It’s been a while since the last College Hoops blog. The Insanity Report Staff and Easycovers Crew have been hard at work with their work in the basement, and it starts with yesterday afternoon’s Big Ten opener for Purdue and Michigan. So here goes:
(11) PURDUE 80 @ MICHIGAN 57
MICHIGAN
Solid nucleus for the future, but right now, their focus is on the abilities of Sophomore PG Darius Morris who has had a great non-conference start to the season, but yesterday looked like he has started to believe his own news clippings. He penetrates too much and forces bad shots and bad highlight passes for TO’s. He suffers from the same dribblitis that Illinois’ Demetri McCamey suffered last year. He’ll dribble east-west too much allowing the defense time to recover and shut down any passing/driving lanes.
They have OK shooting from Junior PG, Stu Douglass and Freshman Forward, Evan Smotrycz, but that’s it from Smotrycz; He’s a horrible one-on-one defender on the wing and will fall asleep leaving his man open. When his check is E’Twaun Moore, it doesn’t bode well for the Wolverines. At 6-9 the dopy Smotrycz offers zero defensive rebounding presence as well. It’s no surprise that Smo-trash fouled out yesterday. Stu Douglass is smooth and is Michigan’s most leveling presence which is key for such a young team, and hopefully Morris.
Redshirt Freshman, Jordan Morgan at 6-8 is a hustling post, but he must gain some l.b.’s to be able to consistently compete in the Big Ten. One of the main returning players in terms of minutes played last year in Junior Forward, Zach Novak, gets tonnes of minutes this year again, but he is as useless as the kid on Two and a Half Men! Novak offers no offensive upside at all and he basically fills the 5th spot on the floor so Michigan doesn’t go Hickory Huskers like when Merle fouls out. (“My team’s on the floor!)
Again, Michigan has some prospects in their freshmen class, but every one of their starters show major defensive deficiencies. Such as in Freshman Guard, Tim Hardaway Jr, who shows signs that he can get on an offensive streak, but shows UNC-like basketball IQ on defense. Michigan will have great streaky moments this year and may steal a game or two, but their inexperience will show when they’re trying to get over the hump and take over a game from one of their mini-streaks.
(11) PURDUE
Tough on Purdue to replace the versatility and basketball IQ of Robbie Hummel, once they lost him for the season with his ACL injury in the preseason. Even with him the biggest weakness for Purdue was their depth. Now that the Big 3 is no more with the loss of Hummel, it’s up to the Big Two in Senior Center, JuJuan Johnson and Senior Guard, E’Twaun Moore. The Big Two delivered yesterday with 21 and 22 point performances respectively.
Starting the game vs. Michigan, they were successful keying off double teams on Johnson and Moore as well as mismatches off of switches to get open looks for Johnson and Moore. Inclusion of other starters like DJ Byrd and Ryne Smith were non existent as Byrd was exposed on defense as well; Smith woke up late in the 1st half, and all of 2nd half to hit some open treys off dribble penetrations for a career high 17 points..
JuJuan Johnson is a huge one-on-one threat in the post coming off of those switches for mismatches and cutting towards the ball, receiving those passes in stride. He is pretty much unstoppable once he receives a pass with both feet in the paint. But he gets John Starks-like hot-and-cold streaks on his touches outside of the paint.
Moore will get his looks on open treys and he’ll be able to create drives to the hoop, IF Purdue keeps their motion offense based around the heavy screening and mismatches attained from those screens. Purdue just doesn’t have the depth to rely on other players creating their own shots or taking the opposing defense’s attention away from Moore and Johnson. They’ll need a shooter to take pressure off the Big Two like they got out of Ryne Smith tonight.
Purdue’s half court defense is solid, especially with the big body of Johnson in the middle. He’s quick enough to drop down help side on baseline drives, and has the length to alter shots. But DJ Byrd is as slow on switching and recovering off of defensive rotations as Dave Adolph is at getting Martin Short jokes. He gave up way too many open 3’s today from Evan Smotrycz. It was the battle of the 2 worst defenders on the court today.
The key for Purdue is to hide their lack of depth by working the shot clock to develop the mismatches and open lanes/looks for Johnson and Moore. Both are great free throw shooters as well, so this half-court spread should get both of the Big 2 to the line for easy points (i.e. Johnson was 10-10 from the charity stripe last night). They need those throws to limit the beatings they’ll be taking from gauntlet that is the Big Ten schedule. On D, they just have to keep doing what they’re doing and bench DJ Byrd!!!
Don’t let the score fool you, Michigan was in this game for the first 40 minutes with their peskyness, but Purdue Head Coach, Matt Painter showed many looks on offense to free up The Big Two. Painter and Purdue should ruffle some feathers in the Big Ten this year, but for Dean Smith’s sake, stay healthy!!!!
