men - ND's shifted their defensive tactic towards being more aggressive on the wings. Recent Brey teams have tended to sag off on the wings to protect the entry pass. This year ND is being more aggressive than I can recently recall in bringing pressure on the perimeter. What's made this successful is ND's length. Next time you watch ND take a close look at Connaughton, Grant, Atkins, Brooks and S. Martin. All of those guys are long and when they get up on an opposing players their length creates problems on entry passes. In sum defense starts at the point and ND is simply doing a much, much better job of pressuring the point and not allowing opposing offenses to setup, get comfortable, and do whatever the hell they want to initiate their offense.

Women (I'm no C(hris)Biebel) - ND is a veteran team that has experience everywhere. SkyDigg is the headliner but that team is as good as Devereaux Peters. When she's on, combined with SkyDigg, it gives ND as good of a 1-2 punch (inside/outside combination) as their is in women's college basketball. On top of that they have some really, really good complimentary players like Brittney Mallory, Kayla McBride, and Natalie Achonwa who can play off Diggins & Peters while complimenting them. To put it another way, ND has two star players (that you have to account for) and they are really balanced beyond that. In tandem that's just a really hard combination to beat.

All that said, I think their real secret weapon is Niele Ivey.

FWIW, I saw the ND/Baylor game and ND could have won that game with a better shooting effort and a better defensive effort on the perimeter. If there is a rematch I like ND's chances.