I took a family trip over the weekend that ended in coming back to D.C. for this game. What a treat! Of course, with another game on Tuesday (likely today given when this will probably be put out), I’ve got to crank on getting something out. We’ve got a lot to get into with a game like this and, normally, I’d probably try to go even deeper, especially in the wake of not getting to write about Northeastern – but we take the hands dealt to us. In this case, a pretty good hand!
After the Northeastern game there was considerable hand-wringing about how sloppy we looked in that game. I didn’t see the reason for worry. I think sometimes it’s easy to react to the thing right in front of us, especially when the team hasn’t put much on tape together. We as a fan base are also used to a program that is more cautious and puts a high premium on certain elements of the game like shot selection and ball protection. Not that we don’t, still, but we currently are also weighing those with other things – like being disruptive, determining the pace of the game (quick, this season), and imposing our will on the game.
Most of the buy games in the non-conference slate function like the pre-season (unless something goes horribly awry). It’s an opportunity for coaches to try out different lineup combinations, give deeper bench guys more run, and to try out different things. The Northeastern game was, very clearly, us trying to push the pace of play to as blistering as we possibly could and see how we function in that environment. It was mixed results, and was very sloppy throughout, especially early… but there was value in practicing playing like that, we did impose our will on the game, and ended up scoring 97 points and winning by 25 despite clearly not being at our best.
That didn’t mean that we were always going to approach a game in that way, and we saw that on full display against Arkansas. This was an opponent ranked #12 in the nation, full of young but talented 5-star talent, that for the first time this year, including both buy games and throughout the preseason, we played from the jump with every purpose and intention being to win this game. And it looked different! We played under much more control, only turning the ball over 9 times while still imposing our pace on the game despite the athleticism of Arkansas. And, we started to see some answers unfold in front of us about Odom’s current view of this team and his vision.
For example, we played with a much tighter rotation. Each of our starters played over 30 minutes, except for Thijs De Ridder who ran into foul trouble, with Johann Grünloh leading the way at 35 mpg. This was new for Odom at UVa and is really not too common for him historically, either. Last year, the closest player we had to averaging 30mpg was Dallin Hall at 28.4. In the NCAA Tournament loss against Tennessee, the most win now game of the year, De Ridder played 31, Hall played 30, and there was a pretty even minutes distribution after that. At least for right now, Odom is saying that he really likes his starters and wants them on the floor a lot when the game outcome seems in question. This is interesting, as well, because there’s always been some question around how much guys can play effectively in this style given how much we get up and down the floor and this team does so much quicker and more aggressively than last year’s team. Over a full season, maybe this answer changes (and I do think they’ll absolutely expand the rotation in most of the non-con and as the season goes on), but as of right now – the team was pretty darn effective with this tight rotation. I do think we should look to expand a little and in certain ways, but more on that to come.
The other thing that solidified was the bench depth chart. Kalu Anya is easily the first big off of the bench, which was no surprise, but we got to see in full-force because of the De Ridder foul trouble. Elijah Gertrude is clearly the first guard off of the bench – which wasn’t a surprise in and of itself… but Odom looking at Eli and Sam Lewis to run join PG when Chance Mallory was out of the game and not playing Jan Vide until the final minute of the game was new information. We knew that Vide wasn’t getting a ton of minutes and wasn’t seen as one-for-one with Mallory at the PG, but we hadn’t yet seen the full idea behind this that the PG by committee is what’s trusted at the moment – Odom just wants the guys he likes the most out there. We can talk about this a bit more later. Lastly, Martin Carrère was the next player off of the bench, and played 6 minutes vs. Jurian Dixon only playing 2 minutes the entire game (although those were productive and came in the first half) – which matched Favor Ibe’s short run. That could have been due to wanting more size and length with Thijs De Ridder out of the game for stretches in the first half… but I think it was more of a sign that he’s still currently ahead in the rotation.
All of these ideas and themes will be explored more through the lens of three sections below – two player focuses – and then a broader team topic. Let’s jump in!
