Kentucky wanted a miracle shot from Otega Oweh to pressure additional time vs. Santa Clara and make it to the second spherical of the NCAA Tournament. To get to the Sweet 16, the Cats should contain the best shooter in all of faculty basketball.
That’s not hyperbole. Iowa State’s Milan Momcilovic ranks No. 1 in the nation in three-point percentage (49.4%) and threes made (130). He makes a median of three.7 threes per recreation, which ranks fourth nationally, on 7.5 makes an attempt. In Iowa State’s loss to Arizona in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament, Momcilovic made eight threes. The Cyclones are gifted throughout the board, however Momcilovic has been the difference-maker on multiple event.
“He’s put up staggering numbers,” Mark Pope mentioned of Momcilovic on Saturday. “It’s really, really impressive. It’s gotta put him in rarefied air. I don’t know where he stands with anybody else in the country. They earn him a lot of shots with their pace. They earn him shots with actions. He earns himself shots by being an elite-level screener and a relocator. So, it’s gotta be a little bit of a team effort.”
This isn’t the first time Pope is making ready for Momcilovic. BYU performed Iowa State twice in Pope’s last season in Provo, profitable one recreation and shedding the different. Momcilovic, then a freshman, scored 17 complete factors in the two matchups, however was 1-9 from past the arc. Since then, the junior ahead has greater than doubled his manufacturing from outdoors. With All-American Joshua Jefferson doubtless out due to an ankle damage, Momcilovic will shoulder much more of a load. With Momcilovic standing at 6’8″, 225 lbs., Kentucky’s fours will have their work minimize out for them.
“One of the things that’s probably under-appreciated about him is how physical he is,” Poep mentioned of Momcilovic. “He owns his line coming off screens, and that’s hard to do in this game, especially with how physical the game is right now. But he’s gotta be able to maintain his line coming off screens. He gets shoulder-to-shoulder on screens. So any chance you have to kind of disrupt his flow is going to be really, really important.”
“Can you play with him a little bit on the carry? He’s got this really brilliant kind of dark fade where he likes to play that’s really hard to get to. So you just want to be as disruptive as you can.”
Andrija Jelavic and Mo Dioubate will draw the task of guarding Momcilovic, however Brandon Garrison has proven on multiple event how efficient he may be on the perimeter, most lately vs. Santa Clara, when he blocked Sash Gavalyugov’s three-point makes an attempt on back-to-back makes an attempt in additional time. TJ Otzelberger has coached in opposition to Garrison as soon as, when the large man was a freshman at Oklahoma State.
“I think when you have that length and versatility, you have the ability to contest shots on the perimeter,” Otzelberger mentioned of Garrison on Saturday. “You have the capacity to problem photographs at the rim. And I feel oftentimes when an enormous will get switched onto a guard, the guard thinks it’s time to assault off the stability or create house, isolate and give you the chance to get to his shot.
“With Brandon, he has such great discipline defensively. Not only does he use his length to his benefit, but you always have in the back of your mind, do you really want to drive him to the rim and challenge him in? I think there’s a psychological thing that happens there. It’s, all right, he could block my shot on the perimeter or the rim, and he’s still got the mobility and agility to contain the balance. So he poses a huge challenge because of his ability to do all those things.”
Containing Momcilovic will be a crew effort, however having Garrison dialed in actually will assist. Hopefully, it’s BG Time once more in St. Louis.
