Big Matt and next year's defense

[ThatkidfromHolland]

I tend to believe that Matt is not elite defensively as well. "Elite" is a word used too often.
I do think he is very good. Maybe thats nitpicking.
But Collins takes him off the floor pretty regularly when he doesn't like the matchup... so that suggests that Matt is "elite" defensively against certain types of players - but he's not going to totally shut down the good ones. In general, he does do a fine job of altering shots from penetrating guards - or even just deterring them from attempting a shot.

If anything, Nicholson is underrated on the offensive end for the way he sets screens and how he clears space in the lane for his teammates. But his limitations there frustrate everybody - although our offense isn't geared toward getting him easy looks.

Agreed in that Nicholson’s excellent positioning and frame make him highly effective at "clearing the lane" for driving teammates. By sealing off defenders, he prevents help defense from collapsing on the ball handler, giving the driver more space to operate. Additionally, Nicholson is a solid passer for a center, adding another layer to his offensive contributions. He’s a large body who excels in post defense and is a very good help defender. Unfortunately being a large body makes it harder to defend skilled mobile players who can stretch the floor or score off the bounce.

However, I don’t know of any team that specifically tailors its offense to create easy opportunities for its least capable scorers. Typically, offenses are designed around the best offensive players, focusing on getting them good looks and favorable matchups. This approach not only maximizes scoring potential but often opens up opportunities for others as well. Given a choice, I'd prefer Martinelli or Berry taking the scoring opportunities over Nicholson, as they are more capable of creating offense on their own.

For an offense that generates easy looks for Nicholson, who struggles to create for himself and is really only a threat to dunk, a skilled guard would be needed. This guard would need to excel at driving and passing, drawing Nicholson’s defender away from him. This would create opportunities for lob passes to an open Nicholson. Unfortunately for Matt, that's not really the style of Barnhizer, Martinelli, or Berry, so those types of opportunities have been limited for Nicholson.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

If you shot Boo into the sun, he'd crossover, accelerate, hesitate, accelerate and then shoot one of those lollipop floaters that goes over the sun and gets nothing but net.

Hah!

 

[AdamOnFirst]

I tend to believe that Matt is not elite defensively as well. "Elite" is a word used too often.
I do think he is very good. Maybe thats nitpicking.
But Collins takes him off the floor pretty regularly when he doesn't like the matchup... so that suggests that Matt is "elite" defensively against certain types of players - but he's not going to totally shut down the good ones. In general, he does do a fine job of altering shots from penetrating guards - or even just deterring them from attempting a shot.

If anything, Nicholson is underrated on the offensive end for the way he sets screens and how he clears space in the lane for his teammates. But his limitations there frustrate everybody - although our offense isn't geared toward getting him easy looks.

Oh, Matt definitely isn’t elite. At anything! But elite isn’t the point and isn’t the bar. What he IS is a LEGITIMATE Big Ten defensive centerpiece interior and rim defender. A bonafide tournament power 2 team caliber inside big who impacts shots, guards other bigs, and anchors the entire defense. It ain’t flashy, but it’s like a big ten defense having the two big boy DTs inside who don’t have huge numbers but soak up all the blocks, stuff the A and B gaps, and let the LBs all make hay. They’re the critical anchor piece that you build everything around. Without you get torn apart inside, ripped up on the glass, and killed by skilled bigs, which this conference is loaded with. We lived through that for so, so many years.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

Agreed in that Nicholson’s excellent positioning and frame make him highly effective at "clearing the lane" for driving teammates. By sealing off defenders, he prevents help defense from collapsing on the ball handler, giving the driver more space to operate. Additionally, Nicholson is a solid passer for a center, adding another layer to his offensive contributions. He’s a large body who excels in post defense and is a very good help defender. Unfortunately being a large body makes it harder to defend skilled mobile players who can stretch the floor or score off the bounce.

However, I don’t know of any team that specifically tailors its offense to create easy opportunities for its least capable scorers. Typically, offenses are designed around the best offensive players, focusing on getting them good looks and favorable matchups. This approach not only maximizes scoring potential but often opens up opportunities for others as well. Given a choice, I'd prefer Martinelli or Berry taking the scoring opportunities over Nicholson, as they are more capable of creating offense on their own.

