Tuesday, March 20, 2007

You be the Coach: How does Vanderbilt beat Georgetown?

Georgetown has two of the best players in the country in Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert. They have won 17 of their last 18, and 6 straight. They also beat Vanderbilt pretty handily in Nashville when they played to open the season (86-70). So, what does Vanderbilt need to do to win? What should their plan of attack be going into Friday? We want to hear from you.

A full preview with Bobby's take will appear Thursday.


"Please help me"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ted Skuchas > Roy Hibbert

Bobby O'Shea said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bobby O'Shea said...

Si.com's Luke Winn hits the nail on the head with the importance of Shan Foster hitting shots for the Commies. Winn writes that X-Factor in the East Regional is: "the temperature of Shan Foster's shooting stroke. While Derrick Byars is a steadier go-to-guy for Vanderbilt -- and was the coaches' pick for SEC Player of the Year -- Foster is the kind of streaky outside gunner who could either go 0-fer from three-point land (like he did in the Commodores' first meeting with Georgetown) or 5-for-10 (in an upset of top-ranked Florida on Feb. 17). Vandy has improved immensely since it lost to the Hoyas by 16 in mid-November, but unfortunately, so has Georgetown, which now possesses one of the nation's most well-oiled offensive attacks. It's hard to imagine an upset happening without Foster knocking down at least 4-5 treys to counteract the Hoyas' inside advantage."

Here's the link to the rest of Winn's article

Anonymous said...

I have to wonder if this is one of those games where Cage won't play as much. Taking a look at the two Florida games, Cage played only 18 minutes in the first game and 21 in the second (on a 29 minute average). Georgetown, like UF, has two really tough inside players, so Skuchas, Neltner, and Metcalfe (and maybe Brown) could get some bigger minutes, and Cage would have to lose some in that situation. I wouldn't mind seeing Skooch on Hibbert and Neltner on Green for a lot of the game. I think Ross is a good enough athlete to hold his own with Green.

Douglas James said...

I echo that. Obviously to even keep it competitive we need Derrick and Shan hitting shots from the outside. But I think to beat Georgetown w/ their massive presence under the basket we need Ross Nelter to re-emerge as a force in the paint. If that means alittle less Dan i can handle that. I hoping Georgetown goes with a smaller team to handle Shan and Derrick and then we send Nelter to dunk in their stupid D.C. faces (apologies to all you losers who currently reside in D.C.)

Stanimal said...

Piggybacking off that note, it becomes extremely important for Neltner to be aggressive attacking the basket when he's in the paint. If we can get Green and Hibbert in some foul trouble, then we'll make life much easier on ourselves.

While the guards for G'town certainly aren't inept, they are the weakness of the team. Good shooters to be sure, but the more we make them convert offensively, the more of a chance we have. That means playing extremely good help defense and making Hibbert and Green pay if they dare bring the ball down low to the ground.

I believe if we move the ball as well as we have throughout the tournament (and especially in the GW game), we'll be fine offensively. They will come out and be very aggressive on defense, but if Byars catches fire they are going to have their hands full, as he moves extremely well without the ball and utilizes screens as well as anyone in the country. But Shan will be key in this because that added focus to Byars means he's going to get good looks, and we need him to have a great shooting performance.

Anonymous said...

i think the key has got to be perimeter ball pressure. despite playing better as of late G-Town's young backcourt is still succeptable to a turnover heavy game. also, this will prevent easy post entrance passes and open passing lanes for the much ballyhooed princeton offense the hoyas run. similar to earlier posts a bigger more athletic lineup is a big part of this. skuchas and jejuan should log more minutes than usual to accomplish this. pushing their guards out on the perimeter should give the hoyas trouble getting into their tough halfcourt offense sets and eat up the shot clock. also, i'd take my chances with hibbert one on one in the post. he's not the dominant back-to-the basket scorer that greg oden is. green is the key to stopping them and can't be allowed to get off early. byars strength and experience defensively could bother him on the perimeter as well.

Anonymous said...

A few quick points:

1) Georgetown's backcourt really isn't young -- at all. They play a junior and a sophomore. And Jonathan Wallace, the junior, really burned B.C. in the opening minutes of last week's game.

2) Pressuring Georgetown on the perimeter is an absolutely horrendous idea considering the Hoyas live on backdoor cuts and have good passers at every position. If Vanderbilt spends a lot of energy extending its defense, look for the Hoyas to go Princeton on them all night long.

3) If I were pulling for Vandy, the guy I'd be worried about is DaJuan Summers. At 6'8'', he creates a lot of the same match-up problems that Corey Brewer does for Florida. He's going to get a lot of opportunities to score with so much of the focus going to Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert.

So I think it's pretty obvious by this point that a) I'm not rooting for Vanderbilt, and b) I think it's a long shot at best. But here are some things I think the Commies NEED to do if they're going to have a shot in this one:

1)PLAY A ZONE. This is the only thing Vanderbilt can do on defense to neutralize its height disadvantage, take away the backdoor cuts and force Georgetown to make outside shots.

2)Do everything they can to take Green and Hibbert out of the game (Stanimal took this point from me), short of hiring a hit man to go Tonya Harding on them in the pre-game shootaround.

3)Shoot well. Georgetown is a fantastic defensive team that doesn't give away many good looks at the basket and does a great job cleaning the glass. If the Commies don't bury the good looks that they do get, they'll lose.

4)Pray that Seth Davis doesn't pick them to win. They don't want that kind of kiss of death hanging over them before they take the court.

All in all, I think that's pretty sound and blatantly subjective advice. I'm feeling pretty good about the bet I've laid down with Bobby O and Seamus. More on that later.

Dr. MZ