Johann Grünloh’s Best Game (So Far)
Firstly, let me just say that I really enjoy some Johann Grünloh. The baby face with the voice like the Terminator. His defense last season was often underrated a bit because of the juxtaposition with Onyenso’s shot blocking – but Johann did a great job there, as well. He’s also the kind of Center that old school fans often struggle with – because they want their Centers to play around the hoop and to be strong with the ball. Johann has improved in both of those areas, and we’ll see some of that below, but he’s also just a different, more modern, kind of Center whose skills fit our scheme very well and we’ll also talk about that. Last year, I’d say that he was a very solid anchor for the team who, when his offensive contributions showed up meaningfully, gave us an extra dimension. This year, I believe that he’s situated FOR those offensive contributions to show up more consistently… which is going to be huge. Let’s get into it.
The first thing that I really want to talk about with Johann is his ball handling and his passing. So much of our offense on Sunday ran through him catching the ball with his back to the basket around the three-point line, spraying it to other areas of the floor, having teammates cut off of him, and setting up hard to defend pick and roll actions out of it. I’m going to talk later about how we imposed our will on this game. We slowed them down while still playing selectively fast, and really not being bothered much by their defensive pressure despite their athleticism. Some of that is our own athletes, and strength… but some of that is systemic execution and skill. Grünloh functioned as a release valve all game where we could go with the ball when Arkansas attempted to get aggressive on the dribble and with ball denial in passing lanes. We’d kick it to Johann as a hub, and then play off of him.
Here’s a great example, below, off of a BLOB play. He serves as the lob point to get the ball inbound, and lets Chance run off of him, looking for a passing opportunity. When nothing comes up, he doesn’t panic, he just fires the ball outside to Mallory and rocks a high ball screen with him. Notice the willingness on the catch to take a dribble into the paint and then the ability to adjust the ball for the finish around their athleticism.
Arkansas finished the game with 10 blocks. They were springy cross-positionally and from help positions. Pretty much all of our guys, including Johann, found themselves surprised, at times, with how quickly an apparent shot opportunity closed and the ball could get swatted. Grünloh was a consistent foil to this, though, consistently punishing the Razorbacks on the interior and using his length to mostly avoid his contests or draw fouls – which we’ll see more of in clips to come.
Here is an even better example of it and it comes with both Mallory and De Ridder, two of our frequent initiators, off of the floor. This is, perhaps, one reason that we didn’t feel the need to play Vide after Mallory, because we can still run effective offense and Johann was a huge part of that. At the beginning, Eli is initiating the offense. He’s in a ball protection position with his body opened to the sideline and fully between his defender and the ball. Arkansas is trying hard to help on the cutters, so Grünloh pops to the three-point line to release the pressure from Gertrude. Eli cuts off of him and we’ve seen him get that pass several times before this season (and in this game). Instead, Johann turns this into a DHO with Lewis and rolls to the basket. The timing is a little unfortunate as both Adekunle and Anya’s men are sagged into the lane, but Grünloh turns and finds the correct kick out to Nolan in the corner. That’s his shot and it was created from the defense having to collapse on Johann in the paint. Adekunle decides not to fire and keeps the ball moving to Anya, who drives a congested lane and gets the ball back out to Lewis. So, this time, Grünloh shows again, takes the ball, sets up another DHO, this time rolls deeper, and finishes through contact in the paint.
I want to really emphasize how valuable this is. Not only was he the ultimate scorer of the ball, but he was the primary handler and facilitator throughout the possession as the Center. He removed Arkansas’s ability to disrupt on the perimeter. His presence out there opens up our ability to play offense with or without Mallory on the floor – which also just allows us to play our best guys and not be as beholden to position. This is really nice offense and shows how threatening he is not just as a scorer or shooter but as a playmaker.
Here, below, is a really nice design to get him going toward the rim. The coverage showed Odom calling this, and it’s the one making the rounds on social media. It’s a stagger screen for Lewis through the lane as a decoy, then having Johann slip a ball screen to Chance running through the vacated space.
Really pretty design also fully taking advantage of Johann’s ability as a rim runner.
He’s becoming a threat to seal and post in the paint, as well. Arkansas is pretty slim-bodied as a team, so we’ll see how well this translates against stronger opponents, but there’s a reason Johann gained 15lbs. this offseason. First of all, notice how he’s once again providing the pressure outlet, this time to De Ridder after a nice offensive rebound (De Ridder was really good and efficient in his time, limited as it was). Then he runs the pick and roll with Thijs, which as we’ve talked about in the last Cuts is a whole different and challenging angle to defend. That’s the 7-foot Maper Maker Freshman (#8) who gets switched onto him – but it’s Grünloh with the weight advantage and he spins into a skillful baby hook shot.
