Boys
After watching the twins battle against each other for much of three
practices, it was both entertaining and educational to watch them work against
the East squad. That was the good news. The bad news is that Robin Lopez and Brook Lopez took turns battling, for the most part, against Greg Oden.
The scene was reminiscent of the last time I watched the twins here on the
campus of San Diego State, when they played against Oden during the USA
Basketball Men's Youth Development Festival. Both of the Lopez brothers
had difficulty staying out of foul trouble against Oden last June, and Tuesday's
scrimmage suggested that more of the same could transpire tonight. Be
prepared for the reality that you may not see a lot of minutes of Brook and/or
Robin if Oden draws a load of fouls on them.
That is a problem not just for the Lopez twins and the Stanford fanbase
anxious to watch them tonight. It is the core problem facing the West
squad. It was interesting to see who West head coach Harvey Kitani trotted
out for his "starting five" in this scrimmage. You might look at the West
roster, and in an assessment of pure talent put your best five players on the
floor. Brook Lopez would seemingly figure in that equation, certainly
ahead of his brother Robin. Brook is no defensive slouch, while his
offensive versatility, skill level and smoothness is well ahead of Robin's.
Both brothers are raw relative to their future capabilities, but Brook is the
much more well-rounded of the two.
Instead, this starting five took the floor of Cox Arena yesterday afternoon:
C Robin Lopez
PF Spencer Hawes
SF Kevin Durant
SG Jon Scheyer
PG Sherron Collins
Robin ahead of Brook? That is counterintuitive, but once the two teams
tipped off, it made much more sense. The primary need for the West from
their center position is to defend, as best as humanly possible, Greg Oden.
The West team will look to score from its other positions, but they started
Robin Lopez in the scrimmage and may indeed start him tonight. Robin is
the West's best post defender, by a good margin, and he showed Tuesday how he
hopes to defend Oden. Robin did not front the 7'1" center and future NBA
#1 draft pick; instead he played him from behind and put a body on him hard the
moment Oden caught the ball. Give the Lawrence North High School as little
room as possible to move and keep him from asserting his strength advantage.
Robin did have one sequence where Oden had to receive an entry pass low, giving
the Stanford-bound center the chance to close on him before Oden could initiate
his move in the low post. Robin blocked Oden's shot, but in a scene you
may see again tonight, Oden grabbed his own offensive rebound and then quickly
put the ball in the basket.
Whether or not this is repeated in tonight's game, the coaches frequently
employed five-man hockey-style substitutions in Tuesday's scrimmage. The
"second five" for the West squad was a strong group, particularly blessed with
size - four players listed 6'8" and over:
C Brook Lopez
PF Darrell Arthur
SF James Keefe
SG Chase Budinger
PG D.J. Augustin
Brook Lopez matched up with Oden several times during the scrimmage, and he
had more difficulty (and more fouls) in an effort defending the nation's #1
player. What was more interesting was how they matched up on the other end
of the floor. Brook employed his offensive shooting range as well as his
quickness to beat the 260-pounder. On one play, Brook took the ball
against Oden with his back to the basket in the lane, and then made a quick move
across the lane for a four-foot shot at the basket - drawing a foul. Brook
Lopez also took Greg Oden outside, shooting and draining a three-point basket
over Oden.
Girls
The first five put on the floor for the West team in the girls scrimmage was
also surprising. We will see if the lineup is repeated tonight or not, but
the nation's #1 center Jayne Appel was on the bench. She subsequently
played a lot of minutes, however, and showed that her standout post skills can
score even against the super-sized East squad. The East team boasts five
of their 12 players on their roster at 6'3" or taller; in contrast, the West has
just two players at that size. Appel was able to rebound and block shots
against the taller East roster, but that was not a big surprise.
What was more interesting was watching Appel's offensive range.
Something I have been following these last several days is Appel's jump
shooting. Though tabbed a center by Scout.com and most recruiting services
because of her defensive and offensive prowess in the low post, the 6'4"
Stanford-bound star describes herself as a power forward. In the later
stages of her high school career, she developed range to her jump shot in
response to opposing teams double- and triple-teaming her in the paint.
Appel shot over 35% from three-point range as a high school senior, attempting
an average of more than two from behind the arc per game. In one AAU game
last year, she made five three-pointers in a single game. She has hit
several shots from deep this year, but the closer I look, the more I am
skeptical of this as mainstay for her offense at the next level. If
Tuesday's scrimmage was a preview of tonight's All-American Game, Appel has the
green light to shoot and will take some shots behind the arc. Watch for
yourself to see how she looks. She is not unlike Kristen Newlin, in her
ability to face the basket as a 'four' on offense while also defending at a high
level as a 'five' on defense. She will make her share of shots from the
perimeter, but I don't like the form. Then again, there are a lot of girls
who have poor form shooting from outside. For the record, Appel had
success shooting the ball in Tuesday's scrimmage.
On the theme of shooting, Appel's future Stanford teammate did not have a
good day in Tuesday's 50-minute contest between the West and East.
Michelle Harrison had a very poor day shooting the basketball in the scrimmage,
in sharp contrast to how she looked the previous three days in practices with
the West squad. Harrison has great form, which should keep her from
enduring many cold streaks. But she looked like she had some nerves in her
first battle against the East roster. That had to be difficult for her to
experience.
One of Harrison's assets as a guard is her size advantage she offers in
match-ups against players smaller than her at her position. A 6'2" guard
is a rarity in high school or in college. Against the jumbo East squad,
though, Harrison is in a very unfamiliar element. She has to play some in
the post, and she enjoys either no height advantage or sometimes a disadvantage.
Without size on her side, Harrison will make or break her McDonald's
All-American Game legacy with her jump shooting. Critics who say she was a
"reach" for the game" will have ammo for their cause if she has a poor shooting
night, and Tuesday's scrimmage certainly was poor. She rushed a couple of
her shot, and missed several that she hit all week in practice. For her
sake, you hope the scrimmage was an aberration and not a preview of tonight's
game. That would be truly disappointing. The player I saw in
Tuesday's scrimmage is not the player Harrison is capable of being.
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