UConNick on why he should win:
Offense
Good luck stopping us from scoring. Add up all those ppg averages, and it comes out to 109.4 ppg; with only 7 players. Not to mention Wes and Corny played without the 3 point line, so for all intensive purposes, this team averaged over 110 points a game. Taliek not as much, but just about everyone has the ability to create their own shot, and Voskuhl will be there to rebound and set screens to get our many shooters open, as well. Imagine Wes coming off a Voskuhl screen to hit a 3 pointer… yeah. On the offensive glass, it will have to be a team effort, as we don’t have a stand out rebounder, but we do have a bevy of above average rebounding forwards. Everyone save Taliek shot above 70% from the FT line, so fouling isn’t going to help much. Against teams with big front lines, We’ll spread the floor with our 6’ 6” - 6’9” shooters, to either draw them out or negate the advantage entirely with open looks. This team will be versatile on offense, and fast. A major knock on Taliek so far has been that his numbers were inflated by the talent around him; well guess what, he’s playing with even more talented offensive weaponry right now. He’ll average at least 8-10 assists by giving the ball to Rip, Marshall, Rudy, Wes,… you get the picture. We have too many weapons. Could even go super small and play Rip at the 3 with Wes and Taliek, and then Rudy and Corny/Donny down low, similar to what KO ran this year with DD and Giffey at the 4-5. On offense, I’ll be a pretty big advocate of position less basketball, and that’s why we would win the battle.
Offense Against Edge
Frankly, I don’t see how their defense competes against us on the perimeter. I’m pretty intimidated by Armstrong, Adrien, and Oriakhi down low, but I don’t intend to go down there very much, posting up will not be a big part of our offense. Instead, I’ll bring those guys out onto the perimeter with guys like Rudy, Donny, and Corny. I’m assuming he’s going to start KO and Kemba, who are both 6’1”-ish. One of them is going to get abused by Rip. And if he bring Denham into the game at the 2, I can go big and throw Rip or even Wes at the 1, with Donny, Rudy, Corny, and Voskuhl on the court with them. Ball handling would be a bit of an issue, but I’m not anticipating having to deal with a press with only 7 man rosters. He has a distinct advantage on the blocks, but we’ll be able to negate that with our shooting and versatility. Rudy, Marshall, and Corny can all go off the bounce against slower, and undersized, defenders like Adrien. The versatility with my team is key; we have so many interchangeable parts that we can adapt to whatever defensive scheme he puts out there, create mismatches, and get our points. Bottom line, my team could easily put up 90-100 on these guys.
Defense
Simple man to man is what I’d open the game in, but I would definitely put length on the small guards that we go up against. We don’t have any remarkable individual defenders, and it will once again be a group effort on the boards. However, our length and focus on team and help defense should help us compete against more dynamic lineups. I’d even consider running a triangle and 2 against perimeter oriented teams, and stick Rip and Wes, Taliek, or even Donny on the perimeter playmakers, to pester them all game while Rudy, Corny, and Jake can clog the paint in the triangle, and easily rebound and help each other out on defending the low block. Hell, I’ll throw a 2-3 zone in there with how much length we have at these positions. Rip is the key, because at the 2, he just has way too much length. He’d pester small guards and be a menace in the passing lanes of a zone. Versatility, once again, will rule the day. As far as our defensive stats go, Voskuhl and Rudy both swatted nearly 2 shots a game, and 4 of my players averaged at least a steal a game; including Rudy, who averaged 1.8. So, I may even be too modest; we’ve got some defensive ability.
Defense Against Edge
Kemba. Kemba, Kemba, Kemba. That’s the focal point. I don’t see any other strong scorers on this team. I will start with Rip on him, and give him a healthy dose of Rip, Taliek, Wes, even Rudy if I’m comfortable enough for it in short spurts. He’ll see constant double teams, because I don’t see a lot of places for him to go with it. Only Brown scares me beyond the arc (besides Kemba, he scares me everywhere). Robinson may be an unreal athlete, but I don’t think he’ll be able to create his own shot. Adrien scares me a bit, too. He’s only 6’ 6”, so I’d put Rudy or Donny on him to try and make him uncomfortable with size and length. However, I’m not sure that would be enough (I hope it would), and there’s no way I can afford to help off Armstrong or Oriakhi. However, neither of those guys really scare me as post scorers, but it will be of paramount importance to limit them on the boards, where the group effort is going to be really important, especially with Voskuhl leading the charge. Overall, on defense, I know Kemba is going to get his, and I’m just going to make it as hard and uncomfortable as possible for him to get them. Everyone else, it’ll be about rotating in our man or stifling them with a zone to contain them, which I don’t think will be that hard.
Conclusion
We have too much offensive firepower for Edge to contend with. I know my defense isn’t great, but it is definitely good enough so that my team can win in a shootout. Versatility is key. We can go small or big, to match up with and exploit whatever our opponent does. Altogether, for their careers, we have 3 AA seasons, 8 1st Team All Conference performers, including 5 from the Big East, a 2nd team, and 2 3rd team performances, in addition to an honorable mention, and a 2-time player of the year. 6 of my players would go on to be NBA draft picks, and the one that didn’t leads the program in assists. I’ve said it many times, and I’ll say it again: we have too many weapons, too much talent. The perfect blend of pre-Calhoun to championship caliber players. My team would win, something like 87-79. Kemba gets 27, but can’t overcome 23 from Rip, 15 from Marshall, a strong 12 from Wes in 18 minutes of the bench, and 8 and 9 for Rudy (who didn’t shoot well tonight
). There you have it.
