Joey Hauser's Defense

[Tha Hound]

I think all of us here are huge supporters of Joey, and have very high expectations for the young man. Unfortunately, over the course of the season it appears (eye test here) that Joey's defense has been, ehm, less than stellar, capped off by a night where Jermaine Samuels of all people essentially carried Nova to a win.

Is this a case of freshman still adapting to a higher level of play? Or will Joey mostly be an offense-first guy throughout his time at MU? Worth noting that his brother has played good defense this year and essentially shut down Paschall last night.

[tower912]

Every game, Joey has to guard someone his size who is quicker.  His initial positioning is good, his lateral quickness is not.  He can marginally improve his quickness, but he is going to have to rely on positioning, technique, and knowing the scout.

[BCHoopster]

Every game, Joey has to guard someone his size who is quicker.  His initial positioning is good, his lateral quickness is not.  He can marginally improve his quickness, but he is going to have to rely on positioning, technique, and knowing the scout.

Can Joey dunk, he barely can get off the ground?  Joey just needs to mature, very soft.  Has hard time finishing drives, can get position due to his height, but has
zero hops. 

[damuts222]

I could be wrong, but I don't recall Joey guarding him. From what I recall our 5 was guarding Samuels, which was typically Morrow/John/Heldt. Samuels was 5-13 from three and including last night is a 32% 3PT shooter.

Samuels is a less than stellar shooter that's why they let him shoot. He has a hitch in his shot that is quite ugly. However, tip your hat to Samuels, that's all you can do. Regardless, last nights issue was not defense, it was rebounding-second change points and turnovers.

[burger]

I am fine with the occasional blow by by Samuels......

I have real problem by the "centers" and Joey not staying "at least" attached to Samuels.....

When you give a guy 12 practice 3 point shots.....Sooner or later.....A top 50 recruit will start making them....and last night.....what the guy made 7 or so.....

He only had 3 or so blow by lay-ups.....

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

I could be wrong, but I don't recall Joey guarding him. From what I recall our 5 was guarding Samuels, which was typically Morrow/John/Heldt. Samuels was 5-13 from three and including last night is a 32% 3PT shooter.

Samuels is a less than stellar shooter that's why they let him shoot. He has a hitch in his shot that is quite ugly. However, tip your hat to Samuels, that's all you can do. Regardless, last nights issue was not defense, it was rebounding-second change points and turnovers.

Correct in many cases the 5 was staying home and would be closing out on a samuels 3.  Mu game plan was to leave him open n protect the paint.  Novas was to have him shoot, kid had a day.
Not why we lost. Early turnovers n late rebounding

[CTWarrior]

Most teams have no more than one big guy who is not super mobile on the floor at any one time.  Joey and our center have trouble chasing guys around the floor, and our Center always gets the least mobile guy, so Joey is generally chasing a quicker player.  Sam usually has the same issue, but his footwork is excellent.  Joey will keep getting better.  I agree I wouldn't mind moving Joey to the 5 if both John and Morrow are in foul trouble and using one of Chartouney, Bailey or Cain to fill in instead of Heldt.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I could be wrong, but I don't recall Joey guarding him. From what I recall our 5 was guarding Samuels, which was typically Morrow/John/Heldt. Samuels was 5-13 from three and including last night is a 32% 3PT shooter.

Samuels is a less than stellar shooter that's why they let him shoot. He has a hitch in his shot that is quite ugly. However, tip your hat to Samuels, that's all you can do. Regardless, last nights issue was not defense, it was rebounding-second change points and turnovers.

Our 5 would guard him when Cosby-Roundtree wasn't on the floor. From what I saw, most of the blowbys and open threes he got where when Joey was defending him.

Correct in many cases the 5 was staying home and would be closing out on a samuels 3.  Mu game plan was to leave him open n protect the paint.  Novas was to have him shoot, kid had a day.
Not why we lost. Early turnovers n late rebounding

I agree with this. I do think part of the reason Samuels did so well was the scout. He had scored 0 points the last three games, if there is a guy you can help off of, it should have been him. He stepped up. The turnovers were the big one for me. I still say that late rebounding was more bad luck than bad rebounding. Those bad misses were clanking the front of the rim and flying out to the offensive players.

[StillWarriors]

Can Joey dunk, he barely can get off the ground?  Joey just needs to mature, very soft.  Has hard time finishing drives, can get position due to his height, but has
zero hops.

I'm not sure what kind of hops he has, though he certainly doesn't seem to elevate much even if he is capable of it. One thing I have noticed repeatedly is a tendency to shrink when going to the hoop rather than powering up to the hoop when in traffic. It's really strange for someone his size, but I've seen it so many times this year. He's very skilled, I love his overall game and have no doubt he is and will be a great contributor during his time at MU, but there are stark areas where he can certainly improve his game. Defense included. He's a freshman, and a darn good one. He'll get even better.

[damuts222]

Those bad misses were clanking the front of the rim and flying out to the offensive players.

I do agree with that. They were there three's badly and rebounds were line drives off of the rim. It was poor blocking out, just luck of the bounce because Nova's shots were so far off.

[GoldenEagle323]

Every game, Joey has to guard someone his size who is quicker.  His initial positioning is good, his lateral quickness is not.  He can marginally improve his quickness, but he is going to have to rely on positioning, technique, and knowing the scout.

much like his brother

[THRILLHO]

I'm not sure what kind of hops he has, though he certainly doesn't seem to elevate much even if he is capable of it. One thing I have noticed repeatedly is a tendency to shrink when going to the hoop rather than powering up to the hoop when in traffic. It's really strange for someone his size, but I've seen it so many times this year. He's very skilled, I love his overall game and have no doubt he is and will be a great contributor during his time at MU, but there are stark areas where he can certainly improve his game. Defense included. He's a freshman, and a darn good one. He'll get even better.

I think because he registered early last year we were expecting him to come in with a sophomore body, but maybe his injury last year prevented him from doing some of the offseason activities. In any case, I'm hoping they can work in the offseason on increasing his explosiveness, so he can be a stronger finisher near the rim.

[bilsu]

Joey is a freshmen and freshmen generally have trouble on the defensive end. Look at how much John has improved in one year. As far as Villanova we lost, because Anim underperformed his last few games while Samuels over performed his last few games. The role players divergence was the difference in who won and lost.

[Jon]

Joey just needs to mature, very soft.  Has hard time finishing

Perhaps our Vegas contingent of Scoopers can get the lad some lap dances at a Strip buffet to firm him up and get him to finish...

[MU82]

Joey is a freshmen and freshmen generally have trouble on the defensive end. Look at how much John has improved in one year. As far as Villanova we lost, because Anim underperformed his last few games while Samuels over performed his last few games. The role players divergence was the difference in who won and lost.

I'd say the main reason we lost was that a guy averaging 4 points a game and shooting 27% over his career behind the arc scored 849 points and shot 142% from 3. It reminded me a little of Sacar's game against Creighton last year -- totally out of the blue.

The other reasons we lost were we had way too many turnovers and we couldn't secure some key rebounds.

Plenty of secondary reasons, too -- Sacar not scoring, Theo fouling, Ed fouling, Markus fouling, Joey doing little, Wojo probably not having his best game, etc.