...and yeah, I'm gonna be that guy.
For all the "close to 100%" bravado from Joel before the Arky game, even then his ankle wasn't back to normal. Fortunately it was close enough to get a vintage JB game against the swine.
However, his tweaking of it in that game took its toll as I thought it would... and then he reinjured it Saturday. Truth be known, his favoring of that ankle likely contributed to rolling the other one Sunday. I'm saying all this to give y'all the reality check that no matter what anyone says publicly, we are going the rest of the way with a wounded PG. The only question will be how wounded?
JB was in abject pain Sunday --- couldn't even get back down the ladder without help --- and 5 days and all the therapy in the world ain't gonna totally get him past it. The best we can hope is he gets back to Arky game level and doesn't make it worse in the Semis (in itself an unlikely scenario).
The Oregon game in particular calls for a strong JB. Their match-up Zone is designed to account for shooters, which makes it weak at gap control. In other words it is vulnerable to drives from Guards. Mason made hay driving against it and we'll need the same from Berry. Stress the gaps and force their rim-protector to make decisions. Granted, our Zone-O relies on Wing entries and creating passing angles, but having JB's ability to take it is a big deal, and of course we need his legs under him to knock down 3s.
Overall, I fear a 1977 scenario when Phil Ford toughed it out game after game but was virtually playing on one leg in the Final. We're already down Kenny Williams ---- and although that's not the equivalent of losing the great Tommy LaGarde, it still hurts.
Normally we would be looking at this year's Final 4 and licking our chops. Now, not so much. We've got a battle on our hands. Little Dog is a warrior and played an unbelievable 33 minutes Sunday. Sometime, maybe 4 or 5 weeks from now, that ankle will be back to normal. Meanwhile we just have to hope for the best as well as for other guys to keep stepping up.
For all the "close to 100%" bravado from Joel before the Arky game, even then his ankle wasn't back to normal. Fortunately it was close enough to get a vintage JB game against the swine.
However, his tweaking of it in that game took its toll as I thought it would... and then he reinjured it Saturday. Truth be known, his favoring of that ankle likely contributed to rolling the other one Sunday. I'm saying all this to give y'all the reality check that no matter what anyone says publicly, we are going the rest of the way with a wounded PG. The only question will be how wounded?
JB was in abject pain Sunday --- couldn't even get back down the ladder without help --- and 5 days and all the therapy in the world ain't gonna totally get him past it. The best we can hope is he gets back to Arky game level and doesn't make it worse in the Semis (in itself an unlikely scenario).
The Oregon game in particular calls for a strong JB. Their match-up Zone is designed to account for shooters, which makes it weak at gap control. In other words it is vulnerable to drives from Guards. Mason made hay driving against it and we'll need the same from Berry. Stress the gaps and force their rim-protector to make decisions. Granted, our Zone-O relies on Wing entries and creating passing angles, but having JB's ability to take it is a big deal, and of course we need his legs under him to knock down 3s.
Overall, I fear a 1977 scenario when Phil Ford toughed it out game after game but was virtually playing on one leg in the Final. We're already down Kenny Williams ---- and although that's not the equivalent of losing the great Tommy LaGarde, it still hurts.
Normally we would be looking at this year's Final 4 and licking our chops. Now, not so much. We've got a battle on our hands. Little Dog is a warrior and played an unbelievable 33 minutes Sunday. Sometime, maybe 4 or 5 weeks from now, that ankle will be back to normal. Meanwhile we just have to hope for the best as well as for other guys to keep stepping up.
