On Saturday, I consulted Kansas senior walk-on Jordan Juenemann for a scouting report of KU’s next opponent, North Carolina.
The following is a transcript from our conversation.
**Jesse Newell:** First off, what do you know about North Carolina?
**Jordan Juenemann:** You talked about last time what sticks out the most. To me, it’s their front line with (Tyler) Zeller, a big 7-footer, and (John) Henson, as long and athletic as he is. Then also Harrison (Barnes) at the 3, and just their size. They’re also the top rebounding team in the country. I think they’re averaging about 42 per game, and that’s with 14 offensive rebounds. So that’s just really key for them. In transition, they do a lot of stuff in the early offense. It’s tough. You really have to stop the ball and get back in transition. They’re just so big, and they’ve had a really good season with only five losses. It’s going to come down to a toughness game, for sure … just willpower.
**JN:** Defensively, what do they do best?
**JJ:** They play good defense. Roy (Williams) gets them to play good defense. They really pressure high up the floor, and their bigs are so good that they can just match up one-on-one with any other bigs they face. But they really don’t want to play defense that much. They want to get out and run and be on the offensive. You look at their scores … they’re a high-scoring team. They’re trying really hard early in the defensive possessions. They just really pressure.
**JN:** You talked about how they don’t have to help off on bigs. How big of an advantage is that?
**JJ:** That’s a good question. We saw that (Friday) night with Jeff (Withey), how he played. We didn’t trap the post on C.J. Leslie or any of those guys. We just played straight up. Jeff helped over on T-Rob a little bit with Leslie, and Jeff ended up coming up with some big blocks. It’s nice that you don’t have to trap out of the post and then the guards don’t have to rotate to guard the backside. So that helps out big-time, just knowing that you have confidence like that. Carolina surely does have that with Zeller — he’s just such a big body — and Henson. They’re blocking a lot and rebounding a lot.
**JN:** We hear a lot about transition defense. What is the key to that?
**JJ:** The key is our bigs getting back and being in strong help. You don’t think about it all the time. With our bigs and Jeff, they have to run however many feet it is — 86, 90 feet — every time, from baseline to baseline pretty much. And if they get back fast, then that stops the guard from having a wide-open floor. Because when (the bigs) are running back at the top of the key, they can be in strong help and bluff at them and slow them down a little bit. It takes going to the glass on the offensive rebound, then just getting back and finding our man, because they have some shooters, too. Harrison can shoot it, and their 2 man (Reggie Bullock) can shoot pretty well. So that’s the key, is just getting back.
**JN:** That’s interesting. Usually we think of guards stopping transition, but really, it’s the bigs that are the key, because they clog things up.
**JJ:** Coach preaches on that a lot, because you see Thomas kind of lag back a little bit and poke at the opposing team when they get the rebound. (Coach) is always like, ‘Thomas get back! Thomas get back!’ Because it stops a transition layup, too. If you’re back at the goal, they can’t get that. It’s also with guards getting in motion early, picking up and engaging at half-court. It really is on the bigs to do that.
**JN:** You guys have such limited practice time between these two games. How much can you even pick apart another team in one day?
**JJ:** That is true, and especially the late night we had (Friday) night. But, they kind of run the same stuff we’ve seen all year with sets and actions. The big thing would just be keying on what they do in transition early. They do little actions out of that. Just how we’re going to guard ball screens, stuff like that. We’ll have a practice (Saturday) and get focused in and go through the things that we’re going to need to do. But you’re right, we don’t have much time. We’ll mostly just be watching film on them and doing that.
**JN:** What will be the keys for you guys?
**JJ:** I’ve just got to say, it’s Carolina, so it’s not only going to be about execution or anything about that. It’s going to be about making plays, because this is the big-time and the big stage. Like I said, willpower and toughness are going to win this game, not execution or anything. Getting 50-50 balls that are up in the air … everything.
Rebounding is a big key with them, getting so many rebounds. In the Ohio game, I heard they out-rebounded them by over 30 (63-30). That’s just really going to be key. Also, guarding our man and sticking to the gameplan Coach has for us.