Really important that he goes to these looks from time to time to make the defense respect his inside presence aside from the rim running. I loved to see this and, again, how well it fit into the offense and highlighted mismatches.
This next one shows, in my opinion, how the game has slowed down for him and how he’s seeing the floor. He seals inside again after the play develops and then presents himself for the pass on the TDR drive. Instead of forcing a shot up with two defenders to jump with him, though, he represents the shot, draws both, and then quickly dishes it back to Thijs for the easy finish.
I love the confidence and the creativity. He didn’t feel rushed or like he had to do what the play flow dictated. Instead, he manipulated the defense and slipped a cheeky pass back.
And maybe even more encouraging, Johann didn’t hit a three this game – he was 0-2 and still put up 15 points on 5-9 from the field. That being said, he still used his shooting ability to create gravity and to make his man guard him/react. Here, he does a more traditional pick and pop with Gertrude on the wing, but this time he shows the ball like he’s going to shoot the three. His man completely jumps by him on the play, and Johann has the skill to drive the lane, draw the defender, and then lay off a touch left-handed bounce pass to Thijs for the clean finish.
We actually saw him pick up a charge in the full court, too, where he kept the ball a little too long, but was actually leading the break against a team as aggressive and athletic as Arkansas. We saw him drive and dunk against Northeastern. So, not only his ability to pass and collect himself and finish around the rim… but his ability to put the ball on the floor in certain circumstances has developed and he’s using it as a weapon.
Less new, but still effective, is his offensive rebounding. He got two in this game (De Ridder went wild with five) and as a team we pulled down 19. That’s admirable because, with a few exceptions late in the game, we really didn’t get beaten by any bad runouts the other way. Still, here’s a look at him tracking down a miss and then turning, going up strong, and drawing the foul (where he was 5-6 from the line).
The offensive rebounding may not be new, but the decisive turn toward the hoop and going up rather than immediately kicking the ball back out was encouraging to see and likely a result of his increased strength/confidence.
Lastly, I still want to give a shout out to his rim protection throughout the game. He had a whopping five blocks after having two against Northeastern and one against Drexel. A sign of both how much more athletic and effective Arkansas was at trying to pressure the paint, but also at Grünloh’s ability to stand up to that pressure and turn it away, largely without fouling. Consider, across 21mpg Johann was frequently in foul trouble last year and averaged 2.3 per game (which actually doesn’t sound like a ton but belies some of the contests like this one where he had to deal with rim protection regularly). He played 35 minutes in this one and only ended up with two fouls.
Here is a great example at the restraint with which he played, allowing the driver to get into his body and absorbing the contact, but not initiating himself and still meeting the shot at the high point.
You see this block with your eyes at the top, but really the impressive thing is happening with his feet. That’s the 6’6″ athletic JJ Andrews driving the lane with a head of steam. Johann slides so well to cut off the drive without fouling and then is able to use his reach to shut down the shot. That footwork is essential to keep him from picking up the foul.
This next one ties into the earlier offensive clips where he offers really nice rim protection without actually getting the block, but then runs the floor the other way, drawing the foul off of the transition pick and roll before the defense is fully set.
Two may takeaways I’d like to leave you with on that one. First, we’ll be talking later about our ability to hold up to an athletic team like Arkansas on both ends of the floor. Having an elite rim protector like this is essential to that, which we won’t be focusing on as much later. This is shot altering. Secondly, the energy of him to run down the floor and draw a foul after playing at our pace, protecting the rim, and playing for 35 minutes is admirable. I love his energy and endurance at such an essential position.
Building on that, check out this hustle, below. He’s the only guy back on a 3-on-1 fast break. Arkansas should have passed this ball, to be fair, but he gets the speed he needs to close on the ball, takes a nice angle to make the pass to the other two (not running very strategically) out of the play, and then swats the layup attempt.
This is after playing 18 minutes in the first half and not having come out of the game yet in the second. Just absolutely love to see the effort and energy.
Especially given the questionable depth behind him (although Ibe played well in his to minutes and small ball also did a good job), it’s so encouraging to see Johann be this effective over 35 minutes of game time within fast paced action. Surely, we would not want him to have to do this all season long, but being able to look to him in these big games is crucial. His rim protection, rebounding, rim running, ability to stretch he floor from the five are all known entities that are vital to our playstyle. But, I really wanted to showcase the slept on and sneaky value to his game which is how he functions as that offensive hub on the perimeter. So much of our system schematically revolves around him having touches out there and keeping the ball moving/pressuring the rim while also diffusing ball handling pressure and moving the ball to dangerous places while the opposition has to account for his size around the rim and shooting from the outside.
