Hello, Cuts Readers! That feels so formal, but Jim Nantz already took, “Hello, friends!” Ah well, we’ll noodle on it. The point is, if you’re reading these, then I am not only appreciative but feel like we’re on this fandom journey together. So, thanks for your attention and thoughts and your willingness to engage with a little UVa basketball analysis!
This four-point victory rounded out a wonderfully difficult road trip that we ended up sweeping. Don’t look now, but it’s happening. We’ve arrived on the national stage – with virtually every metric site including us in their top 15, most tournament projection analysts putting us as a high four seed, and even chatter about our Hoos as a credible fringe championship contender!
All of that seems a bit premature and we can hope that the team doesn’t get swept up in it (although no harm if we do a little!). I will say this, though, I’ve long said that this team has the talent to beat anyone in any given game. So, it’s both nice to have that start to be recognized and that the team is starting to leverage that talent into consistent performances. These are the kinds of games – tough road games against bubble teams – where we often looked out-classed over the past two seasons.
SMU was the kind of roster that should, in theory, have matched up pretty well against us (and I still think they did even though we prevailed). Boopie Miller as their scoring lead guard was averaging over 20ppg before playing us on almost 39% three-point shooting, and almost 90% FT shooting. His ability to be a three-level scorer as a quick ball-dominant player would have given us fits earlier in the season. He finished with just 12 points on 4-12 shooting from the floor, three assists, and 2 turnovers. Samet Yiğitoğlu is a 7’2″, 270lb massive Center who gave us fits last year. This year, he averages nearly 11ppg on 60% shooting from the field with 8 rebounds per game on top. He represented an interesting challenge for our two 7-footers who, when they have struggled in the past, have been pushed around a bit on the inside (especially Grünloh) and were both still conceding height and weight. Yiğitoğlu scored decently close to his average with 10 points, but on 3-11 shooting with five rebounds.
Our ability to hold these two potential mismatches to inefficient basketball much worse than their standard went a long way to holding the mustangs to 68 points for the game – almost 20 full points below their season average as the highest scoring team in the ACC (before playing us; second highest behind Louisville now). These stellar defensive performances are not just qualified with “for us” now. On most metric sites, our defensive efficiency has pulled to almost dead even with our offensive efficiency – both in the top 20. We can equally win a game by scoring or by locking the other team up; and against the types of players who had been problematic for us.
We’ll focus on a few other things after; some discussion around offensive rebounding, some thoughts about players… but this is where we’re going to start; with a deeper dive into how we made things hard on these guys and the variety of guys who supported the effort.
Defending Samet and Boopie (And Resounding Good Defense)
We’re just going to roll through mostly chronologically here and highlight the possessions that I think are most demonstrative of the job we did on these to guys; but will touch on other elements on our defense too.
Primarily, our Centers did the good work on Yiğitoğlu, as you’d expect, but they had help from good team defense as well. As for Miller, it wasn’t just one of our guards who locked him up, which is even more encouraging. ALL of Dallin Hall, Chance Mallory, and Malik Thomas gave him fits and even some of our longer players did well when switched onto him too. The fact that so many guys got a turn and did good work shows their awareness and effort to stay locked in.
Here’s a first look, below, to set the stage. It’s not really focused on Boopie – but it is informative on how they were willing to play him. Miller (#2) is 6’0″ and plays with quickness. Jaron Pierre Jr. (#5), who also averages around 16ppg, is 6’5″ 210. Very different types of players with regard to size and quickness. But because most of our team aside from Chance (who makes up for it in quickness and strength) guard with length and strength themselves, we’re able to switch pretty much anything 1-4 (including TDR, who is a great perimeter defender as we’ll see later). Here, Hall starts out on Miller with Thomas guarding Pierre. The two end up screening for each other, which we switch, sending Hall to defend Pierre. You’d think that switching whoever was initially guarding Miller would be someone Pierre could use his size advantage and athleticism over – but not Dallin who withstands the backdown with good strength, disrupts the dribble, and forces a really difficult fadeaway jump shot from the baseline. Notice Thomas, who has absolutely been locked in on this side of the ball now, swoop in to help secure the rebound.
