23-24 Season

Edey turns and rams his way to the rim with his forearms and elbows leading the way. They allow him to bulldoze people with forearms in backs and necks but in turn he can’t be touched. Most dominant college player, yes, because he’s fairly athletic and bigger/ heavier than everybody else. Best basketball player, no and not even close. Reminds me of kid in church league when I was little who was a foot taller than every other kid and dominated but never made a shot more than 3 feet from the 8 foot rim. Amazing how many times he’s been fouled to how many he has committed. Got to flop on him early in game on rebounds or putbacks and hope to get 2. Can’t double with their shooters

 

I bailed after the hail Mary at the horn. It was 10:30. [uck fay] that.

 

Could a player just dribble up to him under the basket and go straight up with the ball wrapped up to try and get some whistles on him? He looms over shooters every time. Maybe if they kept the ball covered while going up initially they'd get a call?

 

Looked it up because I’m a masochist. We have shot worse than 14% from deep three times in the last three seasons:

• 2022 R32 vs Michigan
• 2023 home game vs Auburn
• 2024 R32 vs Texas

What are the odds that in 100ish games, two of the worst three are the same tournament round?

 

Have to get him in foul trouble. I’d almost be tempted to play 5 out with JJJ at the 5 even if that’s probably suicide. Pick and roll him to death and hope you can get fouls on him before he gets 10 dunks. I’m not sure Aidoo (or anyone else anywhere for that matter) is much better of a matchup

 

When you are boxed out and his head is in your armpit it's OTB it's gonna get called 100% of the time.

 

Tbh, it is the home game one that is weirdest. The other two at least are in partially empty, "away" arenas against solid competition. Round 1 is typically not solid competition.

 

It was the 4th one that was a little questionable to me. I can see what you mean on the third, tbh.

 

I thought he did a pretty good swim move on the 4th one

 

If Awaka legally changes his name to Oscar Tshiebwe in the off-season, he'll average 30/20 next year. Book it.

 

I don't remember there being much of any contact on the over the back.

 

We play a lot of home games though. Eventually one of them will be a dud. Our previous worst shooting performance in a win this year was the home game against Georgia Southern. But we’ve only played three R32 tournament games post-Covid, and two of them were worse than any of the much more numerous road games or SEC tournament games.

In 2022, we basically shot 40% all through the SEC Tournament against teams that were better than Michigan and then threw up 11%. This year, we didn’t drop below 23% all through the regular season and SEC Tournament (though our one game there was quite bad) and then dropped 12% against Texas.

 

Nerves. Obviously.

 

The pattern is troubling, though. We haven't had a collective good shooting outing since the home game against Texas A&M. I'm not counting the St. Peter's game, since they were so overmatched. Texas was a bad shooting game. Miss St. was bad. Kentucky was below average. South Carolina was below average. Auburn was only ok, at best, outside of an explosive effort from DK.

We have exhausted our supply of bad offensive games. Another one here on out will be the last, most likely.

 

I mean, ya. This is the Sweet 16.

 

Everybody outside DK and ZZ were 1/6 against Auburn, but even if you take out DK going nuclear, Zeigler’s 3/3 puts the rest of the team at 44%

 

Maybe I just watch too much NBA, but I've wondered a few times why we haven't tried bringing Aidoo and/or Vescovi off the bench in specific match ups. If we know we are going to need someone physical to bang inside, why not just start Awaka and let him set the tone early? Maybe he bludgeons dudes so badly that they start to shy away from the physicality, which also helps Aidoo after he comes in.

Not necessarily saying we should shift the minutes substantially. Just change up who's in when. Felt the same about Vescovi when we have specific match ups again very quick guards that he might struggle to defend.

 

Post-Covid, we’re shooting 43% with a seed difference of one (the Duke game), 45% with a seed difference of 9-12, and 17% with a seed difference of 5-8.

Not sure how much is random bad luck, but it does seem like the “oh no, don’t blow this as a moderate favorite” games have been disasters, while big favorite and relatively even games have both been fine-to-good.

 

It’s high stakes, teams have a week to prepare from a season of film, its a Super Bowl every game and unfamiliar rims and backdrop. Plus nerves and pressure I’m sure. There is no pressure on lower seeds. Lot going on. Aggies had a guy go for like 4/24 last night.

 

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