Allow me to regale you with a story about something that I thought was going to be a trap game and turned out to be a drubbing. It was a game in which we scored .94 points per possession in the first half… but held the Wolfpack to .59! Then we turned around and scored 1.70ppp in the second half and allowed 1.24. Great margins on both accounts, but swingy. The defense carried hard early despite the offense struggling early… and then when State started to get things going… we just outraced them late.
Wild stuff. It was chippy, as games against Will Wade coached teams seem to be. Nothing more amusing, to me, than watching the tape afterward (was able to make it down in person for this one) and watch Wade and Odom side by side with Wade talking all exasperated to the refs and Odom just calmly and… seemingly amused, just watched. He was like the cat with the canary… just kind of seemed to know that he had the goods.
This team is just a lot of fun to root for… for so many reasons, really, but I loved how they didn’t look past this one toward the Duke game. Okay, not a lot of fluff for this one, let’s just get into it. I’m going to talk briefly about some of our offensive adjustments and then spotlight three players.
Offensive System Adjustments
We came out of the gate playing well and then went 6 full game minutes – from 13:11 to 7:11 in the first half – without scoring. It’s amazing that we scored 90 points while taking over 1/8th of the game off! The main driving factor was that we were careless with the ball and turned it over too easily early. There was an element of Mallory pressing a little early and struggling against the N.C. State guard length (he finished strong – this was not a game-long issue), but we were also just a little stagnant with our movement early on, too.
The Wolfpack switched most non-Center screens, and some Center screens, and I didn’t think we responded to that well early, but then adjusted later. Here’s one look early on that as just kind of awkward all around. Our initial play action breaks Mallory in front of a breaking De Ridder – rendering any TDR ineffective. We do get a switch from that screen away from the ball, though, leading us to play 4-around-1 with TDR on a mismatch against Terrance Arceneaux (#21) who, I realize can guard up, but really isn’t someone who should be able to match up with De Ridder in the post. We don’t do a good job of trying to get him the ball, though, and our other four guys are stagnant around the arc. Thomas attempts to drive the lane, but with Grünloh on the outside, his man drops off of him to shut down that driving lane and he doesn’t fan out to offer a spot up shot opportunity. When Johann sets a ball screen for Lewis, it does draw a switch, but the lob pass over the top is not a good one and Arceneaux is there to help close it down from the back side.
Just generally kind of lacking offense here with too much standing, not making an effort to attack the TDR switch and then making a really poor pass when we thought we had a Center mismatch.
Similarly, this play actually ends up with a clean look from TDR at the elbow, although that’s not really a shot we want much of the time. That being said, we’re doing nothing to challenge their defense here. Initially, Jacari probes with a drive, but when they double the driving lane, Ugo doesn’t do anything to threaten the rim. From there, the ball sticks with Hall for a bit, there’s very little movement, we still don’t get the ball inside to De Ridder, there’s an absolute cluster around Ugo and he bobbles the catch. Hall ends up making a decent drive to draw two and dish for the midrange – but this just made life far too easy for the opposition.
Just so much standing and ball watching without a good plan of attack!
And then here’s a look at Mallory pressing a bit, he had a couple like this early, but this was just trying to do too much with no numbers on a fast break and got blocked from behind:
This wasn’t during the scoring drought, but we’d still just scored two points in about 6:30 of game time… and this is unlike him to kind of force it awkwardly against length. Normally, he’s savvier, and we’ll talk about it in a bit, but this was one of those games where Dallin Hall’s calm and strength (as well as some positive steps in certain areas, which we’ll talk about) was a valuable contrast early while Chance was getting into the feel of the game.