Fantastic start from Johann as our feature Center!
Kalu Anya’s Role Needed
Thijs De Ridder picked up a second foul within the first two minutes of the game and Kalu Anya checked in for him at the 18:17 mark of the first half (with TDR only playing 7 first half minutes and 24 in total). We were down 4-2 at the time, and this marked a real moment of threat for the outlook of the game. De Ridder was in a familiar position of being in foul trouble (although I think he got flopped into them) and even picked up his third toward the end of the first half. He would finish with that three and play excellently in those 24 minutes, scoring 16 points on 7-13 shooting with 10 rebounds, two assists, and two steals – and this moment in coaching was instructive on the old-school/new-school approach with Ryan Odom giving Calipari the business on that front, in my opinion.
All of this to say – Kalu Anya was thrust into his role, in the spotlight… and boy did he deliver. Not necessarily on the scoring end. He finished with just three points. But he combined that with 6 rebounds, 3 assists, a block, and a steal across 18 high energy minutes. His +17 was second on the team behind only Chance Mallory’s 22. Which, again, not to say that he was more important than everyone else or even had better games… but to emphasize the point that things went well when he was on the floor. That would have undoubtedly been a fear coming in and, if you’d said that De Ridder would be in foul trouble and only play 24 minutes, I’d have been much sooner to predict a 19-point loss rather than a 19-point victory.
So, let’s take a look at what Anya brought to the table (which complements the final section we’ll get to). His announcement that he was on the floor came with this sequence. It was his lone basket from the floor (and he made the FT). One thing that stands out about Anya, to me, that might be surprising given his profile as more of a defensive rebounder and a player who has not historically shot it well, is that he does have a good mind on the offensive side. He moves well without the ball, is a good passer, has a good sense of how to put pressure on a defense through ball movement, and is an effective slasher/dribbler.
In this clip, below, you see both in action. First, it’s a good look at how we kept Arkansas from getting into effective transition for most of the game. That was a concern; that they’d run effectively on us. We were consistently (until late in the second half) good at shutting them down in transition; whether it be through our press or just at picking up. Here, Anya shadows Sam Lewis in transition, helping him with his man who had gotten to his hip. A lesser aware defender might have turned to find his and left Sam on an island. Instead, Anya picked up the switch, taking the better angle, and then giving a really nice contest on the shot at the end. This allowed Lewis to flow to the rim and collect the rebound rather than risking fouling the ball handler. Watch Anya, though, as he sprints up the court through the seam of the defense and Sam finds him ahead with a nice outlet pass. Now, Anya could have turned toward the hoop and taken on the shot blockers, but I like his decision to take advantage of what’s here and to know his teammates. Instead, he quickly flips the ball to Adekunle, moving toward the corner, and sets a screen action to help free him. Nolan might have been able to take this, but it draws to defenders aggressively closing out, so he pitches back to Anya on the three-point line. Here, we get to see him show off his slashing ability, get to the rim, and put one of two crucial early fouls on Muurinen (#3) – the Finnish 7-footer.
This is really nice basketball in transition both ways. His recognition helps to shut down an opportunity on the defensive end and contest a shot, and then his hustle/awareness on the other side lead to three points. When they talk about Virginia as an experienced team, this is the kind of thing that falls under that bucket.
I am going to focus mostly on the offensive end, though, because that’s where most of the concern was around his addition coming in. As a player who doesn’t have a confident outside shot (and he missed his lone three-point attempt with an airball in this one), there are concerns around how the spacing looks with him in and how play functions.
I loved this one, both because of the emphatic dunk that it gave to Favor Ibe, but also in how quick Anya was in turning the corner on his man. This is a secondary break in transition, but Arkansas is mostly set and you have two non-shooters in Ibe and Anya on the floor. I used to always write this when Ryan Dunn was on the team but, the way you don’t let the defense cheat is to drive it. Anya not only drives it, but does so with an explosion that commands the help and that’s a very nice and soft flip of the basketball back to Favor for the dunk.
