Ben Ball Roundup: Nelson Impressions, Zone Defense, & Mississippi State Notes
by Nestor on Dec 8, 2009 8:25 AM PST
in Basketball
29 comments
Thank God for finals week. Not sure if I have ever typed that before. Given the injuries, drama our basketball team has gone through during this non-conference season, another week off from game action couldn't come at a more opportune time for the program. Bruins don't have a game till Saturday against Mississippi State Bulldogs due to their finals. This will allow them not only to fully focus on their finals, but more importantly continue to heal from the injuries suffered early in the season or in Reeves Nelson's case in last Saturday's game against Kansas.
As Jon Gold noted the UCLA medical staff is "optimistic" that Nelson will be ready to go on Saturday. Nelson in his first start not only reaffirmed our early impressions of him here on BN, he also impressed his opponent:
"He's going to be a good player," said Aldrich, who at 6feet 11 is 3 inches taller than Nelson. "He's real scrappy. You have to keep hitting him on the boards. He's one of those guys you love playing against, but you also hate it at the same time. You love guys who go after the ball really hard, but it's like, `Man, I have to keep boxing him out?"'
That's of course preseason All-American center Cole Aldrich of Kansas, who Nelson held to just 7 points on Saturday. Nelson brought the same energy and passion on defense, we got to used to by watching AA, RW, LRMAM, LMR and PAA. We have to keep our fingers crossed that he is feeling ok by Saturday and ready to go full speed against the Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, one issue we didn't discuss in our game wrap up thoughts was after all the chatter about playing zone, we didn't see any against Kansas. Per LAT's David Wharton Bruins stayed with the trademark man-to-man defense for couple of reasons:
First, Kansas is big but not as quick on the perimeter as teams such as Portland that have consistently beaten UCLA off the dribble.
Second, Kansas shoots with greater accuracy from outside.
"We watched film on them against zone, and they really attack it well," Howland said, adding: "It's harder to block out in zone coverage than it is in man coverage."
Even so, the Jayhawks penetrated enough to create problems and outscore UCLA 36-28 in the paint, which left Howland musing that maybe the zone "is something we should have looked at."
The Bruins still have concerns about being athletic enough -- at this point, at least -- to stay in front of the ball. Howland said they will continue to learn the zone in practice this week.
"There will be other teams where maybe it will be something to think about based on their personnel," he said.
That leads to the question whether we will see that zone against the Bulldogs on Saturday. Some early thoughts on those guys after the jump.
The Bulldogs (5-2) on paper are supposed to be a solid team. They surprised a lot of folks by getting hot in March and winning their conference tourney. All of their 5 starters returned this season. They were hoping that they would have the "services" of freshman Renardo Sidney this season. However, not to anyone's surprise Sidney and his family are still working with NCAA to clear up issues concerning financial statements around rental property.
The Bulldogs just like the Bruins have struggled a little early on even with a cupcake schedule. They lost by 14 points to Rider at home (!) to start the season. They then went on to lose against against Richmond (by 1 point) in the first game of the South Padre Island Invitational. Still they are coming into this game with a 2 game winning streak, the last one being a blowout win over St. Bonaventure at home.
Going back to the question of zone defense, it will be interesting to see whether we will see Bruins go to that against the Bulldogs. Looking through their KenPom scouting report, here are the Four Factors on Bulldogs:
Effective FG%: 55.2 [23] 44.1 [59] 48.7
Turnover %: 19.6 [105] 16.2 [335] 21.2
Off. Reb. %: 34.1 [142] 24.8 [8] 33.2
FTA/FGA: 33.4 [246] 21.5 [3] 37.7
So, on paper they appear to be a solid shooting team with an effctive FG % of 55.2 (23). They are also one of the better 3 pt shooting team in the country. However, the stat that jumps out though is the one regarding TOs. They seemed to be a turnover prone team, which leads me to think whether Howland will stick with his man-to-man defense hoping our guards can show the same tenacity on defense, they exhibited early on against Kansas (when Lee started for Anderson at pg).