Now, this came later in the game, and we’ll see much more intention and purpose in the execution across the board, and great decision-making from Mallory as a result. Much like we did against the Miami zone, our high weave started to loosen up the State switch, too. Here, below, Mallory runs it through White, to Hall, back to Mallory. State keeps 6’6″ Quadir Copeland (#11) at home throughout these, basically functioning like a zone… but his chasing these actions gets him extended and now when Onyenso comes up with the screen, Copeland is more out of position. Additionally, Ven-Allen Lubin (#22) at 6’9″ is already going to struggle to elevate with Ugo anyway – but the amount he has to freeze with this sag defense given Copeland’s recovery gives him no hope. Nice lob execution from Chance and Onyenso, especially given Ugo has had some misses on these recently.
So, once again, it’s a simple thing but sometimes just getting your guys in movement makes defending a similar action like a ball screen more difficult because you’re slightly out of position when it starts.
Okay, and this one is just a good look at how much more crisp our ball movement got – spurred in this case by a nice screen in the back court to create a numbers advantage. From there, watch the ball fire. Mallory gets it to TDR in the corner, he drives and kicks to Thomas who swings it down to Lewis, who actually feeds the post and then makes a nice cut off of it, drawing Mallory’s defender to help. There’s a nice post to opposite wing pass and then Mallory closes with a great touch pass quickly back to Thomas for the open three.
Yes, the initial numbers advantage got things going, but the ball was popping with much better use of inside-out passing and a good Lewis cut to create space helped as well.
This sort of over-simplifies the issues – but it really sometimes is as simple as keeping the ball moving, moving without the ball, and manipulating the defense that way to get open looks. Again, our transition game also helped, and we’ll see some of that too.
I want to spotlight someone I haven’t in a while, though, who has been deserving for a while….
Sam Lewis
Lewis’s game is often on the quieter side unless he’s going off from three – but some of that is there isn’t as much to key on the offensive side because teams have often tried to avoid him when he’s in the game. It makes sense – all of our guards have improved their perimeter defense throughout the season, but all of them also have some element of weakness to that side of their game. With Mallory, it’s length, with Hall and Thomas it can be footspeed, with White it can be strength and discipline. And then there is still the issue of teams thinking they have a mismatch when they can get De Ridder switched onto them on the perimeter and they haven’t yet updated their portfolio on that not going their way. Lewis, on the other hand, offers fantastic positional length at 6’7″ and has done a nice job. It’s funny that coming into the season one of my biggest worries was his ability to lock in and stay focused on defense… and now he’s put those fears to bed, isn’t attacked much, and is often doing helpful things away from the ball that improve our team defense.
Here’s a look at one such thing, below. Two things here early – for one, he’s matched up on the sharpshooting Paul McNeil Jr. (#2) who is shooting 43% from deep on the season but was only 3-12 in this game (he had 22 points and was the highlight of the State offensive game… but not on efficient numbers and wasn’t always matched up on Lewis due to the switching). McNeil is 6’5″ and is comfortable shooting over a lot of contests, but you’ll notice that Lewis’s initial close out here does deter him. The joy in this play, though, is that when Thomas and TDR both leave Darrion Williams (#1) to defend the next drive, Lewis jumps over to bother him on the catch, is able to deter the pass back to his own man, while letting Thomas recover, and then kind of recovering himself but allowing himself to stay closer in good rebounding position.
Not something that jumps off the screen on first watch or that shows up in the scoreboard, but Sam eliminated two would-be three-point attempts on that play and helped cause a long two instead due to his support efforts. This is what you call “hidden value.”
We switch 1-4 and I often highlight De Ridder doing this because his perimeter defense is so good – but there are also a lot of moments where teams will try to test him. But Sam is also a really nice switch 1-4 and often acts as more of a deterrent. Quadir Copeland (#11) is a big PG at 6’6″ who scores almost 14 ppg and gets almost 7 assists per. He gets a lot of his advantage by getting switched onto smaller players (or larger ones) and exploiting the mismatch. Here he starts with Mallory guarding him but the screen switches Lewis onto him – and watch how quickly he moves the ball after. Also, in the continuation of this clip, some nice additional things – Sam secures the steal although that was more a result of rim protection panic – but I like how he pushes the issue in transition and forces State to foul him. This was one of the several that got Copeland in foul trouble. I also like, and this cropped up later in the skirmish, that he low key doesn’t let teams be chippy with him without pushing back. Here, Williams grabs him after the play was well over and the ball lost. This is just one of those psychological things guys do to try to get under the skin of the opponent, exert a little dominance, etc. Lewis rips his arm away and, just for a moment, confronts Williams while then immediately turning his back on him and letting him do the posturing.
