Grab a rebound, Fitz.

[thebigabd]

1 rebound in 23 minutes. 1 more than me, and one more than a dead man.

I just dont think he has whatever it is that you need to grab a rebound.

 

[Soonerborn03]

I just dont think he has whatever it is that you need to grab a rebound.

You are referring to the desire to jump and use two hands, right?

It shouldn't be as difficult as he makes it. I watched him a lot tonight, and the only time I remember him going hard after a rebound and getting two hands on it, it slipped through his hands and went out of bounds.

He could have pulled down two or more boards tonight if he simply would have jumped for the ball. Such bad anticipation and instincts when it comes to rebounding.

To his credit, though, he did knock down some free throws when we needed them and a few jumpers despite a massive 7'6 monster roaming the lane.

 

[schoonerdriver]

If his lack of rebounds and defense continues, I think he should be regulated to coming off the bench.

 

[NickZepp]

I don't know what it is with him anymore Seemed like he had some good block outs all night but for whatever reason didn't grab the ball. With a big body like he has, he should be grabbing 4 or 5 boards a night without trying.

 

[bocabull]

Tubbe mentioned numerous times during the broadcast that Fitz was doing a good job blocking out. But the key to rebounding is predicting the bounce and blocking your guy from that spot to grab the ball. Maybe Fitz is focused on his guy and not the ball so he's just blocking out wherever he's at instead of where the ball is going.

Definitely a strange lack of production.

 

[WTSooner]

If his lack of rebounds and defense continues, I think he should be regulated to coming off the bench.

We don't have anybody better to play right now. And aside from M'Baye, we probably won't next year either.

 

[AdaSooner]

Drew's slow footwork and reaction time to loose balls and rebounds limits his ability to some extent. But if he hit the boards with the same aggression as we see on offense, there is no reason whatsoever he could not be a better rebounder.

I don't claim to have any answers, only questions about why he is such a poor rebounder? I do know that one board in 23 minutes for a player his size is not acceptable! He's on the floor because we need him too much on offense. It's as simple as that.

 

[DenverSooner]

He and Aren't held the big guy to 5 boards. I am going to hope that tonight was a lot about a 7'4" guy on the other team that had to be neutralized more than Fitzgerald playing softer than my good friends junior high school daughter.

 

[schoonerdriver]

Last year we relied on Fitz's scoring and had to put up with his lack of production on defense and the boards. With the additions of Osby and Grooms and Newell's improvement to Pledger and Clarks production, does Fitz prove to be too big of a liability?

If Arent is able to rebound and defend consistently, should he start ahead of Fitz? I say yes.

 

[garyeb2]

Last year we relied on Fitz's scoring and had to put up with his lack of production on defense and the boards. With the additions of Osby and Grooms and Newell's improvement to Pledger and Clarks production, does Fitz prove to be too big of a liability?

If Arent is able to rebound and defend consistently, should he start ahead of Fitz? I say yes.

Kruger recruited Arent. Kruger signed Arent. I would like to see Kruger get Arent coached up and get him in there.

But, the reality is that the staff is probably bringing him along the best they can. Even though I don't think it is ureasonable to think that he could work his way into the starting spot. It is unlikely that he is ready to go 25 min. at this point.

 

[bocabull]

Hopefully come February Arent is manning the middle. The game is just fast for him now and he rushes things.

 

[NormanPride]

I've heard that Fitz is our best guy at blocking out, and he's just used to keeping others away from the ball so our guys can get to it. If it results in a rebound for our team that's fine... Still, it should be a point of pride to get at least five a game. I mean... I think even I could do that with those minutes.

 

[WTSooner]

I've heard that Fitz is our best guy at blocking out, and he's just used to keeping others away from the ball so our guys can get to it.

While this isn't my preference from our starting "5", it is a good point. If Fitz is keeping his man from getting rebounds, regardless of whether or not Fitz is actually the one grabbing the rebound, he is providing some value there. I don't think hit really matters who starts between Fitz and Arent b/c I think they will split time, fairly evenly. There will be games that Fitz matches up okay, and there will be games where Arent might match up better. And I'd imagine there will be times where Fitz plays the 4, and Arent the 5. Given our lack of depth, there are plenty of post minutes to be had.

 

[garyeb2]

While this isn't my preference from our starting "5", it is a good point. If Fitz is keeping his man from getting rebounds, regardless of whether or not Fitz is actually the one grabbing the rebound, he is providing some value there. I don't think hit really matters who starts between Fitz and Arent b/c I think they will split time, fairly evenly. There will be games that Fitz matches up okay, and there will be games where Arent might match up better. And I'd imagine there will be times where Fitz plays the 4, and Arent the 5. Given our lack of depth, there are plenty of post minutes to be had.

