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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009

Defense coming around quickly for Georgia hoops

ATHENS — While laboring to fully grasp the new triangle offense, Georgia is more settled on the defensive end of the floor.

Head coach Mark Fox prefers to play man-to-man defense, and says the team is building on defensive strengths from last year.

“It’s easier to pick up defense than it is an offense,” Fox said. “That is certainly a primary concern for us.”

Shortly after his arrival in April, Fox changed the team’s workout. Not only did the regimen change, but the philosophy was reworked. Fox said his post players weren’t overweight, but they were too bulky. Quickness and agility replacing brute strength, he said, would help on defense.

Fox littered the routine with drills blitzing the legs, using both strength and agility workouts to reach the conditioning and skill level he wanted players to play at.

“This is a game where you have to play at both ends and in transition between the two ends,” Fox said. “We made it a goal the last six months to slim down to make them much more mobile and agile.”

Junior forward Jeremy Price lost 22 pounds. Forward Chris Barnes toned up, shedding 10 pounds. The list goes on, including each player’s vertical leap reportedly increasing by three or more inches.

“Well, Coach Fox came in with his own conditioning deal that wasn’t a joke,” sophomore forward Trey Thompkins said. “Now we understand why he had us working so hard. We have an energy about playing defense now.”

And while elaborate reads and tactics are being installed on offense, Fox and his staff have kept work on defense simplistic.

“We spend a lot of time on the basics, just the fundamentals of playing good, sound defense,” said assistant coach Philip Pearson. “Being in a good stance, guarding the man and the ball and rebounding.”

Defense isn’t always valued at the college level, where scoring is king in highlights and headlines. And trying to teach fundamentals can grow old quickly, but Barnes said, the team knows the basics are required to remain tough on defense.

“When we go over one of the defensive drills, it’s better the second time than the first,” director of basketball operations Kent Davison said. “And those are the things that are really promising. Now it’s just a matter of staying healthy and being able to respond when adversity strikes.”

Fox will use man-to-man a majority of the time, but he is preparing for moments when a different approach is needed. He has a zone defense, what he calls “Plan B,” when matchups aren’t in favor, and also a “catch-up” defense when turnovers are necessary to create quick baskets when Georgia falls behind late in games.

“Certainly, for us to be a good basketball team, we have to establish ourselves at that end of the floor,” Fox said. “We’ll adapt to our personnel, and that’s going to change. There will be nights, playing man-to-man, where we match up well. There will be times where that will give us a great chance of winning. There will be nights where we might not match up well and we have to go with a zone. We have to adjust to the personnel. It’s certainly something we’re working very hard on.”

So far, Georgia players have had only practice to show what they can do on defense, but Thompkins and Barnes both said they are anticipating the first game, an exhibition against North Georgia on Nov. 6, to show the improvement the team has made.

“Coach Fox tries to create as much adversity in practice as he can,” Davison said, “but the real adversity comes when they turn that scoreboard on and they start to play.”