We’ll talk about Thomas’s 23 points later… but he grabbed ELEVEN rebounds in this one, including a team-leading 7 on the defensive side.
We might as well talk about it now… Malik Thomas has absolutely gone through the most remarkable redemption arc that I’ve seen in a long time. Earlier in the season, he was struggling to figure out how to fit in his style of play within the offense. He’s found it, and we’ll check that out later, but his shooting struggled as a result, as did his confidence – dropping down as low as 28% from three earlier in the season (he shoots 38% for his career). He’s all the way back up to 36% now; just 3% below his stellar performance from last season despite the early slump – he never lost confidence, kept shooting, but figured out how to play within what we were doing. But, more remarkably, he was a downright defensive liability early in the year. I spilled many words about how that area of his game was a weakness for this team, how his footspeed was lacking but, more, that his alertness and concentration would lapse. This caused him to lose focus while defending, take risks that didn’t pay off, let up on plays, and miss rotations… and it affected his playing time. His minutes started reducing throughout, Odom was willing to sit him over others who were more locked in at that time, culminating in him just not playing Thomas down the stretch of the VT loss because he was worried about his defense (that didn’t work out in that game – but might have been the turning point overall).
Malik could have lost confidence, he could have sulked, he could have been a sour teammate, he could have taken his paycheck and phoned it in… but he did none of those things. Instead, he was constantly encouraging from the bench and, ostensibly, kept grinding away in the background, working on the totality of his game. Now? Not only has his offense come back and found a great spot, but he has stretches where he plays as our best perimeter defender, regularly one of our best, and there’s really no drop off when he’s on the floor (which is huge given his scoring). He’s mentally locked in, and even though some of his physical limitations you’ll still catch from time to time, he’s playing smarter, using his strength better without fouling, his motor is constantly going. It’s… really kind of inspiring to see. I can’t really remember seeing a player have such a positive upswing in the middle of the season; especially one struggling so mightily and who might have been used to things coming more easily… playing a different way. The closest thing I can think of is Jordan Minor working his way from barely playing to starting – but as admirable as that was – he was never anywhere near this good.
Credit, also, to Coach Odom who navigated the situation close to flawlessly (I’d argue, and did, that Thomas was playing well enough to keep in during the VT game and that probably cost us that one… but who’s to say if we had played him more if this extreme of an improvement would have happened?). He was willing to scale Thomas’s minutes back despite how high profile he was, but also kept a supportive environment – never pulling him from the starting lineup – never making it seem like we didn’t need him or think he could figure it out. All-in-all, I’m just very impressed with the journey of Malik Thomas so far this season and hope it continues on this path.
O.K. Back to defense, and fittingly we’re going to see a little Malik now but I’m also going to use this to make another point about Odom’s coaching… sorry for so many sidetracks this early on. First, Hall is on Boopie, Thomas does a nice job being right on Yiğitoğlu on the catch after the roll. The ball goes across court for a Lewis close out and then over to Thomas’s man – this is really nice body control from Malik to lunge forward on the close out but still be able to get into his back pedal to cut off the drive without fouling. That action there is so the new Malik – in the past he would have almost certainly picked up a foul here just grabbing or would have been blown by. Lewis does a nice job of pinching the drive too. Grünloh has his hands full in the post as you can see, but one thing that was consistently happening throughout this game from both he and Ugo is that they were contesting Yiğitoğlu’s post shots and forcing misses. He does so here and then fights to swat the rebound away from the hoop since he’s battling inside. Now check out this next part: Sam Lewis gets caught ball-watching and drifts away from the basket rather than taking a closer angle in, causing him to not be alert enough to close on the rebound. Watch the reaction of the entire Virginia coaching staff when this happens! They are NOT happy. Odom immediately subs Sam out, we give up a foul on a three.
It’s a great defensive possession spoiled because we weren’t alert enough with our perimeter rebounding – and Sam sat for it. But guess what happened about two minutes of game time later? Lewis was right back in the game. This wasn’t punitive. This wasn’t sitting him for long stretches of time, making him fear mistakes or demotivating him. This was showing him what the issue was, coaching him up on the bench, and then getting him right back out there to try again. I love it.
