Stopping Grayson Allen

At their first meeting NC State got absolutely toasted by Allen to the tune of 28 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. Most of his points came off of one action…the elbow hand-off/screen. When looking at Allen I see a kid who has lots of physical gifts: strong, quick first step, an ability to elevate over defenders (ask BeeJay). When watching the tape on Allen and the way he got his baskets, it confirmed a couple of things…State is awful at defending ball screens and dribble hand-offs. This is troubling because our guys see this action constantly as Gottfried’s offensive scheme uses some of the exact actions that Duke uses for Allen.

What can State do to slow Allen down?

Sell out on the hand-off…

All too often the NC State big men do not guard anyone (I know for all that have watched State play this season it is not anything new) BUT this has got to change if the Wolfpack stands any chance tomorrow.  More times than not, Allen gets his hand-off from Plumlee who is not a threat offensively, especially in the area that the action takes place, this means that Abu or Anya need to hedge hard to keep Allen from turning the corner. There is no reason to hang onto Plumlee 17 feet from the basket!

Play off and bait him into contested jump shots…

Another reason Grayson was able to turn the corner is because whoever was defending him on the perimeter did not give him enough space. Yes, you want to pressure him but he is deceptively quick and can blow by defenders with ease. Cody Martin will get the assignment again and he needs to leverage his length more to his favor, last time out he allowed Allen to get into his body which knocked him completely off balance rendering him useless. If State can coax Allen into settling for long twos and threes they can have success. The type of players that Allen has struggled against are the long athletic wings, Cody fits this bill, but he has to take away the paint and put together his best defensive performance to date.