Scouting Report against Auburn

[Randman5000 4,224]

https://www.si.com/college/auburn/basketball/auburn-basketball-top-tem-in-college-basketball-jabari-smith-bruce-pearl-zep-jasper?fbclid=IwAR2lsPRkprYkFXTArAMianLF14WCvNbOS2d1474NQUrfwEqg0P5Z3q8IYW0
 

Quote

“Jabari Smith is very, very, very one-handed. You have to sit on his right hand and force him to use his left. You put your chest on his right shoulder on the catch. He doesn’t do much off the dribble. He kind of disappears. He’s not an elite rebounder and doesn’t shoot a lot of free throws. You can stay with him and negate his shot a little bit. Wendell Green Jr. is an awesome player and a really good kid, but if you have quick guards you can get into him. Their style of play will keep you in the game. They’d have a hard time with a fundamentally sound team like Villanova or Wisconsin. There’s nothing you can do with Walker Kessler. He impacts the game so much from a defensive standpoint. He can score the ball, but he doesn’t have to score to be impactful. They get a little wild sometimes. Zep Jasper is the one that keeps everything organized. They’re getting everybody’s best shot, so they haven’t played as loose as they did a month ago. If you’ve got bigger guards, you can take K.D. Johnson and Green out. You can attack them and get your guards to the elbow and score over them. That’s why Arkansas beat them, because they have big guards

 

[slyinsocal 831]

8 minutes ago, Randman5000 said:

https://www.si.com/college/auburn/basketball/auburn-basketball-top-tem-in-college-basketball-jabari-smith-bruce-pearl-zep-jasper?fbclid=IwAR2lsPRkprYkFXTArAMianLF14WCvNbOS2d1474NQUrfwEqg0P5Z3q8IYW0
 

 

#1. I hope the team reads this.

#2. Jabari is a such a good natured kid.  I'd use this as fuel to put a serious hurt on my opponents. Wait until this kid plays with a chip on his shoulder.

#3. Zep plays, we beat Arkansas by double digits. Should have beaten them in regulation.

[SumterAubie 3,031]

That’s why Arkansas beat them, because they have big guards

Er. No. Try 8-17 on free throws

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

12 minutes ago, SumterAubie said:

That’s why Arkansas beat them, because they have big guards

Er. No. Try 8-17 on free throws

Yeah, they outscored us by 18 on the line.   That’s how they beat us.  

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

Other than injuries the only thing that worries me about this team is below average 3pt shooting. If we were closer to 34% or 35% we'd be a pretty big favorite to win it all. But we're so good at 2pt shots and on defense that we're still pushing most teams around.

[AuburnNTexas 7,128]

The scouting report was basically correct. Our guards are not big and some teams have been able to take advantage of it. Jabari is better then the report said but he is definitely weaker with left hand and playing tight on his right shoulder has bothered him at times. He is not assertive enough. The report was correct that Kessler can hurt you in multiple ways, defense, rebounding, scoring. We lost against Arky for a few reasons we missed to many FT's especially at end of game, Arky played hard got to line and made their FT's, and Zep was out.

As for the teams like Wisky and Illinois beating us I wouldn't bank on it. We are really good and really talented but we do have weaknesses that we need to work on. we are very inconsistent 3 point shooting team and to be honest part of that is who is putting up the 3's. Our O does get stagnant at times when we  over dribble and then put up contested 3's and Jabari is not assertive enough. That is the bad news the good news is most of the issues can be fixed. Jabari can become more assertive he has shown that in a few games but not consistently, Flan can get back to last years Flan and will then score more including an improved 3, Zep can control the ball moving game on O. One thing we don't do enough is get the ball to Jabari at mid-range level where he can just shoot over most defenders, if defender leans into his right shoulder there when he goes up to shoot over there is a good chance defender will foul him especially if he initiates contact with his arms as he goes up.  We also have enough players where we can play big against their big at 4 of 5 positions. Kessler, Smith, Williams, Flan, and one of the PG's or Kessler, Smith, Cambridge, Flan, and one of the PG's. We have a diversity of lineups most teams could only wish for.  

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

Not too many things that are wrong from I read in  that OP 

I imagine it also centers back to sink in the paint outside of Jabari. Every other player he mentioned could be looked at as “body em”. 
I also agree that Walker is and has been our biggest semi-realistic mismatch. Jabari could be that but we’ve seen to this point that this offense hasn’t made exploiting that a priority. Kessler due to being constantly around the rim demands such opportunities 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

One thing that can help Wendell out a lot is showing more mid range game. Probably something that gets fleshed out in another season or two, but many defenders 1 on 1 either play him above the three line or play him close to the paint. He’s had multiple open mid ranges and does take them occasionally. The next step would be creating those opportunities vs being given them 

 

[Rednilla 5,383]

5 hours ago, AuburnNTexas said:

Flan can get back to last years Flan

If that happens, the whole having big guards thing isn't nearly as impactful. Of course, he's NOT going to get back to last year's Flan unless Zep or Wendell go down for a few games in a row, because he won't be running the point like he did half of last season, but I'm going with the spirit of what you're saying, which is that he's able to find his groove on THIS year's team.