Okay, back to some post defense and some Malik Thomas effort. I’m not sure why I included sound in these clips, by the way. I might recommend muting them because, holy cats. Anyway, check out this possession where they attempt to isolate Yiğitoğlu on the block. Johann does a nice job of standing up to the post, and Thomas does a nice job darting down to bother the dribble and then recovering back to his. He’s quite active such that, once the kick out is forced, then he’s so close to the dribbler that he forces an illegal screen to be called.
Sure, he embellished, but you’ve got to sell it sometimes and he was clocked. That’s a great look at how our post defense wasn’t all just our Centers. Guard activity was helpful.
Alright, now we’ve got Dallin Hall picking up Boopie Miller full court. I haven’t talked about our full court pressure that much for a while, but it’s still there, forcing the occasional turnover and nuking about 8 seconds off of the opposition’s shot clock. We recover very well out of it and here it appears that Hall is beaten… I mean, he is, but Grünloh is right there and his presence around the basket also really bothered the scoring of the 6’0″ Miller. He does a nice job of deterring any kind of shot. Mallory falls asleep on his own man, just a little, watching the drive, but Grünloh is still there to deter the shot, and Chance does a really nice job of anticipating and flying across the lane in anticipation of the next pass. His presence bothers the gather, just long enough for Grünloh to cross back over and block Yiğitoğlu’s offering; forcing the jump ball.
So, good guard defense earlier, but now we’re highlighting those shot blockers again and our quality rim protection. Our guards are still empowered to pressure and take chances because, even when SMU breaks the press, keeps a numbers advantage, and gets the ball to their 7’2″ Center in scoring position on the block, we’re still blocking the shot and forcing use of the possession arrow. Grünloh, specifically, has improved so much throughout the season at holding up to strength on the interior and impacting shots from that kind of player around the hoop.
Alright, just to cement that point, here he is bothering a hook shot right around the hoop despite good depth on the catch, with De Ridder right there to help clean up the board:
It’s good, full, team defense, on the interior, too. This next one I thought was really neat and showcased some of TDR’s interior defensive versatility (we’ll see it on the perimeter later). Here, below, Yiğitoğlu full on discards Grünloh – fully throwing him to the floor with his arm grapple, actually pushing him over his leg and tripping him. How awesome is this TDR rotation with Johann on the floor? He’s giving up 5 inches, steps up, bodies the contact, and forces the miss himself with Grünloh getting back into the play and Hall helping to fight for the rebound.
Like, when your 6’9″ PF can rotate over, body someone 30 lbs. heavier than he is, and give a good contest on a 7’2″ player… that’s such a good luxury, especially considering that TDR doesn’t actually block that many shots on the interior.
This next defensive possession is so sassy. Mallory is guarding Miller with Thomas on Pierre. You’d think we were a little less switchable across our team, generally. The ball plays through Yiğitoğlu and Lewis defends a cutter while Thomas plays peek-a-boo around the screen with Pierre. Thomas is eventually obstructed by a pretty clearly moving screen but, no matter, look at the quickness with which Grünloh slides and cuts Pierre off toward the baseline! That’s really nice lateral agility that he hasn’t always put on tape and he keeps his hands so wide as to condor passing lanes. It’s a good thing, too, because look who has rotated down to guard Yiğitoğlu – it’s Mallory! But between Johann’s wingspan and recovery and Thomas’s recovery back to his, we completely get away with having a 17-inch height disparity playing behind the post player. I don’t say that as shade, either, Mallory’s help here is truly remarkable; it’s quick and it’s aggressive and, along with the fluidity of motion of Malik and Johann, creates enough eye candy to make this pass look unappetizing. Then the pièce de résistance, we get TDR switching onto Boopie Miller after a ball screen as the shot clock runs down. You’d think this would be a mismatch. The commentators thought so as well. But you and I know, dear reader, it can be our little secret, that TDR is a fantastic perimeter defender! He not only slides with Miller and uses his length to make up for the not-as-much-quickness-disparity-as-you’d-expect, but his contest forces an absolutely insane looking miss that does result in a shotty violache.
Okay, I may have taken a few too many liberties with the English language in that last clip so I’ll try to reel it back in… but it was exciting! I’m excited, friends.
