N.C. State scouting report from … KU walk-on Jordan Juenemann
Kansas guard Jordan Juenemann puts in a bucket past Texas Tech defenders Jaye Crockett, left, and Deshon Minnis during the second half on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012 at Allen Fieldhouse.
I was impressed with Kansas walk-on Jordan Juenemann’s ability to break down a matchup from talking to him during this video last week. (Be sure to check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.)
http://www2.kusports.com/videos/2012/mar/15/35477/
So Thursday, I figured I’d get his thoughts about the KU-N.C. State matchup set for 9:17 p.m. Friday.
The following is a transcript from our conversation. I’ve added links to give you more information about some of the technical basketball terms he discusses in case you’d like to learn more about them.
Jesse Newell: What do you see from N.C. State? What challenges do the Wolfpack bring?
The Jayhawks take the court during a day of press conferences and practices at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.
Jordan Juenemann: I see they’re very athletic. That sticks out the most, just with their guards being 6-5, 6-5. A shooter in (Scott Wood) in 6-6 that, 75 percent of his shots are threes. Then you also have their posts, 6-8 and 6-8 with C.J. Leslie and (Richard) Howell. You just see they’re really athletic, and they’re a really good defensive team on the first side, because they get out and pressure. And their bigs are playing well. They’re on a roll, and their athleticism sticks out, and that helps them out.
JN: As a practice squad, what do you guys do to try to prepare your team to get ready for NC State?
JJ: We learned their whole offense, most all their sets and what they do — their regular offense that they fall back into out of everything. Really, they just kind of go out and play. With Lorenzo Brown the point guard, he’s very talented. But we learned their whole sets, and we made sure we went over it live with the first team. And all the guys guarded us in all their actions. And we got it down pretty well.
So it was nice doing that against the first team, so they could practice guarding all those things, because they do some stuff with their bigs. They duck-in a lot with their posts, and they really post hard. And it’s like a Triangle-kind of offense that they get into …
… where it’s a down screen …
and duck-ins with their two posts and a guard in it the whole time. So, we were doing that with them.
JN: You said you learned their offense. What do you guys do to learn that?
JJ: Coach (Kurtis) Townsend’s got the scout, so we would meet 20, 25 minutes before practice — the red squad — and Ben (McLemore) and Jamari (Traylor) really helped us out big time. It took us a little bit. It took us longer than it should have. We were expecting 20, 25 minutes. It took us about 30 or 40 minutes with coach Townsend, just because we were doing it each side and really getting it down.
Coach Townsend had all the sets and the names. We correlate the names to what the action is, so that helps out a lot. Just with our experience, we just try to get that down the best we could, because we talk about the national championship year, and coach Townsend said that our red team ran the offense better than the actual team that we played. It really helps out our guys, because you know what’s coming even before the games happen. So to have that asset … I find it important for us to do that.
JN: How early in the week do you do that?
JJ: We started Tuesday. They guarded us live Tuesday a little bit. Then (Wednesday) quite a bit. Then (Thursday) they guarded us. And we’ll break it down, like that Triangle action with the guard and the two posts. We’ll break it down with just guard and that for a drill in practice.
It’s nothing too advanced or anything. It’s conventional, which is a good thing. They have two post guys and three guards like us, and we’re used to that, unlike the Purdue matchups or Iowa State where your 5-man is bringing it up. …
JN: So what is a big key for you guys on Friday?
JJ: With their athleticism, they get out and pressure on the first side. We really need to get the ball side to side, because they’ll break down. With them just being so athletic, rebounding is key. Just to keep those guys off the glass, because I think they’re averaging 10 offensive rebounds a game (This season, NCSU is averaging 12.1 offensive rebounds per game).
Then in transition, stopping them, because they just get out and run. Their bigs … C.J. Leslie, Coach said he’s like Tyshawn (Taylor) but faster — as fast as Tyshawn if not faster. And that’s such a big thing is transition and getting out and going. And Wood will spot up on the three in transition, and we don’t want him to get going. So just like what Coach says is rebounding and transition … stop that, and that’ll be a big key for us.
