Thomas Bryant scored 16 points against Wisconsin. He also managed to grab six rebounds. Both are good totals for the freshman center, but those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
He also struggled against the Badgers. He turned the ball over five times, twice during the first two possessions of the second half.
He also allowed the man he was guarding, freshman center Ethan Happ, to score 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field. Happ also pulled in eight rebounds.
“He’s got to play defense with some confidence,” senior point guard Yogi Ferrell said. “He’s got to play defense like he has no help, like we’re not going to come down and dig for him.”
He will have an opportunity to do that when IU plays Minnesota on Saturday at Assembly Hall. IU Coach Tom Crean said the main thing Bryant needs to change is controlling where his opponent catches the ball.
“Oftentimes, Happ just caught the ball too close to the basket. Once he gets the ball that close to the basket, there’s not much any defender can do,” he said.
It wasn’t just Bryant either, Crean said. It was anyone who took a turn trying to guard Happ.
“There were too many times we gave him too much deep position, or post depth you would say,” Crean said. “He took advantage of it.”
This starts early, Crean said. As soon as the possession starts, the battle for position in the paint begins. If Bryant was too lackadaisical to start a possession, Happ would already have deep position and it was over.
It also hurt with how Happ was playing. Crean said after the game Happ was hooking his other arm around his defender, which made it easier to turn around him toward the basket. This is technically a foul, but it’s not called consistently.
The best way to limit this is to force the offensive player far enough away from the basket where he can’t just simply hook-and-turn to get to the basket. You have to make him work more, Crean said.
“It’s all about doing your work early,” Crean said. “I’ve got to watch the film because he’s hard to guard, especially when he hooks. He’s hard to guard, but when he gets that other arm in there around you, you have to do a better job of getting position early and doing our work earlier.”
This starts with playing physically. If Bryant uses his 6-foot-10, 245-pound frame to force opponents out of the lane, they might never even get the ball.
If they do get the ball, Bryant still needs to use that frame, Ferrell said.
“He’s got to do a better job of arm-barring, because you can do that now,” Ferrell said. “He’s got to do a better job of knowing exactly what the offensive man wants to do, and he has to hold his ground. Just play some defense.”
In the first game against Minnesota, he kept opposing center Bakery Konate to four points and two rebounds. But Joey King came off the bench to score 18 points against Bryant among other defenders.
What gave the Hoosiers trouble was King’s ability to score inside and his ability to step out and make 3-pointers. King finished 4-of-5 from behind the arc in IU’s 70-63 win at Minnesota on Jan. 16.
This means not only will Bryant have to be aware of keeping King away from the basket, but he will also have to stay close to prevent any open 3-point opportunities.
“We had to figure it out a little bit because they did a great job of moving him around,” Crean said about King. “He’s good. I mean, he’s really good because he can keep backing up, he can get fouled and he’s tough.”
