Tip Off 5 Takeaways: Park Center uses late rally to take out Eden Prairie
Park Center tacked on another impressive early-season win, getting a game-winning 3-pointer from David Ijadimbola to secure a 49-46 win over Eden Prairie. Here are five takeaways from the contest: Park Center’s defense is elite This was an impressive showing…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingPark Center tacked on another impressive early-season win, getting a game-winning 3-pointer from David Ijadimbola to secure a 49-46 win over Eden Prairie.
Here are five takeaways from the contest:
Park Center’s defense is elite
This was an impressive showing for the Pirates for several reasons. One, the opponent, Eden Prairie, is among the best teams in Class AAAA and loaded with talented scorers. I’d venture to bet the Eagles score 46 points in the first half more often than they score less than 50 in an entire game this season. The second, which is a big one, is that their defense wasn’t feast or famine. It wasn’t all about them providing silly amounts of pressure and winning the game by forcing the Eagles to fumble the game away. It wasn’t a game predicated on ultra-fast tempo. A majority of the game was played in a halfcourt setting – something I wasn’t sure Park Center could do consistently against good teams. They contested shots, they pressured ball handlers and they made the internal clock for all Eden Prairie ball handlers speed up just a tick. The Pirates have the athletes to do that. Their defense doesn’t have to end with steals. It can end with a lot of forced and contested shots and rebounds. That’s what it was Saturday.
The Pirates got almost nothing out of their three go-to guys…and won
Park Center’s defense saved the day, but the offense was clunky throughout the entire game. Some of that is Eden Prairie is a good defensive team, with a lot of experienced kids who have great size, athleticism and defensive skill. But the Pirates also don’t have a lot of good shooters and sometimes, the shot selection was plain bad. That said, it’s not often that Tommy Chatman, Khari Broadway and Dain Dainja are only going to combine to score 21 points.
Dain Dainja spent a lot of time with the ball in his hands
I’m not sure if that was by design or if that’s the Park Center big man ad-libbing but I think I saw him take the ball up the court more often than I saw him outlet a pass. He initiated a lot of their offense or on several occasions, dribbled down and shot without passing. I didn’t love the way Dainja played Saturday night. The junior big man scored just nine points and seemed to fall a little too in love with trying to showcase his perimeter game. It’s certainly improved and perhaps the Park Center staff wants that from him. But when he caught the ball with post position with a foot in the paint, he scored. He didn’t do that enough. He’s strong enough and active enough to dominate on the offensive glass and Park Center has the guards who can get him a lot of easy baskets. If he can find a way to balance playing in the paint and being a physical presence with “point-Danja”, he can be an absolute force. If it’s like 70/30 inside to outside, that can work. It was like 80 percent outside Saturday which seemed out of place.
Eden Prairie may need to find another true ball handler
The Eagles graduated just two guys from last year’s state tournament team. Both were guards. Eden Prairie has good players all over the floor but on Saturday, Drake Dobbs had to do a ton of the ball handling and initiating and while he’s good at it, he’s also very good when he can catch-and-shoot. Do the Eagles have another guy capable of facilitating? I understand a lot of that can be accomplished by running good offense but if that breaks down – which it will at times against top-flight competition – is Eden Prairie going to be relying on Dobbs to make something out of nothing?
Detavius Frierson was the unexpected difference-maker Saturday
In a game where their three supposed go-to guys never got it going, the Pirates were able to eek out a win thanks in large part to the play of Detavius Frierson. The 6-foot-5 junior scored 16 points and was terrific not only slashing to the rim but also on the glass and in transition. He absolutely benefited from the extra attention paid to the three top guys and he’ll likely have that kind of opportunity more than occasionally this winter. If he continues to play like he did Saturday, the Pirates wealth of depth is even wealthier than we thought.