So why the awful play of our bigs??? Teams drive at will on us.
Haven't we covered this?
Luke in particular lacks the foot speed to be an adequate rim protector. He was better in a zone because the other defenders funneled players to him rather than trying to stay in front of them, which requires Luke to adjust when the defense breaks down. Matt might be a little quicker, but not by a ton and he's incredibly foul-prone.
When you compare what we do to what Duke does, it's largely personnel that separates us. While many teams could say that when it comes to Duke's level of recruiting, their scheme seems to try to pair two bigs. They usually have a space-eater (think the Plumlees) that they use in tandem with an athletic forward that have length and shot-blocking ability (the Ingram or Jefferson types). Of course, being Duke, sometimes they get the golden goose type, like Jahlil Okafor, and then they win the whole damn thing.
Our roster has the former but lacks the latter. So when Luke and Matt aren't quick enough to make their rotations, there's no secondary player down low that can protect the rim and block or alter shots. The hope is that next year we will have both space eaters (Heldt and Froling) and more athletic bigs that can block shots (John and Eke). How we will play them all at once, and how everyone will mesh remains to be seen, but that seems to be the blueprint.
