Scoggins: Coach’s ‘epiphany’ turned Minnesota State Mankato into D-II’s most feared defense

MANKATO — The Minnesota State Mankato women’s basketball team held a recent practice that lasted one hour and 30 minutes. By my count, one hour and 10 minutes of it was devoted to defense.

“That’s very typical,” senior guard Hannah Herzig said.

Apparently, I showed up on a light day.

“Most of the time it’s probably closer to an hour and 20 of it,” coach Emilee Thiesse noted.

Defense is not optional in Thiesse’s program. It’s everything.

“Every conversation that I have and every meeting that I have with players is, ‘What are you bringing to our defense?’” Thiesse said.

The answer: A lot.

Ever see a hornet’s nest that has been swatted? That’s what the Mavericks defense looks like in action.

They come in waves. When healthy, Thiesse’s rotation goes 12 to 14 players deep. No one on the team averages more than 23 minutes of playing time. Check in, play defense like crazy for a few minutes, check out. Rinse and repeat.

“There’s a lot of trust in our system,” Herzig said.

The results back it up.

Thiesse’s Mavericks have already won one national championship (2024) playing this unconventional style, and a second title could be weeks away.

They lead the nation in a host of statistical categories, including scoring, scoring margin, turnovers forced and steals.

They have eclipsed 90 points in 18 games this season and reached triple digits six times. Most of their offense comes in transition generated by defense. They force 34 turnovers per game.

One of the team’s slogans: Pressure eliminates options.

Their résumé looks even more impressive when factoring in that two starters suffered season-ending knee injuries and five players total are currently sidelined.

“[Backups] know their role is to bring a defensive spark out there,” Thiesse said.

Her dad was a high school basketball coach in South Dakota. Her sister, Amy Williams, is the women’s basketball coach at Nebraska. Thiesse has been exposed to the game her entire life, so she knows when change is necessary.

“Just had this epiphany moment where I’m sick of having to just scramble through things,” she said.

Thiesse proposed a crazy idea at her staff meeting one morning. Why not try full-court pressure instead of their normal half-court man-to-man defense?

Her assistants loved the idea. So did the players.

“We just kind of made it up as we went,” Thiesse said.

“We were all at our wits’ end,” Thiesse said. “It was on a whim, for sure.”

The press has become the Mavericks’ identity, much like the Arkansas Razorbacks’ famous “40 Minutes of Hell” under Nolan Richardson in the 1990s.

Thiesse doesn’t have a fancy nickname for her defense. They simply call it “shell” defense. My suggestion: “Shell-shocked.”

“I like it,” she said.

Thiesse looks for players with specific skills and traits that fit her system when recruiting. Asked if she would consider signing an offensively gifted player who shows little interest in defense, Thiesse shook her head.

The genius is in the execution. Players have certain rules and principles on defense, but Thiesse gives them freedom to trust their instincts and athletic abilities to go make a play. That’s the basis of another team motto: Defense is unpredictable.

Thiesse shares that message with coaches who call wanting to know the secret sauce. Her success has drawn a lot of interest from fellow coaches across the country.

“It’s impossible to tell you what we did in one possession because you may never see that same possession the rest of the game,” she said.

Occasionally, the Mavericks get burned and give up layups. That’s OK, too. It’s part of the risk with full-court pressure. The tradeoff, Thiesse said, is disruption. Teams can’t run their normal offenses.

“It’s getting young players to scrap everything they’ve ever learned about defense and buy into something that is very vulnerable,” she said. “Taking a risk is a challenge.”

“There’s a little bit of chaos on the defensive side,” Herzig said, “and the hope is that that will make it even more chaotic on the offensive side.”