This was probably simmering what was to come; but I like it when someone is willing to push back on the chippiness. When payers try to get under your skin like this, they are often vulnerable to the same – and we saw State lose the interchange later.
Williams is kind of a unique under-sized PF at 6’6″ – but it’s nice that Lewis actually has him in length as our SF. It allows for comfortable switches like the one below where he can defend man-to-man without help and actually force Darrion to shoot a fadeaway over him. Of course, I’d have preferred a better contest here and not to get knocked on his back foot right before the move – but he still forces a very meh shot and also a miss.
And then we’ll kind of segue his defense into his offense in this next clip, because so often in general but in this game as well, he’s been effective turning good defense into points the other way.
This clip is another show of small things, though, that add up. This is the end of the first half and Sam is guarding the opposite corner from the ball. State is trying to hold for one shot. Copeland uses a ball screen and momentum to beat Mallory but runs into help from Ugo. Watch Lewis come down in position to help, but completely cut off that pass to his man in the corner, which Copeland is eyeing. Quadir ends up shooting a bad fadeaway over Ugo who gives a good contest, but this leaves the 5’9″ Mallory trying to wrangle the 6’9″ 250 lb. Lubin on the defensive glass. Lewis comes down and, rather than trying to grab the rebound which he seems to think unlikely, he simply taps the ball over to Ugo to secure it. It’s really good awareness and improvisation to help with an awkward mismatch. Not done, he runs up the floor and, although he misses it, is rewarded with a clean look from three as the half expires.
Lewis often would make this shot… but it’s not even about whether or not he makes it here – his defensive efforts not only stopped the Wolfpack from scoring 20 points in the half – but they created a quality look from three that was very makable when the opponent’s goal was to get a shot of their own and not let us get one.
Lewis’s defense has been a really neat realization this season in that, he showed flashes of what he could do at Toledo… but would easily lose concentration and didn’t often provide the effort on that end. So, on evaluation, it was more whether he’d be able to stay locked in mentally, not if he had the talent to be a good positional defender.
The thing that’s surprised and impressed me the most, though, is how good he’s been with the ball in his hands. Now, don’t get me wrong, I did write that he was very good in transition and we’re about to look at some of that because he’s been delivering there recently. But, while I liked him as a slasher and in the open floor, I didn’t think he had a ton of ball handling in him coming into the season. I didn’t love his pull up game or his ability to create when having to string together more than a few dribbles and when not always going downhill.
That’s changed some this year! Firstly, do notice again, in the below, how we use the perimeter weave and exchange away to try to find something. It doesn’t really come to fruition on this one, though. I like the read where, once Chance starts driving the lane, Lewis shades him into the corner to be able to take a leading pass when his man helps. That read is actually what puts Tre Holloman (#5) on skates, because he starts by recovering to Lewis, who is able to fake against the grain of his recovery prior to the unexpected behind-the-back dribble, stop on a dime, and the pretty pull up jumper.
Lewis has been using that behind-the-back dribble to good effect recently, and his skill at pulling up off of the bounce into either his two or three-point shot this year has been pleasantly surprising. I just like the intention and silkiness of these movements, though. Each of the movements are setting his defender up just to counter the motion. Very cool.
And here’s a look at him forcing a switch onto Holloman by crossing in front. Then, he uses that 5-inch size discrepancy (Holloman is 6’2″) with a nice move into the lane, a slight bump for separation, and then a pull up:
Lewis is not the first… probably not in the first 4, player you think of when it comes to taking his man in isolation. I think it’s an underrated part of his game, though, where he can still exploit mismatches and he uses his length to give him shooting confidence over opposing contests.