We’ll show some more of his passing in a moment, but I think it’s worth highlighting the touch on this flip. Often, especially for a bigger player, passing on the move like this can be difficult, especially in not having the ball move at the same fast pace you were moving. A player as raw as Favor can sometimes have poor hands or not be as quick to catch something unexpected. Here, Anya not only creates the play, but basically fluffs the pillow on the pass.
Okay, three of his six rebounds were offensive, which is incredibly valuable given what a premium we put on crashing the glass. I liked the motor and awareness to get the ball, but I also liked how each time it led to a fantastic opportunity because of his decision making.
This first one comes off of a missed free throw. He does well to hold the defender in front of him off and to react quickly to the bounce off of the rim. He’s a strong player and quickly gets to hands on the ball and rips it away from Andrews (#7). Watch, though, how quickly he’s looking to do something with it. It’s a quick recovery dribble and then right into a hand off and screen for Mallory – freeing him up for what could have arguably been an and-1 (ultimately led to two free throws).
Nice explosion from Chance and it’s hard for a defense to often react quickly enough to a player moving this quickly toward the hoop when the player handing the ball off is moving away like he’s going to reset the play. I just really like Anya’s game awareness on stuff like this. Very intangeabl..y.
Here’s one at the end of the first half when Chance got a quick shot up in hopes of going 2-for-1. Anya spreads wide on the sideline, forcing the defender to make a choice between he and Johann to box out. Of course, in that situation, you often box out the 7-footer, but the shot angle takes the ball to Anya. The part I really like about this play, though, is that once he gets the ball, he settles down, surveys the floor, reads the defense, and then fires a laser for Chance that he knocks down on the second attempt.
That’s really nice pass vision and accuracy there from your motor guy.
Finally, this is one that I think might do the best job of showing his fit on this end. He starts in the corner, trying to offer spacing but not doing as well of that as some of our other guys. Still, when the ball gets kicked out to him, he shifts up and delivers a really quick tap pass to Lewis, who replaces him in the corner. The shot misses, but Anya has crashed down and secured the rebound. After dealing with the traffic around the hoop, he kicks it out and we swing back to Sam for the second attempt.
That’s greasing the wheels and keeping the play alive. It’s also one of the few (3) minutes without a Center on the floor. These minutes did not burn us despite the step up in competition (in fact, they finished +6). I’d also like to point out how both of these last two clips ended up with the initial shooter getting a second opportunity. That’s often really smart as the player who has just taken and missed a shot is often likely to make it if they get a second attempt in the same possession. It allows you to kind of correct the muscle memory without having to wait as long to do so. Smart and selfless basketball from our group.
In the next section, we’re going to see Anya more, too, so piggy-back that onto this. I wanted to spotlight him as the offensive connector and energy player that he was on Sunday, though.
Setting Our Tempo
The biggest question coming into this game, in my opinion, was whether or not we’d be able to play our pace and tempo against the athleticism of Arkansas. Could we slow them down in transition? Would we be able to get into transition? Would turnovers get the better of us?
It turns out, we were actually able to impose our will on them for most of the game. Some of that was due to the experience of having played together for longer for many of our guys – but a lot of it was just that we have good athletes too! That, and strength is an underrated element to athleticism at this level. But, Mallory, Lewis, Adekunle, Gertrude, Dixon, Anya, TDR, and even Grünloh… really everyone who got PT in core minutes for us all imposed their will on the game at various times and gelled together so that we could effectively play our game and take that to the Razorbacks; which was really encouraging to see. There wasn’t anyone who went out there and played poorly and looked bad.
Here’s a good look on the defensive end. This was a bit of a curveball lineup for us with Mallory, Dixon, Lewis, Anya, and Ibe all on the floor. Dixon and Ibe both only played two minutes and Mallory and Lewis were the only two starters so you’d naturally be concerned about our quality during this stretch. The defensive set is nice, though. Dixon switches a ball screen with Mallory who then deals with another ball screen himself. Anya does a nice job of attacking the ball handler there (and notice good helping posture from Dixon, too). Chance is left chasing the roller, but Ibe steps up and is such a shot deterrent in the lane. Sam does a nice job of pinching down from the weak side and you can see our functional length at play because he can help on Ibe’s man effectively there. The ball swings to the corner and Lewis closes out hard, but Chance is, unfortunately left trying to box out the 7-foot Maper Maker (#8). That part is unfortunate and not his fault… but notice how quickly Anya comes down to help defend on the catch, and then Dixon does a really nice job of reading the play and intercepting the kick out.
