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Let me try to kick this off with a quick post before bed here, really excited for the matchups in this game, some really juicy ones. Just go into the opening matchups to start the game cause its late.
GK vs Muscala – Muscala is going to get his, he did in the championship game and he will this year in all PL games, so you got to hope GK can offset some of his production like he did in last years championship game. Gabe gave Mike some trouble last year as he put in 23 in that championship game which helped offset the 30 that Muscala went for. How we mix in the double team will be interesting..in perfect world you bring the double and rotate around to cover Willman who is deadly from mid-range, as well as get on Johnson and Ayers, and hope the ball ends up in Hill/Frazier/Kaspar’s hands and make those guys beat you from outside. If the combo of those 3 beat you, you just tip your hat and move on.
HG vs Willman – This is really juicy man, what a matchup, HG playing his best basketball of his career and Willman is just so solid and tough. HG a step quicker and will try to isolate Willman off the dribble. I think we’ll see a lot of Pick-N-Roll action with HG and Mackey at the top of the key, and we’ll see how BU wants to play it. Make Willman defend from 20 feet on in, and putting the ball in Mackey’s hands and let him operate and make the decision at the top of the key. A question for 137, how much is Willman operating out of the post on offense this year? Is Paulsen going to him down low or is Willman pretty much just shooting mid-range jumpers that he specializes in when he is open off a Muscala double team? This is one of the matchups that has to go LU’s way for a win.
Bailey vs. Ayers- My best guess is the more physically gifted, long and athletic BJ draws Ayers from the tip, as I think Ayers to big and strong for AD to cover. BJ is our best perimeter defender and even though he gives up couple inches to Ayers, I think he is a better athlete than Ayers and BJ is deceptively long. I think he can slow Ayers down and on offense if BJ can hit a couple open 3 balls like he did down the stretch last year, that’d be great. As we have discussed, like seeing BJ be aggressive on offense nad look to penetrate off the dribble, he has gotten into the lane but hasn’t finished consistently, but I’d like to see him try to take it to Ayers on the offensive end.
AD vs. Johnson – We know Johnson’s game, he takes 7.8 shots per game and 5.2 of them are from 3. AD has to stay active running around screens and running out on Johnson, should be good matchup. I think AD can take him off the dribble on offense, AD needs to make Johnson work on defensive end.
Mackey vs. Hill – Mackey McKnight, aka the Maestro Man, has to make it happen for LU to win. Mackey should have an advantage over Hill or Kaspar, and he has to be the lead dog for LU on Wednesday. Again, you’re going to see a lot of Mackey and Greiner PNR at the top of the key, and will be interesting to see how BU defends it. The PNR with those two has been deadly the last 3 games, deadly.
Will be interesting to see the tempo of the game, we want to speed it up and they want to slow it down. Last year we played 3 times vs BU, and we played a game in the 50’s, a game in the 60’s, and a game in the high 70’s/low 80’s.
Bench – we clearly need to win bench production, so that means CS JG SC really bringing it. Would love to see SC outshoot is canadian counterpart in Johnson, that’d be cool.
More over the next 40+ hours, but that should get everyone started when they wake up tomorrow.