I watched last night’s game via an illegal stream ported from Eastern Europe through my parents’ sluggish WiFi to my 13 inch Macbook, which I was sitting like five feet away from while holding my baby. Needless to say, my thoughts may lack their usual detail.
I noted in the preview that Iowa isn’t a good defensive team, but I didn’t ding them enough for it — we got everything that we were after on Black Friday, and didn’t even have to fight through crowds to do it. We scored 1.25 points per possession on an 55% EFG%, hit eight of 17 threes, dished 18 assists on 29 baskets, outscored the Hawkeyes 32–12 in the paint, and only committed five turnovers. All 10 players scored, four scored in double digits, and Jarred Reuter (?!) wore high scorer honors with 14. I’m coming around on Reuter again. He’s never going to be electric, but he is adept at using his wide base to stake out that precious land around the rim, leading to his 15.2% offensive rebound rate and over a quarter (25.6%) of defensive boards so far this season. A sign that the game has slowed for him? His assist rate has doubled from basically none (8% as a freshman) to 16.4, and he’s had multiple dimes in back to back games. Players that can set rock solid screens, grab boards, and pop out for the occasional fifteen footer (while mixing in a sneaky good drop step and turnaround from the left block) are OK by me. There’s room for those players: Craig Smith of BC had the same physical profile as Reuter (and the same limited verticality), and he had multiple cups of coffee in the NBA (he was also a star at BC immediately, but I digress). Paired with an athletic big (Mamadi Diakite, perhaps?) or an athletic big with a primarily perimeter game (Jay Huff?), he could be very effective for us going forward.
The break-happy Hawkeyes scored nary a fast break point, committed 18 turnovers, and their primary catalyst Peter Jok seemed content to pull up for three and scored just 13 points on 14 shots. Tyler Cook, who I was more worried about than Jok because he felt like a matchup problem for our bigs, produced six points on seven shots and turned the ball over four times.
If you’re keeping score, we’ve now won by 25, 40, 24, 56, and 33. Our halftime leads were 25, 22, seven, 40, and 20 — acceptable final margins all. Four different players have led us in scoring in five games, and while only one (Marial at 11.2) is scoring in double figures, a whopping seven are scoring between 6.5 and 11.2. UVa basketball is where everyone is welcome.
I expect this to change when we play someone with the ability to provide some resistance, but for now I’m going to revel in the good times.
Providence is up next. I’m still on Thanksgiving vacation at my parents’ place, so this is going to be a mini-preview. Reason number one I’m not terribly concerned: the Friars were picked ninth in the 10-team Big East by the coaches before the season. Reason number two: they dispatched St. Francis and Grambling St. — teams we beat by a combined 86 — by a total of 33. Reason number three: they lost two vital pieces (Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil) from last year’s group and are still figuring out how to make up the difference. Reason number four: they’ve played St. Francis and Grambling St. and still have mediocre (1.05 ppp, 49.4% EFG, 33% 3PT) offensive numbers. Reason number five: they’re not very good rebounders (24.9% OREB, 72.6% DREB).
Their go-to guy is 6'8'’ stretch-four Rodney Bullock (20.8 ppg, 58.5% EFG). After living in the shadows of Dunn and Bentil for three years, Bullock has scored between 18 and 27 points in all five of Providence’s games. He’s an adroit finisher at the rim (45% of his shots come there and he’s making 78% of them) and an improved three point shooter (40.9%, though he’s 4–13 outside of the Ohio State game). He thrives off of the pick either by popping or rolling and letting junior point guard Kyron Cartwright (8.4 apg, 48.3% assist rate) set him up. Cartwright is a willing and eager passer, but is taking some lumps (an ORTG of 96.5, 27.6% of his possessions end in turnovers). 6'7'’ Emmitt Holt (16.5 ppg) is Bullock’s wingman, and spends more time at the rim. Ryan Fazekas and Jalen Lindsay are 159 inches of three point shot: 41 of their 57 field goal attempts have been threes, and they’ve hit 39%. Providence isn’t deep — 6'6'’ sixth man Isaiah Jackson and 6'9'’ freshman Kalif Young were the only bench guys to see double digit minutes against Ohio State, and only Jackson really made a difference (he’s grabbed more than 20% of available defensive boards this season).
Providence has played good defense so far, predicated around eliminating threes. Ohio State — the best team they’ve played so far by far — scored less than their season average (1.06 ppp vs. 1.11) and made just four threes, which is significantly less than they like. They’re vulnerable around the rim — both Holt and Bullock are NBA small forwards masquerading as college bigs — and it shows in their defense there (the aforementioned rebounding problems and opponents hitting 47% of their twos).
I don’t think we lose to Providence. I think we’ve got guys who can defend their primary offensive options (Isaiah, who is moving better than he was last year and can handle a perimeter big, Mamadi,and even perhaps Marial) are too deep, and too big. Hopefully an Emerald Coast Classic title will take the sting off of what will probably be a 13th consecutive loss to Virginia Tech this afternoon.