(11) PURDUE 80 @ MICHIGAN 57
MICHIGAN
Solid nucleus for the future, but right now, their focus is on the abilities of Sophomore PG Darius Morris who has had a great non-conference start to the season, but yesterday looked like he has started to believe his own news clippings. He penetrates too much and forces bad shots and bad highlight passes for TO’s. He suffers from the same dribblitis that Illinois’ Demetri McCamey suffered last year. He’ll dribble east-west too much allowing the defense time to recover and shut down any passing/driving lanes.
They have OK shooting from Junior PG, Stu Douglass and Freshman Forward, Evan Smotrycz, but that’s it from Smotrycz; He’s a horrible one-on-one defender on the wing and will fall asleep leaving his man open. When his check is E’Twaun Moore, it doesn’t bode well for the Wolverines. At 6-9 the dopy Smotrycz offers zero defensive rebounding presence as well. It’s no surprise that Smo-trash fouled out yesterday. Stu Douglass is smooth and is Michigan’s most leveling presence which is key for such a young team, and hopefully Morris.
Redshirt Freshman, Jordan Morgan at 6-8 is a hustling post, but he must gain some l.b.’s to be able to consistently compete in the Big Ten. One of the main returning players in terms of minutes played last year in Junior Forward, Zach Novak, gets tonnes of minutes this year again, but he is as useless as the kid on Two and a Half Men! Novak offers no offensive upside at all and he basically fills the 5th spot on the floor so Michigan doesn’t go Hickory Huskers like when Merle fouls out. (“My team’s on the floor!)
Again, Michigan has some prospects in their freshmen class, but every one of their starters show major defensive deficiencies. Such as in Freshman Guard, Tim Hardaway Jr, who shows signs that he can get on an offensive streak, but shows UNC-like basketball IQ on defense. Michigan will have great streaky moments this year and may steal a game or two, but their inexperience will show when they’re trying to get over the hump and take over a game from one of their mini-streaks.
(11) PURDUE
Tough on Purdue to replace the versatility and basketball IQ of Robbie Hummel, once they lost him for the season with his ACL injury in the preseason. Even with him the biggest weakness for Purdue was their depth. Now that the Big 3 is no more with the loss of Hummel, it’s up to the Big Two in Senior Center, JuJuan Johnson and Senior Guard, E’Twaun Moore. The Big Two delivered yesterday with 21 and 22 point performances respectively.
Starting the game vs. Michigan, they were successful keying off double teams on Johnson and Moore as well as mismatches off of switches to get open looks for Johnson and Moore. Inclusion of other starters like DJ Byrd and Ryne Smith were non existent as Byrd was exposed on defense as well; Smith woke up late in the 1st half, and all of 2nd half to hit some open treys off dribble penetrations for a career high 17 points..
JuJuan Johnson is a huge one-on-one threat in the post coming off of those switches for mismatches and cutting towards the ball, receiving those passes in stride. He is pretty much unstoppable once he receives a pass with both feet in the paint. But he gets John Starks-like hot-and-cold streaks on his touches outside of the paint.
Moore will get his looks on open treys and he’ll be able to create drives to the hoop, IF Purdue keeps their motion offense based around the heavy screening and mismatches attained from those screens. Purdue just doesn’t have the depth to rely on other players creating their own shots or taking the opposing defense’s attention away from Moore and Johnson. They’ll need a shooter to take pressure off the Big Two like they got out of Ryne Smith tonight.
Purdue’s half court defense is solid, especially with the big body of Johnson in the middle. He’s quick enough to drop down help side on baseline drives, and has the length to alter shots. But DJ Byrd is as slow on switching and recovering off of defensive rotations as Dave Adolph is at getting Martin Short jokes. He gave up way too many open 3’s today from Evan Smotrycz. It was the battle of the 2 worst defenders on the court today.
The key for Purdue is to hide their lack of depth by working the shot clock to develop the mismatches and open lanes/looks for Johnson and Moore. Both are great free throw shooters as well, so this half-court spread should get both of the Big 2 to the line for easy points (i.e. Johnson was 10-10 from the charity stripe last night). They need those throws to limit the beatings they’ll be taking from gauntlet that is the Big Ten schedule. On D, they just have to keep doing what they’re doing and bench DJ Byrd!!!
Don’t let the score fool you, Michigan was in this game for the first 40 minutes with their peskyness, but Purdue Head Coach, Matt Painter showed many looks on offense to free up The Big Two. Painter and Purdue should ruffle some feathers in the Big Ten this year, but for Dean Smith’s sake, stay healthy!!!!
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