Okay, let’s talk about that transition game, though, because it was on full display in this one. Lewis actually was our second leading scorer with 16 on 7-11 shooting. Despite some of the more challenging looks above, he was able to do this by making things happen in transition. It’s perfect timing to highlight this as I’ve been talking for a few games now about how leaning into a renewed focus on transition offense has helped to spark improvement on that side of the ball.
Here, below, was a pretty awesome and, relatively, easy bucket (although it was still a nice shot) that encapsulated the second half thematically. State, after being so cold from the field in the first half, came out of the locker room on fire. This could have easily closed the gap in the game and made things tight – setting the tone for a closer game. The thing was, we were also cooking throughout the half. There were many contributing factors, but this was a good look. After a made bucket, Lewis is at the foul line and doesn’t even take off immediately, but he does start running the floor and, after the inbound, we just make an outlet pass to him and let him beat the defense.
It’s a nice finish and drew a trip to the foul line. Sam’s length and ability to extend the ball/finish over these State contests was nice – but this is mostly just being willing to effort up the floor and being alert enough (with Hall) to probe the defense and see if they were ready. They weren’t.
Here’s something similar, this time after he grabs a defensive rebound. Lewis brings the ball up the floor and goes coast-to-coast for the easy finish at the rim!
Again, I’m sure Will Wade wouldn’t be happy with his team’s defensive effort here, but there are a couple of things I like about this from Sam. Firstly, it’s not like he just beat everyone down the floor – all of State’s players were back on defense behind him and he was under control. Secondly, once again, it’s really just probing at first and seeing what the defense is going to do. But, lastly and most excitingly to me, he actually didn’t need much of an advantage because he’s naturally a good slasher when he has momentum because of his size and length. Literally the only advantage Lewis really had was a slight one when his man grazes against Ugo as they’re moving up the floor and has open hips on Lewis’s left hand. That’s all it takes. Already moving, Sam can just accelerate into his right-hand drive, keep the smaller McNeil on his hip, and then elevate/finish over him. It didn’t take much for him to find a crack.
So, those are opportunities that he created through his skill, no doubt, but also more from alertness and willingness. Here is a much more traditional run out, ahead of the defense, after a bad miss. Thomas does well to run the break and facilitate here, but Lewis is just a nice finisher, too. You could see in all three of these how his size/length helped with his finishing ability.
And then, of course, still probably his greatest strength (although he’s not one dimensional as we’re seeing), he still went 2-4 from deep. He’s an awesome catch and shoot player, but I chose to highlight this one because it came quick, punished the press, and caught Quadir Copeland off guard because he clearly didn’t expect Sam to step into this three from as deep as he did just ten seconds into the shot clock.
I know that Sam Lewis is regarded as a nice part of our team depth and a player we’d want back next year; but I think his value has been overshadowed a bit by some of the other success stories on the team. I think the combination of all of his skills along with his positional length and underrated defensive versatility are key. I actually think we could be doing more to try to get him onto primary ball handlers (although switching makes that hard so it would likely require a few system tweaks that we may not want to make), and I think his positional size is incredibly valuable.
Dallin Hall
Speaking of another player whose positional size has been an underrated part of his game, especially defensively, I also want to talk a bit about Dallin Hall. Hall continues to be the biggest talking point from fans with regard to whether or not we should change the way we’re doing anything, especially now that there’s been a Grünloh resurgence. I do think that concern is mostly incorrect and misguided, although there’s some truth hidden within it.
Yes, you’d rather all of your players be threats to score the ball. Hall can score in certain, specific ways, but those are pretty limited to getting all the way to the rim and pulling up from outside.
Now, it may seem easier to write that now after a game where he did chip in a little more of his own offensively, and that’s fair – but I will still show some of that stuff because I do think he’s getting some confidence back by remembering his strengths. But, also, not everyone on the floor has to be the one getting the points in order to be contributing positively.
