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Some Big Monday Thoughts

Posted by Trips Right on January 26th, 2009 under Basketball

Watching Marquette defend Notre Dame was a thing of beauty. You’ll have a hard time finding a team that helps and recovers as quickly as UM. McAlarney and Jackson were virtual nonfactors this game. On offense, the Golden Eagle backcourt when Dominic James doesn’t channel AJ Abrams is severely underrated. Jerel McNeal is the real deal and one of the best scorers in the country and Wesley Matthews is a third guard who can handle, shoot, and board. If they get any kind of play from Burke and Hayward they will be a really tough out in the tourney. Buzz Williams’ guys are tailor made for a deep tournament run which mitigates depth problems with multiple TV timeouts. Again, guard play is off the charts when James can play within himself.

It’s halftime of the Bedlam game and it’s been a real physical contest so far. You can tell OSU is trying to force pace in order to try to exploit ou’s lack of depth, but the unintended consequence is some really poor shot selection. Someone should tell Obi won Muenello he can get a fadeaway 3 at any point in the shot clock. Austin Johnson’s faux hawk is undoubtedly drawing Scipio’s ire. I’m rooting for Blake Griffin to succumb to his deca-durabol inside voice and try to chew on Byron Eaton’s larynx.

Watched Clemson again last night. They run a variety of full court pressures, some quick 1-2-2 trap, some slow trapping 1-3-1, and even a little UNC run and jump that tries to take advantage of guards taking their eyes off the trap when they reverse pivot. There’s no reason Texas with its athletes can’t implement a similar style for stretches in a given ballgame. It was aptly pointed out the other night that Texas had some success extending its defense against the aggies.

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5 Responses

  1. Work said:

    January 26th, 2009 at 7:51 pm

    OU has 20+ turnovers and they were up 14. Austin Johnson is playing lights out. If he continues to play this well OU will be a tough tough team come March.

  2. ponderos said:

    January 26th, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Ron Franklin’s pbp is as ugly as Travis Ford’s flat face.

  3. Facebook User said:

    January 26th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    Wiki say:

    Buzz, known for his being a recruiting ace, has recruited a top 5 recruiting class for the 2009-10 season. This class includes Junior Cadougan, Jeronne Maymon, Erik Williams, and Dwight Buycks.

  4. SkymonkeyHorn said:

    January 27th, 2009 at 4:56 am

    There’s no reason Texas with its athletes can’t implement a similar style for stretches in a given ballgame.

    Amen Brother ! Any combination of traps will improve Texas at least 20% and play to the talent that we have on our team. Plus if we cut down the time the other team has to get into their offense the better for us.
    Push the ball even 40% of the time and we have a completely different team look. we have to look back 10 or so games to see the defensive intensity that we need. I truely believe that Barnes underestimated his teams ability to push and to be players with a BB I.Q.
    Barnes is money in the bank but he needs to rethink his idea af what his players talents are.With J.Hamilton and AB coming in next year I sure hope he plays to their talents as creaters and as PLAYERS ! Seems to me that he takes players tears them down and makes better defensive players out of them, maybe better NBA players but its a tough plan for all the players.

  5. Bob in Houston said:

    January 27th, 2009 at 5:42 am

    OU did get tired and Ok State hung in with a few threes, but I agree, the OSU shot selection was horrible. Take it to the hoop once in a while.

    You want an open shot, sure, but the point of pushing the pace is to make the guys you are pushing actually run to the other end with you.

    OU’s still remarkably good with inside passing, and Blake Griffin has some spots on the floor where he just doesn’t miss.

    Add in Austin Johnson being able to dial up 27-footers just about whenever he wants and (when that happens) OU is going to be hard to beat.

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