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[QUOTE="OttoMets, post: 125781, member: 716"]
I'm not so sure it's odd; not only is the transition to college ball more difficult for bigs, but playing the wing in the zone is absolutely beyond the pale for a lot of these young guys. Christmas goes through the motions pretty well at times (stepping up to the wing, dropping back down to the baseline), but it's clear that his position is still being thought through. He's no natural.

And note that Fair -- who does look like a heady and naturally skilled ballplayer -- looks equally baffled on backdoors several times a game. And Wes Johnson, a great talent and first-team All America, wasn't even an average defender in his first year of game action in the 2-3.

Christmas has never done anything remotely like playing this sort of defense before, so it's understandable that he's shaky (and hopefully people remember this when setting expectations for future young bigs). Trouble is, we need him to be good - we've got a pretty glaring weakness that will be exploited by teams with good power forwards. Fair and our centers adjusted admirably defensively against Leslie last night after the first five minutes, but our offensive rebounding was still poor and State was able to compensate by playing well from the high post.

So that could hurt us. But Christmas can improve hugely, and we can beat a lot of teams before he's ready.
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