Villanova (MSG), Sat., Jan. 11 , 7p, CBSSN

Knight

Knight

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Hearing Brunson, Hart and Bridges were just given another 2 weeks of college eligibility and are using it this coming Saturday?🤪

Looking forward to my annual NY St Johns trip this weekend to go with my son and a few grandkids to game. Last year I came up for the UConn game….. big mistake, was told my language wasn’t appropriate in front of my grandkids towards opposing fans. 😂👍 Hooefully it will improve this weekend.
 
They have a HUGE game tomorrow at home against UConn. They really need that game if they want to play themselves back into the NCAA Tournament mix which I think they’re good enough to do
 
I was at the MSG game last year against Nova and watched the road W on TV (what I'll refer to as the "Brady game").

My recall is that Dixon was good against us both games, but that he didn't go crazy. I don't recall how we defended him, though my guess is Soriano was a big part of that, and while I love big Joel, he was a better offensive player/rebounder than he was a defender, and by a significant margin.

My recall is also that we controlled Nova from 3 in both games, and destroyed them on the glass at the MSG game (I don't remember what happened during the Nova road game when Brady was banging shots).
 
Marillac2 said:
Statistically, Nova and St. John’s are complete opposites.
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Of course it could go either way but I view this one as a positive. Our D will limit their potent offense and their porous D will allow us to score and get better shots. Goes without saying that we need to limit their made 3s as that has been one of their specialties and we clearly won’t win any 3pt shootouts. I do expect us to shoot well from 3 in this game. We are due to move back towards the mean.
 
paultzman said:
“Bully Ball” Johnnies should prevail with solid D and keeping Nova off balance. Let Scott hound Dixon perhaps and not drag Zuby outside to guard his three point game.
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Interesting re: Scott on Dixon.

Paultz (or anyone else) do you recall who we had defending him last year? Because I thought we did a pretty good job on him both games. My assumption is Joel spent a lot of time doing so given the other 4 kids Nova likely had on the court with him.
 
hardytime said:
Interesting re: Scott on Dixon.

Paultz (or anyone else) do you recall who we had defending him last year? Because I thought we did a pretty good job on him both games. My assumption is Joel spent a lot of time doing so given the other 4 kids Nova likely had on the court with him.
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Agree. I think Scott is big enough and a great defender to make that the match up. I am not overly concerned about Zuby getting into foul trouble as he virtually never does, but I like the Scott/Dixon defense. Dixon has been very hard to guard all year, and is leading he country in scoring, so I would think our best big defender makes sense. I just hope that Scott doesn't get into foul trouble doing do.
 
Eric Dixon 6'8" 265/Aaron Scott 6'7" 210/Zuby 6'9" 240/Soriano 6'10" 256

I say to keep Zuby out of foul trouble and near the rim, we put Scott on Dixon and attack him with smart double teams, different guys attack him low to disrupt his game, try to force bad passes.

One on one, Dixon is a beast with his size and strength, plus a nice touch from outside,

I love Zuby and he is our version, but with less muscle (and he's got a lot of muscle).

Other way to go is let Dixon get his and shut the rest of Nova down.

CRP and Mass will figure it out.
 
hardytime said:
Interesting re: Scott on Dixon.

Paultz (or anyone else) do you recall who we had defending him last year? Because I thought we did a pretty good job on him both games. My assumption is Joel spent a lot of time doing so given the other 4 kids Nova likely had on the court with him.
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Frankly I don’t recall.

Btw, I appreciated Joel’s contribution here, but Zuby does a much better job not hedging so much and/or recovers more quickly than Joel. Soriano getting isolated on guards so much reallly hurt our D a lot and resulted in piling up fouls. Repeating myself, but Zuby’s ability to avoid fouling much is extraordinary and so important to our success.
 
Dixon's averaging 8 three point attempts in Big East play. We cannot lose track of him from the perimeter trying to get rebounds. I'm worried about Scott getting into foul trouble with the size disadvantage.

I think this is Zuby's game to shine from the perimeter. His perimeter defense has been outstanding. But if not him, why not Prey? He weighs 230 and can also move laterally. He had some glimpses of a real shutdown defender against Freemantle last night.
 
dk423 said:
Dixon's averaging 8 three point attempts in Big East play. We cannot lose track of him from the perimeter trying to get rebounds. I'm worried about Scott getting into foul trouble with the size disadvantage.

I think this is Zuby's game to shine from the perimeter. His perimeter defense has been outstanding. But if not him, why not Prey? He weighs 230 and can also move laterally. He had some glimpses of a real shutdown defender against Freemantle last night.
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Good thought on Prey, but have not figured out how and why Rick uses him game to game.

My theory is Scott has picked up a lot of fouls in traffic, but just my recollection net of data. If Dixon did back him down in traffic, Zuby is there to help. I like Zuby inside to give opposition’s drivers something to think about too. Then again I trust Rick to figure this out.
 
dk423 said:
Dixon's averaging 8 three point attempts in Big East play. We cannot lose track of him from the perimeter trying to get rebounds. I'm worried about Scott getting into foul trouble with the size disadvantage.

I think this is Zuby's game to shine from the perimeter. His perimeter defense has been outstanding. But if not him, why not Prey? He weighs 230 and can also move laterally. He had some glimpses of a real shutdown defender against Freemantle last night.
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Agree, that given Dixon's game, Prey might help here and there, more than other bigs for us.

Frankly, Freemantle is good but no Dixon.

Dixon is the epitome of big strong undersized college big, with a strong inside game, his added dimesion is stroking the three ball. He's not only a tough match-up for us, but for a lot of teams.
 
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