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Not to totally crap on Biggie, but his defense has been awful tonight...

JohnnyDoeBoiler

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Sep 23, 2013
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outside of the two good charges he has taken, he has been really weak in on-ball screens. It looks like he is trying to do way to much on defense and be something he isn't.
 
Disagree. His defense has been just fine. He can't foul these guys everytime they make a drive to the basket.

I'm not disagreeing with you but he really struggled in defending the pick and roll at the top of the key. I am going to guess Purdue will see that if a team has one or two players on the wings that have some ability to run a pick and roll.
 
i'm not disagreeing with either one of you - but do you think it could be to our advantage if Biggie or Haas just puts a really hard foul on some dude cutting to the basket? A "statement foul". Nothing flagrant. Nothing cheap. Just a "come in here at your own risk" kind of foul.

Both those guys are so valuable I think they give up baskets to stay out of foul trouble.
 
The whole fouling hard to intimidate a team is a mindset of the past. All it does in today's college and pro game is pump the other team up and possibly get your player a tech/flagrant or ejection.
 
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i'm not disagreeing with either one of you - but do you think it could be to our advantage if Biggie or Haas just puts a really hard foul on some dude cutting to the basket? A "statement foul". Nothing flagrant. Nothing cheap. Just a "come in here at your own risk" kind of foul.

Both those guys are so valuable I think they give up baskets to stay out of foul trouble.
Yes they do. And they should. Play plat position D and make them hit a more difficult layup without fouling. If they make it they make it but stay in the game.
 
I'm not disagreeing with you but he really struggled in defending the pick and roll at the top of the key. I am going to guess Purdue will see that if a team has one or two players on the wings that have some ability to run a pick and roll.
Most of that was the Priller minutes with zero help from the wings. They fixed it. We HAVE seen this all year and will see more as this is practically the only offense in basketball today and is the logical way to attack big bigs. Don't forget we are pretty good defensively.
 
I can see us winning a National Championship and some idiot posting something like this. I thought this was Swanni's best defensive effort of the year when it mattered. He was able to draw two big charges, and made a spectacular block.
 
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I'm not disagreeing with you but he really struggled in defending the pick and roll at the top of the key. I am going to guess Purdue will see that if a team has one or two players on the wings that have some ability to run a pick and roll.

Yes, you don't want to pile on - but aside from some very good plays here and there, Swanigan's consistency has not been there of late.

He's never been a great defender, but he did not play well last night defensively.

And yes, he got 21 points last night (thankfully IU just tackled our players as their way of playing defense), but he was 5-14 last night.

When he's faced with quality size, he hasn't fared very well in many of those cases.

Yes, we're being critical - but for someone touted as a national player of the year, he has not really played like it of late. Thankfully, he's not selfish and he is helpful in making us win in other ways as well.
 
I'm not disagreeing with you but he really struggled in defending the pick and roll at the top of the key. I am going to guess Purdue will see that if a team has one or two players on the wings that have some ability to run a pick and roll.
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My guess and it is only a guess...AND based upon how far away he was from his man diving to the basket (which scored once I think and open three or four times) was that Biggie was told to NOT let them get into the three ball and help contain...becasue he made no attempt..(2nd half) to recover to his man. I believe and it is a guess only on what I was seeing that Purdue coaches were wanting Vince to really help on covering Biggies man diving to the basket and then another player would need to drop (Dakota helped with this some) and pick up Vince's man. Nobody wants to get into this scramble, but if you can get secondary rotation and stop the primary threat...the clock can become your friend.

All of this is a guess as to the explanation of what you saw...as it was not corrected, reasonable approach of giving up something to get something that was not executed well, but never costed Purdue as much as it looked like it could.
 
Biggie's defense last night was highly dependent on how the refs were calling the game. Anyone notice that aspect? He is a smart player and really pays attention to the how tight the game is called. That is why he was able to play the long minutes last night. As a player, you cannot step into every play coming at you and attempt to stop it. You will be on the bench by the end of the half, if not sooner.

On top of the refs, Biggie had to pay attention to where his man was. Bryant demonstrated he can hit the 3-pt shot, so Biggie had to play out on the perimeter. When your center is pulled out, he can't rush back in to stop drives and pick & rolls without risking fouls. I say give him a break. Biggie literally removed the entire IU front line from the game. That is defense in my book.
 
Biggie's defense last night was highly dependent on how the refs were calling the game. Anyone notice that aspect? He is a smart player and really pays attention to the how tight the game is called. That is why he was able to play the long minutes last night. As a player, you cannot step into every play coming at you and attempt to stop it. You will be on the bench by the end of the half, if not sooner.