So, now we’re getting toward the second half of the back nine and we’re starting to see a little more focused Boopie time with SMU nursing the smallest of one-point leads. This is lovely; Chance and Malik switch after the full court pressure makes it logical. Watch Malik and, sure, he could get called for this and Miller tries to accentuate it, but it’s less obvious than it was earlier in the year as he’s not extending his arms as far. That hand check/obstruction while fighting over a screen is so effective on a player like Miller who he’s so much stronger than. But, in addition to that, Malik is also just sliding so much better than he was earlier in the year, and it culminates in Miller passing the ball and Chance forcing a steal by poking the ball out from behind baseline due to the presence of Ugo eliminating any shot attempts. Bonus points for Hall being in good help position and alert throughout to lock down the steal rather than letting it go out of bounds, too.
That’s just really good stuff and, again, switchability even with Chance on the floor.
Talk to me some more about Ugo’s rim protection since we’ve talked about Johann quite a bit, you say? Sure! We didn’t actually have a high block total in this game by our standards (3 in total), but here’s one, below. Before we get there, though, note again Dallin Hall’s physical defense on BJ Edwards this time after recovering through the Ugo hedge. Notice that we didn’t drop our Centers (and often don’t – we’ll trap on the sideline too) when the ball screen took the dribbler toward the baseline rather than the middle. Ugo flat hedges here and does well and then Hall is powerful once he recovers to the ball. After some nifty pivoting, Edwards does find Yiğitoğlu and that catch is deep, like both feet within the restricted area deep. Ugo is still able to elevate quickly and block the hook shot attempt, though.
Impressive stuff, as is Hall scrapping for the ball afterward. I’ve talked in previous games about Hall’s defensive improvement, but worth noting that it’s on display here again and how Dallin is in ALL of our most efficient 3-man lineups, four of which are among the top in the ACC. It’s because of his ability to set up the offense effectively, sure, but it’s also because of this kind of defense. He was zero FOR EIGHT in this game from three (and the team shot a whopping 39% deep despite that) and he was still incredibly valuable out there despite it (this game did hurt his season average, though, dropping from 37% to 32% from outside).
Speaking of, let’s close with this little ditty that showcases Hall’s ability not only to stay with Miller throughout sustained moves in isolation, but to also use his superior reach to swat this shot attempt out of bounds:
That wasn’t just some defensive play – it was a clutch defensive stop with under a minute to go in the game while we were clinging to a two-point lead (which, after I typed that I listened to the clip again and realize the announcer also said it – oh well, it stays!).
So, yeah, the two kinds of players – quick, skilled, scoring ball-dominant guards and big, hulking, strong Centers with post moves who I started the season thinking were our kryptonite were both handled pretty convincingly. Between, Dai Dai Ames (4-10 from the floor) and especially Ebuka Okorie (5-20), Ryan Conwell (5-21) and now Miller (4-12); it’s become a downright trend that some of the most effective scoring guards in the conference have had some really inefficient nights against our defense. That’s no longer a surprise – it’s a trend that we should start to believe in; especially given that the way we do it is through collective team effort rather than one specific stopper. But none of our recent opponents have had the same level of interior test that Yiğitoğlu posed. Nothing really to take note of since getting killed on the glass against Virginia Tech. A little bit with Louisville’s size, maybe, and Aly Khalifa, but this was a much more physical and interior-focused challenge. So, it was great to see the strides we’ve made there, as well, not only contesting at the highest point, but also by helping our bigs from De Ridder and our guards as well.
Frankly, I didn’t see this coming. I’ve known we have defensive potential and that Odom’s teams really improve throughout the season on that end… but going from like a top 70-80 team in efficiency to a top 20 team is such a boon and makes me so much more optimistic about the squad with the versatility of ways in which we can win now.
Second Chance Points
Speaking of the versatility of ways in which we can win…. Defense travels, as they say, but hitting the offensive glass also travels. The fact that this is such a priority and skill of ours – regularly sending four guys and being so good at anticipating where the ball is going to be – keeps the floor of our offensive output really high. We rebounded 46% of our misses in this game. That’s insanity. Elite teams at this get about 39-40%. We’re at 39.6% for the full season, which is good for 6th in the country.
