Alex Karaban: No freshman jitters for him

[Umami Zen]

The BE is loaded with talented 4's.. Karaban among them. He plays very good positional D with good rotations/awareness to help on D when needed. He is not an explosive high flying athlete. When AS is at the 5.. Karaban is on an island..1-on-1.. With no shot-blocking help from the 5.. Sanogo rarely provides help D-- He stays with/on his man and consequently..His teammates are left to "win" the one-on -one battle defensively. Clingan changes that dynamic but that's discussed in other posts.

Karaban's value to the team is on the offensive side of the ball.. Facilitator/shooter/passer/offensive boards.. He can't help us with those talents if he's on the bench in early foul trouble.. He is a smart young player with a high BBIQ. I want him at the FT line at crunch time.. Want him taking good threes anytime. Would have been nice to have split some PT with Samson to be more creative with situational match ups.. But stuff happens and people get injured.

Once he's had another off-season of SnC to work on his explosion.. Improve his foot speed.. He'll be a match up nightmare. Our success the rest of the season..In the BET/Tournament.. Will be impacted by his continued growth. Glad he's on the team..

BTW.. Three pointer in flow of game from around the logo at crunch time.. Think the 20 scouts in attendance caught that play??

 

[August_West]

Karaban has been our most consistent starter this year. Kid is a glue guy with basketball skills.

 

[HuskyHawk]

If people really think Karaban should be benched they're crazy. I do think a minutes reduction would help ease the load against certain opponents. I've said before that I think he and Johnson are good compliments to each other. I'd love to see them both on the floor together with Sanogo or DC.

Nobody with a brain thinks that. He's the only 4 we have at the moment. He played against several teams where the 4 was the other team's best player, and he got abused a bit. Learned from it, and had a magnificent game that sadly went to waste. He does need to get a big stronger, and I am sure he will.

 

[rjnardi007]

It’s not just Karaban it’s everybody
There is no movement without the ball and everybody stays outside when the shot is taken except the big man playing
Very few open shots anymore nothing created
From off the ball it’s all one on one bb
Street ball without a plan …

 

[ColchVEGAS]

People keep saying that Karaban is a liability on defense, but he looks fine to me. The way I see it it’s the guards and small forwards that are getting beat, or screened, or falling asleep and allowing the players they are defending to score at will.

Starting with the Georgetown game we seem to have lost all ball pressure on the perimeter when Diara is not on the floor. Early in the season Andre Jackson was making amazing steals, but don’t see that anymore, instead I see him overreacting to a pump fake and getting beat by a mediocre offensive player.

Other teams are going after Karaban all the time, but converting those opportunities in a lower percentage than when they just drive a guard in the paint. I’m tired of hearing the Karaban is a bad defender line. I think is is BS.

Agreed. I think the focus on Karaban's defense has been overstated on the board. He had a few tough matchups but over the entire season has done well and exactly what has been asked of him. You can see the adjustments he has made on defense specifically in the Marquette game. He needs to be on the floor and against tough matchups like Xavier and Providence needs to get some help from other defenders, or if Clingan is in just work on funneling his man to Clingan.