Gary Johnson Will Draw Derrick Williams

good move by Barnes. Might be time to ask how these defensive assignments have impacted Gary on offense. He looks a bit worn out.

I don’t think Gary is worn out. He’s hitting a talent wall. And he doesn’t understand his proper role on offense against real teams. Giving him a defensive mindset may get him out of his own way.
 
He’s our 5th best player and he thinks he’s our 2nd. That’s the fundamental issue.

Great post, you can definitely see in GJ’s body language on the court how he is pressing to try and carry us through these games. Give him an important job and let that passion go towards thwarting Arizona’s only offense rather than forcing the ball down low against taller and more athletic players.
Good managerial tactic.

I hate this. I want the NBA scout dream matchup. it’s not like he won’t have to guard guys like that in the league. yea yea not ready for it yet I know. quit being smart and give me what I want. we should win either way.

“NIT Tournament hopes, that is.”

You magnificent bastard!

I hope this will suffice for a game preview as I try to sound learned re: Arizona-whatever-they’re-called during my drunken shouting tomorrow. Otherwise, I don’t know anything about Arizona other than that their football team is coached by a chinless bastard (or at least I assume so given the genes).

Any thoughts on media reporting Thompson and Hamilton will be back next year. I’m dubious re: the latter, but I would be thrilled by the hope of the latter. Killer Canuck Quatro!!! (I’m trademarking that shit here and now)

But will GJ quarter him, as well?

Yeah, obviously you cover Derrick Williams with Gary. The biggest reason is to protect Tristan from foul trouble but the other reasons are great, too. After watching the amazing job Gary did on Dunn (a shooting guard who is quicker and has more game than big Derrick outside), there is a pretty decent chance that Gary will defend Derrick well outside. According to the roster info, Derrick outweighs Gary by only 3 pounds (on a 2 inch taller frame), so there is a decent chance that Gary can make it difficult for Derrick to get great post position. If Gary defends well enough not to get much help and does not get in foul trouble early, the horns are in great shape. The biggest issue will be fouls, Barnes should bark at the officials early and often to keep them from gifting Derrick with too many star calls. I’m not optimistic on that front.

Gary’s offensive problem is at least partly physical in that he is not getting the lift recently to finish with the aggressive stuff at the rim. He has to recognize this and change his finish game. Either still go up with two hands but finish gently at the rim (risking the block but maybe getting a foul) or lead with his left shoulder and finish gently with his trailing right hand (not likely to get blocked, a little more likely to stuff it, or can gently lay it in or bank it in).

This is off topic but…

There is not a requirement to post up Tristan so low on the block. It would be much, much easier to get Tristan the ball if he was higher up on the lane or even farther away from the bucket. He has tremendous dribbling/driving skills and getting the ball to him in space permits him to easily drive on the bigger, slower guys that defend him. Moving Tristan away from the low post also makes it easier to set a back screen for Tristan so that he can dive to the bucket to receive an alley oop pass. It also opens up the lane for other horns to penetrate the paint. This is especially useful for Balbay, Brown, and Jordan.

Off topic again.

It would be much easier to get Jordan the ball at the high post or way high on the lane than off these internal curls. It would also save him a lot of energy. It is extremely difficult to stop the entry pass at the high post because it is so easy for the high poster to spin and pin the defender, leaving lots of room to pass the ball to the high poster and a defender completely out of position to defend.

When Jordan gets the ball at the high post, a shot fake before the dribble is extremely effective because Jordan is deadly from that range. That makes it much easier for Jordan to get his dribble move started well.

When Jordan gets the entry pass on the left side of the lane, it would be productive for him to back his defender down the lane. If the defender denies the paint, Jordan can back him down the lane to very close to the bucket where he can spin and shoot his deadly little fall away or fake that and do an up and under (trying to draw the foul) or turn back to the lane to finish or shoot a short jumper.

If his defender denies Jordan from backing down the edge of the lane, Jordan can easily turn into the paint (putting his body between his defender and Jordan’s shooting hand) and either attack the rim or shoot the short jumper.

Obviously Jordan is very likely to get doubled when he gets the ball that close to the goal so there will be lots of opportunities for the assist. A passing fake is also a great way to set up a shot.

