The old saying goes like this, "Defense wins championships." It is a tried and true saying in which many coaches have had long, winning careers living by that creed. While the Greenfield Boys have yet to win a tournament championship this season, their new defense has paid off enormously as they have righted the ship with a 12-8 record and are preparing for a chance at a district championship come the end of February.
After starting the season off 1-4, Coach Matt McCarthy was looking for new ways that the Wildcats could be more successful on both ends of the floor. Coming off a 68-34 loss to Stockton, McCarthy looked to some advice from assistant coach Josh Dobson on switching from a man defense to a 1-3-1 zone defense. "We were struggling defensively and Coach Dobson was persuading me to play the 1-3-1," stated McCarthy. "I didn't want to make the change, but I knew I needed to do something to increase our intensity and get the boys excited." The switch had a quick return as the Wildcats held Ash Grove to 23 points in a 40-23 victory the next game.
For those who may not know, a 1-3-1 defense is a zone defense which has defenders playing in the middle of the floor at the top of the key, the nail hole at the free throw line, and a baseline runner that starts under the hoop. Two wing defenders work to cut off the sideline from drives and defend the weak side block from back door lay-ups. Defenses in this type of zone can be aggressive and trap out of it or sit back and take away the middle of the floor and force offenses to make long, errant passes.
While that may seem confusing the results are not, as the Wildcats are 11-4 since moving to the new defense and have allowed 50 points or fewer in nine of those games, which all have resulted in wins. That is a 9-0 record in games which their opponents have scored 50 or less and here is a look at the numbers in those games:
- 59.1 points per game
- 38.3 points allowed per game
- 20.8 average margin of victory
"The times we are having success is when the whole team has been on board, from the starting five to the entire bench," explained McCarthy. "This defense increases our intensity which brings the crowd into the game as well as creating easy offense off of turnovers."
The new defense definitely seems to be paying off and the Wildcats are playing well as they are hitting the home stretch of their season. They have five games left on the schedule, with a chance to add a win in all five of those games. The Wildcats will play at Bronaugh tonight for 5:00 pm start and against Walnut Grove at home at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, February 5th.