HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

During March Madness, HOOPSWORLD NBA analyst and coach Anthony Macri will open his notebook and offer an assortment of observations on players, matchups and strategies from the NCAA Tournament. Coach Macri serves as a player development consultant for the Pro Training Center and Coach David Thorpe, working with a variety of NBA and collegiate players on their skills and game understanding. During tournament time, the Coach’s Notebook will appear on HOOPSWORLD once or twice per week.
 

Single sentences on the Sweet Sixteen

• Kentucky will give Ohio State a run, and Brandon Knight will impress scouts with his creativity and speed, but the Buckeyes should advance.
  
• Buzz Williams (Marquette) is one of the most underrated coaches in America, but UNC will have the pedal to the metal and race out to the victory.
  
• Arizona has another great young coach in Sean Miller, but Coach K has Duke focused after they nearly fell to Michigan—the week of practice for Kyrie Irving will make a huge difference.
  
• A strong backcourt at Connecticut gets matched up with a great frontcourt in San Diego State, and while guardplay is typically what wins in March, we may look back at SDSU’s double OT victory over Temple as the thing that propelled them forward.
  
• Richmond has been a very good team all year, and Kansas generally plays very tight in games against mid-major teams – expect the game to be close, but the Jayhawks talent to prevail.
  
• If Florida State hits shots like they did against Notre Dame, they can beat anyone in the country because they defend so well, and it will be hard for VCU to score in this game as consistently as they did against Purdue.
  
• Butler relies on taking small edges against opponents and exploiting them, but there are few small edges against Wisconsin, a team that doesn’t make mistakes like Pitt did.
  
• This game will be billed as Jimmer against Florida, but expect the BYU team to step up as the Gator defense focuses on the scoring sensation.

The draft value of toughness: Kenneth Faried

{AUTHOR_BOX}Most coaches know the inherent value of real toughness.  Morehead State’s power forward, Kenneth Faried, embodied a true physical presence and his demonstrated passion will go a long way to giving him a shot to be drafted.

Faried possesses a few qualities that coaches really appreciate in a player.  Breaking down his game more fully can happen closer to draft time, but here are a few things teams will really value in him as a Ben Wallace-type of forward:

• Rebounding in and out of area: Faried not only gobbles up rebounds that come to him, but he also goes way out of his area to track them down.  He is content scooping up loose balls and bouncing balls, and that hunger and drive will always show through in statistical production.
  
• Unafraid of challenging shots at the rim: As most saw in their game against Richmond (if they didn’t see it in their game against Louisville), Faried has no concern for personal well-being or his image when players attempt to attack the rim.  He challenges them and takes pride in preventing anything easy.  This is a mentality hard to teach a player once they get beyond the high school level – it is already part of his approach.
  
• Initiating vs. absorbing contact: For the most part, at least on the defensive end (and to a lesser extent on the offensive end), Faried initiates contact rather than absorbing it.  He doles out punishment with his body and does not shy away from physicality, instead he looks to inflict it on the other team.  This goes back to the mentality idea.  For many coaches, giving them a team of players willing to hit people in the mouth, and they can make that team successful.

 
There is no doubt there are flaws and shortcomings in Faried’s game.  He is a target inside but not a real post scoring option at this point, with no real plan except to overpower and his size will be an issue trying to do that at the next level.  In addition, his face-up game needs dramatic improvement.  However, he does have the body control and dexterity to become a consistent twelve-to-fifteen-foot jump shooter, and a few small adjustments to even how he sets up in the post will make a difference (butt-to-baseline on post-ups instead of back to basket is a big one).

Faried will likely be available in the latter half of the first round, and while he is not the talent that DeJuan Blair is, not taking him in that position seems to be a likely mistake for some team.  He is the kind of player that a team would be happy to pay for in practice, and spending some time in skill development and the NBDL may give him a chance to polish his skills moving forward.

Have questions for Coach Macri? Be sure and drop by HOOPSWORLD on Mondays at 2PM Eastern for the Coach’s weekly basketball chat!  You can also follow Coach Macri on Twitter @CoachMacri.