'D' up!

Here's a different path to earning a college basketball scholarship -- who is willing to make the effort?

Constant Denial
Every contender this season can deploy a lockdown defender—the quick, smart, tough player who makes life miserable for the hotshot scorers
Phil Taylor
Sports Illustrated
November 23, 2009

Let this be a warning to the scorers, the players with the sweet three-point strokes or the quick-as-a-blink crossovers or the low-post package of jump hooks and turnarounds: You are not just shooters, you are also targets. It's going to be harder than ever to get your usual points this season, thanks to a cadre of elite defenders deployed across the land in a sort of full-country press. Though they come in all shapes and sizes, with varied temperaments and techniques, these stoppers have a common goal—to make life miserable for guys like you.

Some will hound you on the dribble, like pesky Washington guard Venoy (rhymes with annoy) Overton, or subtly bump you off your path when you cut to get open, a preferred tactic of Chris Kramer, Purdue's muscular guard. Others will extend their long arms into the passing lanes to deny you the ball, like North Carolina wingman Marcus Ginyard, or contest your jumper with hands so close to your face that you'll think they're trying to steal your corneas, à la freshman guard Avery Bradley, Texas's defensive prodigy.

If you would-be scorers make it through those levels of resistance and arrive at the rim, you might have to contend with shot-blocking centers like Kansas's 6'11" Cole Aldrich; Virginia Commonwealth's Larry Sanders, who has a 7'7" wingspan though he's "only" 6'11"; or Mississippi State's 6'9" Jarvis Varnado. They will present you with a choice—have your shot swatted or loft it mezzanine-high to avoid them. Aldrich's ability to turn the area around the Jayhawks' basket into a no-fly zone is one of the main reasons Kansas is favored to win its second national championship in three years. "There are a lot of players out there who could be considered lockdown defenders in one way or another," says Washington coach Lorenzo Romar. "You tend to find a lot of them on the really good teams. That's no coincidence."

The prolific scorers of recent vintage, like Davidson's Stephen Curry, Texas's Kevin Durant, Gonzaga's Adam Morrison and Duke's J.J. Redick, seem to be in short supply this season, at least partly because there is such a multitude of quick, tough, smart individual defenders who—as J.T. Tiller, Missouri's pesky senior guard puts it—can't wait to "bust the pipes" of an offense and turn it into a frantic, unfocused mess. The emphasis on D undoubtedly warms the hearts of coaches, who have preached its importance since the first basket was scored. It has always been a hard sell because most of the glory has gone to the guys who put up the points. But players seem increasingly willing to buy into the concept lately, maybe because in recent years they've seen the rewards that a commitment to defense can bring...

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