Musketeer Madness

Two of my buddies who watch much more BBall than me (I pretty much just watch XU) are watching more XU games this year. They each played & coached when younger. They each have the same thought. Why doesn't XU play 2 of our 3 Bigs together more often. That would be 2 of Kanter, O'Mara & Jones. We must do this some as those 3 guys Avg 47 Minutes Per Game.This is something Mack has avoided most of his time with us. Reynolds & Farr should have been paired often & it drove me nuts it didn't happen. Marshall & Gates seem to play the #4 pos as they both seem good on D. Jones is also good on D & O'Mara has improved also. This would seem to help us defend better in the paint & open up a double post threat on offense.

On offense, look how efficient we are when we clear out space for our one big at a time. On defense, look how important it is to get back on D. I just don't see the benefits of playing two of them at once ... what a nice problem to have - a three headed monster, one monster at a time.

One thing I'm appreciating more this year is our D doesn't depend on steals and blocks. The benefits are minimizing easy baskets and avoiding foul situations.

I don't see the benefit of playing two bigs at once - especially our slow and methodical good footwork bigs. I'm trying to recall when I've seen it happen this year and what the result might have been.

Earlier in the year before the emergence of Naji, Kanter did sub for Gates many times. We have seen him at the 4 since then, but only in spurts. Mack has all five hitting the defensive backboard and with the other four all around 6'5"- 6'8" we have good overall size. In addition we have at least four guys who can rebound and go. They do not need to look for the outlet pass. Actually with Kanter, we have five who can rebound and go. With the success of Nova, college basketball is seeing more 3/4 guards and one big. Georgetown, Purdue, and Arizona are more the exceptions these days.

We are just lucky to have the depth to adapt, when the original game plan is not working.

two bigs might be good but not against a team that plays transition basketball like CU, SH, Nova for sure. When we kneed it Chris has played 2 bigs. When KK and Sean are in the game together the inside out works very nicely.