For a PG, the question to me isn’t how much they’re scoring or looking for their offense, it’s how good are the shots that we’re getting as a team when they’re out there and, conversely, are they creating situations where the offense stalls with whatever offensive skillset it is that they lack.
For Dallin, the most fair and honest criticism of his offensive game is that sometimes the ball will come to him when he’s open on the perimeter and he will either pump fake it and waste the opportunity, or shoot it – but he’s not very good in a spot up capacity. If you could improve one thing, it would probably just be that willingness and skill at spot up three-point shooting. But, he’s still shooting 33% on the season from deep. The thing I wrote about a couple of pieces ago that it seems like he’s starting to remember is that he’s actually been a 36% shooter from outside prior to this season and he’s considerably better at it when he’s pulling up off of the dribble rather than just catching and shooting the ball. So, we saw in this game that N.C. State was willing to give him some buffer from outside, but this time Hall was using the ball screen and stepping into the three off the dribble, taking advantage of State’s lack of urgency on the close out.
He went 2-2! Here’s the second one, below, this one not in transition. You’ll notice the dribble handoff into a ball screen and when State plays sag coverage and goes under Johann’s dive, Hall just pulls up off the bounce again.
These looks are how he’s best at shooting and are an incredibly welcome sign. It feels like when Hall chips in more than 5 or so, you’re in really good shape. If he can continue to play to this strength of his and punish defenses who think they don’t have to worry about this, that will be good for us.
That could be some added value that we haven’t had consistently all year if it continues but, even if it doesn’t, his contributions go beyond his point total. I thought this game provided a nice example of that when we were going through some careless moments early on. Most of the team was a little sped up, but Hall provided a stabilizing presence; showing why he leads the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio (by a whopping .4 per game over anyone not named Chance Mallory).
Here is a very unglamorous look at him just making the simple right play. These are common from him. We saw it earlier how, despite an overall poor possession, he was able to get TDR a clean midrange jumper. Here, he just drives baseline after an inbound play, forces the defense to react to him, and finds the easy pass to Onyenso for a bucket around the rim.
It’s just calm and taking the easy things.
This next clip, though, I think is a nice look at his ability to manipulate and read a defense. First, he sets a back screen for Devin Tillis designed to force the switch and to give him a mismatch. Tillis draws a double team out of which he retreats, passing it back out to Hall. This time, Hall methodically uses a ball screen but Tillis makes a nice backdoor cut. Hall’s pass is right where it needs to be, leading Tillis into the basket and then Devin takes advantage of the collapsing defense to kick it across to White for as open of a look as he’ll get.
That was pretty basketball; and shout out to Tillis for the sharp cut and read on the pass too. This was a hockey assist, nothing in the scoreboard for Hall, but he started the snowball rolling and I think this is something he should get more credit for in how he pays under such control.
Dallin realizes that his own offense is basically always the fifth best option on the floor at any given time. He’s too unselfish at times, but I generally think that it’s a good thing because we do have so many capable scorers – he embraces his own role which is to stabilize and get them the ball in good positions. He has shown a knack over the year of calling his own number when it makes sense or when other things weren’t working (like in the Maryland game) or at the end of contests. This man loves a right-handed reverse layup on the left side of the rim like CTB loves a hard hedge:
It’s worth noting that this basket from him came after we had just broken our 6-minute drought. He decided to drive the lane and look to finish at a time where we were wanting for buckets.
I completely get looking at Hall’s lack of scoring and instinctively thinking there’s some opportunity cost when our other guards, Mallory, Thomas, White, and Lewis all have games where they can fill it up. But, having the guy who is helping them to get so many of those looks while also providing the best ball security on the team is important too. It’s worth noting that Hall’s offensive BPR, per EvanMiya, is fourth best on the team. Mallory’s is the best; but they’ve both shown that they can play together well, are often in there in crush time when we’ve been successful closing games, and they offer different things. It doesn’t have to be a one-to-one thing and Hall often helps to create good opportunities for others, including Mallory, while minimizing risk. On a team like Odom’s that’s aggressive by design, sometimes that minimizing risk piece is underrated.