You don't see the Arent/Fitz combo on the floor together very often. For a brief time in the big open to the public scrimmage and then seldom in practice since. But, it looks pretty good to me.

They are going to play up tempo. For as long as Kruger is here, that is Sooner Basketball. He will need depth at every position to do that. Since he hasn't had time to recruit it, it will be interesting to see how he uses the available talent.

I think that I can kind of explain the Fitz deal. It is the way Kruger is coaching rebounding technique. The rebounding drill is when the ball goes up, the defender is to literaly stiff arm his man in the chest, turn around to block out, look for the ball, and then go after it with both hands. It is every day. Usually 3 on 3.

I think he does it that way for a couple of reasons. Obviously he wants them to block out. But, secondly, he wants them to realise that they can block out and still have time to get to the ball. And just from observing the drill several times, I'm sure he is right. Most all of them can do it his way and individually and as a team, eventually be better rebounders.

But, some cann't. If they lack foot speed or are hindered by slow reaction time, their production could actually be hindered by doing it the "right" way. But, if they are slow in both their foot speed and reaction time, They are never going to be good rebounder anyway.

 

[Soonerborn03]

But, some cann't. If they lack foot speed or are hindered by slow reaction time, their production could actually be hindered by doing it the "right" way. But, if they are slow in both their foot speed and reaction time, They are never going to be good rebounder anyway.

I don't blame it on foot speed or reaction time. Fitz just won't jump, and he absolutely refuses to jump and try using two hands. He gets his HAND on a good number of misses, but he's swatting them away rather than trying to catch them himself.

 

[WTSooner]

They are going to play up tempo. For as long as Kruger is here, that is Sooner Basketball. He will need depth at every position to do that. Since he hasn't had time to recruit it, it will be interesting to see how he uses the available talent.

Depends on your definition of "up tempo", but I made a post a couple of weeks ago that pretty much disproved this. LK's teams, none of them going back to Illinois I think, played particularly fast. At best, most were as fast as our Final Four team under Kelvin. And while that team played faster than his others, nobody called them "up tempo".

 

[garyeb2]

Depends on your definition of "up tempo", but I made a post a couple of weeks ago that pretty much disproved this. LK's teams, none of them going back to Illinois I think, played particularly fast. At best, most were as fast as our Final Four team under Kelvin. And while that team played faster than his others, nobody called them "up tempo".

Yea, I remember. Some obscure rating system that if I remember correctly, you said you didn't know what it meant.

What I mean by up tempo is that Kruger's Sooners do not walk the ball up the court. They hustle the ball up the court. In fact he has a 6 second rule. The 1st 6 seconds of a possesion the players are free to hustle down and jack up an open 3 or get themselves a highlight reel dunk. After 6 seconds, it is into the offense. He feels that if he gets the ball down court before the defense sets up it is to our advantage. Don't you?

On defense. You know the one you don't like. The attacting defense. The trapping defense. The aggressive on ball pressure defense. That is Sooner defense.

Kruger is not going to change it or dial it back just because some slow footed guard or two can not keep up. He has to get his foundation layed this season for the future. Were not talking about Capel here. Kruger knows what to do and how he wants it done. The players will have to play his brand of basketball. If some of them just cann't this season. Well, the good news is that he has 3 kids plus M'buy coming in next year that probably can.

 

[NickZepp]

I can see up tempo meaning we'll have full court defense, push the ball up court a bit more. I see your point. It'll be more similar to talented Kelvin teams than to Capel's teams which were mostly half court teams.

 

[SoonerinNC]

Back to Fitz. Kruger says he always blocks his man out. Just doesn't go to the ball after blocking out. I think he will start picking up the boards. He had some double, doubles last year so he has rebounded some in the past.

 

[WTSooner]

I can see up tempo meaning we'll have full court defense, push the ball up court a bit more. I see your point. It'll be more similar to talented Kelvin teams than to Capel's teams which were mostly half court teams.

We pressed Idaho State probably 75% of the time. And when we didn't press, we trapped a lot of the time.

Do you think we'll keep that up against KU? UT? Mizzou? OSU? Or pretty much any other team that can "out-talent" us right now? KU's guards will abuse that kind of pressure. And we become even slower with Pledger back.

We'll see how it plays out. LK had some athletic teams at UNLV, and I don't recall him pressing/trapping that much. I think what we're seeing now is just to get us used to it. I still think it gets dialed back at some point.