If you were Max Good for the day

[zagsfanforlife]

How would you go about trying to stop 7'0, 260 lb Jerome Jordan. He is a beast and many project him to be a lottery pick in the upcoming draft. Do you play him straight up with Garibay? Or do you immediately double on the catch, front him? Zone??? What would you way of stopping him be. This matchup kinda scares me, as it has seemed that big mean have had a field day against the Lions so far this year.

[uncurselmu]

I would stop running small lineups...

Garibay is so important for this team. Even though he has a ton of room to improve with regards to man on man defense and rebounding, he has the best inside presence on this team. I'm tired of watching our interior cave once he leaves the floor. (kinda like matty knight on a small scale all over again).

I like Sweezy, I like Tim D. However, when we are facing a tough inside opponent with size I'd hesistate to throw either of them at the 5 spot.

I think our team would have fewer consistency issues if we started Garibay at the 5, and then brought in osbourne off the bench at the 5 spot. Either Young, Sweezy, or Timmy D can play the 4. I think you could even easily slide young to the 3 spot, and go with an even bigger lineup to compensate for Garibay catching a breath on the bench.

Frontcourt of Young/Timmy D/Osbourne sounds like a good deal to me. I'm not worried about our starting lineup guarding opposing talented bigmen (actually i still am) but I'm even more concerned about the transition to when we bring the bench in. Admittedly Young/timmy/osbourne might not have the same offensive punch, but Osbourne is a solid 240 pounds, he has good rebounding instincts, and I think that will really help our team. I think If timmy is able to match up against some smaller players he'll be able to find his groove a bit more easily and will manage to pull down more boards than he is now.

[runthesystem]

Run him out of the gym. We're deep, let's make the big man run back on defense.

[lmutourney2011]

After looking at their lineup I wouldnt double big to big but instead rely on our guards digging down from the wings. They dont have many good shooters as from 3pt range they have two guys over 25% and shooting 25.9 as a team. Also if we double big to big there is a better chance that if jerome gets fouled its going to be be facing the basket and in the act of shooting which puts him on the line where he does a lot of damage. The best option is to get him to pass it out to the near side wing or up top and let our guards scramble out to their assingments. Edgar showed that he has quite a bit of body but it seems to me that he has a hard time getting his ass low on his blockout which could lead to a very skilled big man getting quite a few rebounds.
Other then Jerome they also have another big named Steven Idlet who is averaing 8 rebounds a game one less then JJ. He is also very good inside and making the most with his touches as his shooting ppercentages and FT% is higher.
They do have one guard who is 6'4 and had a 21 point game but that really skewed his stats including a 3 for 6 night behind the 3pt line. with out that night he is shooting 28.5% from 3.

We have to take it to these guys, they are very good but they are running only a 7 man rotation. If our guys are moving on offense and setting good screens we may be able to get a little deeper into their bench if they get tired. We cant however fall into the offense brain lapse like the begining of the second half against USC and become stagnant.

[lion99]

I also took a look at their stats for the past 3 games. Jerome Jordan is a solid 7' center and they also have height with 6'10" Steven Idlet. I don't think we should double team Jordan, try to contain him a bit and let him get his points. As lmutourney pointed out, other than Jordan, they're not a great shooting team. Let's force some of their guards to make plays and pressure the ball on the perimeter. They've had 21 turnovers in their most recent game against South Alabama. We know that LMU can create some turnovers.

I'd put Garibay on Jordan but not sure who would look to match-up against the 6'10" Idlet. I'm thinking KY. I expect to see lots of TD as well. Does anyone know the status of Hamilton?

[LIONS90045]

We need to keep Garibay in the game - that is avoid fouling out. He has been pretty good about this in prior games but Jordan is another matter. If Garibay gets in foul trouble, it could be a long evening.
I like uncurelmu's suggestion to get Osborne more involved inside, he could work with Garibay and Viney for a big front court and would help against the Jordan/Idlet pair under the net. Plus Osborne has a pretty decent shot from 15 feet.
Max hates the zone defense but this might be a situation where it would work to our advantage. I think Max used a strategy of collapsing inside on UND to limit their bigs, which worked well.
Tulsa is outrebounding opponents 45-30 per game, so this area will be key and Tim hasn't shown himself to be very strong here.
I expect Viney to put in another good game - 15-20 points at least. Our guards need to score to win. Davis went 32 minutes into the USC game before he finally broke thru his slump and contributed significantly at the end. We need a quicker start from Larry. JD and Vernon will contribute. Teel in particular has played a patient game on offense but can score more if needed.

[dedicatedlionfan]

There is actually an on-going bet with the team to find out when coach's head will blow off!!!! any bets here on which game it will be?

[irishlion]

Dedicated - I love our coach. And I think we maybe needed a little more passion, and in your face coaching, in the Irvine game, and USC game. We let down badly in UCI, and played long minutes with no energy in USC. Coach showed me what he can do with these guys last year, and I'm in his camp again this year.

Bottom line - Coach said in his interview before the USC game, that he took the blame for the UCI loss. His substitutions and match ups were ill advised. He then said they dropped the ball in allowing 9-10 possessions go by without Viney touching the ball. Tell me - when was the last time a D1 coach took the blame? They always say how strong the other team is. Or how our shots weren't falling. Or they were injured. etc. Our coach handled it with grace, and class, and protected his players. I love our coach. It's all Good.

[dedicatedlionfan]

agree with u irish! whole-heartedly!