N.C. State scouting report from … KU walk-on Jordan Juenemann
photo by: Nick Krug
Kansas guard Jordan Juenemann puts in a bucket past Texas Tech defenders Jaye Crockett, left, and Deshon Minnis during the second half on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012 at Allen Fieldhouse.
I was impressed with Kansas walk-on Jordan Juenemann’s ability to break down a matchup from talking to him during this video last week. (Be sure to check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.)
http://www2.kusports.com/videos/2012/mar/15/35477/
So Thursday, I figured I’d get his thoughts about the KU-N.C. State matchup set for 9:17 p.m. Friday.
The following is a transcript from our conversation. I’ve added links to give you more information about some of the technical basketball terms he discusses in case you’d like to learn more about them.
photo by: Nick Krug
Kansas guard Jordan Juenemann puts in a bucket past Texas Tech defenders Jaye Crockett, left, and Deshon Minnis during the second half on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012 at Allen Fieldhouse.
Jesse Newell: What do you see from N.C. State? What challenges do the Wolfpack bring?
Jordan Juenemann: I see they’re very athletic. That sticks out the most, just with their guards being 6-5, 6-5. A shooter in (Scott Wood) in 6-6 that, 75 percent of his shots are threes. Then you also have their posts, 6-8 and 6-8 with C.J. Leslie and (Richard) Howell. You just see they’re really athletic, and they’re a really good defensive team on the first side, because they get out and pressure. And their bigs are playing well. They’re on a roll, and their athleticism sticks out, and that helps them out.
JN: As a practice squad, what do you guys do to try to prepare your team to get ready for NC State?
JJ: We learned their whole offense, most all their sets and what they do — their regular offense that they fall back into out of everything. Really, they just kind of go out and play. With Lorenzo Brown the point guard, he’s very talented. But we learned their whole sets, and we made sure we went over it live with the first team. And all the guys guarded us in all their actions. And we got it down pretty well.
So it was nice doing that against the first team, so they could practice guarding all those things, because they do some stuff with their bigs. They duck-in a lot with their posts, and they really post hard. And it’s like a Triangle-kind of offense that they get into …
… where it’s a down screen …
and duck-ins with their two posts and a guard in it the whole time. So, we were doing that with them.
JN: You said you learned their offense. What do you guys do to learn that?
JJ: Coach (Kurtis) Townsend’s got the scout, so we would meet 20, 25 minutes before practice — the red squad — and Ben (McLemore) and Jamari (Traylor) really helped us out big time. It took us a little bit. It took us longer than it should have. We were expecting 20, 25 minutes. It took us about 30 or 40 minutes with coach Townsend, just because we were doing it each side and really getting it down.
Coach Townsend had all the sets and the names. We correlate the names to what the action is, so that helps out a lot. Just with our experience, we just try to get that down the best we could, because we talk about the national championship year, and coach Townsend said that our red team ran the offense better than the actual team that we played. It really helps out our guys, because you know what’s coming even before the games happen. So to have that asset … I find it important for us to do that.
JN: How early in the week do you do that?
photo by: Nick Krug
The Jayhawks take the court during a day of press conferences and practices at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.
JJ: We started Tuesday. They guarded us live Tuesday a little bit. Then (Wednesday) quite a bit. Then (Thursday) they guarded us. And we’ll break it down, like that Triangle action with the guard and the two posts. We’ll break it down with just guard and that for a drill in practice.
It’s nothing too advanced or anything. It’s conventional, which is a good thing. They have two post guys and three guards like us, and we’re used to that, unlike the Purdue matchups or Iowa State where your 5-man is bringing it up. …
JN: So what is a big key for you guys on Friday?
JJ: With their athleticism, they get out and pressure on the first side. We really need to get the ball side to side, because they’ll break down. With them just being so athletic, rebounding is key. Just to keep those guys off the glass, because I think they’re averaging 10 offensive rebounds a game (This season, NCSU is averaging 12.1 offensive rebounds per game).
Then in transition, stopping them, because they just get out and run. Their bigs … C.J. Leslie, Coach said he’s like Tyshawn (Taylor) but faster — as fast as Tyshawn if not faster. And that’s such a big thing is transition and getting out and going. And Wood will spot up on the three in transition, and we don’t want him to get going. So just like what Coach says is rebounding and transition … stop that, and that’ll be a big key for us.