tezzyrice

That makes sense considering the way a lot of neutral observers got behind them last year.

I totally agree 5wide. I'd expect to see them slow the ball down and work their offensive sets, but like Bigmark said, if the opportunity to get out and run arises, they'd take advantage of it for an easy dunk.

Same here. Definetly not looking past Christian Co or a potential match up with Lexcath in the quarters. But since the thread was started, might as well speak on it.

No team in nky has the athletes or depth to run with Holmes which is why they intentionally slow the game down, IMO. Boone has the athletes but for whatever reason chose not to play an uptempo game? I think the reasoning for this is earlier in the year when teams were trying to run against them, it became a turnover and dunk fest. The more offensive possessions you give Holmes, the higher percntage they're going to shoot because their offense is so explosive with Rico, Riley, Pittman, and JJ. As to your question: I think it would be a combination of both. We all know EC is going to try and dictate the tempo by pressing/trapping the whole game which is going to lead to easy baskets for the opposition and for Holmes, several dunks. Often times Holmes lets their opponent dictate the tempo because they're confident they will prevail in the end playing whatever style is presented. This is what gives Holmes an advantage IMO. EC is used to only playing that uptempo style. When teams slow the ball down (Cedar Hill, Shelby Valley), they start getting frustrated and pressing too much offensively which leads to bad shooting games. Using those two games as examples, I'd say Holmes would use a similar game plan and use their height advantage and pound the ball inside to Pittman and Rico. EC's lack of depth would also play a factor in the game. They would have to get atleast 3 Holmes players in foul trouble before it affected them. Housely and Rice are both very capable off the bench. You get ONE EC player in foul trouble and they start struggling.

Let's first start off with some of the match ups we'd see: 6'0 Riley v 6'1 Et. Faulkner 6'2 D. Johnson v 6'1 Ev. Faulkner 6'4 J. Johnson v 6'2 C. Knipp 6'5 R. Johnson v 6'2 Ferguson 6'7 Pittman v 6'7 T. Knipp I see EC having a lot of trouble defending the following Holmes lineup with Rico running the point: 6'2 Housely v 6'1 Et. Faulkner 6'4 J. Johnson v 6'2 Ev. Faulkner 6'5 R. Johnson v 6'2 Ferguson 6'6 Rice v 6'2 C. Knipp 6'7 Pittman v 6'7 T. Knipp

Elliott Co is the only home team? :confused: Not everyone wants them to win the state title. I'm sure they'll have a nice following but let's not act like they're the only team that will bring a crowd with them and everyone will be rooting against who they're playing.

Trevor Setty graduated last year. Treg Setty is a soph this year.

G with 27 points and 18 boards. A lot of his success can be attributed to Kevon Rice dad Mike. He took him down 15th street park everyday and helped develop his mid range game. Heard the guy who won the national POY actually called Greg and told him he should have received it...that was pretty cool. Also nice to see another former Dawg have some success...Arrez with 11 points.

That's an understatement. :lol: Kid can jump out of the gym. I watched him several times over the summer, just messing around with Kevon, throw the ball off the backboard and throw it down one handed as well as throw it down backwards several times and catch alley oops from Kevon while playing pick up games. He makes it look so effortless too. He has very long arms for his size. When people see him at Rupp they're going to be surprised with how much he can get up for his size.

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I understand where you guys are coming from but Holmes played a very similar defense last year (full court press/trap defense) but only gave up 46 ppg? Holmes didn't slow the ball down by any means last year either. Up until the sweet 16 they were averaging 66 ppg. I'm just wondering why EC would be giving up so many points when other teams played a similar defense but gave up far less points? (Let's not turn this in to a Holmes/EC debate...I only used them as an example from LAST YEAR to ask something about EC's defense THIS YEAR because of the two similar styles)

Just a question, but if their defense is so good why are they giving up 60 ppg? If they're constantly forcing a lot of turnovers like you say, teams shouldn't be scoring in the 60's like they are. From what I've seen this year Elliott attacks the ball but thats it. They rely on trapping and forcing bad passes which leads to a lot of easy points for the opposition. Very rarely do they just sit down and play tough m-2-m defense. A team that can handle the pressure gives them a lot of problems because of EC's inability to match up size wise.

Well said and good luck to the Lions as well. :thumb:

Eastern

Good defense will make it seem like a team is playing a stall game. Again, unless you were at the games, it's hard to understand where people are coming from as an outsider that simply chooses to form an opinion based on the scores.