Kentucky/UNC, Illinois, Warren Carter, Duke
1. Kentucky may not have gotten out of Chapel Hill with a win, but the Wildcats did provide the blueprint for beating the runnin', gunnin' Tar Heels.
Ohio State showed Wednesday night that you can't go up and down with UNC and expect to win, and Tubby Smith was obviously paying attention. Kentucky is known for its frantic tempo, but Smith instructed his players to take the air out of the ball, using his timeouts to calm his team down after an unnecessarily quick shot or two. Defensively, he went to a zone for much of the game, causing the Tar Heels to either be more patient or take bad shots.
All credit to Randolph Morris, too, who hit 10 of 11 shots and helped keep Tyler Hansbrough quiet. As evidenced by Kentucky today and Gonzaga last week, the way to minimize Hansbrough's effectiveness is to surround him inside. For all of his speed and work ethic, he doesn't get off the ground quickly; he has to gather himself after catching the ball, before going up. When's he's against larger players, like Morris, that results in a much tougher shot. He also doesn't seem to have learned the virtues of kicking the ball back out to the perimeter.
2. Man for man, there's no way Illinois, playing without Brian Randle and Jamar Smith, should've been able to keep their game with Arizona close. But they did, and the way they did is the reason that Illinois -- even in something of a down year -- will always be competitive: Bruce Weber teams will defend, defend, defend, every time out.
Arizona played good offensive basketball for the 30 minutes, but not before the Illini jumped out to a 35-19 lead. The advantage Illinois earned in those first ten minutes allowed them to stick close despite the absense of their two best players and mounting foul trouble. They couldn't quite hang on, but if not for their first-half defense, they would've been blown out of the water.
By the way, Illinois' Warren Carter has caught my eye this week. He had an outstanding first half against Maryland before an injury slowed him down (he finished with 13 points and 11 boards), and came back with 24 points and 10 rebounds today. In each of those two games, six of his rebounds came on the offensive end. It's rare for someone with his shooting stroke to have that kind of knack for offensive rebounding. Either that, or it's rare for someone with his knack for offensive rebounding to have that kind of shot. Whichever it is, one this clear: Carter is an up-and-comer.
3. Last time we saw Duke, they were hanging on to beat an overmatched Indiana team at home. During that game, and during the first half of tonight's against Georgetown -- when the Hoyas were backdooring their way through the Devil defense en route to a 34-27 halftime lead -- it was easy to tell that Duke's confidence was very low. If you didn't notice it yourself, then you had Dick Vitale pointing it out for you, over and over and over again.
You can bet Coach K noticed it. After his players gutted out a nine-point win in which they held the Hoyas to just 18 points -- none of them on backdoor cuts -- in the second half, he made a point to incite the crowd into a hearty ovation for the players on the floor. Rarely will you see that kind of display from him, particularly this early in the season. But he knows how fragile this team is, and how they need every bit of confidence that they can get.
So have the Devils turned the corner? We won't know for a little while, but tonight was definitely a step in the right direction. Josh McRoberts kept the team afloat in the first half, and Greg Paulus broke out of his funk to score all 13 of his points in the final 20 minutes. I was critical of both players in this space after the IU game, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one with harsh words for the star sophomores. They responded tonight.
There's still a ways to go, however. Duke's offense is still shaky. Like Illinois, they will rely on their defense this year more than they have had to in recent years. They need a lot more production out of their freshmen, in addition to improved performance from their upperclassmen, in order to compete with other national heavyweights.
Ohio State showed Wednesday night that you can't go up and down with UNC and expect to win, and Tubby Smith was obviously paying attention. Kentucky is known for its frantic tempo, but Smith instructed his players to take the air out of the ball, using his timeouts to calm his team down after an unnecessarily quick shot or two. Defensively, he went to a zone for much of the game, causing the Tar Heels to either be more patient or take bad shots.
All credit to Randolph Morris, too, who hit 10 of 11 shots and helped keep Tyler Hansbrough quiet. As evidenced by Kentucky today and Gonzaga last week, the way to minimize Hansbrough's effectiveness is to surround him inside. For all of his speed and work ethic, he doesn't get off the ground quickly; he has to gather himself after catching the ball, before going up. When's he's against larger players, like Morris, that results in a much tougher shot. He also doesn't seem to have learned the virtues of kicking the ball back out to the perimeter.
2. Man for man, there's no way Illinois, playing without Brian Randle and Jamar Smith, should've been able to keep their game with Arizona close. But they did, and the way they did is the reason that Illinois -- even in something of a down year -- will always be competitive: Bruce Weber teams will defend, defend, defend, every time out.
Arizona played good offensive basketball for the 30 minutes, but not before the Illini jumped out to a 35-19 lead. The advantage Illinois earned in those first ten minutes allowed them to stick close despite the absense of their two best players and mounting foul trouble. They couldn't quite hang on, but if not for their first-half defense, they would've been blown out of the water.
By the way, Illinois' Warren Carter has caught my eye this week. He had an outstanding first half against Maryland before an injury slowed him down (he finished with 13 points and 11 boards), and came back with 24 points and 10 rebounds today. In each of those two games, six of his rebounds came on the offensive end. It's rare for someone with his shooting stroke to have that kind of knack for offensive rebounding. Either that, or it's rare for someone with his knack for offensive rebounding to have that kind of shot. Whichever it is, one this clear: Carter is an up-and-comer.
3. Last time we saw Duke, they were hanging on to beat an overmatched Indiana team at home. During that game, and during the first half of tonight's against Georgetown -- when the Hoyas were backdooring their way through the Devil defense en route to a 34-27 halftime lead -- it was easy to tell that Duke's confidence was very low. If you didn't notice it yourself, then you had Dick Vitale pointing it out for you, over and over and over again.
You can bet Coach K noticed it. After his players gutted out a nine-point win in which they held the Hoyas to just 18 points -- none of them on backdoor cuts -- in the second half, he made a point to incite the crowd into a hearty ovation for the players on the floor. Rarely will you see that kind of display from him, particularly this early in the season. But he knows how fragile this team is, and how they need every bit of confidence that they can get.
So have the Devils turned the corner? We won't know for a little while, but tonight was definitely a step in the right direction. Josh McRoberts kept the team afloat in the first half, and Greg Paulus broke out of his funk to score all 13 of his points in the final 20 minutes. I was critical of both players in this space after the IU game, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one with harsh words for the star sophomores. They responded tonight.
There's still a ways to go, however. Duke's offense is still shaky. Like Illinois, they will rely on their defense this year more than they have had to in recent years. They need a lot more production out of their freshmen, in addition to improved performance from their upperclassmen, in order to compete with other national heavyweights.
posted by H.S. Slam, Ph.D at 10:03 PM
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