I’ve talked a lot about his defensive switchability, but at 6’4″ and a strong 200lbs, he guards up really well in certain matchups. We talked earlier about hos Quadir Copeland likes to use his size advantage on opposing guards, but Hall did not offer him this luxury despite giving up length. This is a very quick clip, below, but watch Copeland try to bully Hall into the lane and just go flying when Hall pulls the chair out from under him – he has to lean so off balance to try to deal with Hall’s strength.
And this next one was a pretty good contrast as the 6’5″ McNeil had hit a three over a Mallory contest to bring a once lopsided game within two points. Here, you could see he’s itching to go on a heat check. Hall picks him up in transition, stays attached over the screen (nice use of the left arm to restrict movement without fouling) and gets a really nice contest on his pull up:
Not included here, but he also led the team with 7 rebounds on the night.
Overall, I think Hall is just another nice piece who brings something distinct to the roster. He’s not looking for his own shot very often – he’s trying to contribute in all of the other ways and get the ball in the hands of preferred scorers in the right positions. On a team that struggles to get shots up, that might be an issue – but on a team with so many options – it’s an asset. Sometimes our biggest obstacle is only our own sloppiness; it was at the beginning of this game – and this is a guy who helps to mitigate that while keeping the gears well-oiled and the defense tough and switchable.
Johann Grünloh
What a resurgence! It was as recently as the Ohio State game that there were still ongoing discussions about whether or not to start Onyenso. These things go in cycles, but Grünloh is reminding everyone what he’s capable of and why we were comfortable not upsetting the apple cart and waiting on him to reclaim form. He only had 3-points in this game (although it was a nice three and he continues to shoot well from outside), but he had EIGHT blocks in just eighteen minutes of play. In fact, he doubled Ugo’s total in two more minutes – and Ugo still had a massive four (these guys average around two and a half each and are among the best in the sport)!
N.C. State has a nightmare matchup against us in the frontcourt – with their Center running 6’9″ and PF running 6’6″ without any perimeter advantages generated from those players against us… it’s a slog for them. That being said, Grünloh was excellent in his activity and discipline on the defensive side which is why he was so successful. We’re going to go ahead and just look at all eight blocks and talk a little bit about our stifling defense in the process:
Okay, here’s the first clip and we’ll tie some of these previous sections together, too. Notice Sam Lewis and Dallin Hall switch a screen away from the ball in this one, not just on the ball. It’s because they’re both fine to cover Copeland or McNeil which, again, a value for both. Anyway, State works the ball around to get it to Lubin on the post. I’m not really sure why. They like to play through him offensively but, as I said, this is a rough one-on-one matchup. On a lot of these, Grünloh just stays patient and disciplined. He slides and doesn’t bite on the moves and then goes straight up and blocks the shot. He does a good job challenging the second chance opportunity after the block, and Lewis then comes down to help secure the rebound.
Plays like this where it looks so easy against the opposition’s starting Center effectively neuter their back to the basket game. Not a small loss for their offensive scheme.
Alright, now serving block #2! McNeil gets a quality path to the lane after Hall gets too aggressive helping on Copeland. Grünloh slides over and blocks his attempt at the rim, though. Some of these weren’t even just blocks where you get the ball in the air, they were stuffs, where you catch the ball on the release and force it back down. No a difference statistically, but the latter often leads to either jump balls or more easily controlled caroms and is normally a sign of being in good defensive positioning because you’re right there on the release.
That one was just a blown assignment off of a mental lapse that was completely erased.
This next one is very similar – and all three of these were very early in the game, setting the tone that it was going to be hard going to the rim all night. This time Copeland senses the open side of the court and uses the opportunity to blow by Malik Thomas’s full court pressure. I’m not sure if he was surprised by the aggression, but this was not good defense by Thomas. Again, though, Grünloh makes it look easy by sliding over and blocking the shot out of bounds.
