Primo Spears indefatigueable?

[Sonoma Muskie]

Spears got 37 pts against the Muskies when his H.S. Average was only 21!
Could we have defended him by committee using Craft,Tandy, Claude & sometimes Kunkle for 2-3 minute stretches by each guy hounding him to the point of exhaustion.? ? Even fouling Spears to wear him out & beat him down.Make him beat us from the foul line rather than with 2s & 3s from the field.
I’m no bb coach but Spears is not Seth Curry either.
Is he stoppable? Puzzling.

[Lead Guitar]

I don’t think changing the defender when an offensive player is in his zone is the answer most of the time. We couldn’t stop Marcus Howard from Marquette a few years ago. Teams couldn’t stop Jordan Crawford or Tu Holloway or David West with a straight man to man. You may have to try different things, when you know someone is going to take half of the team’s shots and it is working for them. It’s the old make someone else beat you. (Of course, we did win by double digits.)

If one noticed, DePaul used a combination two guard zone or match-up to not give Souley any open shots and Souley is so disciplined that he rarely forces a shot. They pretty much decided that stopping our guards was the key to victory and hope that our bigs would just be average.

Most teams do not have a defender that can stop an offensive player player like Spears one on one. You can do what Miller tried first—try different players to see if anyone’s size or quickness can handle him. If that does not work, a decision has to be made; do you let one of your best offensive players, Jones or Boum foul out playing D or play him straight and stop the rest of the team; or do you bring out a junk defense that you may not have practiced that often; or throw a 3-2 or 1-3-1 that encourages the 3pt shot not the mid range or dribble drive to the basket.

I have faith that Miller will make the right decisions, even if it is just outscoring the other team. Old school defenses like box and 1 and triangle and 2, could work for awhile, but today’s coaches have seen it all and normally will adapt.

Spears is a much different player than Kolek or Shielman. He is a NY city type playground guard, who loves to see the straight one on one! It is interesting that the leading scorer in the Big East is averaging less than 18 pts a game. Not many teams win consistently with one scorer in the 20’s.

The bottom line is we won that game and the Creighton and Marquette games.

[olsingledigit]

And they could not stop Free either. Suppose their fans are saying the same about Zach? Souley did get 20 so they did not fully shut him down.

[edgecliff hall]

FYI Georgetown beat DePaul tonight.

[pdxmuskie]

Georgetown is not a team absent talent. They have simply struggled defensively. I would not be surprised if they get several more conference wins.