On top of the refs, Biggie had to pay attention to where his man was. Bryant demonstrated he can hit the 3-pt shot, so Biggie had to play out on the perimeter. When your center is pulled out, he can't rush back in to stop drives and pick & rolls without risking fouls. I say give him a break. Biggie literally removed the entire IU front line from the game. That is defense in my book.

I don't think defense is his biggest issue at this point. He is having some consistency issues offensively.

Last night, he ended with 21 points (thanks to IU bulldozing people for fouls), but was 5-14 shooting - not good.

Michigan, he played pretty well - but it was also not a highly competitive game.

Penn State - he was 2-5 and got shut down basically by a couple Penn State guys.

Rutgers - 5-11, not horrible, but not very efficient for someone playing closer to the basket mostly.

Maryland - 9-19. Again, not horrible, but when you're shooting at that quantity, that's also a lot of misses.

Now, he's had some good games within that too - Michigan State he was great.

And again, this is holding him to very high standards - again, if you're going to push someone as national player of the year, then I expect pretty high standards. He's not playing incredibly efficient basketball of late.

Now we go into crunch time. You want to be NPOY, leave for the NBA draft, etc. - well this is your time to shine. Not that this is a great example because he didn't pan out in the NBA - but when JaJuan Johnson went against Washington's center, it was billed as a tough match-up. Johnson really came to play and won that match-up. You're going to have that happen with Swanigan against teams in both tournaments - and it's how you perform in these games that people remember. When teams have thrown some good players at Swanigan, he's struggled at times. He really needs to rise to the occasion. And yes, these double-doubles are great - but a 5-14 night against a good team has a good chance of not ending with a win.

This is his time to shine now.
 
I can see us winning a National Championship and some idiot posting something like this. I thought this was Swanni's best defensive effort of the year when it mattered. He was able to draw two big charges, and made a spectacular block.
I was going to say the same thing. Biggie has gotten better at moving his feet and was great on both of those charges. A couple of times this year he has really surprised me with how high he can jump when he needs to as shown on that block. Yes, the pick and roll thing is still an issue, but overall, this was one of his better defensive games.
 
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It appeared to me it was part of the overall game plan, so looking just at one position might be a bit misleading....sure, there were a few mistakes made, but I like the way Purdue defended the three-pt line generally in the half-court set....but, the Boilers gave up something in return.
Now, Indiana lit up Purdue's transition defense for a good part of the game and worked the offensive glass all game....credit the effort there....the Hoosiers have some athletic wings, and Bryant can be difficult to stop inside when he's committed to it.

Also, the Boilers generally took care of the ball better than I expected.....10 turnovers....decent.....especially when you factor a few were early and three as the result of Isaac Haas' offensive fouls.

And.....great work from the charity stripe should not be overlooked: 28-33!

The "Big Three" (CS, VE, and IH) were 21-22.....outstanding! Biggie alone (even with an off shooting night from the field) was 11-12. His FT's, mid-range game, and rebounding do translate to the next level. I'd love to see the Spurs or the Rockets select him.
 
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I don't think defense is his biggest issue at this point. He is having some consistency issues offensively.

Last night, he ended with 21 points (thanks to IU bulldozing people for fouls), but was 5-14 shooting - not good.

Michigan, he played pretty well - but it was also not a highly competitive game.

Penn State - he was 2-5 and got shut down basically by a couple Penn State guys.

Rutgers - 5-11, not horrible, but not very efficient for someone playing closer to the basket mostly.

Maryland - 9-19. Again, not horrible, but when you're shooting at that quantity, that's also a lot of misses.

Now, he's had some good games within that too - Michigan State he was great.

And again, this is holding him to very high standards - again, if you're going to push someone as national player of the year, then I expect pretty high standards. He's not playing incredibly efficient basketball of late.

Now we go into crunch time. You want to be NPOY, leave for the NBA draft, etc. - well this is your time to shine. Not that this is a great example because he didn't pan out in the NBA - but when JaJuan Johnson went against Washington's center, it was billed as a tough match-up. Johnson really came to play and won that match-up. You're going to have that happen with Swanigan against teams in both tournaments - and it's how you perform in these games that people remember. When teams have thrown some good players at Swanigan, he's struggled at times. He really needs to rise to the occasion. And yes, these double-doubles are great - but a 5-14 night against a good team has a good chance of not ending with a win.

