Thursday Night Links
- Final Four: The Ultimate Viewers’ Guide
Mr. Gasaway says to watch out for Kemba Walker. - The Walton method
Travis Walton is watching tape right now. - Learning process: Thabeet tries to keep blocks in bounds
Thabeet says he and Stanley Robinson will rotate on Suton. - Herzog doing his best Thabeet impression
Nice to have a seven-footer on the scout team. - MSU’s Morgan must get his head in the game
Who woulda thunk we could get to the Final Four with Raymar Morgan scoring 7 points in 3 games? - Izzo Gets a Compliment From Ann Arbor
Lloyd Carr is rooting for us. - Cheering Fans, Thrilling NCAA Tournament Disgust BCS Officials
The Onion.
What to do with Mr. Ibok
For a fifth-year scholarship player, Idong Ibok has logged very few minutes this year. 158 minutes, to be exact. But he’s played an effective role in those minutes, serving as a designated defender against opponents with true centers of the seven-foot (or near-seven-foot) variety. His last seven outings of 5 minutes or more have come against this group of four players: Cole Aldrich (twice), Ralph Sampson (thrice), Mike Tisdale, and JuJuan Johnson.
Upon casual analysis, then, one might expect Mr. Ibok to log 10-15 minutes or so against the 7’3″ Hasmeen Thabeet on Saturday. I wonder, though, whether that would be playing right into UConn’s hands. Consider:
- Thabeet is, by most accounts, not a terribly polished post player. The most important thing, then, is to keep him away from the basket so he’s not in position for easy baskets off passes or rebounds. Goran Suton, Delvon Roe, or even Draymond Green might be better suited to that task. Ibok tends to be most effective against players who are going to post up and try to shoot over their defenders.
- On the other end of the court, Thabeet would be able to rotate off Ibok to block the shots of MSU players driving the lane with little danger of Ibok scoring off a pass. If Thabeet is forced to guard Suton, that clearly creates an advantage for MSU (but may require going with a small lineup). And, while neiter Delvon Roe and Draymond Green have shown great outside shooting ability to date, they are both quite capable of converting shots 5-8 feet from the basket and/or making good passes when the defense is scrambling to rotate.
What do you guys think? Do we throw our seven-footer at theirs? Or concede the height differential and focus on creating a mismatch of our own?
I think we are going to be strong defensively, so barring someone getting in foul trouble I see limited minutes for Ibok. I believe our concern will be on the offensive end. We need players on the floor that can score and Ibok doesn’t offer any offensive dimension. I love the guy, and he is capable of providing a handful of minutes that can change the complexion of a game, but I don’t see his presence as part of an intentional strategy.
If Thabeet goes off on the offensive end, we may have to switch Ibok in, but I don’t think it’s going to be part of the default plan. Thabeet isn’t a major scoring threat unless he’s totally wide open or gets easy put-backs, so swapping Ibok in to control him is probably going to hurt us on offense more than it would help on defense.
Agree with both of the above. To me, the best way to deal with Thabeet on defense is to spend the effort trying to keep him out of the paint. Suton has been phenomenal at this for three straight games. Thabeet doesn’t have the post polish of a Cole Aldrich, so the quick feet and smarts of Suton are a much better asset than the shot-blocking talent of Ibok in this case. Heck, I would even go with Green’s mass and lower center of gravity on Thabeet, just to keep him 5+ feet away from the basket.
The concern of this game should come down to finding ways to score, and having Ibok instead of Suton in the game would make the problem that much more difficult.
Great preview by Basketball Prospectus.
Hopefully Izzo will draw up a game plan to take UConn out of their comfort zone with Suton drawing Thabeet out towards the perimeter. If/when adjustments and switches are made, smart passes to slashers and open three’s will be key.
Ibok has provided some key minutes in some key games, but I agree with the above comments that this should be an in-game adjustment if one needs to be made, foul trouble and spare minutes.
