Jersey Shore wannabes...
To take a break from doing some studying, I took a look at Seton Hall's game against Auburn on ESPN3 (yay technology). Just some general thoughts are posted below. If there are any questions then feel free to comment!
Click through the jump for a look at Seton Hall and their game against Auburn
Starting Lineup:
1. Jordan Theodore (6-0, 174, SR, 88% of min)
2. Aaron Cosby (6-3, 190, FR, 76%)
3. Fuquan Edwin (6-6, 205, SO, 85%)
4. Herb Pope (6-8, 236, SR, 81%)
5. Patrik Auda (6-9, 225, SO, 67%)
It looks at first glance as if Seton Hall plays a normal "one guy down low" offense, but Pope can also get down and bang around. Auda can also get out and move around as well. This is probably going to cause us some problems unless if Walker and Desrosiers step up big time.
- Defensively, it appears that Hall mixes a high pressure man to man with some 2-3 zone. They really extend their defense to mid-court and have already forced 4 turnovers by Auburn at the under 16 (including two by the ever versatile Herb Pope.
- Cosby hit a couple of early threes, but based on the numbers (14-37 after the Auburn game), it doesn't seem like he is a huge threat from downtown.
- Theodore is a pretty quick guard, not sure what we are going to do there since it seems we have a problem with those. He is definitely a "pass-first" guard, and doesn't shoot the 3 ball well at all (Chennault like numbers). He can get to the line pretty well, and is 42-50 on the year.
- Herb Pope is an absolute man-child, and is going to be a matchup nightmare. We are going to have to throw in some 2-3 to go with the man-to-man defense. I think McKie has to guard him based on what Pope can do in terms of getting to the basket, but also the way he can post up. Doubling in the post is going to be a must. The good news about that is that we got a lot of work in collapsing down low against High Point.
- Hall is an average 3-pt shooting team at 33% on the year. If they start hitting the 3's like HP did then it is going to be a long night because of what Pope can do down low.
- Looks like great ball movement against the zone on the perimeter, but they seem hesitant to get the ball in the right places to break it. This resulted in a couple of long 3-point shots at the end of the shot clock. If I were Coach Bzdelik then I would throw a zone at them early and see what they can do to break it.
- It looks like Hall uses a primary 7 man rotation, and then a couple of other guys see minutes sparingly. That is nice for us since it looks like we will be at 8 guys tomorrow (Green is questionable from what I've heard)
- Since they are so aggressive on defense there are fouls to be had if we can get away from the pressure out at the half-court. I'd like to see our guards try to get Theodore in foul trouble early.
- Despite what I said about Cosby earlier, he has hit the open shots early (the whole team has really), and we need to be his face since he has some confidence from this game.
- Although Theodore is averaging 15 ppg, he is doing it in other ways this game with great passing and hitting the boards.
- Really looks like Hall has stepped up their 3-point shooting after starting the year off poorly. They are only shooting 33% as a team, but went 10-24 in this game. Auda stepped out and hit a couple of threes as well in the 2nd half.
- The biggest thing that the Deacs have to watch out for is Pope. He is just so active on both ends, and can hurt the opponent in so many ways. His rebounding rates are very good, and he also has a pretty complete offensive game (needs work on the 3-ball). If Wake can get in his head early then it could throw him off, but with the current group of guys I'm not sure we have that Chas McFarland to do that.
- It's clear that Theodore is what makes this team tick. He is Mr. Do Everything for the Pirates and I am very worried about who is going to matchup with him. The more I see, the more I think that we have to play a zone, but that will cause even more problems with Pope rebounding. We must box him out at all costs, or they will get shot after shot after shot on the offensive end.
Overall I feel like we can hang around with the Pirates if we take care of the ball against their high intensity defense, prevent Pope from getting 25 and 20, and be patient on offense to get shots that we like. I think we can do 1 and 3, but I am really concerned about what Herb Pope is going to do to us. He is averaging 21 and 11 on the year, and is just a physical specimen that is extremely athletic. Travis, as well as the rest of the team, is going to really have his work cut out for him on the defensive end.