It's funny, they have this Babb kid they are raving about, and how he will be able to easily shut down Lamb. He's a 6-5 guard. Looking at who they played, if he is their best defender, you would think he would be on the opposing team's best guard (size may be a mitigating factor), but here are the opposing teams scorers from the guard position in the last 10 games:
- J'Covan Brown - 23 pts (7-19) (20.1 ppg)
- Pierre Jackson - 35 (11-19) (13.3 ppg)
- Michael Dixon* - 21 (8-10) (13.3 ppg)
- Rodney McGruder - 13 (5-13) (15.4 ppg)
- Ty Nurse - 15 (6-13) (8.9 ppg)
- Cameron Clark - 16 (8-14) (8.5 ppg)
- Quincy Miller - 16 (8-13) (11.1 ppg)
- Elston Turner - 8 (2-7) (13.6 ppg)
- Markel Brown - 18 (8-14) (10.5 ppg)
- Steven Pledger - 14 (5-14) (16.2 ppg)
Totals:17.9 ppg from the guard position on 68-136 (50%) shooting. The 10 players usually averaged 13.1 ppg, and so playing Iowa State, Babb included, they increased their average by 5 ppg.
Again, Babb is 6'5" (SouthTampaBill has an inch on him) and probably a very good defender. I tried to take the taller guard when possible. But it seems someone like Boatright should be able to get into the lane at will.
*although maybe he was on Phil Pressey, who had only 11 on 5-14, and usually averages 10 ppg
If Babb is 6'5 he was probably on Denmon or English not Pressey or Dixon.
Denmon was pretty shut down against ISU scoring 6 and 14 in the two outings
English had 10 and 13.
Both scored below their averages. Though I don't know how much of that was game planned and how much was Babb shutting them down. ISU is like a poor man's Missouri this year. They would have needed 4 Babb's to defend Missouri's guards.
In the first game Missouri put 6 guys in double figures, shot 52% but only 24% from 3. Iowa shot 44% and 52% from 3.
Second game, Missouri put 5 guys in double figures, shot 55% but only 33% from 3. Iowa shot 40% and 38% from 3.
Interestingly for me is that Ratliffe from Missouri played Royce White fairly closely both games.
ISU averages 3 blocks a game, so the paint could be open.
Aside from Royce, they are a fairly short team going 6'3, 6'3, 6'6, 6'5, 6'2 in guys who have played every game significant minutes. They have two 6'9 250 guys on the bench who usually see about 10 minutes a game. They are also an old, old team with seemingly every guy on their roster red-shirting a year.
If they are a quick team, which their fans say they aren't particularly, then they will cause problems. It will be hard to play both Drummond and Oriakhi together on defense never mind those two and Roscoe. Though the length of UConn could be beneficial, they rely on the 3 so much that having Drummond/Roscoe defending 6'3 guys is a bit scary. They took 1773 shots this year and 748 were threes. That's about 42% of their shots being threes. In comparison, Duke is only at 38% of their shots being threes, Missouri 37%, UConn 29%.
This is a game that Olander really shouldn't see the floor unless both Drummond and Oriakhi are in foul trouble, he just doesn't match up well at all in this game.
The only common opponent is PC, which is never a good judge, considering PC always plays UConn as if it were their NC.