The advantage of Jordan backing his defender down the left side of the lane is that Jordan’s speed is under control, he is using his big body to protect the ball, he gets to use his right hand to dribble, and it gives him a credible threat to the left without actually having to use his left hand in traffic at high speed. Having that credible threat to go left makes it much easier for Jordan to go right (which is what he mostly wants to do anyway) vs a good defender.

Wangmene better have the game of his life defensively, because griffin is going to take Gary down to the low block and treat him like Henry James treats the pleather clad Thai ladyboy chained in his attic.

And when I say Griffin, that obviously means Williams.

The more I look at this, the less I think it will work. We really need to go at Williams on the offensive end. If we are throwing GJ at him, then we are defending a skilled low post power forward outside in, which is usually bad. Also, tristan’s cover is a shooter, so the ability to keep him in the paint is somewhat nullified.

For Texas to win, Tristan will need to defend Williams well at some point.

I don’t think Gary is worn out. I think he’s in a slump and a bad one at that. He just needs to get a little confidence back and he’ll start hitting his midrange jumpers. I think our guard play will be the difference. We have five very good offensive options on our team, when Gary is hitting his j’s. i don’t know about Arizona’s depth past Williams but they beat a pretty good team in the first round. We’re going to have to play a solid 40 minutes this game. I sure would love to see Duke choke, but i also wouldn’t mind getting a chance to finally beat them if we can actually advance.

I love the move. It virtually guarantees we get Williams off the perimeter and in the paint so Tristan can come over the top. Memphis bothered Williams with their length and they don’t have a Tristan. It’s also dangerous for Williams to face up Johnson any further out than mid-post because Johnson can get under Williams’ dribble and offensive fouls are in vogue. GJ needs to bring his Duke flop to the game. Keep in mind Johnson has guarded Shabazz Napier and Dunn this season, so it’s doubtful Williams can take him off the dribble.

As for covering our doubles, I think we’ve got to vary things. If Williams is backing down Johnson, you dig down with guards who can get to the dribble. If he catches it in the post you’ve got to force him away from the baseline if you’re Johnson with Tristan there to help. If Williams can pass to the opposite side of the floor, hit one of their shooters in rhythm, with the opposing forward finishing the play by sticking the jumper, all before the rotation gets there, you tip your cap. Williams averages 1 assist per game, so if he gets it, he’s attacking.

Hamilton’s going to have to beast on the glass because we’ll be sending a lot of players at Williams and the weakside glass will be there for the taking.

On offense, again, we need to go right at Williams. Memphis was getting to the glass at will and they don’t really run an offense. If we run our stuff we should be able to get point blank looks especially with Thompson. The good news there is that Williams is the only player on the floor that has any shot at guarding Thompson. We can foul out Williams if we set our mind to it.

Overall, if we take care of the ball and the Wildcats don’t go nuts from beyond the arc, we should win this game by six or so. If we shoot it well, they don’t have a chance.

I’m a little concerned that Jordan Hamilton will get into a scoring contest with his old AAU buddy. We need to play unselfish basketball to win today.

We also need TT and Balbay to stay out of foul trouble.

This game is going to be won on the defensive end, for a couple of reasons. First, and most important, Texas is much better at it than Arizona — or at least has shown the capability. Second, defense has been where this team has slacked off as its play has descended toward average.

Earlier in the season, when Kansas fans were whining about Texas beating KU because its players were tired, one of the reasons they banged that drum so hard was because KU’s n-c schedule had turned out to be stocked with second-level teams. The “best win” was beating Arizona on a neutral floor. But if you review the schedule, Arizona’s glossy record cracks like my dashboard in the summer sun. Ken Pomeroy has them ranked in the 30s to start with, but their best road/neutral win is at Washington State by a bucket.

This game will have many of the same challenges that Oakland posed, with an overall better quality of player — frontcourt stud with willing three-point shooters, and a team that wants to get up and down. They’ve played most competitively with Washington, which may or may not take out UNC today. But that’s because both of those teams think defense second (as does UNC, for that matter).

Nonetheless, the tournament started yesterday… ya gotta bring it. Seeds don’t matter. Anybody can win, anybody can go down.

Great breakdown, Bob.

Bob check your email