I just caught up on all of this and after watching Lloyd in person and following the stats all year, the most underrated and overrated players (based on performance) might both be on Lloyd. EJ is an amazing talent, a great player, and by all accounts a wonderful kid. He has no business being in the same conversation as Andy Johnson based on the performances of both this season. That being said, if I was a D-1 coach I would choose Walker over Johnson in a heart beat as well.

Anthony Blaackar has quietly had an outstanding year and has powered this Juggernaut group in a lot of ways. Don't get me wrong, the success is a team effort, for sure, starting with Blaackar and Walker followed by Humphrey and the rest. (Also, let me take a moment to plug Tyler Copeland - AWESOME defender). But if you took one player off the team that would cause the greatest harm to the team's performance, it would be Blaackar, no doubt in my mind. 

15 minutes ago, se7ens said:

I just caught up on all of this and after watching Lloyd in person and following the stats all year, the most underrated and overrated players (based on performance) might both be on Lloyd. EJ is an amazing talent, a great player, and by all accounts a wonderful kid. He has no business being in the same conversation as Andy Johnson based on the performances of both this season. That being said, if I was a D-1 coach I would choose Walker over Johnson in a heart beat as well.

Anthony Blaackar has quietly had an outstanding year and has powered this Juggernaut group in a lot of ways. Don't get me wrong, the success is a team effort, for sure, starting with Blaackar and Walker followed by Humphrey and the rest. (Also, let me take a moment to plug Tyler Copeland - AWESOME defender). But if you took one player off the team that would cause the greatest harm to the team's performance, it would be Blaackar, no doubt in my mind. 

You know a little something don't you @se7ens!!!! TY Copeland has played some really good ball the last month and a half. Alot of great stuff that doesn't show up in the stat sheets.Took him some time to get into basketball form after football season but he has really stepped up for the Juggs. He is a great young man I would trust him with my most prized possessions. With that being said, Lloyd couldn't keep him on the floor last night really at all. He just looked like he didn't want the ball. When he touched the ball Newport didn't put a defender literally within 10+ft of him and he just looked like he didn't know what to do. I see him being alot more effective vs Cooper.

20 minutes ago, se7ens said:

But if you took one player off the team that would cause the greatest harm to the team's performance, it would be Blaackar, no doubt in my mind. 

I think Blaackar is the diesel gas that goes into EJ's engine that powers the bus the team is on. No Blaackar means EJ doesn't have the power to get the tires moving. Sebastian took a while to get into basketball form as well, after football he was dealing with a knee injury and now again is dealing with a knee injury or I think he could have played a much bigger role.

Lloyd having Ty Copeland on the floor just disrupts their offense. When his defender can camp inside the lane, and Copeland cannot shoot, you're virtually playing 5v4 on Offense. Lloyd can't do that and win a regional championship at the same time.

UNLESS, he's heavily used as a screener to draw his man out from the rim and make him hedge out to guard screens. But if they don't hedge out, you have to be able to make the trey ball. 

10 minutes ago, Honey Badger said:

No Blaackar means EJ doesn't have the power to get the tires moving. 

I see this as backwards. EJ draws so much attention from the defense that Blaackar gets a lot more open looks than he should. Without EJ, Lloyd is not a top 4 team in the Region, and Blaackar would face a lot more pressure and most likely struggle a little because of it. 

59 minutes ago, LLS10 said:

I see this as backwards. EJ draws so much attention from the defense that Blaackar gets a lot more open looks than he should. Without EJ, Lloyd is not a top 4 team in the Region, and Blaackar would face a lot more pressure and most likely struggle a little because of it. 

That is a very fair and sensible argument. However, I did not see this in the Ryle game. I was not at last night's game (unfortunately, I missed a doozy). I think your argument, based on position, stats, and my observations from their first round game, may apply more to Walker freeing up Humphrey. 

14 hours ago, LLS10 said:

I see this as backwards. EJ draws so much attention from the defense that Blaackar gets a lot more open looks than he should. Without EJ, Lloyd is not a top 4 team in the Region, and Blaackar would face a lot more pressure and most likely struggle a little because of it. 

 

13 hours ago, se7ens said:

That is a very fair and sensible argument. However, I did not see this in the Ryle game. I was not at last night's game (unfortunately, I missed a doozy). I think your argument, based on position, stats, and my observations from their first round game, may apply more to Walker freeing up Humphrey. 

