But is anyone else worried that they might boat race us?
I mean I see a massacre on the boards and Wiltjer going wild.
I mean I see a massacre on the boards and Wiltjer going wild.
I know the Zags lost a ton.....
- Thread starter drunkinoakland
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Yeah, IMO Gonzaga is a REALLY difficult match-up to open the season. They have an easy conference schedule so seem to put their major effort into their OOC schedule. They always make noise in their OOC every year then coast through their conference schedule... and then fizzle in the NCAA Tourney (when the big boys have gotten their games up to speed).
Wiltjer, is 6'10" and 240 and plays PF for them (their C, Karnowski, is 7'1" and 288) and averaged 16.9 PPG at a .540 clip including putting in 68 3balls at a .466 clip (!).
Uh, I don't think Jamel Artis can cover Wiltjer. He is not a great defender and would be at a 3 inch height disadvantage. So, I gotta believe you gotta cover him with ANO and Young. Would be an interesting matchup with ANO on Wiltjer... as ANO is an excellent defensive player with the major wingspan and... puts in 3balls himself so will probably cover out to the 3 point line.
Yeah, this is one game where you would want Artis to play all his time at SF except when Wiltjer is not in there. If Dixon tries to cover Wiltjer with Artis, IMO he is just gonna learn the hard way that it is not a good idea.
Karnowski might be a difficult challenge also for Maia and Young/ANO... but they will have experience going up against a REALLY BIG man with Rozzie Nix in practice.
If Artis is not able to spend significant time at PF that will put a major crimp in our offense. Will probably have to rely on Young, Smith and (hopefully) Jones for most of our scoring. Maybe Slim can come in and put in a few 3balls.
A difficult matchup for us whichever way you look at it. Probably will not be close to our best given the 5 new players and the start of the season, and last year the Zags were a 2 seed in the NCAA Tourney. I don't expect we will be favored in this game. Yeah, we will get to see if Newkirk can bring the ball up the court and then not turn it over... or if Wilson is better.
Wiltjer, is 6'10" and 240 and plays PF for them (their C, Karnowski, is 7'1" and 288) and averaged 16.9 PPG at a .540 clip including putting in 68 3balls at a .466 clip (!).
Uh, I don't think Jamel Artis can cover Wiltjer. He is not a great defender and would be at a 3 inch height disadvantage. So, I gotta believe you gotta cover him with ANO and Young. Would be an interesting matchup with ANO on Wiltjer... as ANO is an excellent defensive player with the major wingspan and... puts in 3balls himself so will probably cover out to the 3 point line.
Yeah, this is one game where you would want Artis to play all his time at SF except when Wiltjer is not in there. If Dixon tries to cover Wiltjer with Artis, IMO he is just gonna learn the hard way that it is not a good idea.
Karnowski might be a difficult challenge also for Maia and Young/ANO... but they will have experience going up against a REALLY BIG man with Rozzie Nix in practice.
If Artis is not able to spend significant time at PF that will put a major crimp in our offense. Will probably have to rely on Young, Smith and (hopefully) Jones for most of our scoring. Maybe Slim can come in and put in a few 3balls.
A difficult matchup for us whichever way you look at it. Probably will not be close to our best given the 5 new players and the start of the season, and last year the Zags were a 2 seed in the NCAA Tourney. I don't expect we will be favored in this game. Yeah, we will get to see if Newkirk can bring the ball up the court and then not turn it over... or if Wilson is better.
One thing... Karnowski only averaged 5.8 RPG and Wiltjer just 6.2. This compared to Young (7.9), Artis (5.9), Maia (8.7) and ANO (5.1). So, we should be able to hold our own on the boards.
We'll get an idea rather quickly about if we have made progress on defense over the previous year. If we haven't progressed much, it's not going to be a pretty sight.
Sabonis will be the best rebounder (maybe the best player) in the game. I imagine Karnowski will sit some more and Wiltjer will play a bit more at the 3 in order to get Sabonis in the game.
Looking some more at the Zag stats.... three of their top six scorers graduated.... their entire starting perimeter. No other perimeter player averaged more than 4.1 PPG on their team.
The other player in their top six that did not graduate, Sabonis, is their 3rd man inside.... at 6'10" and 230. So, they are gonna be a heavy inside team this year, with Sabonis and Karnowski both averaging around 10 PPG. So, if you shut down their inside players, including Wiltjer at the 3 point line, you should be able to shut down their team. Not an easy task.
