I’ve watched a little bit of both teams before tonight, not a ton. One thing that was obvious is that UNC absolutely shot the cover off the ball tonight. While the majority were good shots due to ball movement, some were also just late shot clock BS. For how highly touted and ranked this SDST defense was in all the metrics, they sure didn’t look to play with much energy or physicality. I attribute some of that to a comparitively weak conference schedule (no disprespect to MWC, solid mid major conference).
Cadeau (3) is a fantastic facilitator, I think Pedulla will have his hands full but also will be able to slow him down and deny some of the easy drive/dishes that he was getting tonight. Our switching should be able to chop up their rhythm and deny RJ Davis (4) from easy catches to shoot. I expect Murrell, our best defending guard, to get primary D responsibility on Davis. Lubin (22) and Withers (24) looked like decent rebounders, with Withers being able to stretch it out a little. Don’t get it twisted, their bigs are not even in the top half of what we have seen this year from teams like A&M, Auburn, Florida, etc.
SDST had an off shooting night. I do not attribute that as much to UNC’s defense as I do to the Aztecs just honestly not being that great of an offensive team, the stats support my statement. Defensively, UNC has some flaws with paint protection that our strong guards and crafty bigs should be able to exploit.
At the end of the day, there isn’t going to be an easy path for a 6 seed in the big dance. I do think we got just about as good as a draw as we could ask for with a lack of possible SEC teams to play in the first few games. UNC is not anything that we haven’t seen and cannot handle. I think Dre Davis will have himself a game against Powell (9) if that ends up being the matchup. We must stay true to our identity and not turn the ball over. If we do that. We’ll be saying hello to a banged up Iowa State team with a real chance at going to the Sweet 16 for the first time in a quarter century.
Cadeau (3) is a fantastic facilitator, I think Pedulla will have his hands full but also will be able to slow him down and deny some of the easy drive/dishes that he was getting tonight. Our switching should be able to chop up their rhythm and deny RJ Davis (4) from easy catches to shoot. I expect Murrell, our best defending guard, to get primary D responsibility on Davis. Lubin (22) and Withers (24) looked like decent rebounders, with Withers being able to stretch it out a little. Don’t get it twisted, their bigs are not even in the top half of what we have seen this year from teams like A&M, Auburn, Florida, etc.
SDST had an off shooting night. I do not attribute that as much to UNC’s defense as I do to the Aztecs just honestly not being that great of an offensive team, the stats support my statement. Defensively, UNC has some flaws with paint protection that our strong guards and crafty bigs should be able to exploit.
At the end of the day, there isn’t going to be an easy path for a 6 seed in the big dance. I do think we got just about as good as a draw as we could ask for with a lack of possible SEC teams to play in the first few games. UNC is not anything that we haven’t seen and cannot handle. I think Dre Davis will have himself a game against Powell (9) if that ends up being the matchup. We must stay true to our identity and not turn the ball over. If we do that. We’ll be saying hello to a banged up Iowa State team with a real chance at going to the Sweet 16 for the first time in a quarter century.
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