The player to watch from the Bulldogs per CBS Sportsline.com:
C Jarvis Varnado looks like an early contender for Player of the Year honors in the SEC. Through the first six games he was averaging 14.5 points and 10.0 rebounds, while blocking 5.5 shots per game.
That means Reeves Nelson and co. will have their hands full again on Saturday.
I will try to gather more notes on the Bulldogs before Saturday. I'd like to hear from you guys if you have seen these guys play this season. They will have one more game in couple of days against DePaul. I am assuming it might be televised since it is part of the "SEC-Big East Invitational." We should probably check that game out to get a sense of that team. If any of you have already seen them this season, would love to hear your takes on what we can expect on Saturday.
GO BRUINS.
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SEC
Come on Bruins. I won’t be able to take losing to an sec school here in Louisiana. Last game against MSU was in the tourney in ’95 and Ed & Co. ran away with it. Lets see a repeat!
We played them a few years ago
in the tourney, didn’t we?
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
We played them
in the 94-95 tourney, our championship year. No. 1 UCLA played no. 5 Miss. St. in the first round of the sweet 16, West bracket. This followed the Missouri heart-stopper, with Tyus vaulting to the upper echelon of Bruin lore.
MSU had big-man Erick Dampier, who many said would show UCLA’s George Zidek a thing or two about post play. Well, George held his own, but the game-changing moments, IMO, were constructed by Tyus Edney. I’m going from memory, here, but I seem to recall leaping out of my seat, in concert with Edney, who was driving on, shooting over (and scoring), and drawing two quick fouls on Dampier in the opening minutes. Final score UCLA 86 MSU 67.
We then went on to play UConn in the Western finals. Nobody can run with UConn, they said, not even UCLA. Toby Bailey and King Ed proved otherwise, UCLA 102-96, and on to the final four.
Remember that well
especially Edney’s half-court 3 at the end of the first half, followed by his gunslinger pose!
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
If, if, IF! RN keeps this up and keeps wearing the big-block glasses...
… I may end up calling him Superman. I’m serious.
Not to damn him with faint praise or impossible expectations, but the kid is (a) tough as steel, (b) hits the glass so hard you’d think hew as flying through it, © comes at you like a speeding bullet.
M
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
He hated the glasses
And ripped them off in frustration when he went to the bench. So don’t expect that to last any longer than it absolutely has to.
That could have been it ...
but it also could have been that his eye continued swelling up after the initial treatment and it closed up on him again. And, of course, it could have been both.
Mississippi State
Bulldogs are a team that plays from the perimeter on offense. The scouting reports might say that Jarvis Varnado leads them, but he gets the majority of his points off the glass or lobs. Varnado’s major asset is his shot blocking ability. MSU will play a trapping zone that funnels the dribbler to Varnado.
Offensively they have quick guards that are streaky shooters. Dee Bost is a very good point guard, but nothing to the level of Isaiah Thomas, Nic Wise or Jerome Randall. The wildcard for the Bulldogs is F Kodi Augustus, he’s hyperathletic, but plays a bit out fo control.
They like to penetrate and kick out to shoot the three. They prefer an uptempo game. They have two wing players over 6-7 that really attack the rim. Their bench is not very deep.
They won’t zone UCLA, but they will pressure our guards. Varnardo is a susceptable to up fakes that get him in foul trouble, so our bigs must use that or they will be in for a long day. Summing it up, if the Bruins take care of the ball and keep the Bulldogs off the offensive glass they have a good chance to get a victory on Saturday.
Life is what happens when you're busy making plans.
Well, they are strong under the basket
but they also have a bunch of 3-point shooters. One of them, Dee Bost, is shooting 21 for 40. That’s .525%, so he’s probably due to miss some, I hope. Unfortunately, they have a second shooter, Johnson, at .429. A couple of others have been shooting 3’s at a decent percentage, so we can’t just concentrate on Varnado and ignore the perimeter. RN will need some help from our other bigs, or we’ll lose the rebound-putback battle bigtime. I think I saw these guys in an early-season tournament, but I can’t remember for sure. They are not unbeatable. They lost their home opener to Rider, who made a lot of 3’s, and in that Texas tournament to Richmond, 62-63. Of course, those are both schools with a strong basketball tradition, so MSU wasn’t beaten by weak opposition. All in all, though this game does present some matchup problems, I certainly think we’ll be in it, especially if we continue to show the improvement that we displayed against Kansas.
