Players to Watch: LSU’s Versatile Bigs, Mickey and Martin

Jarell Martin stands at 6’10 and weighs in at 236lbs. His front court mate, Jordan Mickey isn’t far behind at 6’8 and 235lbs. These are the guys that make LSU go. They are a team that will go as far as their bigs can take them Mickey is a double-double machine that averages 15.5pts and 10rebounds per game while adding 3.6. Martin is putting up even better numbers at 17ppg and 9.2 rebounds per game.

First let’s have a look at Martin.

Jarell Martin: Martin isn’t your average 6’10 big man. He’s not a big, lumbering back to the basket type guy. He is agile, strong and can attack off the dribble. His jumper is decent but you’d much rather him be spotting up than attacking the rim. He’s going to be a major mismatch for NC State and how they decide to guard him could be a deciding factor on Thursday.

Jordan Mickey: Watching those Martin highlights you’d think he was the athletic one, but he’s not. Mickey is a CJ Leslie type athlete with more strength and better shot blocking anticipation. This guy can rise and can also attack off the dribble. He’s more average sized and should be a little more natural for NC State to matchup against, but honestly, I’m not sure State has faced a guy as bouncy and long as Mickey.

Matchups
State is going to have a tough time matching up here in the middle. The problem for LSU is that State is going to have the advantage on the perimeter. For the Pack though, the question is how will they guard these two monsters in the middle. Abu matches up well physically with Mickey but his position defense and propensity to foul is going to be a problem. Freeman is a guy who can really body up Mickey and throw him off balance. Sure he’ll get around him some, and he’ll rebound over top of him, but he’s not going to be able to just out physical him. That means you’ll need Anya in there to deal with the 6’10 Martin. The problem here is that Martin is agile and Anya has trouble stopping attacks off the dribble.

These are the major questions surrounding this game. Their answers will be the difference between going home and advancing to the next round.