Game 16: Rutgers at Michigan Open Thread

Lidell isn’t too quick for Hunter? Seems like a spot where you wish BJJ was playing reliable shifts at the 5 consistently.

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yeah I absolutely hate this matchup. No good options

The interesting thing about OSU is that while they are small they still really play through the interior.

I feel like you put Dickinson on Young. Young is a much more post bound player/lower usage guy, I’d rather have Dickinson on him.

Ahrens on Smith could be a concern, Ahrens is bigger, but if Smith can just stay attached to his hip that can deter him from shooting. Also lets be honest, we’re probably going to be switching on the perimeter a lot so it won’t matter too much.

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Yep. Young isn’t going to beat you with jumpers. He’s Dickinson’s natural matchup. CJ Walker is playing 25-30 minutes per night so he’ll be Smith’s natural cover for most of the game.

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Won’t Liddell just play bully ball with one of the defenders?? He lives at the foul line and I am guessing it isn’t because he shoots jumpers. Wagner would be giving up 20+ pounds against Liddell. Livers isn’t going to guard him either.

OSU does a lot with the two bigs that will make you switch so both guys will end up on both but I think Isaiah and Franz will both spend plenty of time on Liddell.

Why can’t Livers guard him? They’re the same height and Liddell is listed at only 10 pounds heavier. Livers guarded Reuvers, who is a much bigger size mismatch, in the first Wisconsin game and tends to play his best against burlier 4’s since his biggest weakness defensively is a lack of elite quickness.

And Liddell does have an incredibly high FTR, but according to his Torvik profile he also taken 59 shots at the rim this year, compared to 102 “other two’s” and 44 3’s. Now I’m sure some of those 2’s are post up/paint touches that result in hooks or fadeaways, so not “at the rim” but not pure jumpshots either. That being said if you watch OSU Liddell loves to take mid-range jumpshots and long 2’s, I’m sure Dylan will have some shot charts for us, so shooting jumpers is definitely a big part of Liddell’s game.

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Yeah. Osu should have way more worries how they guard us than vice versa.

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To some extent there gotta be residual football cringing here. Our 5 is half a foot taller and 20 pounds heavier a than anyone they can throw at him. His backup also has a size advantage and is more crafty. We have guys who can stick to shooters.

Not expecting a blowout, but also not scared at all. Certainly am worried about rest and rust.

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OSU isn’t tall but their dudes won’t back down to anyone.

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Liddell is much better than Reuvers imo. Reuvers is a shell of himself, he’s 6’11 not aggressive at all, doesn’t want to rebound the ball and pretty much just a guy out there. When I see Liddell I see a lot of similarities to the Wesson boys and Michigan didn’t fare well against them last year. Also much better than Reuvers. I think Dickinson and Wagner are better defenders than Livers (he has improved) and if they have Livers on Young he can help a bit more. Dickinson having 6 inches and 25 pounds or so on Liddell might cause some issues. Dickinson was terrific defensively against Wisconsin. Liddell went off against Kofi mainly because Kofi wouldn’t go out and guard him, Dickinson doesn’t have issues with that.

Let’s hope OSU’s not playing in their tearaway jerseys.

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That was the last game I went to in person. Feels ages ago.

Agree Liddell, key and young arent tall or long but are tough as hell and play with great leverage. They do a great job using it to push guys off their spots. That can be more impactful than having a ton of length.

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Oh agreed, I’m not trying to say Reuvers is as good as Liddell. My point was that Livers does well matched up against bigger people on the defensive end, and Liddell is definitely a bigger person.

I don’t think Liddell has any similarities to Andre Wesson. Wesson was categorized as a Wing G on Torvik all 4 years at OSU, and every year but one took more 3’s than 2’s. Liddell is categorized as a PF/C, which is the same as Kaleb so I can buy a comparison there. And speaking of Kaleb, he went off against Michigan last year in the first game (151.7 ORTG on 24.4% USG) but struggled in the second game (81.4 and 27.1), and Livers missed the first game but played in the second. I don’t fully remember both games but I don’t think Livers spent a ton of time on Wesson, both games were probably primarily Teske.

I do agree that Dickinson has been a very good defensive player, but as you even said Liddell went off on Cockburn because Kofi didn’t go out and guard the perimeter. Dickinson has had some success doing that like he did against Wisconsin, but we’ve also seen games (the first one at Maryland, the loss to Minnesota) where opposing bigs had really good perimeter shooting days against Dickinson, so I don’t think you can point to the Wisconsin game and say that it won’t be a problem. Especially when you look at Donta Scott in the Maryland game, who size wise is a lot more similar to Liddell than either of Wisconsin’s bigs are.

If the concern is Liddell on the perimeter, which I think it is (according to Torvik’s game logs Liddel has only had 2 B1G games this year with more 2 point makes at the rim than 2 point makes in the mid-range), why wouldn’t you put the more perimeter based Livers on him? Especially considering if you put Dickinson on him, you’re now taking Dickinson and his imposing presence at the rim out of the equation.

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I am just torn on Livers on Liddell and yes it was the first game back but Ford was cooking pretty good against Livers to the point where they had to take Livers off him. Obviously Liddell causes a matchup issue just skeptical that Livers is the guy to stop Liddell especially if the question is behind the arc.

They didn’t have to take Livers off him. All Ford did was hit some open 3s and then backed Livers down like once. Then he was basically never heard from again

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This, to me, is what will determine the matchups. You put Hunter on the guy most likely to keep him near the rim…in this case I guess that’s Young.

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And Livers wasn’t paying attention on the in bounds and Ford and got a bucket. All that happened in 12 minutes I would say that was a lot.