Bonkers stuff – especially to have been on the other side of this frustration for the better part of the past 15 years (we prioritized the defensive glass and de-emphasized the offensive glass) – picking up another opportunity to score is just as good as forcing a turnover or getting a stop – better, really, because the second opportunity usually has the defense scrambling and yields a higher percentage shot.
So, let’s take a look, starting with the below and we’ll start with TDR. We get offensive rebounds in a variety of ways, as we’ll see, and a lot of it is the number of people we’re sending to the glass and how they gauge where to be; but in Thijs’s case, he’s just a big, strong, body in there who is willing to work and has a very quick second jump. This one impressed me because Yiğitoğlu is right there on the drive and makes contact with De Ridder on his shot, but the body contact on the drive actually knocks the 7’2″ Center back a little bit, and TDR keeps that momentum going, gets up quickly after the miss, and puts it right back in just as quickly.
That’s not someone chasing down a long rebound or something, that’s De Ridder just out working, being more physical, and being quick enough to secure second chance points right in front of the biggest player on the court! I heartily approve of the tenacity!
Here’s one of the splashier ones, below, which shows how we can just kind of salvage a relatively broken play. This is a lot of isolation by our standards, but Chance goes to it admirably after the late deflection and is able to get by his man. He misses the rushed layup, but then check out that awesome reach with Ugo building momentum following the shot down the lane:
That’s just right over the 6’10” Jayden Tombs without any resistance despite Tombs being in position. Just hustle and athleticism there – but you see how it salvages a pretty broken play into two-points.
This next one, below, firstly I wanted to start off by showing that nice Dallin Hall read/steal. I also want everyone to pay attention to how crisp his passes are and how he gets the ball moving starting with that whipped entry into TDR in the post which allowed him to kick it out to Grünloh for three – but also watch how crisply we move the ball after these rebounds and the shots they lead to. Off of the first shot, Johann stays back for balance and we send four to the glass. Tillis doesn’t really go hard here, but Hall and Thomas dive to the middle to support TDR – with Malik collecting one of his 11 boards. The rebounding chaos leaves Toombs (#10) on Hal and the 6’9″ 230lb Sam Walters (#4) on De Ridder… and no one really on Grünloh. Now, theoretically, Walters should be a decent size matchup with TDR, but you can see the strength that he’s conceding on this next shot… which comes easily because Toombs isn’t confident guarding on the perimeter. Dallin misses but both Grünloh and TDR are right there, and Thijs overpowers his man to get the ball yet another time. This time he kicks it back out to Hall who sings it over to Tillis who drains the open look.
That’s such a demoralizing possession for a team like SMU – forcing two different misses and still giving up three points in the end simply because we kept outworking them to the ball and then playing smart team basketball off of it.
Ryan Odom says that this has the potential to be the best passing team he’s ever coached. Watch a great example after this good board. Thomas goes into his bag early, spinning baseline to take a midrange jumper, and Johann tips the ball out with Sam (remember who has been coached up, now) chasing it down and saving to TDR. De Ridder fights through the SMU scramble and gets the ball to Hall. Watch then how much of the court they cover with these next to passes to exploit the SMU recovery – Hall slings it to Lewis who has found the corner, and then Lewis one-hands it cross-court back to Thomas for the three.
Good hustle followed by pretty stuff!
Okay, the last of these is below, and it’s probably my favorite. For one, because it happens within the final six minutes of the game to extend a narrow three-point lead. Secondly, the hustle and ball movement throughout is so good. Lastly, it’s Chance who streaks down the lane and gets the final finish on an uncontested layup created by his hustle.
The extra pass from TDR to Mallory for the first three was beautiful, nice board by Ugo, then the skip passes afterward were also nice – and then just the presence of mind by Chance to clean it up. So good!
As I mentioned earlier, I absolutely love that this is a strength of ours now because, like defense, you can replicate it every game. It can keep your level of output at a certain level even when other things aren’t going as well… which is more common in these hostile road environments.
Alright, let’s get into a few player looks before we wrap this thing up.
Malik Thomas Revenge Tour
I said my piece about Thomas’s redemption arc earlier, but the clips all focused on his defense… so I thought I’d just throw a few clips in here highlighting the offensive excellence I was discussing.
