Matt Jones this season..

[Get Nasty]

Tyus was a better defender than Matt? Were we watching the same team? I think Tyus would be the first person to tell you that you're dead wrong on that. And while i love grayson and think he was an underrated defender, he was not a better defender than matt.

At some things I believe he was better at. Tyus led the team in steals. I know Matt didn't play Tyus minutes to get steals, but I also think that worked in his favor with being more fresh. A lot was asked of Tyus, all things being considered, yes I think Tyus played better D. He had lapses of course but when you have a frosh playing 40 minutes in big games it will happen.

I think grayson was terrible throughout the year on D, but he was awesome in the final four. He played so hard and made so many plays on D and offense. He has more potential on D than matt, he just needs matt's consistency on D.

 

[aah555]

At some things I believe he was better at. Tyus led the team in steals. I know Matt didn't play Tyus minutes to get steals, but I also think that worked in his favor with being more fresh. A lot was asked of Tyus, all things being considered, yes I think Tyus played better D. He had lapses of course but when you have a frosh playing 40 minutes in big games it will happen.

I think grayson was terrible throughout the year on D, but he was awesome in the final four. He played so hard and made so many plays on D and offense. He has more potential on D than matt, he just needs matt's consistency on D.

With regard to Tyus, that's silly. Tyus did an adequate job defensively in the NCAAs - but reality is that we did a lot to hide his deficiencies by consistently matching him up against the opponent's weakest perimeter / wing player. For instance, while Matt Jones was assigned Decker and Cook was assigned Bronson Koening, we hid Tyus on Josh Gosser -- a defensive specialist who can't really do much of anything off the bounce. It also helped that we didn't face a lot of teams in the NCAAs with really deep, athletic back courts -- allowing us to always identify a matchup that Tyus can handle. I think Tyus improved and did reasonably well for a true freshman. But, even at the end of the year, he was not good.

 

[Get Nasty]

With regard to Tyus, that's silly. Tyus did an adequate job defensively in the NCAAs - but reality is that we did a lot to hide his deficiencies by consistently matching him up against the opponent's weakest perimeter / wing player. For instance, while Matt Jones was assigned Decker and Cook was assigned Bronson Koening, we hid Tyus on Josh Gosser -- a defensive specialist who can't really do much of anything off the bounce. It also helped that we didn't face a lot of teams in the NCAAs with really deep, athletic back courts -- allowing us to always identify a matchup that Tyus can handle. I think Tyus improved and did reasonably well for a true freshman. But, even at the end of the year, he was not good.

I don't disagree 100% with that, with that being said, you couldn't put matt on quick players either. Cook was the one that shocked me the most as he had been pretty poor his first 3 years. I really think the overall team did a great job communicating, helping each other, and executing specific defensive plans.