I don't know what your talking about....I never said this was a good defensive team.
A) Jordan Derkack is a 6'5 guard.....he SHOULD have drawn the assignment of stopping Thornton, the best player for Ohio State.....instead, because Pike is terrified of playing Martini and refuses to play better options in Grant and Dortch at PF, he asked Derkack to guard a 6'8 235 lb, 4* PF, who is good, but not Owen Freeman of Iowa, Reneau from Indiana or the type of players in the B1G....
So you create TWO bad assignments on defense and rebound by placing Derkack in no man's land. And Thornton goes 6-7 for 14 points in the 1st half and Royal gets 22, abusing Derkack on the post and glass.
Instead of burying Grant with no playing time in the 1st 5 to 6 games, he desperately went to Grant in Vegas....but common sense would tell me....smaller quicker forwards on Ohio State, against smaller quicker forwards like Grant and Dortch.
If Grant and Dortch was Antonio Chol, I wouldn't complain....but here's the harsh reality.
Martini is trending towards Woolfork territory....Reiber territory.....Gavin Griffiths territory in terms of game tape.....there is literally no effort to move his feet, no effort to chop down and foul his man, he allows easy layups....
Did Royal score on Grant....?? YES he scored twice, but he at least had to make a couple of moves....and he has not played enough minutes to get into the flow.
I would have never imagined a Pike or this staff burying mobile size and upside, given how difficult it is to find players who can help right now.
I don't see a path where we can improve unless Grant plays 20 plus minutes, Sommerville plays 20 plus minutes and Dortch burns his redshirt and starts eating into minutes of Ogbole against smaller lineups. It is asking way too much of Ace and Dylan right now.
