Bucknell - Will Roy Go Small?

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Bucknell comes into our house 0-2, but they probably aren't that bad. They were a 13 seed in the NCAAT last season, losing a close one in the opening round to WVa (who, in turn, lost a squeaker to Gozaga in the Sweet 16).

Looks like they return their entire 2017 starting lineup (and nearly their entire team).

They liked a fairly fast tempo last season, and are starting off the same way this year.

They are somewhat short. Here's their starting lineup:

5'11 165 - Brown
6'1 190 - McKenzie
6'3 187 - Toomer
6'7 228 - Thomas
6'9 230 - Foulland

They have a couple of 6'8 guys who combine for about 30 minutes. Which is to say that they only play about 60 minutes (out of 80) up front with guys 6'8 or 6'9.

So . . . they start small and get smaller.

Now I expect Roy to play our bigs a good bit. Especially in the 1st half. Because that's our game. But this also sounds like a perfect team to play around with small ball. Especially if Cam is back.

For one thing, it might be a good foe to experiment with people other than Luke in the post while playing small ball.

Alternatively, Roy might want to give our bigs all the PT they can handle in prep for Stanford - which has a whole lot of height to throw at us. Build their confidence. Get them used to the minutes.

What do you guys expect?

 

[Tom79]

I would hope we go with our game plan, as you mentioned above, and play bigs a bunch in the first half to give them court time and to mix it up as to personnel.
For a little excitement we could go with Brooks in the middle, Cam, Luke, TP, and Jalek, or remain the same line without Garrison and put in BRob to fill out an all 2-3 kind of lineup. We have enough guys to go with a bunch of 6'4" to 6"8" guys and run Roy, run.

 

[Archer2]

Our game plan won’t change, we’ll go with the same starting lineup. We’ll make a conscious effort to go inside early and often and look to kill them on the boards.

HST, we may see some small ball.

 

[Green C14]

Some of you guys who know more than I do need to explain this strategy to me. Why would Roy give up the size advantage we have on Bucknell and go small when our system is geared to run through our bigs and thereby exploit just such an advantage? Where would that give us an edge in match-ups?
Wouldn't we be more likely to go small against larger teams where we would have a quickness and mobility advantage when matching up?

 

[Tom79]

We wouldn't give up our advantage. We will go with the game plan, feed the bigs. It would be fun to see some small-er ball though.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Some of you guys who know more than I do need to explain this strategy to me. Why would Roy give up the size advantage we have on Bucknell and go small when our system is geared to run through our bigs and thereby exploit just such an advantage? Where would that give us an edge in match-ups?
Wouldn't we be more likely to go small against larger teams where we would have a quickness and mobility advantage when matching up?

I'm mainly thinking of this in terms of testing our small ball lineup(s) against a smaller team.

There are lots of reasons why we might want to play small ball this year. Not least that our green bigs may not be able to give us all the minutes of quality play that we need. And sometimes we'll probably run into a pesky smaller team that gives us fits and we'll want to match up with them.

So here we have a good smaller team where we might be able to dominate in the paint - which is why I assume we'll try that first - but against which we can gauge how well our small ball options are likely to work, and what we need to do to get them ready for prime time.

I say this assuming we won't have too much trouble winning this game. So I see it as a good laboratory. Needless to say if Bucknell gives us trouble - and they might - I will expect Roy to do what he needs to do to win. But I hope he will take this opportunity to play small for good stretches - and, in particular, to try different guys as the only big man on the floor.

It would be great, for example, if Huff or Sterling could be the anchor on a small ball squad, since that would let Luke and Garrison recharge at the same time. If we have good shooters on the perimeter, they will mainly need to sprint the court and defend the rim. Are either of them up to that? That's one thing I'd want to see.

 

[ThatsMyForte]

I don't think we are going to play small ball until it is absolutely necessary. We are going to continue to pound the paint and attempt to dominate the glass against these inferior opponents in order to install the "Carolina Way" of scoring inside for our youngsters. Whether it is successful or not, that is just something I feel like we will do IMO. Although, there will be some games that we are forced to play small simply because our bigs will not be ready, get in foul trouble, or simply are not doing what they're supposed to be doing. So will we fool around with a small lineup or two, yes, because we'll have to. Plus, it will be our best chance to actually play our up and down style. But overall we are not going to make drastic changes this early in the year before our underclassmen have learned the original system.

 

[gauchoheel]

Luke is going to play 30 minutes, but when he is out we will go small, just like we did last game. I don't think Roy wants 2 frosh bigs on the floor, but as long as Luke is healthy we shouldn't expect to go small for more than 10-15 minutes per game all season unless Luke slides down and plays the 5 (which he might).

 

[WhitePhantoms]

If we don't play small at least a decent amount it'll be foolish. There will be a times this year where we have to go small. It's better to go small against real opponents in real games to see what we have than to throw it out there a fly by the seam of our pants and hope for the best.

 

[Geth]

If you have a size advantage- you play to the size advantage, you don't give it away especially when you aren't scared of playing uptempo.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

If you have a size advantage- you play to the size advantage, you don't give it away especially when you aren't scared of playing uptempo.

That's reasonable later in the season. But we need to learn things about our team early and against real competition. But not against MSU or other teams with a good shot of beating us. Bucknell may be a good opportunity that we won't have later.

Then again, Bucknell may give us a scare. We'll see.

 

[chapelhillbill67]

If you have a size advantage- you play to the size advantage, you don't give it away especially when you aren't scared of playing uptempo.

I agree with you Geth. Our main concern coming into this season was and still is the play of our bigs. I think we need to give them as much confidence building floor time as possible and help them develop into a real force by ACC time.