While the Olah injury looks like Pardon will fbe needed, I thought he looked very formidable. Could not tell his height but he looked broad shouldered and made it up and down the court well. Although playing against a small conference team, I thought it was a nice debut. Falzon, Law, Pardon, Lindesy, Ash,and three solid freshmen will be underclassmen next year. Although the first half had me ready to quit NU basketball, the team has some talent.
Pardon is a Player
- Thread starter ToledoCat
- Start date
NU hoops is maddening. When they play with emotion they are really fun to watch. Several game this season they have come out after halftime and played lights out. You wonder why they have problems starting slowly.
Pardon looked ready to play. It was nice to see him make the putbacks around the bucket that always seem to be adventures for our players. The way he looked last night, I am glad to see us burn the red shirt. Our squad is already a little short handed with law out for the year and a spot tied up with Vassar. They should have started to play him when Van Zegren was out.
Two thoughts on Pardon's game....
* He's very quick to the ball on rebounds and on the offensive end is polished at converting rebounded put backs. Neither Olah nor JVZ are as quick or smooth in this regard;
* Olah is a better offensive player, it would seem. Back to the basket, variety of moves. However, not sure that is how Collins wants to play. It's been a struggle getting the ball in the paint this year. That effort will be deemphasized next couple of weeks;
* Pardon had poor position early on...looked like it was nerves and jitters and then he settled in and fought for his space.
* He's very quick to the ball on rebounds and on the offensive end is polished at converting rebounded put backs. Neither Olah nor JVZ are as quick or smooth in this regard;
* Olah is a better offensive player, it would seem. Back to the basket, variety of moves. However, not sure that is how Collins wants to play. It's been a struggle getting the ball in the paint this year. That effort will be deemphasized next couple of weeks;
* Pardon had poor position early on...looked like it was nerves and jitters and then he settled in and fought for his space.
JVZ was only going to be out a couple weeks and it was during the preseason (already back). There was no need at that point and there would not be enough minutes to go around (what would he have gotten, 2 minutes a game? So it would have been a total waste. Olah will miss his time at a very important time of the year so it was necessary to burn Pardon's shirt. But now he will likely get about 20 minutes per game and allow Skelly to get his minutes backing up the 4 which is his normal position rather than the 5 which is more of a stretch.
Hopefully he (Ash) will be back quickly. He has out last night with a Staph infection.
It looks like he has a better chance of improving and having a reasonable FT% than JVZ. Looking at his shot (JVZ), I do not see how he can be successful.
Sorry to hear that. Hope it isn't serious, remember the issue Matt Frazier had last summer!
I don't think it is as bad. But it can be tricky to deal with. I think Frazier's was deeper in his system. Remember seeing him at the meet the players with tubes in his arm. He got the staph in July and it knocked him out till some time in late Sept or Oct.
Burning Pardon's shirt reflects CC's desire to follow up the 12-1 preseason with an all in effort to make the NCAA or NIT tournament. Beating Nebraska without Olah will be difficult. Having Pardon improves our chances. Even after Olah returns, Pardon should still receive quality minutes. I do not see that CC had a choice going into the Big 10 schedule.
I don't know much about BB schemes but wouldn't having more combinations of players on the floor make us a more difficult team to prepare for?
no, not really. equally if not more likely to hurt our chemistry. you prepare for systems 80% and matchup tendencies 20%, but you don't prepare based on which combo of players are in.
I think Skelly is a fine player. Not sure what you are talking about. Yes, Pardon The Interruption has potential but Skelly has played some nice minutes against decent talent.
Love the energy they bring. They'll affect games with their hustle plays whether they fill the stat sheet or not. We've seen it with Skelly, and I can see Pardon blocking (or altering) a lot of shots on one end, while keeping possessions alive with offensive rebounds/putbacks on the other.
Your second point is really interesting to me. It's why I'm not sure we are going to take a huge step backwards losing Olah next year. We might, as he's certainly an outstanding interior player. But I don't think that's really how Collins wants to play moving forward either. Of the two, while I think Olah has been a great player for us, Demps will be the bigger loss.
Just think, historically a guy like Ash would have started for a number of NU squads and his absence for a few games would have destroyed any postseason aspirations. We still don't necessarily have the depth to absorb Olah's extended absence or a hypothetical injury to McIntosh, but we have a good team for the first time in a long time. We had good individuals and a bunch of filler and a good offensive scheme under Carmody, but that was it.
They are different players. Skelly is more of a pure 4 forced into playing the 5 while Pardon is more the 5.
Yep. We'll still need Skelly for sure. Hopefully Pardon continues to develop and Skelly won't have to play the five anymore.
One more thing about Pardon against Loyola.
He's still in the very rough stages of picking up the offense. Three or four times during the game (minimum), he needed to be told exactly where to go on the initial call.
At one point with NO full court pressure, he was standing in the backcourt, completely confused about his assignment and the instructions he was being given.
I'm not sure how this is going to fly when things go at a faster pace in conference.
When he plays, they are either going to have to simplify things a bit or dedicate an assistant to him to make sure he's in the right spot.
He's still in the very rough stages of picking up the offense. Three or four times during the game (minimum), he needed to be told exactly where to go on the initial call.
At one point with NO full court pressure, he was standing in the backcourt, completely confused about his assignment and the instructions he was being given.
I'm not sure how this is going to fly when things go at a faster pace in conference.
When he plays, they are either going to have to simplify things a bit or dedicate an assistant to him to make sure he's in the right spot.
Simple enough? See the ball, grab the ball, put ball in basket. Works for me. Where we probably miss Olah the most is on D as he knows the assignments and where to be while Pardon still is a work in progress and likely the reason for some opponents putbacks.
I was at the game on Sunday. While the results didn't represent it, I thought his free throw shot looked OK against Loyola. What was striking today is that it seemed that every free throw this afternoon looked better and better. So exciting to see a player with a skill set we have not seen in a LONG time!
Agreed. Once Nebby finally started driving the ball (too little too late), he started picking up fouls in bunches.
I thought he a couple of the calls against him were bogus. He did not leave his feet, just held position and hands were straight up. Last foul was legit but 2 or three before were questionable. Luckily by then the game was pretty much over..
THe form looks good (unlike JVZ) and tonight he shot pretty well. It would look like he is a 70-75% plus guy which is not bad for a center and means we can have him in at the end of games.
Let's not be so fickle.
As others have stated, Skelly is a 4 and the 'Cats biggest/most physical 4 (and best defender at the position when Lumpkin isn't playing it).
Dererk Pardon out on the floor in the 4 alongside Olah is not a scenario I would discount. Lumpkin should never play the 4 again if you ask me.
Agreed. Raw but talented on that end.
As long as he gets more putbacks than he gives up
He does the dirty work. 6 plus RBs per game and good D. He plays his role well.