Coach Boylen Backs Nevill in Defense of Defense
Much has been made about the defensive effort that center Luke Nevill managed -- or didn't manage -- against Washington's Jon Brockman last week, and coach Jim Boylen has gone so far as to print out copies of criticisms that appeared on computer message boards (as well as this blog, I believe), so he can show them to his 7-foot-1 junior in hopes of motivating him to improve.
But to the extent that Nevill's performance in the 83-77 loss to the Huskies illustrated poor defense by the Utes overall, Boylen isn't having it. He still believes the Utes are vastly improved over last season defensively, and did a good job by holding the Huskies to 43 percent shooting on their home floor.
"Who else scored for them?" Boylen asked.
Freshman guard Justin Dentmon had 16 points and junior guard Joel Smith added 11. But nobody else reached double-figures while Brockman erupted for 31 points and 18 rebounds.
"He made guarded shots over a defense," Boylen said. "I'll live with that, all day long. Guarded shots, over a defense. He's a good player. We made open threes against their defense. Does that mean their defense was good or bad? I don't know. You know what I mean? ... It's easy to second-guess that we should have doubled him, we should have done this. We're up three in the last five minutes, we're up two with the ball with two minutes to go. You have to win those games."
Boylen then was careful in how he characterized Nevill's play so far, acknowledging that "he needs to play with more grit, needs to play with more toughness" but also saying that "he's not getting enough credit for situations he does create."
Specifically, Boylen said the Utes were able to start penetrating to the basket more easily against the Huskies because they began to double-team Nevill in the post.
"We exploited that in the second half," Boylen said.
Nevill finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds against the Huskies, and is averaging 14.7 points and 7.7 rebounds going into a matchup with 6-foot-10 John Bryant and the Santa Clara Broncos tonight at the Huntsman Center.
"I'm happy with the way Luke's playing," Boylen said. "Does he need to play better? Yes. Does he need to play tougher? Yes. Does he need to rebound better? Yes. Has he helped us win games? He has. Has he improved from last year? He has. Has he improved from the Australia trip? He has."
"If we hold people to 43 percent on their home floor, you think we should have a chance to win," he added. "I do."
But to the extent that Nevill's performance in the 83-77 loss to the Huskies illustrated poor defense by the Utes overall, Boylen isn't having it. He still believes the Utes are vastly improved over last season defensively, and did a good job by holding the Huskies to 43 percent shooting on their home floor.
"Who else scored for them?" Boylen asked.
Freshman guard Justin Dentmon had 16 points and junior guard Joel Smith added 11. But nobody else reached double-figures while Brockman erupted for 31 points and 18 rebounds.
"He made guarded shots over a defense," Boylen said. "I'll live with that, all day long. Guarded shots, over a defense. He's a good player. We made open threes against their defense. Does that mean their defense was good or bad? I don't know. You know what I mean? ... It's easy to second-guess that we should have doubled him, we should have done this. We're up three in the last five minutes, we're up two with the ball with two minutes to go. You have to win those games."
Boylen then was careful in how he characterized Nevill's play so far, acknowledging that "he needs to play with more grit, needs to play with more toughness" but also saying that "he's not getting enough credit for situations he does create."
Specifically, Boylen said the Utes were able to start penetrating to the basket more easily against the Huskies because they began to double-team Nevill in the post.
"We exploited that in the second half," Boylen said.
Nevill finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds against the Huskies, and is averaging 14.7 points and 7.7 rebounds going into a matchup with 6-foot-10 John Bryant and the Santa Clara Broncos tonight at the Huntsman Center.
"I'm happy with the way Luke's playing," Boylen said. "Does he need to play better? Yes. Does he need to play tougher? Yes. Does he need to rebound better? Yes. Has he helped us win games? He has. Has he improved from last year? He has. Has he improved from the Australia trip? He has."
"If we hold people to 43 percent on their home floor, you think we should have a chance to win," he added. "I do."
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 12:16 PM |
1 Comments:
Two things Coach Boylen could have done, one take Nevill out, he had Green, Grim and Downie similar in size to throw at Brockman or simply stay put in your 2-3 zone until you were forced to come out, since the beginning of this season Coach Boylen has made a point to play tougher man defense, these kids aren't conditioned for that for 40 minutes. Plus by sticking with the zone, it plays to Nevill's strength since he has a rebounding area of approximately 2 feet radius or the size of a preschool sandbox.
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