Hoops Prediction: Sweet 16 or bust

this team got any shot and rebound they wanted and had a mismatch at every position. Waters had 7 points in like two minutes then got injured and put it in cruise control. Naz was taking one legged dirk step back fall aways. All players including the bigs shoot well from the free throw line, which is huge when you’re out physicalling other teams and they have to resort to fouling you.

On defense they are tenacious. All bigs move well laterally. Bigby-Williams is loooong and alters shots. Reid in particular does a great job of hedging on screens preventing a penetration of 3 then getting back to his man in the post. You can tell Wade has made this a defense first team. They are super aggressive trapping and closing out on 3 point shooters because they trust their bigs to get the rebound. Our perimeter D was far superior to last year.

This team is the most physically imposing team I’ve since tyrus and big baby. Four to five guys have futures on nba rosters. All of our bigs are not only athletic but wide and strong.

Reid Williams waters Smart and Taylor for sure

Marlon Taylor is an absolute stud. I saw him in warmups. Had no idea who he was (numbers were covered). Super bounce-y. Good shooter. Great body control and coordination. Can get to the rim at will. He will start.

Smart played super in control almost as if he was years older. He is ruthlessly efficient, bullying his man to the goal when he has a mismatch. I only saw him take one shot which was an in rhythm 3 where his man tried to go under on the pick. he buried it effortlessly.

Reid is super duper coordinated for a large big. Impossibly so. While he’s methodical I’m getting to his spots, his size and strength and girth make it hard to stop him. The only players who are going to give him trouble will have to have elite length and jumping. His post moves and touch are very advanced. He won’t miss from 3 as much as he missed last night.

Williams is as athletic as they come. He will try to dunk anything but also showed a nice touch around the basket including a nice lefty finish.

Waters is waters. All SEC.

All this while playing a game to honor their fallen teammate in front of his parents. It was absolutely a grief stricken affair.

Tigers took care of business. Anything less than a sweet 16 with this roster will be a failure to me.

Last: Also I hope Will Wade slipped Parker Edwards Tommy Moffits # and said see you next year after you hit a program kid. This team is short a lethal shooter.