BY GERY WOELFEL

ST. FRANCIS -- The Milwaukee Bucks were arguably the worst defensive team in the NBA last season.

Don't expect that to be the case again this season. Not if Scott Skiles can help it.

Skiles, the Bucks new head coach, is determined to rectify the Bucks' defensive woes and he showed that during the team's first practice of the season Tuesday morning at the Cousins Center.

"We started practice with our defensive foundation and then worked on our rebounding,'' Skiles said. "Overall, it was a very good first practice.''

Skiles fully realizes that if the Bucks are going to make any noise this season and rebound from their abysmal 26-win season they'll have to significantly improve their defense.

last season, the Bucks yielded 103.91 points a game -- seventh worst in the league. They allowed the opposition to shoot 48 percent from the field -- the worst David Stern's 30-team kingdom.

Recently, I discussed the Bucks' defense with two NBA assistant coaches and asked them to rank the defensive capabilities of the Bucks' five projected starters: point guard Luke Ridnour, shooting guard Michael Redd, small forward Richard Jefferson, power forward Charlie Villanueva and center Andrew Bogut.

On a 1-to-10 scale, with the latter number being the best, only Bogut got a grade higher than 5. He got a 6 and 7 from the two coaches.

Does that mean the Bucks simply don't have the right personnel to be a solid defensive team? Skiles says no.

"I don't buy that at all; that's a copout,'' Skiles said. "I've seen teams with poor individual defenders fit well into a team defensive scheme.

"To be honest with you, I didn't see any bad defenders out there ( in practice) today. There's no reason why we can't be a good defensive team.

"Our goal is to be one of the best defensive teams in the league.''

Bogut, for one, welcomes Skiles' emphasis on defense. He knows there is a distinct correlation between playing good defense and winning.

Detroit (90.0 points), Boston (90.2) and San Antonio (90.5) were the top three defensive teams in the NBA last season.

Boston and Detroit had the two best records in the Eastern Conference and San Antonio had the second-best record in the western Conference.

Boston won the NBA title.

"It's no secret defense wins games, and it's no secret we were a bad defensive team last season,'' Bogut said. "I made a couple of mistakes in practice and he (Skiles) talked to me about them right away.

"And that's great. It's good to know what you did wrong, so you don't make the mistake again.

"We all have to get better on defense.''