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Message: [QUOTE="champs99and04, post: 2426724, member: 488"] Was going to post this elsewhere, but I think his play tonight merits its own thread. He only played a modest 12 minutes and scored two points, but his work defensively jumped out to me, and I'd be willing to bet - as I'm currently too lazy to look it up - his +/- was among the best on the team. We played our best ball tonight with him at the five and Adams/Vital/Anderson/Larrier/Polley filling in the gaps elsewhere. 12 minutes is a fairly meaningless sample, particularly considering the competition, but his rebound rate on the season - in a slightly less meaningless sample - tracks well and, more than anything, he just [I]looks [/I]put together physically. It isn't that he's physically imposing like Onuorah as much as he simply takes up a lot of space and gets to the spots he needs to get to. I'd have bet he's closer to 6'11 than the 6'9 they have him listed at on ESPN, but in either event his coverage of ball screens tonight suggested that by some combination of smarts, size, and instincts we might have a player here. Again, BU is far from the best barometer, but what I saw was encouraging in that there looks to be enough juice and mobility there to the point that Ollie can shrink the floor for him defensively with his schemes and not have to worry about having a liability at the five. Not sure what he is yet on the other end, but his broad frame is certainly conducive to setting effective screens and given what we're looking at with a guy like Onuorah, he won't have to do much to be an enormous upgrade offensively. Otherwise, I continue to be impressed with Anderson. He's another guy who plays taller than the 6'2 he's listed at. When he shares the floor with Adams, Vital, and Larrier, you get the sense we're pretty comfortable switching 1-4 and denying tight off the ball if somebody gets hot shooting. I hesitate to compare him to Kromah because I'm usually the one taking offense when Lasan's name gets bandied around as a catch-all for versatile wing types, but I think you're looking at a player in that mold who is maybe a little more inclined to attack on offense. Last thing I'll say is that while it wasn't a great night for Larrier, he seems more comfortable - at least as a scorer - inside the zone than I can remember a UConn player being in some time. Chief actually makes a great point about his release point - he's a lot like one of those receivers in football who don't have to be open to throw him the ball. You'd rather him taking a contested shot that's his shot than working extra duty to create open space from the top of the key. [/QUOTE]

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