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Message: [QUOTE="Niastri, post: 5436035, member: 722"] One thing I’m optimistic about Freeman this upcoming season is his improvement in help defense. Early in the season there were a few times where he literally turned and watched a perimeter opponent drive all the way to the basket. He didn’t react at all to help prevent the layup. By the time he was injured and out for the season, he was rotating pretty well. I recall a similar play. When the guard was beaten of the dribble, Freeman rotated, got there in time and blocked the shot. Freeman demonstrated a significant improvement in his reactions in help defense during his first 14 games. His physical abilities have always been very good defensively, he just didn’t seem to have innate defensive instincts. I look forward to his continued improvement. Last season, we really didn’t have many guys who could block a shot, when McLeod was injured. Since McLeod was a non factor most of the season, Majstorovic and Bell were our top shotblockers by block %. They had 2.1 and 2% respectively. Our incoming players have much better block %. Some other relevant block% numbers from last season. The top qualified P4 player was Houston’s Joseph Tugler, who came in at 12.4%(advanced stats indicate he should have been the defensive player of the year). Kyle 9% Souare 3.7% Kingz 2% Lampkin 1.8% Freeman 1.5% George and Betsey 1.4% Starling 1% Lucas Taylor .8% We don’t know about White definitively, but he has the physical tools and reputation of being a decent shotblocker coming in. Next season we will be much more effective at challenging and blocking shots than this year. My worry this year is if we have the physical strength as a team to compete. I didn’t have that with last season. We knew what we were getting with Lampkin, and physical strength was the number one characteristic. Shotblocking wasn’t part of his game. That changes next year. Can Kyle, Freeman, White and Souare compete physically and not wear down during ACC play while playing at 50-90 lbs lighter than Lampkin did last season? [/QUOTE]

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