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This is the same BSU team that went into Creighton last year and came out with a 12 point win - they have everyone back from last year. They have several guys that a capable of going off big. Drimic has multiple 30 plus games this year. Last year in at Michigan State the PG Marks went for 24 and then in the Creighton game had 35. Elongoria while not the most athletic finds a way to get shots and makes them at an uncanny rate. 59% from 3 this year on 66 shots and 45% for entire season last year.
Watkins is big, but also an effort guy that will get boards and put backs. They have a little bit of an international basketball style to them with three Aussie kids and a kid from Latvia. Good ball movement, good shooters, good spacing.
Coach Rice is a former 11 year assistant at Gonzaga working under Coach Few.
Should be a fun game. One that worries me in that if Boise gets multiple shooters hot they are really tough to guard. I think this will end up in the Cyclone win column, but will be a fun game to watch and one that will test our defense.
Yeah, Marks is a better player than Elorriaga, and Elorriaga is better matchup for Matt since he really just has to guard the 3 without helping much. Guarding a great spot up shooter can be a relatively easy thing to do.
Drmic is not a post player. He scores on drives and cuts to the basket and some 3s. Niang is not quick enough to guard him and he is way too small to guard Niang. He might be 6'-6" but he is skinny. I'm guessing Hogue guards him. I would like to see us go at him on defense, since he will have to guard Hogue or Ejim. We should be able to score inside against them all night. The size they do have, is big and slow other than maybe Watkins.
Whoever guards Eliorraga just needs to stay with him at all times. He extremely slow and has a slow release but doesn't miss 3's when he is open. The only way he gets open is if you choose to leave him to help on a driver.
The one concern is Drmic?
He is a strech 4 that is currently playing well in Hawaii, averaging 25.5 points/game. He had 30 last night (21 in the first half), with 2 three's made. Miles Simon was speculating last night that Niang wouldn't be matching up with him, mainly due to concern that Drmic would get in foul trouble. I thought that was interesting due to Niang's only limitations this year where when he would have foul issues, appearently this is a issue for AM too.
I am guessing we'll use the "Tree" defense from last night, double team Drmic and force the ball out to the other players. I also think that Ejim will be his primary defender in Man-to-Man D. Likely Fred will iso and attack Drmic to try to draw him into foul issues when on offense, especially if Niang draws him on D.
Agreed. Drmic had nearly half of Boise's points in the first half last night. The key is shutting him down and making his supporting cast try and beat you. I don't think they have the firepower to get the job done offensively.
On the other side of the ball... Who is Boise State going to try and shut down? Niang? Shut him down at the expense of Hogue and Ejim going off (you can say that for any of ISU's bigs)? Shut down Kane? Good luck with that.
ISU poses a threat most other teams can't. The scoring is so balanced that a defense isn't going to be successful trying to take 1 ISU player out of the mix offensively. No... the defense has to try and limit 3 or 4 guys which is damn near impossible. Reid Gettys is correct when he says that 1-5 ISU is the most difficult team in the country to match up against.
From reading just a bit about them it sounds like they play a similiar style to us. Up-tempo and aggressive. Match-ups will be key and may develop as the game progresses.