Zach Edey

Just read a fascinating article at The Athletic about Purdue's Zach Edey. Most of its involved on defensive schemes.

My hypothetical question to this esteemed body...how would HCBS defend a talented 7'4" center given that our current 5 gives up 9 inches to this dude?

I'm thinking that Udeh, Ejiofor, and Martin would all see extended playing time with the objective of pushing ZE out of the box (with a ton of fouls resulting)). He's only shooting 63% from the line so maybe burn a ton of fouls to keep him on the line and away from the bucket?

I haven't seen enough of Purdue to see what else they can throw at you. I'm sure that other coaches have already tried most conventional ways of getting him out of his game.

I agree that the "Hack a Shaq" method makes sense, but here are some others. I'm sure if HCBS reads these he'll giggle at how little I know:

1.) Face guard him. If he doesn't get the ball, he can't score.

2.) Keep him off the block. I actually think KJ is stong enough to accomplish that to some extent. If you force him to shoot from 12', you get more misses.

3.) Don't worry about it and play fast. Making a big run up and down the court in transition can wear him down. If you can't defend, score lots of points.

4.) Make his advantage his disadvantage. As much as having KJ guard him inside 5' puts us at a disadvantage, making a 7 footer guard on the perimeter flips the script. That's apparently what they're doing to Oscer Tshiebwe at UK. Get lots of switches going (which he has trouble keeping up with) and when you have him guarding a little guy on the perimeter. This can create a blow-by drive against the slower big guy, or find your big teammate who is now being guarded by a little guy and let him score inside.

5.) Get him in foul trouble. Tough to count on this as a real strategy, but don't be afraid to go at him and make clean defensive plays. Also bribing the refs isn't as effecitve as blackmail. Get the refs drunk the night before the game and get romatic photos of them with farm animals.

Bottom line, it seems to me that the winning formula is to get a guy uncomfortable and sped up. Then realize that if he's a real superstar you might never shut him down completely, but if you can hold him below his averages, that's a win.

"Also bribing the refs isn't as effecitve as blackmail. Get the refs drunk the night before the game and get romantic photos of them with farm animals. "

NotO just made my weekend!!

RCJHFL