A Blue Jay is a large and aggressive bird but the Blue Jays from the Southfield basketball team did not display that level of aggression tonight and were dominated by Yellow Jackets of Detroit Country Day in a 79-59 pull away victory for the men of Beverly Hills. DCD, playing without sharp shooter, Adam Zavadil, who was in a boot cast due to a stress fracture in left foot (out 4 weeks), beat Southfield with a big dose of the Big Man and I do mean MAN, Amir Williams. Williams worked to get open down low and was fed just about every time he put a man on his back. Williams finished with 28 points, including 10 in the 4th quarter, 12 rebounds, 4 blocks and 2 dunks. Southfield bodied up several of their 6'8' Bigmen in hopes of stopping him but Amir showed his overall skills by using all the tools of his game, which includes a very nice left handed shot. All his points (except free throws) came within 6 feet of the basket or closer. Jordan Price pitched in with 11 points and Chris Fowler ran the offense and had a very nice game. You could still see that Fowler is slowed a bit by his bad knee but was very effective penetrating and dishing the ball all game. He certainly exploited the defensive weakness Brundidge has in his game. Kenny Knight drew the defensive assignment on Carlton Brundidge and shut him down for most of the game. Brundidge was cold from the outside, making only one of his first 10 shots. He finished with 15 but got 8 of those points in the 4th quarter when the game was pretty much out of reach. I was disappointed overall with the Southfield team and their performance tonight. They have talent, with Brundidge and Barnes at the guard spots, a very talented Patrick Owernu (6'8") at the Forward spot, a physically huge 6'8' Dawson in the middle and an underrated player in Josh Brown - this team has talent and should be able to play with anyone. However, I realized that if you get them in a half court game, they are just not as effective as the talent level on the team. Where this team becomes dangerous is when they are out running in transition. That is when Brundidge is at his best. He becomes like a powerful locomotive with the ball with the ability to go extremely strong to the hole and make some incredible passes but unless he has that running start, his game is compromised. Too often tonight in the half court set he would drive to the basket trying to initiate contact and draw the foul. The refs were letting them play as there were a total of only 8 fouls called in the first half and there was a lot of contact and bodies hitting the floor. I really don't see enough of the tools in Brundidge's game to see him excelling at Michigan. Barnes was disappointing as well. He was forcing shots early on, looked for Brundidge too much to run the offense and score. Although he can shoot from the outside, I don't like the rotation on his shot. He only had 4 points at half-time but got it going in the third quarter to score 10 and finished the game with 17. The most impressive player to me on that floor was Patrick Owernu (Ark. Pine Bluff) who is quick for his size, very athletic, strong upper body, has a nice soft touch from the outside and works hard down low to get the ball. He kept them in this game from the beginning. I think he finished with 12 points but was getting timely buckets when they needed it early in the contest. Southfield took the first quarter lead 16-15 but DCD when on an 8-0 run to start the second quarter to take a 23-16 lead and never fell behind after that. They led at half by a score of 27-24 and 51-41 after three before they wore them down and ran them out of the gym in the last quarter. This Southfield team has the talent but has a long way to go in my eyes to get back to the Breslin center again for a Championship run. Country Day on the other hand, has all the talent they need in Amir Williams to carry them but it helps to have a deep bench and a nice compliment of capable players on that squad. No one should stand in their way, except themselves.
Ohio State had a statement game with their 87-64 stomping of Purdue. This game was over early and Buford led the balanced attack with 19 points. This Ohio State team is clearly the best in college basketball. You are hard pressed to find any weaknesses with this squad. They may lose this year but not many and will be in Houston this year come early April.
My oh my - the Syracuse Orangemen get crushed at home by Seton Hall 90-68 - absolutely no explanation for that one.
BYU - San Diego State game on Wednesday night is a must see game.
Your Basketball Snob
No comments:
Post a Comment