University of Missouri-St. Louis men's basketball recorded 10 wins during the first 13 games of their season. Not only are the Tritons off to their best start in over 25 years, it also seems head coach Steve Tappmeyer's team, in his second season with UMSL, is playing more akin to his defense heavy system.
From an exclusively box score view the Tritons are shutting down the opposition. They have not conceded more than 75 points in a single game heading into their Great Lakes Valley Conference road swing through Indiana. They will face GLVC East Division (arguably the stronger division with several nationally ranked squads) St. Joseph's and Indianapolis . They also have won nine consecutive and are perfect (5-0) to start GLVC play.
Looking at the score lines and overall game statistics this Tritons team is a defensive coach's dream, at least at this point in the season. UMSL opponents are averaging a shade over 62 points per game. Whereas, UMSL is averaging over 11 more points per game against all opponents.
Last season, UMSL got off to a quick start as well, but were blanked in the league tournament's first round by Division II and GLVC powerhouse Kentucky Wesleyan. The Methodist school out of Owensboro, Kentucky scored over 100 points against Tappmeyer's first season squad.
After the seemingly embarrassing loss Tappmeyer and his staff, assistants Luke Crump, Dale Ribble and Chico Jones, recruited several new players to fill holes from an inconsistent defense.
It's difficult for me to judge the style of Tappmeyer's 2011-2012 defensive schemes. I have not had the chance to see the team live or in person. Last season his defense was mostly a man to man with a mixture of some 2-3 and 3-2 zone. He would press usually late in the game under desperation or on full court inbound.
I doubt his schemes have changed much. I'm sure he's using a same half court or three-quarter court man to man defense. But with the overnight changes final scores while holding all teams to such a low average, it is hard to believe that it was a defense philosophy change.
The long time and nationally renowned Division II coach (he was formerly the coach at D-II basketball and football power-house Northwest Missouri State) seems to have recruited players that fit into and understand his system- the intense, in your face and hard nosed shutdown man to man defense.
So needless to say when UMSL returns from a tougher Indiana Division II road test I will most likely attend their games against GLVC west division foes William-Jewell and Rockhurst to see the type of players and defensive sets the coaching staff is running.
Maybe if the old sports cliche holds (defense wins championships) UMSL can make a run in the GLVC and the NCAA tournaments.
Note: I have also started a YouTube Vlog page. Here is the link. There aren't many videos yet, but I will update them every few days.
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