One thing I think Dixon should do, is play Jeter along with Artis, and let Jeter play PF on defense and SF on offense. Jeter, has question marks on defense but the main thing I saw was not playing his man close enough at the 3 point line, and that is something that can be corrected. Otherwise, Dixon even played him at C a bit last year and he held his own. He is an inch taller than Jamel and has long arms, so should be able to get the job done defensively at PF (as long as he covers his man close enough at the 3 point line).
I don't like this game because it is a long, LONG plane ride to Japan and our players are liable to come out stiff, and then there is the long, LONG plane ride back. Not sure how much this game is gonna tell us about our team. Yeah, I just hope we play better than the games last year against Hawaii, SDSU, and Indiana.
The other player in their top six that did not graduate, Sabonis, is their 3rd man inside.... at 6'10" and 230. So, they are gonna be a heavy inside team this year, with Sabonis and Karnowski both averaging around 10 PPG. So, if you shut down their inside players, including Wiltjer at the 3 point line, you should be able to shut down their team. Not an easy task.
One thing I think Dixon should do, is play Jeter along with Artis, and let Jeter play PF on defense and SF on offense. Jeter, has question marks on defense but the main thing I saw was not playing his man close enough at the 3 point line, and that is something that can be corrected. Otherwise, Dixon even played him at C a bit last year and he held his own. He is an inch taller than Jamel and has long arms, so should be able to get the job done defensively at PF (as long as he covers his man close enough at the 3 point line).
I don't like this game because it is a long, LONG plane ride to Japan and our players are liable to come out stiff, and then there is the long, LONG plane ride back. Not sure how much this game is gonna tell us about our team. Yeah, I just hope we play better than the games last year against Hawaii, SDSU, and Indiana.
Yeah, Sabonis averaged 7.1 RPG in just 21.6 MPG. But, I dunno if they would play Wiltjer at SF. The minutes for the three main inside players (Wiltjer, Karnowski and Sabonis) averaged 73.7 MPG so they had time for a 4th player or so inside. A lot of times if you take a big like Wiltjer and try to play him at SF, it takes him out of his game. But, of course, they have a totally inexperienced perimeter so I guess anything is possible. Might indeed play Karnowski less. He's a big that's starting to wear the other team down a bit, but he gets his points.
You guys are overthinking this. The Zags, even with their grad losses, will be a far better team this season than Pitt. Their frontcourt stands to be one of the biggest and best in college basketball. They always have good guard play. They have a top notch coach. And they play fast, something we're not equipped to do. We have injuries, uncertainties, and new players trying to work into the team flow.
It ain't gonna be pretty. That said, it's good to see a team like that on our OOC.
Uh, yeah, their inside players (as opposed to their entire frontcourt) might be the best in the country.
But, the most any returning perimeter player averaged last year was 4.1 PPG. That's PG, SG, *AND* SF.
They have a high profile kid coming in as a freshman but they will have new starters across the board on the perimeter and it will be their first real game as a starter.... for all of them... and then the players spelling them will probably all be new in that regard as well.
I still think we are gonna lose this one but if Dixon can put his players together well as a team going into this game, we might just be able to come away with a W. Yeah, I am hopeful as always but, am not gonna hold my breath.
Rafael Maia.... 5th year grad transfer in from Brown. 6'9" and 245. Led Ivy league in rebounding the last three years. My guess is he will start at C with Young starting at PF and Artis starting at SF.
Sounds like Young and Artis could have a field day shooting jumpers while the Zags frontcourt players only come out so far to defend. If they come far enough, the guards attack the boards and the shooter releases back on D.
Yeah, the ability of Artis and Young to hit jumpers is probably the biggest offensive strength of this team. Artis in particular averaged over 20 PPG for a long stretch in the ACC season mostly on getting open and hitting catch and shoot 10 footers and the like.
The problem is, Artis is just 6'7" and not a great defender while the two bigs the Zags having playing PF are both 6'10" and potentially NBA level skill. IMO the solution to this is to play Jeter with Artis and let Jeter play PF on D but I don't know if this is something Dixon would consider. Yeah, against the Zags even that might not work so you might not be able to play Artis at PF at all for the entire game, instead covering the position with Young and ANO.
The key thing on this is how well Dixon puts OUR frontcourt together, including Maia, Young, Artis, ANO, Jeter and probably some Jones at SF. Usually things like this take some time and this is the first game of the season, so that is not good. Maybe we should lite them up with 3balls from Smith, Slim, Jones, and our bigs can all step outside and hit them.
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