West Lutheran at Mpls Southwest Thoughts

Michael Lindberg

A frigid night in the Kingdom takes me on my annual Christmas Lights Trip to Minneapolis Southwest for their game against West Lutheran. Tubby Smith on hand to watch his son Brian coach the JV squad. SW girls coach Rob Grace handling the public address and friend of blog Steve Froemming "performing" for the 2nd edition of Steve's dance off at halftime. Steve we love ya, but keep the day job. I should have waited to eat the pizza. Now if they would have played Souja Boy (sp?), that may have been different.

Southwest starts the game with a triple immediately countered by a Michael Lindberg 3 of his own. He adds 5 more while SW gets 3 straight layups and its 9-8 SW at 14:45. Lindberg again from the deep beyond and we're tied at 12 2 minutes later. SW runs off the next 7 before guess who, Lindberg, scores. 6'7 Dominique Dawson with a nice bucket and 1 and the lead is 22-14 at 9:33. Nate Dwyer gets a hoop at the 9 minute mark for the 1st Warriors basket by someone other than Lindberg. 8 more in a row for SW before Dawson picks up his 2nd foul at 5:31 and sits. Jack Schneider with a steal for a bucket for SW and its 39-23 Lakers at 3:30. 47-29 Southwest going to the break. Lindberg with 18 on 7-9 shooting (and one of those was down and came out). The Warriors 9-21 FTs with 2 missed 1 and 1 opportunities in the 1st half as SW had 15 or 16 fouls. Only 2 other field goals in the half for West Lutheran. Elliot Matheiu with 12 points off the bench in the half for SW. Dawson with 5 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks in the half.

Lindberg stays hot to start the 2nd half. Back to back triples and a jumper make it 52-37 SW at 15:30. That's 10 of the 1st 12 Warrior field goals for Lindberg. He then finds Riley Gehl for a bucket and West Lutheran has the gap down to 54-43 with 14 minutes left. But SW slams the door shut. Schneider with a 3, Aytron Scott finds Dawson for 2 and then converts a steal into a layin. Timeout Warriors but that doesn't stop the bleeding. Scott gets another steal for 2 out of the timeout. Matheiu with 2 FTs and an assist to Scott for 3 and another assist to Dawson. He gets a layin of his own and its an 18-0 SW run over 5:15. 72-43 with 8:45 to play and this one is over. Lindberg leaves with 2:32 remaining to finish a very nice night for him. Final score 99-64 Southwest wins.

For West Lutheran, Lindberg went cold after the 1st 2:30 of the 2nd half (partially thanks to SW clamping down on him after too many easy 1st half looks) and that didn't help the Warriors cause. I had him for 28 points on 11-19 shooting with 4 triples. Lindberg is only a junior and played with the Minnesota Fury North squad this summer. Nice player who plays both guard spots for them, but there's very little else there. I would expect teams to go after him with a box and 1 as the season progresses. Teams will also start to force him right. Everything tonight was left and the 1 move to the right resulted in a very poor look. Southwest's athletes really bothered them. 6th in the MCAA is about right for them but the more I see of the MCAA (except New Life who is good), the more I cringe at the bottom teams.

For Southwest, Dominique Dawson with 11 points and I had him for 16 rebounds and 2 blocks. Not a guy who you can throw it down to for a post bucket but he does a nice job on the glass and can get up and down the floor a bit. Sophomore Ayrton Scott with 15 points. Elliot Matteiu with 22 of the bench. They're still in a rebuilding phase but they are improved from last year. But I said that last year and it didn't turn out to be true. The difference this season is a new coaching staff with former Mounds View girls coach Tom Weko, George Hemmingson from 43 Hoops (he had the 2nd 17U team this summer) and Tubby Smith's son Brian. Offensively they want to run. Defensively when West Lutheran was able to get into a set, they got whatever they wanted too easily. The Warriors ran a 2-3 high set with an X cut off the high post and got 3 easy looks off the 1st pass. That needs to be cleaned up.

X and O of the Day
In our X and O segment today, we look at how West Lutheran got Lindberg some looks. They'd start 1-4 high with Lindberg on a wing. They'd enter the ball to the other wing. Point guard stay, ball side high post goes out to the ball side corner. Now you've got what is essentially a flex screen by the backside high post, but only its at the foul line extended. If you trail, the curl gives you a layup. Go under and you've got an easy foul line J. You could also use this as an entry to open post motion. Have the point guard give and go on that entry instead of staying home and then fill the weak side wing. Lindberg's spot curls and the screener steps back to the top of the key and you're right into it.

Michael Lindberg photo courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net