Our defense has gotten much better as the year has progressed because our perimeter defenders have improved both generally and within the system itself. I’ve talked about this several times – but this is a great example of what a wonderful failsafe it is to have two phenomenal shot blockers fortifying the defense. You can feel more comfortable being over-aggressive or making a mistake because even the blown coverages can sometimes be eliminated by your rim protection. This is also why I think we can be competitive against such a wide variety of teams because, at the end of the day, being so imposing and having so much physical ability around the rim (and, conversely, offensive rebounding as well as we do) translates against just about anyone.
Alright, this next one is neat because, not only does he act as a deterrent to a driving Copeland who gets flustered, but then he does a nice job navigating a would-be switch with Sam Lewis, keeping good depth, and then flat out blocking Arceneaux’s three-point shot.
Ugo’s not the only one who can block threes (he got another in this one, too)!
This next one was delightful. This is against the 6’10” Musa Sagnia (#13). It’s reminiscent of the first clip, but he’s even more patient, doesn’t bite on more moves, and this time when he blocks the shot we retain possession.
Johann talked after the game in his presser about how the biggest keys to his success are absorbing the body contact, not biting on the shot fakes, and then really you don’t have to jump that high with his reach. You saw all of that on display above.
Okay, this next one highlights some of the range he’s put on display recently. The opportunity starts because he and Hall both close out on Arceneaux (#21) in transition and leave Sagnia alone. I like that Johann was proactive here and closed out even though it should have been Hall’s rotation given who the players were. Still, better to be proactive if you’re unsure – especially when you can close the gap and go get the shot like he does here:
This next one is just so good. He plays drop coverage on Arceneaux after he takes the screen from Lubin with TDR chasing. He basically takes away both with this play, cutting off the driving angle while being in great position to step up and contest the drive. Not only does he block it, but he two-hands it and knocks it off of Arceneaux out of bounds.
If you’re N.C. State, these sequences are soul-crushing! Think of the number of times they appear to have clean opportunities around the rim only to be convincingly blocked. That adds up psychologically and you stop feeling confident testing the mettle of the opposing Centers.
Finally, this one was in transition after a series of positive plays for us, Lubin had the ball with a head of team and decided to try it, but Grünloh squared him up and landed that same two-handed block, which led to a scrum and us coming out with it (this is also where De Ridder got hurt – hopeful he’s 100% on Saturday!).
That’s a pretty crazy portfolio of rejections for one contest – and most caused a change of possession rather than just eliminating the opportunity.
Often when we talk about confidence it is about the offensive side of the ball. How comfortable a player is when they’re shooting often translates to makes. Are they in rhythm, have they just seen the ball go in… how is that muscle memory feeling? How well are they seeing the floor and anticipating the defense? How willing are they to try to make something happen?
Granted, I think there’s been some of that with Grünloh too as his three-point shot really has come around, but this has been much more relevant with Johann on the defensive side of the ball. If you go back to, say, the Notre Dame game, he just looked lost out there… and timid. Now, he’s playing with SO much confidence. It’s like he feels like he can get to anything – and he’s really trying to!
I wanted to show him off here (and some of the Dallin shooting bits, as well) because these are some contributions that we weren’t getting during our mini-funk (during our winning streak) that are starting to show up now. If we can hold onto them heading into the postseason, that will be a positive.
In Conclusion
I’m really fired up for tomorrow at Camden Indoor… but even more so because we were so dominant in this game and appear to be playing very well right now. I have no expectations for outcome, but I do think we’ll be competitive. If De Ridder is 100% (seemed in good spirits to close the game), then I’m really looking forward to watching him matchup with Boozer and our frontcourt compete with the Blue Devils athletically.
Duke is, quite literally, playing like the best team in the country (they’re ranked it and just beat the team that sits atop most metrics). It should be a quality litmus test to see how well we can match the very best teams AND it’s an opportunity to control our own destiny for the ACC regular season title.
What more could you ask for as a fan? What a treat to be 25-3 and in position for this kind of game with a first-year head coach!
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