When in doubt, you put the best team on the floor, I’d say. That’s not Ibok, I have to love the guy.
I’d say the best thing to do with Thabeet is to beat him down the floor, again, that’s not Ibok. Dunno if Calhoun will let us get away with much running, but that’s where we should try to go and at least try to play that into an advantage on the glass.
I kind of like the idea of putting Ibok in there – not the whole game but for significant minutes. I like the idea of starting our usual lineup and seeing how that works first, but he should be in the mix coming off the bench. I’m in favor of letting Roe and Morgan show what they are bringing this game. If they are scoring or dishing assists and grabbing rebounds and playing good D – i.e. playing well – we should leave them in. If Suton is having trouble with Thabeet then Ibok is the answer.
On D we could still put Suton on Thabeet if that is working, with Ibok in there, and Ibok could Thabeet-ize Adrien or Robinson. Adrien would have an especially difficult time getting a shot off over Ibok as he is only 6’7″ – Green or Morgan have the height to check him and Roe is as big as Robinson and bigger than Adrien. If they go big I like the idea of trying out how going even bigger affects them, because I think we could basically eliminate their front court scoring. The good news is that Robinson, Adrien and Thabeet are their only three front court players that log significant minutes, and they only have 3 guards that play much with Dyson out, so we may be able to wear them out. If we can get anyone of their 6 main guys in foul trouble we are in business (easier said than done).
If Morgan or Roe give us substantial contributions on offense, I’d like to see them log a lot of minutes and basically run our normal lineup and substitution patterns, which means few if any minutes for Ibok. But if we aren’t going to get anything more than what we’ve gotten so far in the tournament from either player offensively, it’s hard to see how Ibok could give less on offense, and he would help on D I think. I would love to have the Morgan who scores 20 points per game and shoots 60 percent from the field over Ibok, or the Roe who seemed to be coming around offensively during the middle of the Big 10 season. Unfortunately neither player has been seen in a while, and until one or the other shows up Ibok is not much of a downgrade offensively and, because of his size, may be a plus on D.
I’d rather see Marquise than Ibok. With Ibok’s offensive skills, he just won’t have any ability to get Thabeet out of the lane on offense. Gray has the ability to hit a six or eight footer on offense to keep him a little honest, and has enough jumping ability to rebound with him on both ends. Ibok seems like a coin flip to me. There will be fouls. Will Thabeet get a couple of them?
Not that Ibok can’t contribute, but I agree with the prevailing sentiment that it has to be as an in-game adjustment as necessary.
A question to anyone who knows UConn a little better than I: when Price and Walker are on the floor together, does Price still function as the primary ball handler, or is it more of a spilt?
Ryan, the post I just put up at least partially addresses your question.
We need to do whatever we can to get Thabeet in foul trouble. If that includes a rotation of Ibok, Suton, and maybe Gray covering him, so be it. If we get him in foul trouble, things get a lot easier the second half of the game.
If Suton is not effective against Thabeet we’ll have to go to Ibok, because no one else we have is as good a post defender as Suton is, so the prospects that someone other than Ibok can stop him if Suton can’t are slim. What may pose a problem is if we have to give Roe some rest – with Morgan and Green (and Suton) in at the same time we are undersized (assuming they have Adrien, Robinson and Thabeet in) against Robinson and Thabeet, which is a prospect I don’t like. At that point it is either Gray or Ibok coming in, and Ibok gives us the size to counter Thabeet with Suton having a bit of an advantage over Robinson. Defensively, I think that would be the more effective lineup, but we would admittedly give something up on offense. The question is will we get enough out of Gray offensively to make up for what we give up defensively by using him instead of Ibok? I’m not convinced we would.
I don’t see Ibok playing more than maybe 15 minutes if Suton can handle Thabeet. I basically see him as a sub for Roe when he needs a blow so we’re not giving up too much size. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t make an appearance at some point.