He was simply incredible tonight. He is going to lose a lot of the guys around him next year (3 of 5 starters in BMac, Scottie and Gavin) but he is going to be the steadying force on this team. Even more than Vic.
He is going to have to be the rock and the team leader as Lathon, Kopp and Nance acclimate to the college game. It’s a lot to put on his shoulders, but he’s shown he’s up for it. He’s “brought it” every game this season, which I’m not sure you can say about anyone else.
Just looked at box score... he only had 4 rebounds and 3 blocks?? It seemed like about 8 rebounds and 4-5 blocks. I guess he just made some big plays on defense in key moments. And the 8-8 from the floor was pretty huge - that baby hook was working nicely last night. And a hugely underrated piece of it -- playing 38 minutes, guarding Happ for most of those, 3 (or more) blocks and only 1 foul? That's pretty incredible. As much as he's developed on offense, he's developed just as much on D in his ability to play clean position defense and make plays without throwing his arms around and taking fouls.
Also, slightly different topic but Gavin had one of his better games. Still accumulated 4 fouls, but I thought generally played smarter and more disciplined on D than he usually does. Avoided getting baited into a couple pump fakes by Davison and others, which resulted in them taking forced bad shots because of his disciplined D, and in one case a shot-clock violation. He also played smart on offense - only 1 turnover, 3-4 from FG w/ 1 three, 5 rebs 2 steals 1 assist.
Great job from our starting bigs tonight. And if you throw Vic into the mix our overall frontcourt was great too - he had 9 pts on 4-7, 1-1 from 3, 8 rebs, 2 assists, 1 steal 1 block.
Combined across all 3: 15-19 FG, 2-3 from 3, 34 pts (out of 60 total), 17 rebs, 4 blocks, 3 steals, only 2 TO. (FTs just 2-4 but oh well)