Three bench players in the game but still nice positional size, movement, coverage, and it resulted in a break started the other way.
Here’s maybe the easiest bucket Sam Lewis will get; but it comes from us being aggressive and actively hunting our opportunities. Firstly, note the help and quality contest from Johann there. The ball bats around a bit before Sam grabs and rips. Worth noting, there were so many instances of us winning the strength rip in this game with contested balls, with TDR just flat taking a couple out of the opposition’s hands. But, either way, what makes this play is how quickly Sam turns and puts the ball on the ground once he’s gotten possession. There’s no wasted motion, it’s just an explosion up the floor.
He can coast the rest of the way because everything happens in that first split second. Arkansas is flattened and doesn’t have good balance, sure, but if he pauses and focuses just on collecting the ball or is worried about their pressure, that doesn’t happen. It’s because he’s consistently hunting those opportunities to get out and go that this happens. It’s engrained with our guys now and immediate. Doesn’t matter who we’re playing, rip and go. I really like that aggression and mentality and it helps create easy buckets like this that a split-second hesitation wouldn’t.
Okay, this is too lax of a pass to the wing, but watch Chance’s closing speed on it when he sees the opportunity. He breaks like a CB going after the pick six, races out, and finishes the other way.
Chance can match quickness and strength with just about anyone – which is exactly what you want from the guy with the ball the most but also just sets the tone for the whole team. He was diving after loose balls, getting on the ground, and just harassing the Razorback point of attack all game.
Here’s Eli who, for all of the talk, I thought he matched any explosiveness on the floor. He starts by curling around a Johann screen and getting into the lane for the nice floater. Then the following possession Arkansas gets the ball up the floor quickly so we can’t get into our press. As the Razorbacks reverse the floor and get the ball into the post, Adekunle drops down to help harass and double. Gertrude reads the play and cuts in front of the kick out, out pacing the rest of the team for the transition dunk.
These seem like a scattered grouping of plays, but it’s collectively about disruption and opportunism. Last year our defense was mostly about keeping the play in front and relying on excellent rim protection. This year, we still have the excellent rim protection for whenever Grünloh is in the game, but we have the length, aggression, and quickness to play make on the perimeter now, as well.
Here, we see Anya again, this time hunting a transition layup attempt down from Jordan Smith Jr (#23) and blocking it a the rim. As Smith falls into the crowd, we have numbers 5-on-4 coming back the other way. I like how we take our time, spread, but patiently work the ball to the corner for one of Adekunle’s three threes.
It’s this kind of stuff – locked into and chasing down plays and then patiently exploiting the advantage.
Okay, I saved a few more for last as some of my favorites. This next one ends up in a foul call on Chance, but I love how much pressure we’re putting on them throughout. First, note the cool wrinkle that they used occasionally last season and I’ve noticed a couple of times this year while defending the BLOB. The man defending the inbounder leaves to cut off anyone cutting to the corner (or the hoop) to deny the inbound, and then the player trailing that cutter replaces as the defender on the inbounder. It’s a cool swap that often disrupts where the play wants to go, as it does here, and Arkansas forces the ball to their big in the corner. Lewis peels around and gets his hand on the ball, deflecting it. De Ridder almost pounces on it but his man gathers instead. Watch Sam Lewis at the bottom of the screen when the ball is loose – he’s breaking down the sideline to try to get a run out, but peels back when he sees it isn’t our ball. We then switch a ball screen between Chance and Thijs, leaving Mallory once against guarding the 7-foot Maker (#8). Chance does a nice job of fronting the post, though, and as the ball moves to the wing and Adekunle defends the dribble, his man loses control of the ball. Mallory springs from his fronting position in attempt to steal/trap the ball in the corner. He may be a little overzealous and commit the foul, but I really liked the continual pressure and disruption throughout that possession.
We weren’t sitting back and playing afraid of Arkansas’s first step or anything like that, we were opportunistically trying to proactively make something happen throughout.
This was probably my favorite overall set as it exemplified the grit, hustle, and heads up play on display all afternoon. Firstly, Adekunle does a nice job of chasing back on defense to be there on the lob attempt and force Billy Richmond III (#24 to simply catch the ball). Johann gets a nice contest in the corner, but Arkansas dives in and pinches TDR between two players, scrapping for the ball. As they chase for the loose ball, Chance comes in and is first to the floor, getting two hands on it, ripping it, and then finding Nolan with the pass. Up 15, we could have slowed the pace but, instead, Adekunle fakes a pass attempt, gets a man to jump, and then is off to the races himself leading what turned into a 3-on-1 due to his savvy maneuver. Now we get to see Nolan open it up in the full court, get the defender to commit, and kick out to Lewis in the corner who does a nice job with the shot fake and drawing the foul on the distance shot.
