I think it is folly to assume that anyone can do much of anything but slow Durant down.
I have a few thoughts on some possible strategies:
1. We can't foul him. It is pure insanity. Against Baylor they "held" him to 9/18 shooting but he went 13/15 from the line. He's shooting 83% on the year and he gets to the line about as much as Hoskins. We don't want him taking more than 7-8 ft.
2. Villanova held him to 12 points. Some comments from the post game:
Durant came in averaging 34.0 points over the last four games and
Villanova used a number of players, including the 6-foot-2 Reynolds who was giving up 7 inches, in holding him under 20 points for just the third time this season.
Durant finished 4-for-15 from the field and missed all six of his shots in the second half.
"
We wanted to keep our length on him and be quick so we could contain him when he out it on the floor," said Dante Cunningham, one of the players assigned to Durant and who knew him from his AAU days.
"Villanova played great team defense. It was a whole team effort," he [Durant] said. "
They had two guys in my face when I got the ball and they trapped well."
3. I think we will be forced into some kind of zone and just beg the other 4 Texas players to beat us. I firmly believe we can out rebound Texas by a pretty good margin. They are not a great rebounding team outside of KD and we need to take advantage of that getting second chance buckets like last night and clearing the glass on the other end. Cartier will be key.
The idea could be rotate Colon and Bennett inside, and trap him as soon as he gets the ball. We will need to push him off the block because it will be very difficult to double down without giving up open threes, getting him to the line or giving up a bucket before the second guy gets there. He's a really great player, but Bennett can alter a lot of shots and pushing him out of the lane and forcing him to hit contested jumpers is a lot more fun then watching him work over people. Cartier and Dave might be spending some time on him and trying to swat at the ball knowing that they have tons of weak side help.
4. In the Villanova game Abrams went 5/11 from 3. I think we have to just let that happen. You pick your poison. He's shooting 45% from the arc and it is just going to happen with them. The good news was they only gave up four my points from him. Augustin also had 25 points, he was 5/6 from 3
. I think the lesson is that the kick-out game is less effective for them than you think and that they only have three legit scoring options and shutting down Durant is the key. There is a reason the three of them they average a collective 54 points.
5. If you look at the Gonzaga game it is the complete opposite of 'Nova. In that game Durant has 29 and 9, Mason has 17points and Augustin/Abrams are held to 7 points a piece. Gonzaga forced Durant into 5 turnovers. I think Huggs might go this way and try to limit Augustin and Abrams. I think we may match up better that way, but that is a dangerous game to be playing. Let's keep in mind Hannah just got done dropping 27 on us. Let's also keep in mind this was the second of January before Durant realized what a monster he was.
6. In the end, in my opinion we have to sell out to contain Durant by doubling down. I also wonder if Huggs might throw some half court trap looks to slow Texas down. We really can't let Augustin come into the front court with a full head of steam or he will just murder us off the dribble.
I like where we are at. I care a ton about the game, but realize that a loss is expected and we still have some better shots down the road. This would be huge though. But I'm not letting myself get too excited about it......But it would be totally awesome if we won!!!
