Rueben Chinyelu is a grown man!!

He needs to realize just how dominant he can be. His shooting touch looked better last night too. Career night for him

 

Chins, Tommy, and Handles were grabbing every rebound in sight. But LSU is not a good rebounding team, despite having pretty good height. They, and their girlfriends, got to see what real men look like.

 

China seemed to be more aggressive near the rim, in the recent past, he seemed to hesitate, allowing the D to recover. Not so much last night. He must have read my post last week.

when started with 2 made FTs, that was the forebears of things to come.

 

Here’s what he needs to know when he’s in the paint.

 

McMahon is a solid game coach. He very consciously sagged off our fives to protect the paint, which really hurt our rim 2s in the first half. It was only after we got stops and got out in transition or into early offense that we were more effective there. We may see more of that.

 

Was McMahon the hire that folks here thought UF should have made? I have some faint recollection of us all hand-wringing with the super-tall teenager hire of Golden.

 

One of them for sure. Ongoing well into Golden’s first year, maybe second. The usual suspects were crying that Golden wasn’t the guy well into the start of this season, but fairly quickly went dormant. They came out of hiding when the scandal became public, but quickly ran back into their holes.

 

I kept wondering, how many is that. When they took him out and let Handles come in, sadly it wasn’t the same. I don’t know if anyone in the SEC has the physical ability of Rueben. He hangs in the air and twists his body to wherever the ball is, unbelievable talent. Hopefully Handles works on his quickness, which would help his his all round game. I guess they are redshirting Mikic, who could also improve playing with this team, we are deep.

 

It looked like his game-plan was to stifle our guards and see if Chins could beat them. Not a bad strategy. News flash: Chins beat them.

 

Chins was playing his best game last night. Handles is just coming off an 11-month injury, and will need some time. But each game back, I see him a little more active and confident. Heck, he had 6 rebounds in just 14 minutes. That's a BIG number. Now we need him to start getting some cleanup baskets.

 

Micah is definitely still getting his sea legs. He is improving every game though.

 

Agree with the praise, however:

One question I have about Chinyelu: Why do they let him guard so closely on players who are outside the paint, even on players well beyond the 3-point line? Particularly on players that still have their dribble? He gets right up on them and often flirts with (or gets) foul calls and/or getting beat on dribble drives. Seems to me like he should stay at least a step off opposing players in those situations, at least until they pick up their dribble.

 

Rueben is a freak. God didn't make too many lean 6-10 255 people who move like small forwards. He topped the LSU Game Box Score Value with a score of 118 in only 25 minutes of play. One big shortfall of my Value Score system is that it cannot measure the intimidating defensive presence he brings to floor. Coach Golden said they keep +/- values while players are on the court. Many of the players had negative values, especially during that 22-2 run, but the Gators consistently outscored the Tigers while Chinyelu was on the floor. Can you imagine driving to the hole and having to get by him? He is tall, long, strong and cat quick making him a nightmare to drive against or fight for a rebound around the rim. Five years from now we may find out he was the most talented player on this team. He may not be the second coming of 7'0" Hakeem Olajuwan, but he has the same kind of build and athleticism. I'd be more than happy if Rueben develops into a poor man's version of Hakeem while playing for the Gators.

 

And near Taiwan.

 

he's really coming along, needs to work on being a little less handsy on defense, resulting in fouls, and stop picking up opposing center 25 feet from the basket

 

Speaking of hands, his have gotten better over the course of the season. The first month or so, he would lose the ball at least a couple of times a game. Not so much anymore. Not suffering Chin hands now.

 

Even his free throw shooting looked solid. He will be a huge asset in the tournament if he can make 70% of his foul shots.

 

Can someone explain why he never seems to win the opening tip? Is that by design?

 

He's gotten a couple. One time he didn't leave the floor though.