re: Basketball guys, what does Reid need?

quote:

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What does/can Wade do to help him stop fouling so much?

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He could stop switching everything, 1-5, on defense. But that is the identity of LSU's defense and the way they execute it is the reason they are the best defensive team in the country right now. So changing it up just to hopefully keep Reid from picking up fouls is NOT an option.

However, the simplest answer is that Reid is just going to have to go through growing pains like many Freshman big men go through. He's not a dominant athlete in the mold of Ewing, Olajuwon or Shaq where he can just come in and overwhelm even good big men with raw ability. He's an offensively skilled Center that, probably for the first time in his life, is going up against guys with equal size, and greater strength and skill.

To give a little bit of perspective, Colin Castleton, who LSU faced last night, had very little production at Michigan in the first two years of his career. Walker Kessler, Auburn's big man, only played about 8 minutes per game last season as a Freshman at UNC. He wasn't a huge impact player as a freshman. And it is hard to blame the UNC coaches for that considering Roy Williams was his HC. I'll give Williams the benefit of the doubt that he knew how to coach.

There is a reason guys like Ewing and Shaq are still so revered in the history of college basketball. That's because while there have been thousands of "big men" who have played since them, their ain't a whole lot of Ewing's and Shaq's on planet earth who were that dominant as freshman.