NC State ranks 134th in defensive efficiency. They rank 176th in defensive eFG%, meaning teams don’t struggle to make shots against them. Their defensive FT rate is ranked 176th as well, meaning when teams aren’t making shots, NC State is fouling them. The Pack also has a despicable 257th rank in allowed offensive rebound %, meaning they aren’t in a position to box out.

So what gives? Why does’ this team, who seems to have some pretty decent and athletic pieces, rank so poorly in so many categories?

Looking at some tape, it seems as if a lot of their struggles come from team defense issues. Communication, help and recover, and understanding of angles and spacing on the defensive end has killed this group. A lot of those things are set in motion, not by simple off-the-bounce drives to the basket, but more often by their defense of the high ball screen.

That brings us to the big question – Why is NC State so bad against the pick and roll? I mean, it’s hurt them all season long. Opposing guards are creating all kinds of havoc off of one of the most common sets in the game. So what is going on? Let’s take a look.

Above is just the wrong way to defend this play. The ball handler is Wilson-Frame. He had already hit a bunch of 3s this game, so NC State isn’t taking any chances. They send Al Freeman over top of the screen. That means that it’s on Yurtseven to cut him off.  Yurt is too slow to cut him off and is forced to start guarding the ball handler here. What he should have done is beat the dribbler to the spot and give a strong hedge to slow momentum and stop him from turning the corner. Yurt has to trust that Freeman is recovering with speed and his help side has rotated because otherwise, that cutter is going to be wide open. In this clip he stays, doesn’t give a strong hedge and he leaves too late, resulting in an easy bucket. (Also note, that Markell is in help and leaves the cutter, which wasn’t the right play either.

Now let’s look at one from Miami..

Here the ball handler (Newton) goes off a high screen way above the 3pt arc. Keatts must teach them to always go over top, but as a PG, Markell could and likely should make the executive decision to go under the screen this far away from the basket and give up the super-deep 3  to a guy not known as a shooter. By going over the top, Markell puts Yurtseven in a bad spot because he was not anticipating having to cut off the drive so soon. Newton now has a head of steam and all sorts of court space to work with because he turned the corner and Yurt is now forced to completely commit to stopping him. This leaves his guy with a clear roll to the basket, forcing Beverly to pinch in, leaving his man wide open for a 3.

Now let’s go back to Pitt…

In this clip you see the pick and roll take the form as a hand-off, but the concept of defending is the same. Wilson-Frame takes the hand-off in attack mode and is allowed to turn the corner. That can’t happen. You can see that Yurt hesitates because he’s worried about the fake handoff and drive, but he’s got to be quick enough to read this, hedge out to stop him from turning the corner and recover. If that’s not possible then they need to communicate and this needs to be just a flat out switch. Sam Hunt does no one any favors by not fighting through this screen for an angle and instead basically following Wilson-Frame around the pick. On the help side, Beverly is late and out of position, but again, he is beign forced to guard 2 wide open guys. That said, you should alway give up the longer shot when the choice is given.

Let’s take a look at the correct way to guard a pick and roll. And to do that, we’ll examine the best defensive team in the nation…Virginia.

and again…

Note how the screener’s defender aggressively hedges out and obstructs his ability to get any downward momentum to the hoop. In fact, Virginia is so good at this because that aggressiveness actually causes the ball handler to move backward, cutting off any options he might have had. This is how grat defenses stop this play.

So what’s the fix? Well, it’s really about focus, communication, and hustle. Great defense requires constant and quick decision making. You need to know your scouting report and react accordingly. As the defender of the screener, you need to be proactive. Right now State is playing these screens way too soft. They aren’t communicating and they are thinking more than they are reacting (which is a sign that they are still learning this whole team defense concept). To stop the pick and roll, the Pack’s bigs are going to need to play more aggressively, be able to anticipate and beat the dribbler to their spot, then recover. For the Wolfpack guards, they need to fight through screens and recover harder and faster than they’ve been doing. Until they can figure this out, the simple pick and roll is going to continue to haunt this basketball team, especially on Saturday when they face UNCs Joel Berry who is a true triple threat off the high screen. He can shoot it, pass it or take it all the way to the hoop.