Without EJ I don't think its even up for debate if they are top 4 or not, clearly not. Without Blaackar I also do not think they are a top 4 team, that could be debated a little bit. Blaackar definitely initiates the offense and without him they don't have a true floor general or one on the roster that is capable of taking on that role without a significant drop off in overall team play. Without Blaackar, EJ would be forced to play every night the way we expect to see him play if he wanted his team to stay highly competitive and whether he would be capable of carrying them to the final four himself we will never know for sure because we haven't seen it from him on a consistent basis. Blaackar takes alot of pressure off EJ and EJ does the same for Blaackar. Humphrey is definitely the biggest beneficiary of EJ and Ant as seen from some of his recent performances but I think Humphrey could take on a heavier load if he needed to, right now he fits in perfectly where he belongs.

If you take Andy Johnson off Cooper I thinks it's not debatable if they are a final four team either, IMO clearly not. Don't think you can take a POTY off either team and they can get the same results at the end of the year as they have now.

I think Cooper's biggest struggle is not having a true PG. To me it looks like they have a bunch of wing players that all play well together and Andy can create his own shot from anywhere. Blaackar having 30 against them last time I think is due to him being a true PG and EJ getting most of the attention opens up the floor for Blaackar to expose Cooper not having a true PG to match up with him.

17 hours ago, LLS10 said:

Lloyd having Ty Copeland on the floor just disrupts their offense. When his defender can camp inside the lane, and Copeland cannot shoot, you're virtually playing 5v4 on Offense. Lloyd can't do that and win a regional championship at the same time.

UNLESS, he's heavily used as a screener to draw his man out from the rim and make him hedge out to guard screens. But if they don't hedge out, you have to be able to make the trey ball. 

I've seen Copeland give Lloyd alot of valuable minutes. Your 5v4 comment is exactly how it played out against Newport and he ended up only playing about 5 minutes but I don't see Cooper playing it the same way Newport did and if they do I hope coach Walker would try to do what you said with the screen scheme. Against Newport it didn't look like Lloyd was prepared to see that defensive scheme and he had to come off the floor but even un prepared all he had to do was try to attack the basket to make the defense shift his way, which he did not. Copeland can give them a few buckets off being in the right place at the right time and by cutting to the basket. He guarded Lorms pretty tough for most of the first half in the first round against Ryle and Lorms is a bucket, tough assignment for anyone. Lorms started heating up when Copeland got in foul trouble and had to sit for an extended period of time. I wouldn't be surprised to see Copeland start the game off on Andy.

@Honey Badger do you ever sleep?!

@Honey Badger Do you think Copeland will be used to faceguard Andy Johnson all game?

4 minutes ago, LLS10 said:

@Honey Badger Do you think Copeland will be used to faceguard Andy Johnson all game?

Don't see Copeland being able to chase AJ around for a whole game. That's a tall task for anyone. But I see him being used to try and get AJ off too a slow start in the first half. Use up a couple fouls to bang AJ around a little bit and TRY to keep him out of rythm early in the game when the foul count isn't as important. If Humphrey's is in decent shape come the 4th qtr that's who I would have face guarding him at that point. I would like to see Blaackar deny him the ball but he can't give you all that on defense, not come out the game like he does and still be productive like you need him to be on offense. No way would I ever say anyone in NKY is going to shut Andy Johnson down but you got to find a way to try and weather the storm.

29 minutes ago, LLS10 said:

@Honey Badger Do you think Copeland will be used to faceguard Andy Johnson all game?

#10 Bresser I would throw at Andy for some minutes to see if his length could make it difficult for Andy to shoot over top of him on the outside. Andy is soo fun to watch because he uses his height to create his own shots probably better than anyone in the 9th. Mcgillis is great at creating his own shots too but he uses his shiftyness to get a window. Andy just shoots right over the top of defenders in their face. 

But Besser is a liability on offense when the defense is putting on a ton of pressure like I think Cooper will do. And Copleland can be the same in that scenario. In the 4th I expect Humphrey to be assigned on Andy. Savior on offense against Newport, could be the unsung hero in this one if he can create some havoc late on defense.

Well, after a week off we have finally arrived at gameday. So, let's get the discussion going again. Has anyone's thoughts or opinions changed since we saw them in the semi-finals? I think this is going to be a great battle, but I have to lean towards Cooper for two reasons (and I mean no disrespect at all with these two points):

1.) Cooper has a better coach, in my opinion. Not a knock at all on Lloyd's coach because I think he has done a very good job, but I think Sully is the best in the region.

2.) 9th region player of the year Andy Johnson. This is his moment to step up and put this team on his back. 

X-Factor: #2 Brown for Cooper - if he can put some points on the board to help Johnson, then this team gets a lot harder to beat.

Score Prediction: 

Cooper - 58

Lloyd - 51

Good luck to both teams tonight!

14-4 cooper.