#300 in DAWG-ness

After watching some St Mary's games against Santa Clara and Gonzaga. Their 6'8 forward Murauskas is really good and can put the ball on the floor and score relying on his physicality. They look dangerous running a two man game between him and the center. I think we see a lot of Agee and Clemence on the floor together to combat this. Their guards don't seem to be crazy athletes, much smaller and less explosive than the guards we've gone up against in SEC play. But they are solid shooters and rely heavily on opposing teams stacking the paint so they can catch and shoot threes. Their two centers at 7'2 and 7'1 are solid rebounders, but they are not physical for their size and seem slow.

I really thing Agee and Clemence can have big games. Agee although undersized is going to spam that spin move and his pump fake and take these guys to the basket. Clemence can use his speed against them as well. They can draw fouls leaving them a step behind. The pick and roll game up top with Hill, Griffen, and Pop will be deadly and I think we'll be able to get some good shots up.

They will try to play slow and make this a half court game. Which means we'll never really be out of it due to our style and a quick 7 or 8 or 9-0 run can make a difference if we can find some buckets in a hurry.

As for the press, they don't turn the ball over often. However, all their guards that play are freshman or sophomores. I think we speed them up. We'll see if they have their legs underneath them in the second half. I know our rotation has tightened up a bit, but I think we need to sub often and play fast. If this is a tight game in the first half, we'll break them in the second. We'll also see if their 280+ centers can full court. We'll have to throw Agee, Clemence, Federiko, and Vinson at them going full speed.

I hate to simplify things down, but our offense goes as far as our 3 point shooting will take it, especially facing a squad with so much front court size.

If we can see some +shooting from 2+ of Griff, Ruben, Big Z, Dibba, and or Pop, that's going to energize our squad and keep up the intensity on the press. Even if they break it more often than not, it wears on teams over the course of the night. There is a reason why we are a top-15 squad in terms of number of 10 point runs, which can lean on the mental fortitude of our opponent.

Additionally, it doesn't hurt that we'll be playing in our time zone but the Gaels will be flying in and on a 2 hour difference.