This is his time to shine now.
As Frank said concerning Boig Dog...he is hungry and ready to eat
 
It appeared to me it was part of the overall game plan, so looking just at one position might be a bit misleading....sure, there were a few mistakes made, but I like the way Purdue defended the three-pt line generally in the half-court set....but, the Boilers gave up something in return.
Now, Indiana lit up Purdue's transition defense for a good part of the game and worked the offensive glass all game....credit the effort there....the Hoosiers have some athletic wings, and Bryant can be difficult to stop inside when he's committed to it.

Also, the Boilers generally took care of the ball better than I expected.....10 turnovers....decent.....especially when you factor a few were early and three as the result of Isaac Haas' offensive fouls.

And.....great work from the charity stripe should not be overlooked: 28-33!

The "Big Three" (CS, VE, and IH) were 21-22.....outstanding! Biggie alone (even with an off shooting night from the field) was 11-12. His FT's, mid-range game, and rebounding do translate to the next level. I'd love to see the Spurs or the Rockets select him.
If you tell me we will have 10 turnovers each of our remaining games, I like our chances to have a very nice postseason. Right now Michigan averages the fewest turnovers per game (9.4) in D1. As efficient as we are on offense if we can stay around that 10 figure we really increase our chances for success. When we have those 15+ games we can get beat by anybody in the tournament.
 
If you tell me we will have 10 turnovers each of our remaining games, I like our chances to have a very nice postseason. Right now Michigan averages the fewest turnovers per game (9.4) in D1. As efficient as we are on offense if we can stay around that 10 figure we really increase our chances for success. When we have those 15+ games we can get beat by anybody in the tournament.

FYI - we had 11 against Michigan...and we shot 50% from the field.

Defense will matter a lot.
 
FYI - we had 11 against Michigan...and we shot 50% from the field.

Defense will matter a lot.
Didn't say it guaranteed victory or that we didn't have to play well in other areas. I think it would be hard to argue that turnovers have been the single biggest problem for us all season. Limit those and it greatly increases our chance for victory.
 
If you tell me we will have 10 turnovers each of our remaining games, I like our chances to have a very nice postseason. Right now Michigan averages the fewest turnovers per game (9.4) in D1. As efficient as we are on offense if we can stay around that 10 figure we really increase our chances for success. When we have those 15+ games we can get beat by anybody in the tournament.

Agree, Dry....and kudos to Vincent who seems to have limited the travelling calls recently.....the "kiss of death" now, of course.
 
Didn't say it guaranteed victory or that we didn't have to play well in other areas. I think it would be hard to argue that turnovers have been the single biggest problem for us all season. Limit those and it greatly increases our chance for victory.

Obviously they have gotten out of control a few times this season (which fittingly given this thread, Swanigan is usually a pretty big culprit in), I agree - and like Dakich was saying last night, if we face a team that presses, while we certainly have handled it better this year - we haven't seen much of it lately, so it could throw us off our game some. But usually if a team does not regularly press, they aren't terribly great at it - so it won't necessarily be a surprise if we do face it.
 
Obviously they have gotten out of control a few times this season (which fittingly given this thread, Swanigan is usually a pretty big culprit in), I agree - and like Dakich was saying last night, if we face a team that presses, while we certainly have handled it better this year - we haven't seen much of it lately, so it could throw us off our game some. But usually if a team does not regularly press, they aren't terribly great at it - so it won't necessarily be a surprise if we do face it.
I think it was in a different thread someone had said they hoped we meet Iowa in the BTT and they press us. I'll admit I've not watched them a lot this year, but if we could meet someone that would press it would be nice "real" practice for NCAA. Pressing just isn't something we see much of in the B1G but if we face someone in the tournament that presses regularly it could get interesting!
 
outside of the two good charges he has taken, he has been really weak in on-ball screens. It looks like he is trying to do way to much on defense and be something he isn't.
Purdue fans, as a whole, are wretched and miserable. It's their lot in life. Big win- look for the negatives.
 
Agree, Dry....and kudos to Vincent who seems to have limited the travelling calls recently.....the "kiss of death" now, of course.
well, keep this a secret...but he still does shuffle his feet sometimes when he fakes too hard. He only had that stretch of a couple of games where they came down on him for it, but he made a couple last night. IU fan not too far from me noted it...course it was minor compared to the bald headed little guy trying to make his presense known. Still can't believe his block on Haas BEFORE Bryant lowered his shoulder and tried to drive into Haas. Talk about anticipation of a call....
 
outside of the two good charges he has taken, he has been really weak in on-ball screens. It looks like he is trying to do way to much on defense and be something he isn't.
I love it when we take charges and he still got a double double... not trying to argue with but just an observation.:)
 
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