The below post was on the Pitt board. Please add, edit, or fix anything in it based on your years of watching Vandy's defense under Stallings. Thanks!
1) Their DefRating is regularly a little above average, but it occasionally bumps up to very good, like it did this last year when it was 39th out of ~350 teams (regular around 100th).
2) Their opponents' FG% are regularly well below average, and opposing 3FG% are regularly even better. This year: opposing FG% were 5th lowest nationally, and opposing 3FG% was 4th lowest.
3) Opponents' assists are often below average (14th lowest this past season), and Vandy's blocked shots regularly jump really high (14th highest this season).
4) The only other defensive statistic trend that is apparent with Vandy is that they are very good at defensive rebounding (31st this past year). They are always MUCH better at defensive rebounding than offensive rebounding.
5) Several of these trends hold when you look at Illinois State's team stats back when he was there.
The only narrative I've heard on here about Vandy's defense is that they like to funnel opponents into the middle to their bigs. Looking at these statistical trends and hearing that little piece of info leads me to believe that Stallings' defensive strategy is for perimeter players to close out hard and crowd shooters, forcing them to drive. Opposing assists are low, so I'm guessing they aggressively prevent passes to shooters and encourage the ball handler to drive to the hoop where they have shot blockers waiting. Vandy has a ton of tall players, and that's clearly by design and they're probably coached to anticipate good position to challenge smaller driving players near the hoop and to look for defensive boards off the misses. All these numbers are really good (FG%, 3FG%, low opposing assists, high blocks and defensive rebounds), so the only thing that's missing from making the overall DefensiveRating to trend higher is forced turnovers, which if my hypothesis at how the defense is trained to work is correct, will never be high.
1) Their DefRating is regularly a little above average, but it occasionally bumps up to very good, like it did this last year when it was 39th out of ~350 teams (regular around 100th).
2) Their opponents' FG% are regularly well below average, and opposing 3FG% are regularly even better. This year: opposing FG% were 5th lowest nationally, and opposing 3FG% was 4th lowest.
3) Opponents' assists are often below average (14th lowest this past season), and Vandy's blocked shots regularly jump really high (14th highest this season).
4) The only other defensive statistic trend that is apparent with Vandy is that they are very good at defensive rebounding (31st this past year). They are always MUCH better at defensive rebounding than offensive rebounding.
5) Several of these trends hold when you look at Illinois State's team stats back when he was there.
The only narrative I've heard on here about Vandy's defense is that they like to funnel opponents into the middle to their bigs. Looking at these statistical trends and hearing that little piece of info leads me to believe that Stallings' defensive strategy is for perimeter players to close out hard and crowd shooters, forcing them to drive. Opposing assists are low, so I'm guessing they aggressively prevent passes to shooters and encourage the ball handler to drive to the hoop where they have shot blockers waiting. Vandy has a ton of tall players, and that's clearly by design and they're probably coached to anticipate good position to challenge smaller driving players near the hoop and to look for defensive boards off the misses. All these numbers are really good (FG%, 3FG%, low opposing assists, high blocks and defensive rebounds), so the only thing that's missing from making the overall DefensiveRating to trend higher is forced turnovers, which if my hypothesis at how the defense is trained to work is correct, will never be high.
