On a team known for its offense with four 1,000-point scorers, Georgia State’s defense has been an important factor in the team’s success in winning the Sun Belt.
Now, coach Ron Hunter wants to keep that intensity going as the Panthers prepare to open Sun Belt tournament play in New Orleans. Georgia State, which has won 21 of its past 22 games, received a double-bye and won’t play until Saturday’s semifinals. They need two wins to take the Sun Belt tournament.
“The only thing we want to do is play the best defense we can play all year for 80 minutes,” Hunter said referring to the next two games. “If we do that, we will be in the (NCAA) tournament.”
Hunter said it typically takes two seasons for players to get comfortable in his zone-based system. Though he is in his third season at Georgia State (24-7), Hunter restarted that clock after his first because that team was full of seniors, forcing him to restart the teaching process.
This season’s team didn’t play defense well at the beginning because they were trying to involve two new players, Curtis Washington and Ryan Harrow, into the starting lineup. The rest of the team returned mostly intact, including starters Devonta White, Manny Atkins and R.J. Hunter, as well as subs Rashaad Richardson, Markus Crider, T.J. Shipes and Denny Burguillos.
Vanderbilt, Alabama and other teams had few problems driving down the middle of the 1-3-1 or 2-3 zones that Ron Hunter prefers to use. The result was easy layups or kick-out 3-pointers that resulted in the Panthers starting the season 7-6.
“It took time for them to learn all the changes,” he said.
The defense can be confusing. Hunter sometimes orders changes to the scheme in the middle of a possession, depending upon where the ball is on the floor, which opposing player has it or the situation in the game.
Using Hunter’s gauge of an effective defense, field-goal percentage, Georgia State wasn’t performing well. The Panthers were an allowing an abysmal 44.6 percent of shots to fall as conference play began against Troy.
But as the two new starters gained experience and the team began to develop chemistry, the defense started to improve.
“Now, I don’t have to say much, they can coach their way through it on the floor,” Hunter said.
In the first 10 games of the conference schedule, the Panthers limited foes to 41.8-percent shooting, dropping the season percentage to 43.4.
And the defense improved even more in the final eight games. The Panthers limited opponents to 38.5-percent shooting, dropping the season average to 42.1 percent.
“If we hold teams to 42-percent shooting, the way we play, it’s going to be really difficult for you to win games,” Hunter said.
The Panthers had the second-best defense in conference play, limiting opponents to 65.2 points per game, and the best field-goal percentage defense (40.3).
“We felt if we played any bit of defense, we could beat anybody,” White said. “As soon as we did that, we knew we were a special team.”
