Our offense runs so much better and smoother when he's on the floor. I also think he's a better player and probably more of what this team needs right now than the Hunter we saw last year and are seeing with Texas this year.
Obviously Lipsey is beyond his years in basketball IQ, but two things that stick out to me are his abilities to use tempo and penetration speed change to get separation and how astute he is at using body and ball positioning to shield defenders when driving the lane. He had a layup yesterday where he used both of those skills, making it impossibly for the defender to come over the top to attempt a block. Tyrese was absolutely atrocious at this and was blocked routinely both on fast breaks and driving the lane. It's a rarity for Lipsey to get blocked and that's largely based on his mastery of the above skills.
I wasn't happy when Otz pulled him with roughly 4.5 minutes to go when he picked up his 4th foul. When you have someone as important as Tamin to have on the floor, you don't reduce minutes arbitrarily. If left on the floor it's just as likely he finishes the game without picking up a foul than it is for him to foul out. It ended up not mattering yesterday, but I hope Otz leaves him in should a similar situation arise in a close game. No point in assuring limited minutes when the player has a high chance of finishing the game. That's something many coaches do that I will never quite understand.
