It starts with 'D'

Defense.
In a word, it’s what the Jay County High School boys basketball team has been about under coach Craig Teagle. The Patriots have limited opponents to 45 points or fewer in each of the last six seasons, including a school record defensive average of 35 points per game in 2011-12.
So it should come as no surprise that Jay County starts its practice week with a focus on defense.
“Monday is always defensive day,” said Teagle. “It’s our emphasis for every game we play, so we want to do it first thing on Monday to get their concentration focused on it.
“I think it kind of sets the tone.”
After the free-throw shooting and warm-up that open every practice, the the defensive drills begin with one-on-one work.
Players work up-and-down the court in pairs, one dribbling while the other defends, and then switch roles on the way back. During each drill they’re working on a variety of objectives, tiny details like staying low, always keeping a hand on the ball and sliding their feet.
They even talk about how and where to touch an offensive player in order to slow them down. (A hand on the hip will draw a foul call. A forearm on the back probably won’t.)
Teagle keeps an eye on everything, yelling out notes as his Patriots work.
“Foot fake, foot fake, slow him down,” Teagle calls out to senior forward Scott Schwieterman as he defends teammate Zach Fullenkamp. “Don’t let him get a head of steam.
“Way to stay down,” he adds as four-year starter Brock McFarland works against Zach Pryor. “Don’t leave our feet unless they leave theirs.”
As practice continues, one-on-one drills become two-on-two, then three-on-three and four-on-four.
Even as the players work against each other in three groups of four, the focus is mostly on defensive fundamentals as opposed to specifics about upcoming opponents. They work on being in the right position no matter where the ball is, because although the Patriots play man-to-man defense they employ a lot of zone principals.
Jay County switches on almost every screen and players sag to the basket when the ball goes to the corner of the court, often making it seem as if they are playing zone.
Bluffton coach Kevin Leising said after Saturday’s 52-33 loss to the Patriots that his point guard felt like when he looked past the player guarding him, he saw four more defenders right behind. That’s exactly what JCHS wants, to build a wall around the basket.
“People don’t have much time to work on it, to work against it, so it’s hard,” said Teagle of the switching man-to-man. “It keeps you from having to get hung up on screens … If you’re smart and communicate you don’t have to move as much defensively …
“I think it takes the best principles of man and the best principles of zone.”
In addition to working on positioning and switching, the Patriots talk a lot about stats that don’t end up in box scores — splits, deflections and contests.
They always want to keep the ball in front of them.
They want to have their hands active at all times.
And they want to make sure they challenge every shot.
“That’s what makes the defense really,” said Kegan Comer, a senior and four-year varsity player. “If you don’t give up any splits, then they’re not going to get any open lay-ups. And if you get deflections, that leads to steals and transition baskets.
“Everything leads into the next. … We put it all together and that’s what makes us good at defense.”
Teagle said statistics show that players shoot 15 to 19 percentage points worse when shots are contested. And he noted that over the last six years Jay County has lost just three times when contesting 65 percent or more of an opponent’s shots.
Monday’s practice was scheduled to run for two-and-a-half hours with about 60 percent of that time devoted to defense. The team finished about 30 minutes early, thanks to sharp execution in almost all of the drills.
Finishing early or not, McFarland said the work on all of the little things that make the defense effective is time well spent.
“It’s pretty much what we do,” said McFarland. “During the games, we’re all about defense. So defensive day we’ve got to go hard. We have to make sure everything is crisp and clean. It’s definitely a long, hard practice, but in the end it does us a lot of good.”[[In-content Ad]]