Gal guarding Vaden?

[Capitol Shock]

Was everyone as surprised as I was to see Gal with majority of the load in guarding UAB's best player....Vaden?

He didn an outstanding job on him. Many of the shots Vaden hit, he could have made blindfolded!

Great job Gal! I hope your back for two more seasons. You are an interesting player to watch!

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

I think he did a great job, and he had too. With Cooz in foul trouble there wasn't anyone else who could match up well to him. I wasn't impressed with his quickness, and don't remember him ever trying to really drive against someone.

[SubGod22]

I was surprised, but when you consider that you don't have to worry too much about Vaden taking it to the hole it takes away some of that surprise. If Vaden were a guy that could put it on the floor and attack I doubt Gal would have drawn the assignment. Regardless, he did a good job on him and some of those shots Vaden hit were all him with a hand in his face.

[Born2Shock]

On the play Vaden fouled out on, he actually went to the basket. He went up for a short jumper, and Matty got a piece of it. It missed, Vaden got the rebound, and then steamrolled Clemente to foul out. Bigtime defense by Matt on that play. I was impressed with Gal's defense last night. For the most part, everyone did a good job staying on their feet, as no one besides Vaden had much interest in shooting long jumpers.

[dregn]

Actually one of the things I heard on the pre-game from Kennedy is that Vaden is solid at putting it on the floor and creating his own shot. I thought Gal did great when he was put on him in the man-man defense. My favorite 2 defensive plays on Vaden were actually by PT in the 1st half. Twice in our match up zone Phil ended up guarding him on the perimeter. Both times Phil step right up in his face to force him to drive. The first time he drove right and ended up in a group of shockers where Wendell was able to tie him up for the jump ball. The second time he drove left and ended up stepping out of bounds.

[Ricky Del Rio]

I believe Vaden hanging around the NBA 3 line has more to do with design by Coach Davis than Vaden being unable to effectively dribble penetrate.

Late in the game, UAB switched tactics and had Vaden driving successfully. Once he drove along the base line from the right side, pulled up, and hit a short jumper. At the time, it was so sweet I wondered, why he was not doing it more.

[Snapshot9]

I posted earlier that Vaden from inside the arc shot 42% and outside the arc at 48%.

[fuball7]

i was surprised gal was guarding him. I acutally thought we might start ellis again to have him or cooz guard him. Gal didnt do a bad job. He just is not big or strong enough. Alot of the shots Vaden made Gal was right in his grill but just not big enough.

[SpanglerFan316]

i was surprised gal was guarding him. I acutally thought we might start ellis again to have him or cooz guard him. Gal didnt do a bad job. He just is not big or strong enough. Alot of the shots Vaden made Gal was right in his grill but just not big enough.

I love all of our players. I think PT and MB have really stepped up this year; I'm very impressed. If PJ could avoid getting called for fouls (deserved or not), I think he would be POY material. However there seems to be a group of fans that demeans Gal's contribution to the team and I just don't get it. People were talking about Gal's turnover problem when PJ actually led the team in turnovers; did any of Gal's critics say "Oops, I guess I was a bit too critical"? (No.) (For the record, Gal's unforced turnovers should drive all of us crazy. However, overall he is a tremendous asset to the team, deserves to start and deserves credit for his assists, scoring and defense.) In the UAB game, Gal had 7 assists and 3 turnovers while Matt had 2 assists and 3 turnovers. (Gal was 2-8 shooting and 3-3 on FT while Matt was 5-7 shooting and 0-3 on FT; both contributed to the victory.)

I understand that some fans think Gal has the potential to be much better than he has played and tend to be a bit critical for this reason; I think I fall into this camp. These are not the fans I am discussing in this post.

[fuball7]

i was surprised gal was guarding him. I acutally thought we might start ellis again to have him or cooz guard him. Gal didnt do a bad job. He just is not big or strong enough. Alot of the shots Vaden made Gal was right in his grill but just not big enough.

I love all of our players. I think PT and MB have really stepped up this year; I'm very impressed. If PJ could avoid getting called for fouls (deserved or not), I think he would be POY material. However there seems to be a group of fans that demeans Gal's contribution to the team and I just don't get it. People were talking about Gal's turnover problem when PJ actually led the team in turnovers; did any of Gal's critics say "Oops, I guess I was a bit too critical"? (No.) (For the record, Gal's unforced turnovers should drive all of us crazy. However, overall he is a tremendous asset to the team, deserves to start and deserves credit for his assists, scoring and defense.) In the UAB game, Gal had 7 assists and 3 turnovers while Matt had 2 assists and 3 turnovers. (Gal was 2-8 shooting and 3-3 on FT while Matt was 5-7 shooting and 0-3 on FT; both contributed to the victory.)

I understand that some fans think Gal has the potential to be much better than he has played and tend to be a bit critical for this reason; I think I fall into this camp. These are not the fans I am discussing in this post.

I dont know if you were critizing me by quoting me but i was stating he did a decent job. Just surprised he got the call to guard him seeing how Cooz is our known stopper and we have proven we will start someone else in place of Gal for defensive purposes.

[SpanglerFan316]

fuball7: Your post was an example of a post that might have been characterized as backhanded praise ("Gal didnt do a bad job."). I have not gone through the threads to find those posters who said "Gal should not start", "Gal has far too many turnovers", "Gal can't defend", etc. so I'm not sure if I am or am not criticizing you in particular.

[BA2929]

I think it was more of a team effort than anything on Vaden. Vaden is really the only guy anyone should fear on UAB, and we did a great job of shutting him down. Despite those 23 points, he had 4 TO's and was 8-18 from the field, 5 of those makes from beyond the arc. He only shot 5 times inside the arc because he couldn't get any penetration on our strong team defense. - Gal did a great job in the first half (I can't remember if he guarded him the entire 2nd half). I'm sure HCGM put Gal on Vaden because Gal is our tallest guard and could stay with the 6'5" Vaden. Plus, Gal had 7 assists last night and I'm sure this is probably one of his best overall games of his career.

[fuball7]

He did a good job doing what he could to slow him down. He was in his face whenever he shot and was right behind him going around screens. However, does that mean he had a good game defending him?? Im not so sure. He did score 23 points i believe.

[BA2929]

He did a good job doing what he could to slow him down. He was in his face whenever he shot and was right behind him going around screens. However, does that mean he had a good game defending him?? Im not so sure. He did score 23 points i believe.

23 points is better than 33, which is what Kentucky gave up to him. An extra 10 points means WSU loses. The Shox slowed him down and made him frustrated enough that he fouled out. I'll take 23 points from him with a hand in his face on each shot, every game. Against some guys you can only slow them down, not completely stop them.

[Aargh]

I think a lot of posters got carried away with the "NBA prospect" hype when Gal was signed. When it turned out the hype was inaccurate, it was easier for some posters to blame Gal for underperforming rather than think the hype was overstated.

Gal has flashy ball-handling and passing, but what worked in Euro U18 leagues leads to turnovers in D1 ball. That has probably been the most difficult adjustment for Gal. The same things that got him praise and accolades in Euro leagues was his weakness in D1.

Gal is only in his second year of American basketball. It's not surprising that he has weaknesses at PG. PG has to understand offensive schemes. Gal is still learning American offensive schemes. I think Gal works hard and is playing at the level of his abilities and understanding of the American game.

I expect there are some pride issues to overcome. It's hard to "forget" what's been learned in a lifetime of basketball and learn what's essentially a different game.

Gal is progressing well for a So and could be a special player by the time he's a Sr. Some were expecting him to be a special player the day he walked on campus. When that wasn't true, some posters became unfairly critical.