That’s playing to win and without fear – and the decision ballooned our lead out to 18 again.
Finally, I wanted to give a look at our full court pressure. Not only were we willing to lean into it against a team like Arkansas, it was a key tool to slow down their transition game because they had to focus so much on dealing with the defender in their hip pocket. We do such a good job of denying the inbound pass that Arkansas has to bring Murrinen back into frame. He barely is able to collect the ball and then is sped up on the catch. He attempts to lead Smith Jr, but Gertrude has that closing speed on the ball again and picks it off. One thing that stood out live was how he had the wherewithal not to catch the ball immediately in order to remove any back court temptations from the ref; instead, he kind of half caught, half batted it to the floor, then collected it on the other side of half court, and then turned and pushed it back the other way. I then went full on giddy with the hesitation dribble at the three-point line into the full on hang reverse layup attempt that ultimately earned a trip to the foul line.
Surely, as I mentioned before, we had a few more shots blocked at their high point than we expected, and we had a few run outs toward the end of the game… but overall, it was Arkansas who needed to be afraid of our athleticism, pressure, transition game, and… well, strength, frankly.
As we look forward into the year ahead, we are going to play better teams than that, especially in how they are at this point in the year, but we may not play a team more athletically gifted than that (Duke will certainly be stronger and longer so… maybe them). Point being, I like our chances to continue to be able to dictate our tempo and impose our style of play on our opponents, forcing them to react to us… which is a great luxury. It’s going to be fun to watch our team make our opposition uncomfortable and there are going to be tangible benefits while hopefully continuing to grow and gel. Other good teams will present different challenges, and the best will marry that functional athleticism with skill and team execution.
Okay, one more thing…
Gratuitous Elijah Gertrude Highlight
I surely won’t be able to do this every game (will I?), but I couldn’t resist finding a spot for this clip that didn’t really have a place to fit into the rest of the piece. I’m loving the branding of Eli as “The One Who Stayed” but even more so, I’m loving getting to finally see some of the things he’s able to do on the basketball court now that he’s started to figure it all out. The leap in the quality of his outside shot has been remarkable… and watching him run out ahead of the defense and then pull up over Muurinen in isolation from the perimeter was a thing of beauty. Nice and timely rub screen from Johann, too.
In Conclusion
Man, it has been some tight turnarounds this time of year already… but I love jumping right into it – especially when the team is playing as well as they are! I’m hoping to see them expand the rotation again a little tonight, especially for Dixon to get to extend his run a little. I hope they’ll let Ibe have more than two minutes, as well. I still feel like that’s the final opportunity – get one more guard (Dixon, in my opinion) who you’re willing to work into the core rotation, and then keep bringing Ibe – who showed flashes of his overwhelming physical presence – along).
That being said, I loved what I saw from the team when we used it, ultimately, closer to how we will when the game is a must win. The quality with the starters and early bench is something to be excited about. I haven’t fully featured Mallory or Lewis yet in either of my two pieces because I didn’t write about the Northeastern game, but both have been deserving. Mallory is growing into the tip of the spear, and Lewis is actually tied with De Ridder leading the team in scoring and is the only guy averaging 30mpg to date. I thought he was very resilient in this game as he started out pretty slowly and didn’t really have his best game shooting the ball – but he stayed in it and by the later portions of the second half when Arkansas appeared to be trying to tighten the margin some, Lewis showed up to knock down a couple of big shots in a row and just shut the door on any hope. Not to mention that Adekunle had his best game so far, by far, and it just so happened to be against our toughest competition. One parting Cut for him, for fun:
What’s the point in getting so in the weeds with your favorite team if you can’t have a little fun when it’s going well, right? There are going to be bumps in the road this season for sure, but I’m appreciative of where they are at the moment – I think it’s a good spot to be starting.
Okay, up to #6 in the AP poll already! Another home game against Bucknell coming up before we travel to Maryland this Friday (I’ll be there in person). Looking forward to seeing the continued evolution of our squad!
Leave a Reply