You know it's interesting when you see the NBA boxscores...

[UCHuskies08]

oh /c/k you and the high horse you road in on.theres more to defense besides blocked shots. hilton armstrong and josh boone won bedpoty and we saw what happened to them in the post against george mason. are they still in the nba?

 

[mauconnfan]

oh /c/k you and the high horse you road in on.theres more to defense besides blocked shots. hilton armstrong and josh boone won bedpoty and we saw what happened to them in the post against george mason. are they still in the nba?

And there's more to blocked shots and what it means to the whole team defense concept. The numbers mean little as you can't block everything but you can scare the piss out of people who get by your defenders who are over playing can't you - he did that. Thabeet may be a bust in the NBA but he made the UConn defense for 3 years just by being there!!

Funny thing is Syracuse fans are scared Fab Melo may leave this year as a lottery pick and his game compared to Thabeet???...well let's say he isn't half as good!!

 

[bear]

oh /c/k you and the high horse you road in on.theres more to defense besides blocked shots. hilton armstrong and josh boone won bedpoty and we saw what happened to them in the post against george mason. are they still in the nba?

Were you not a UCONN fan in 2009? Thabeet was one of the most dominating defensive presences in the country. He had a triple double with double digit blocks. Say what you will about his NBA failures, but the kid was a defensive force in his Junior year. The only reason he's still on an NBA roster is his defensive potential.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

oh /c/k you and the high horse you road in on.theres more to defense besides blocked shots. hilton armstrong and josh boone won bedpoty and we saw what happened to them in the post against george mason. are they still in the nba?

In 2009 our entire defense was structured around Thabeet. Our guards never had to reach in and pick up cheap fouls if they got beat off the dribble because they knew they had the big guy waiting in the lane. Most teams we played against (Pitt being the only notable exception I can think of) didn't even bother feeding the ball into the post or driving to the basket when Thabeet was back there because they were petrified of him. I remember when we dominated Louisville in their gym - Samardo Samuels got his first shot blocked by Thabeet and didn't even bother to look at the basket the rest of the game.

Thabeet, by himself, turned virtually every one of our opponents into one-dimensional jump shooting teams that could never get us in foul trouble and had to rely on shooting well from the outside to beat us. When people did challenge him, he usually blocked or altered the shot, without fouling.

There is no other word to describe Thabeet's defense in college besides dominant.

 

[TheChamps990411]

first off let me apologize for my offensive comment. had a rough night but its no excuse. that type of trash doesnt belong on these boards and im usually not the one to post it.
i was never a big fan of thabeet so my judgement of him is admittedly biased. again i apologize to anyone offended in particular to fishy.

 

[nadav]

Juwan Howard, 17 years in the league, $150 million. Johnny Flynn would give his left and right nut to have anything resembling that when all is said and done.

 

[Scoe]

Juwan Howard, 17 years in the league, $150 million. Johnny Flynn would give his left and right nut to have anything resembling that when all is said and done.

Right now Juwan Howard is just rotting on a bench to win a championship

 

[UofCT]

Thatbeet is selling himself short. Being content as a bust or just being happy with who you are totally goes against everything Calhoun taught him. What is he going to do to improve? He still has potential, just no work ethic. It needs to change.

 

[nadav]

Right now Juwan Howard is just rotting on a bench to win a championship

good for him, he's done enough in his career to not be labeled a bust I think.

 

[Fishy]

first off let me apologize for my offensive comment. had a rough night but its no excuse. that type of trash doesnt belong on these boards and im usually not the one to post it.
i was never a big fan of thabeet so my judgement of him is admittedly biased. again i apologize to anyone offended in particular to fishy.

Good Lord, don't apologize to me. Seriously, I wouldn't take any kind of offense from that.

First, we gotta separate the notion that Boone, Hilton or Hasheem are not succeeding in the NBA because they're not good defensive players. They were all good defensive players at the collegiate level - they're just not particularly good basketball players when considering the NBA level.

Ricky Moore and Jon Linehan were positively evil defensively in college and neither kid really got a sniff in the NBA. Ray Allen was Charmin soft at UConn, but he's a Hall of Famer. There's a lot that goes into that soup - defense is just one ingredient.

Back to Thabeet.

He was an excellent defensive player at UConn. Teams changed what they did because he was in the middle. He wasn't a great offensive player at UConn - he was a very efficient one by the time he was a junior - but he was a terrific defender. Most of his blocks were not weakside, as I think someone suggested above - I think he was actually somewhat slow to recognize those opportunities which was a function of his inexperience - they were on-ball.

DeJuan Blair did give him trouble, but that's not surprising. Shorter, stronger guys who could get into his chest gave him the same issues that a guy like Anthony Glover gave Emeka.

 

[Scoe]

good for him, he's done enough in his career to not be labeled a bust I think.

hes definetly not a bust anyone who has made at least one allstar game is not a bust im just saying he hasnt retired yet because he still trying to win a championship or sitting a bench to win a championship however you want to word that