With regard to that big guards thing, I admit that I'd still like to see Allen slide to the 2, Jabari to the 3, and put Jaylin at power forward, because I cannot believe that there are more than a dozen or so 4s in college basketball that he isn't better than, he just happens to play with one of them. But again, it would take Allen finding his groove to make that a viable option.

Plus, the way Bruce plays, it's really better to have a Jaylin Williams coming off the bench, since we can afford to have him coming off the bench (and he's humble enough to accept that role after starting all last year), because he's not *really* a bench player.

[aubiefifty 16,716]

i got so depressed last night i went to bed before the game started. i woke up before sun up and got to watch the second half. depression sucks and it is worse when you cannot tolerate the meds and you just flap in the breeze. at least i got to see most of it. bruce gives me hope in auburn things. but war eagle!

[einatlanta 502]

Just my 2 cents worth but if I was making a game plan the first action would be to put Kes into foul trouble early and then shut down the 3 pt game with man to man from beyond the arc. A pedestrian view of course. Our defense is the true strength. I would like to see our guys drive in the paint a bit more.

[Viper 3,120]

On 2/16/2022 at 1:39 PM, Randman5000 said:

That’s why Arkansas beat them, because they have big guards

No. ARK beat us because they hit 26-32 FTs and we hit 8-17.

18-point difference in an OT game.

ARK completely took KD out of the game (but not Green) with their big guards, but if we shoot just 60% on FTs, we win. 

[cole256 17,039]

I agree with the op 100%

[MaxCohen216 514]

2 hours ago, Viper said:

No. ARK beat us because they hit 26-32 FTs and we hit 8-17.

18-point difference in an OT game.

ARK completely took KD out of the game (but not Green) with their big guards, but if we shoot just 60% on FTs, we win. 

But were their big guards the reason they got to the foul line so often, maybe because our smaller guards had to foul to be competitive?

[MaxCohen216 514]

20 hours ago, Rednilla said:

If that happens, the whole having big guards thing isn't nearly as impactful. Of course, he's NOT going to get back to last year's Flan unless Zep or Wendell go down for a few games in a row, because he won't be running the point like he did half of last season, but I'm going with the spirit of what you're saying, which is that he's able to find his groove on THIS year's team.

With regard to that big guards thing, I admit that I'd still like to see Allen slide to the 2, Jabari to the 3, and put Jaylin at power forward, because I cannot believe that there are more than a dozen or so 4s in college basketball that he isn't better than, he just happens to play with one of them. But again, it would take Allen finding his groove to make that a viable option.

Plus, the way Bruce plays, it's really better to have a Jaylin Williams coming off the bench, since we can afford to have him coming off the bench (and he's humble enough to accept that role after starting all last year), because he's not *really* a bench player.

I love Jaylin.  He has the unenviable task of playing behind Jabari, the smoothest shooter in NCAA MBB.

[Randman5000 4,224]

18 hours ago, MaxCohen216 said:

I love Jaylin.  He has the unenviable task of playing behind Jabari, the smoothest shooter in NCAA MBB.

I agree, he's super athletic. I think he pushes a little too much sometimes but could be because he doesn't have that many minutes and is trying to make a play. 

[cole256 17,039]

23 hours ago, MaxCohen216 said:

But were their big guards the reason they got to the foul line so often, maybe because our smaller guards had to foul to be competitive?

Great post

[Viper 3,120]

On 2/17/2022 at 7:07 PM, MaxCohen216 said:

But were their big guards the reason they got to the foul line so often, maybe because our smaller guards had to foul to be competitive?

The scouting report on ARK pre-game was they get to the foul line often, so 32 FT attempts wasn't jaw-dropping.

Our 47% from the stripe was however.

[homersapien 11,354]

On 2/17/2022 at 11:05 AM, einatlanta said:

Just my 2 cents worth but if I was making a game plan the first action would be to put Kes into foul trouble early and then shut down the 3 pt game with man to man from beyond the arc. A pedestrian view of course. Our defense is the true strength. I would like to see our guys drive in the paint a bit more.

I agree but Kessler seems to have improved his ability to guard/block without fouling though.

When he's "on" we're almost impossible to beat.  MVP this year for sure.

[Rednilla 5,383]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

I agree but Kessler seems to have improved his ability to guard/block without fouling though.

When he's "on" we're almost impossible to beat.  MVP this year for sure.

I don't know, I go back and forth about who is the MVP this year, at least overall. Walker is most certainly the *defensive* MVP, but Jabari is most certainly the *offensive* MVP, and I think he might be a little better defensively than Kess is offensively.

It's really close though. There's a reason we're likely to see our first draft with multiple lottery picks from Auburn, and it ain't cause either one of them has been slacking.