For an offense that generates easy looks for Nicholson, who struggles to create for himself and is really only a threat to dunk, a skilled guard would be needed. This guard would need to excel at driving and passing, drawing Nicholson’s defender away from him. This would create opportunities for lob passes to an open Nicholson. Unfortunately for Matt, that's not really the style of Barnhizer, Martinelli, or Berry, so those types of opportunities have been limited for Nicholson.

Agree with all of that...
I just think that when we play teams who don't have a low post presence - we should seek to abuse the size mismatch... because I don't think they can really stop it.
Clayton and Windham, being underclassmen (and facilitators first) will look for Matt (or Fitz) at the rim a lot more than Barnhizer did.

Really what it comes down to is that it drives me crazy when we can't bludgeon Big Ten teams that don't play a true center.

 

[ThatkidfromHolland]

Agree with all of that...
I just think that when we play teams who don't have a low post presence - we should seek to abuse the size mismatch... because I don't think they can really stop it.
Clayton and Windham, being underclassmen (and facilitators first) will look for Matt (or Fitz) at the rim a lot more than Barnhizer did.

Really what it comes down to is that it drives me crazy when we can't bludgeon Big Ten teams that don't play a true center.

You’re underselling Barnhizers ability to create for others. He just created after bullying his way inside and that isn’t going to open things up for a post scorer. I wouldn’t call either of the freshmen facilitators first at this point in their careers (KJ did just have a great night running the offense so that could change but imo he’s still looking to score). Also if Matt could score in traffic, utilize a post move, or score on the offensive glass, that would be how you take advantage of the size mismatch offensively. He is not capable of that, so no amount of teammates looking for him would take advantage of the size difference. The driving skilled guard is taking advantage of the mismatch they created and that opens things up for Matt, not the other way around.

 

[Catreporter]

A critical play in the last minute of the loss to Nebraska saw Windham penetrate to the basket and instead of shooting, try to pass to Nicholson, and the ball was taken away. I think he learned from that.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

You’re underselling Barnhizers ability to create for others. He just created after bullying his way inside and that isn’t going to open things up for a post scorer. I wouldn’t call either of the freshmen facilitators first at this point in their careers (KJ did just have a great night running the offense so that could change but imo he’s still looking to score). Also if Matt could score in traffic, utilize a post move, or score on the offensive glass, that would be how you take advantage of the size mismatch offensively. He is not capable of that, so no amount of teammates looking for him would take advantage of the size difference. The driving skilled guard is taking advantage of the mismatch they created and that opens things up for Matt, not the other way around.

I think Barnhizer looked to score, but if he didn't think he could get a good shot up he looked for Martinelli or to somebody on the perimeter. He rarely/never looked for Nicholson. I don't recall him making a successful pass to Nicholson for a basket.
(Too much work to investigate that notion - and it is probably wrong)

 

[clarificationcat]

Agree with all of that...
I just think that when we play teams who don't have a low post presence - we should seek to abuse the size mismatch... because I don't think they can really stop it.
Clayton and Windham, being underclassmen (and facilitators first) will look for Matt (or Fitz) at the rim a lot more than Barnhizer did.

Really what it comes down to is that it drives me crazy when we can't bludgeon Big Ten teams that don't play a true center.

I have picked on Matt’s post offense a lot through the years, recognizing his other offensive and defensive contributions. I don’t want to pile on again but we have gotten the ball to him in significant mismatches and he has converted less than half of those. He does get fouled sometimes and he is a very good passer but he has not shown the ability to consistently exploit mismatches. He gets stripped a lot in those situations. I’d be curious what his non-dunk and layup shooting percentage is.

 

[EagerFan]

Brooks infrequently attempted passes to Matt. They were always bounces or low bullets as the defenders between them were ready to go up for blocks. Matt always failed to catch the passes leading to turn overs, so Brooks didn't try it too often.

Only recently has Matt been more often ready for those low passes and succeeded in turning some of them into easy buckets.