From The Athletic, quoting coaches who have faced us. Lots of other teams from Big East, Pac-12 and SEC included, plus others like Gonzaga and Houston.
“They’re just so athletic and aggressive. You gotta protect the paint and make them beat you from 3. With Nick Smith Jr. coming back, you wonder if he will disrupt their chemistry, but he’s such a good player, I don’t know how you wouldn’t roll the dice with it. They don’t shoot the three great. They’re trying to get to the free-throw line. You gotta double team Anthony Black and make him a passer. Make Ricky Council IV shoot 3s. He’s shooting 25 percent in the conference. Their defense is OK – not great, not bad. They don’t have an elite lockdown defender. They have some freshmen on the floor who will get turned around. The Mitchells are just OK at blocking shots. They don’t have much depth so they have to play three guards all 40 minutes.”
Damn. I agree with some things. Like the obvious “double team Black” and make Council shoot 3’s. The “they don’t have a lock down defender” is rubbish. Post that on Devonte’s locker please. And the Mitchell’s are just ok as shot blocker’s? That quote must have been made before the recent Mitchell twin block fests.
And yes, you have to incorporate Nick. That’s a no brainer. Duh. Thank you mr anon coach for that devastatingly brilliant observation.
I would call Devo a lockdown defender because he’s pretty much done that to everybody he’s face.
The rest of the spot on until we learn to hit the three pointer we’re always going to be a very average half court offensive team.
He took a hit to the side of the head on the first few minutes of the game and played with a chip on his shoulder and the Moo U defender got in his head. He played Terrible after that.
He sure made some bad decisions with the ball late. The bounce pass to Smith didn’t have a chance. The lob pass in the middle wasn’t there just to point out 2. He isn’t alone but I sure don’t play like we know he can.
Well I don’t think I said he was perfect but he is an incredibly good defensive player if you can’t see that then how can you help you. Pretty typical of some people to focus on one little segment of the game while shuts down the guy for the rest of the game
No doubt about it but without him the last 3 weeks we would have lost several games.
I am seeing people throw him under the bus for having one bad game… blows my mind…
There’s not a person on this team hasn’t had a bad game and I don’t see them being crucified like he has been.
Makhel always acts like the ball is a hot potato unless he has an uncontested dunk. I really like the Mitchell twins but they often play offense too scared IMO.
Yes, he dont deserve to be trashed. Seems as though the team’s margin of error is pretty small at this point - less than great game by any 1-2 spells trouble.
Seems like that part of the report was written based on MSU game. Although there have been other games where Devo had lost his man too. But based on body of work, don’t know how one can say that Devo is not a lockdown defender.
Yeah this is not a team that’s going to be blowing anybody out very often especially in the SEC. Devo has been absolutely phenomenal now for quite some time.
It was a bad game by a lot of people Saturday but he seems to be the one that people are harping on
Hopefully him and the team can get back on track Wednesday night, not going to be easy but we have seen what they can do when they play well
That’s fair. Devo frustrates us because we all think he’s a lockdown defender until he’s not. And it’s noticeable because it seems to happen at crucial times. Maybe that’s why I notice it. Coach also praised him for not coming about the other night and jacking up 3s after a good outing. Then the very next game he jacks up 10 of them and air balls at least one. There are things Devo is really great at that no one else is. I wish he focused on that. There’s no doubt we need him to be at his best if we want to make a run. We can’t do it without him. I imagine muss says some of the same stuff to him. It’s not throwing him under the buss. It’s holding him accountable for the great player that he is. He should be better because he IS better.
Well when he has 1 bad game in the last month and is not PERFECT defensively,everybody points out what he did wrong LOL so yes people threw him under the bus as if nobody else had a bad game.
Devo will make some mistakes because he wants to win so bad he tries to make plays that are not there or are high % plays but he is getting better at that.
He has been shooting so well I don’t blame him for trying to make shots the other day,nobody else was doing so he said I will try to do it!! and he has been doing it but Sat was just a bad mojo day for EVERYBODY not just him…
We need a big win Wed night and Muss said he is not worried about Devo bouncing back and neither am I.