AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March > 02
Friday, March 2, 2007
Young making all the moves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Oh, what a difference movement makes!
When Thaddeus Young moves like he did last night, especially in the first half, Tech’s offense is quite different. His two highest scoring games this season, 24 against Georgia and 25 against the Heels (without attempting a free throw) also were his two best games moving.
Against Georgia, a lot of his action came on back cuts. Last night, he and Morrow were coming off screens very well, catching and firing. And hitting. Young hit 5 of 6 3-pointers, Morrow 4 of 10. Nobody can tell me that doesn’t change the way anybody defends Tech, not that defense is North Carolina’s forte.
And about the season-high 28 fouls, don’t need to hear that Tech got jobbed. As Hewitt said, sometimes that’s a function of the way they play defense, and he wants to play it like that. Tech has been much more physical on defense over the past eight games (while also out-rebounding every one of those opponents).
When Tyler Hansbrough got out on that break, and Mario West ran with him and didn’t try to hack him but rather tried to time his jump as if he were defending a guard only to smash Hansbrough in the process, then the Heels knew nothing would come easy. I’m a fan of that.
“The fouls? We don’t have any other way to play,” Hewitt said. “We have to play tough, physical defense, and if they call fouls, they call fouls. We’re not going to finesse anybody, and I’m definitely not going to out-coach anybody so we have to get after it. We’ve re-established ourselves after playing for a year and a half like something I didn’t recognize.”
In his first game without wearing the protective mask on his face, Zach Peacock seemed like a different player. He had eight points, six rebounds and a blocked shot in 17 minutes. Nice.
Dickey and Smith fouled out, but each took six rebounds first. And that’s not all. “I think Jeremis and Ra’Sean, they set great screens,” Morrow said. “I told them if you keep setting those screens, I’m going to keep hitting those shots and you’ll be open for slips or dunks.”
There’s some guessing as to what will happen if Tech beats Boston College Sunday, and Duke loses at North Carolina. For starters, I think that would assure the Jackets of an NCAA tournament bid. Also, Tech and Duke would be tied for sixth place in the regular season. I don’t know it for a fact yet, but I heard in the press room last night that Tech would win some sort of a tiebreaker to be the No. 6 seed in the tournament.
If Tech stays in the No. 7 spot, the Jackets most likely will play N.C. State first in the ACC tournament. The winner of that game would then play the No. 2 seed, mostly likely to be Virginia Tech (which could tie North Carolina, but has beaten the Heels twice to break that tie).
If Tech is No. 6, the Jackets would play No. 11 seed Wake Forest or Miami, with the winner going on to face the No. 3 seed, which would be UNC if the Heels beat Duke Sunday, and Va. Tech beats Clemson in Blacksburg. Va. Tech’s edge is the backcourt of Dowdell and Gordon. UNC’s is the front court duo of Hansbrough/ Brandan Wright. Which matches up worse against Tech at a neutral site?
I’ll confirm this in the next day or two.
Anyway, last night Young’s duel with fellow former Tennessee high school star Wright was special, although they didn’t often guard each other. Young, from Memphis, hit 10 of 18 shots, including 5 of 6 3 pointers, and Wright, from Nashville, hit 8 of 10 shots and 6 of 9 free throws (with two misses late) to score a team-high 22.
Both were recruited by North Carolina, and there has long been speculation that Young has a strained relationship with Wright because Wright snagged the last scholarship the Tar Heels had to offer. Young disputed that recently.
“I remember in high school everybody was talking about how I hate Brandan Wright, and Brandan hates me. It was nothing like that,” Young said of one of the leading candidates for ACC Rookie of the Year. “We always knew each other, and talked on the phone a couple times. I was seriously considering North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Memphis, Arkansas and Kentucky. He just basically made my decision easier.”
Young said last night that if he hadn’t chosen Tech, he most likely would have gone to UNC. It was reported a couple years ago that he committed to UNC, but he balked when Tar Heels officials wanted him to make his commitment public before making a visit to Kentucky. With that, Wright called to commit and allegedly UNC took Wright’s commitment to fill out the Heels’ recruiting class.
I don’t know what the drop-dead truth of the matter is, but both players are very talented. Wright’s leading all ACC players in field goal percentage at better than 65.5, and averaging roughly 14.5 points and 6.5 rebounds (he had 22 points and five rebounds last night).
That guy is gold around the basket. But I think Young’s ability to shoot from afar, and work more in space, translates to more NBA potential. A lot of that stuff Wright does around the basket won’t fly as well in the NBA since it’s not based on power - like Hansbrough (a monster).
But what do I know? I know this: Young picked a good game to heat up if he wants to make the All-Rookie team. The biggest voting bloc of writers is in North Carolina, obviously, and a lot of writers were there last night. More probably watched on TV back home.
Next week, we’ll get some football on here. Later.
