These adjustments are brought to you by the letter D. As in defense.
The Fort Lewis College men’s basketball team is hoping to step up its game on that end of the floor coming out of the holiday break, which ends Friday when Chadron State comes to town.
The defensive end is an obvious focal point statistically. The Skyhawks (6-3, 3-2 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) have had little trouble offensively this year, save for a 67-point effort in a loss to Colorado Mesa, and they’re averaging a whopping 95.6 points per game, good for fifth in the nation.
But Fort Lewis is allowing 80.7 points per game this season, up drastically from the 67.4 points per game average opponents accrued a season ago. That’s a trend the Skyhawks are trying to reverse.
“In the Mesa game, you could tell ... we just didn’t get back. We didn’t know where we were on defense. Nobody was talking,” FLC forward Jared Smith said.
Perhaps the biggest hole in the Fort Lewis defense is in transition. FLC head coach Bob Hofman emphasized the importance of improving in that regard at Thursday’s practice as a key to success down the stretch this season.
“It’s been the theme since the first game is we’ve just got to get better defensively,” Hofman said. “And whether that means changing our schemes or just better effort, we just have not been good defensively.
“The No. 1 thing is transition baskets. That’s key. We can’t give up so many transition baskets.”
The Skyhawks have been a pretty dead-eye squad from beyond the 3-point line this year. They’ve hit a total of 109 3s so far this year, good for 16th in the nation. And FLC hits an average of 12.1 shots from downtown per contest, a mark that has the Skyhawks fifth nationally, while connecting at a 45.2-percent clip, good for fourth in Division II.
But for even the best shooting team, the 3-ball has its ebbs and flows. And Hofman would like the defense to be able to win the day should the shooting fall off on a given night.
“We still have to figure out the Fort Lewis tempo. We’re a little bit too quick in terms of shot selection. And sometimes (shooting the 3 well) ... that can be fool’s gold. ... We have good shooters, but we still have to get the shots from the rhythm from the offense and not from individual play,” Hofman said.
Getting the kinks out defensively, settling on a comfortable rotation and continuing a scalding-hot offensive start will be the goal this weekend and going forward as the Skyhawks try to track down the likes of Colorado Mines and Metro State, the two teams tied for first in the RMAC with identical 5-0 marks in league play.
“You always want to defend your place at home. ... Hopefully we can come out with two good wins and springboard our season,” Smith said.
rowens@durangoherald.com