We saw the tail end of this clip earlier where he swooped in for the rebound – but this is what he did with that:
Not only does he run the break under control, touch the lane, and kick out to an open shooter (which, earlier in the season he might have jammed that ball into traffic and tried to draw a foul), he then hunts down the offensive rebound himself and then hits a three after retreating back outside the arc! I mean, if no one was going to come out with him, right? From the rebound on the defensive side through the shot, this is all Malik Thomas just in the right groove and impacting play everywhere.
Here’s a glimpse that’s kind of neat because he’s running the point even with Dallin Hall on the floor. We get a look at how deadly he is as a catch and shoot threat, but also at him playing under control and within the flow of the offense – just doing smart things. First, subtle thing, but watch his pacing after he passes the ball to Tillis. Pacing is really hard to defend and he jogs up but then bursts into his acceleration prior to getting the ball flipped back. Area of growth, though, when the lane is shut down, he concedes the point and passes back out to Johann, rescreens, and then pops out so that he’s available when the Grünloh/Hall screening action draws the third defender.
I can’t stress enough what an evolution this is in Thomas’s playstyle from earlier in the season when he was trying to force his offense. Now, he’s still being aggressive when the opportunities are there, but he’s finding different angles to create pressure and letting the game come to him.
Okay, last one on Thomas, below. In this one, he gets open on a simple pin down screen design (and TDR sets a nice one). This is not a new look and is a variation they run probably a light handful of times per game – but they normally run it to get TDR on the block and it’s notable that this was early in the second half for the purpose of getting Thomas a clean look from three and, once again, Malik making the most of it despite initially moving away from the basket.
Thomas finished with 23 points on 50% from the field and 60% from deep at high volume (6-10). Just awesome to see this level of scoring efficiency from him at this point.
Jacari White Works His Way Back
Jacari still only netted 8 minutes in this game – still clearly working his way up to getting more time in the rotation. Unlike the Louisville game, though, his defense wasn’t an obvious concern. Although he handled the ball decently, he still doesn’t look as comfortable dribbling or taking players in isolation, which was the main limiting factor in this one. He had a couple of physical mistake turnovers likely due to his wrist, like this one:
And he also fumbled a relatively straight-forward pass out of bounds.
All of that being said, he started showing some of the explosive flashes that made him such a splash of gasoline before his injury. Like this outlet to TDR after skying high for a rebound (great and fluid finish as well):
And this insane pull up three off of a hand off from Ugo on the wing (cool play design, too, to move the ball so dramatically from Tillis over to Onyenso while setting up White):
The good news is that it appears that neither his shooting nor his ability to get into a difficult shot (and still make it) have been adversely impacted. His defense wasn’t an issue here, but will still be something to keep an eye on. We’ll have to see, generally, how his comfort level with his ball-handling progresses. Can he be effective in isolation? Is he comfortable standing up to pressure?
These things will affect his timeline (as will our other players playing so well) to see an increase in his minutes – but the payoff is still clearly there!
Devin Tillis’s Knee
After a couple of games moving gingerly and shooting poorly, I thought Devin Tillis looked a lot more mobile and… we’ll say spry… in this one. Firstly, his shot was back – going 4-6 from the floor and 3-5 from three as we saw earlier and you can also see here:
Note, he also just covers more ground and seems a lot less hesitant while moving, too. That’s huge because the ability to bury these open threes is an essential part of why we play him and he hadn’t hit one since hurting his knee against Cal. In going 0-5 between then and this game, he wasn’t actually taking that many looks either, despite having some opportunities that he’d pass up with a pump fake.
I was quietly worried that he’d actually injured it again such that he’d need another procedure or he’d play through it but wouldn’t be himself for the rest of the season. This game gives me hope that he should be able to play through the recovery and be back in good shape with time. Something to keep an eye on.
I will say, his defense is still the main worry for me. He absolutely moved better after struggling so much on that end in the previous two games, but he still does have moments where the lack of burst and agility crop up. Here’s a look, below, here he just doesn’t close out to the shooter as tight as he needs to because he’s clearly trying to leave a buffer to respond to a potential blowby. It’s hesitant.