Other injury issues?
It shows you what happens sometimes when you are at the game—you miss what is right in front of you. Based on what I saw, I thought Nelson was an absolute animal—playing hard when he couldn’t see clearly and when he could. And when we left Pauley, I told my husband how animal-like Nelson was. For once, my husband agreed. But I didn’t realize the youngster held Aldrich, a great player, absolutely great, to only 7 points. Thanks for that statistical nugget about how well Nelson played—it made my day! Animal that’s what RN is—an animal! I love him!
My question is—are there other injury issues out there? It may be Coach Howland won’t say and if so that’s fine. But there are several of our guys wear what look like knee braces and, ya know, I worry about that. Maybe I’m fretting unnecessarily—Nelson wore one and he took Aldrich, a real deal, to school.
hey i can't actually watch this at work...
… and without knowing what it’s about, don’t want to fanshot it… but found this “exclusive” as to why Drew Gordon says he’s leaving UCLA. Anything new/interesting?
Go Bruins!
oh same crap then.
I can’t watch Youtube at work and SI.com made it sound like something new and exclusive. So couldn’t actually figure out that it was the same. My bad. Good. seems like everybody ’round here is collectively over Gordon, which is nice.
Go Bruins!
Drop Keefe from the starting line up
Based on what I’ve seen so far, we need to put Lee at the 1, Roll at the 2, Honeycutt at the 3, Dragovic at the 4, and Nelson at the 5. Anderson and Keefe are bench players, not starters. I think Honeycutt has lots of upside and at this point, we need to give up on Keefe being a great player. Bring maybe Lane and Bobo off the bench, and I think we can be competitive in the Pac-10. I mean we kept it sort of close without a set rotation against Kansas, I think we’ll still be a top 3 Pac-10 team and hopefully make the tournament. We definitely need the young guys to STEP UP.
Go Bruins.
+1
Keefe is a shadow of what we saw a couple years ago. What happened to him?
What did we see a couple years ago?
He had one game, going off against Western Kentucky in the Tourney. That’s it. One game.
Formerly ryebreadraz
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Dec 8, 2009 4:06 PM PST up reply actions
+1
Even then, he failed to really show up the very next game.
It’s really unfortunate, and I’m puzzled how he was ever a high-school All-American. But then again, it’s been touched upon here that trying to peg 4s and 5s as great for the next level is nearly impossible. I kind of feel bad for the guy.
He's been injured a couple of times here
and has really never gotten into a rhythm.
He’s another of those players who give all he has. He may not be as skilled as others, but he plays as hard as he can.
I can’t ask for more than that.
sjh
Keefe is an example of what I brought up before as CBH's issue right now
It’s not a matter of recruiting. CBH wanted Keefe and CBH got him. Keefe has come in and worked his tail off so fault does not lay with him, but he has not performed to the level that we had hoped. That leads us back to CBH and his scouting/evaluation. It has failed him too often recently, but it appears as if he may be back on track with this freshman class and next year’s class is shaping up pretty well. It would be unfair to blame Keefe or even Roll or some of our other guys. They are doing everything they can.
Formerly ryebreadraz
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Dec 8, 2009 8:09 PM PST up reply actions
I hope you're right about next year's class
The result of the Kansas game and the play of our frosh notwithstanding, I still believe we need to come through in a BIG way in this next class.
I'm not sure about next year's class
Smith and Lamb are very good starts, but that’s only two pieces of what will be at least a four person class in all likelihood and possibly a five player class. We’ll see how it shapes up, but we’re off to a good start IMO.
Formerly ryebreadraz
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Dec 8, 2009 8:38 PM PST up reply actions
Varnado
that guy is STILL on their team? Seems like he’s been there for like 8 years now.
"I don't forget very much" Rick Neuheisel, 11/28/09
somewhat off-topic
but does anyone know how much Lee and Anderson weighed last year? Because they sure don’t look any bigger or stronger… Among all the freshman and sophomores, only Nelson looks like a college player.
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