He only played 14 minutes in this one – well down from his over 20 earlier in conference play so either Odom also realizes he’s still working through something or his role has downshifted a bit… or both. It’s possible that Thomas playing so well and needing to find time for Jacari will keep his minutes around this area as well – which may be just fine. Either way, he played with good offensive efficiency in this one and that kind of shooting pop off of the bench certainly helps.
Thijs De Ridder’s Quiet and Clutch 17
As you’ve now seen, De Ridder had a very good defensive game. His offensive game, on the other hand, was a bit of a head-scratcher. He had some really sloppy moments throughout – some careless turnovers:
And he also had a few forced hook shots at the rim that felt rushed or bothered. That being said, at the end of the game you looked up and he had 17 points. He netted a few on the offensive glass and had some nice touch shots in the paint via the midrange and this floater quick off of the catch:
But the thing that impressed me the most was that he was the one making the plays down the stretch in crunch time despite some sloppy play on his end at some points during the game. He was downright clutch.
This one came with under 3 minutes to go, trailing by one. SMU tried switching their 4-5 on defensive assignments; putting Yiğitoğlu on TDR and 6’6″ Corey Washington (#3) on Grünloh. Normally, Grünloh would be the screener in this situation, but we responded to the change by screening with TDR and keeping Yiğitoğlu defending the roll. He can’t get back to the shooter quickly and De Ridder buries a quick catch and release – capturing the lead by two.
This was the final lead SMU had in the game (they tied it later) and I like how he took it with no hesitation at all.
It wasn’t just the big three, though; De Ridder, whose oddly lower than expected free throw shooting (67% on the season) has probably been his biggest weakness went 6-6 from the line in this game including four huge ones down the stretch that were the difference in the game. He drew the first two on this play, below, just aggressively slashing from the perimeter:
Those gave us the final lead of the game. Notice that SMU went back to putting Washington on De Ridder but, even though he should ostensibly be a quicker player, Thijs had no trouble exploding into the lane and using his body to force Washington to reach.
And then, to wrap by coming full circle on the never-ending value of offensive rebounding, this was with us trying to kill the clock with a two-point lead. Dallin Hall misses the three (but good on him, honestly, being confident in taking the shot despite being 0-7 at that point, given that he drew the switch and mismatch), and the 6’6″, 190lb Washington has no way to keep Thijs off of the glass. TDR fights for it and is fould in the process.
That’s winning determination that you absolutely love to see. It’s also creating mismatches. SMU quietly could not figure out how they wanted to defend De Ridder with their roster. They didn’t like playing both of their Centers for offensive purposes, Yiğitoğlu couldn’t hang with him on the outside and was drawn far more from the hoop… and the rest of their lineup was a bunch of 6’6″ish undersized tweener forwards who couldn’t handle his physicality inside.
This positional versatility is what makes De Ridder so valuable. He can switch 1-5 as we saw throughout the defensive section, he can step out and hit the three, he can slash from the outside, he has the midrange game, the suite of post moves, and is relentless on the glass. AND, he’s showing that he can do all of those things at the end of the game with close scores. Belgian Army-Knife.
In Conclusion
I hope the week off hasn’t made for any rust – because the team has been on fire – but I’m also confident that it won’t. More time for Tillis and White to heal, and both times we had extended breaks for exams and the holidays, the team took significant strides on the defensive side of the ball. I’m sure they took the opportunity to not have to prepare a mid-week scouting report to work on some areas of focus.
UNC is a big game, it shouldn’t have to be said. They’ve been great offensively and poor defensively; especially at Guard. It’ll be a good opportunity to see De Ridder match up with an extremely talented and athletic PF in Caleb Wilson; who is averaging almost 20ppg. What Thijs concedes in bounce and length and athleticism, he should counter with about 30lbs more size and strength and the skill to step outside or be physical inside. If he can even force a relative stalemate in this matchup then I really like our chances.
These are the games in recent seasons where you’ve just thought… okay – how do e deal with UNC, or Duke… or even SMU’s size on the interior? Now, we’re more than holding our own… and actually exerting our will. This will be a great challenge of that!
Stay warm, friends! I’m actually going to be out of town this weekend and will be watching the game on delay – so if weather keeps us from getting home in a reasonable time, the ability to recap UNC could be in jeopardy. Just a heads up – we’ll see how it goes!
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