Graham Ike 2022....

[Old-Bull]

This time last year I was speculating that no one in the league could cover this guy one on one. With the loss of Marcus Williams, I knew a lot of our offense was going to go through Graham. I didn't see Maldonado the point forward coming, but it was pretty obvious to anyone paying attention the year before, that when Ike's healthy you can't guard him one on one. This summer I've been thinking, what does Graham do to improve his game? I know his goal is to get to the league and he has the talent to do that. What does he need to do to make that happen?

Last year people didn't realize what some of us already knew: you can't really guard Graham Ike in the post, one on one, unless you have an elite, athletic, 7'0" tall shot blocker. Those are extremely rare in the college game. Even then, Graham is still going to get his. Over the course of the season, when people started to figure that out, our opponents came up with the "Graham Ike rules": a similar multi-faceted strategy to minimize the impact of Ike. By the end of the season, everyone was doing the same things:

1. Foul hard, foul often. Rotate guys in to foul him as much as possible.
2. Play dirty, get in Graham's head, draw offensive fouls.
3. Flop like a soccer player.
4. Don't let him get the ball in the post.
5. Double him as soon as he gets the ball in the post.

Even with every team on our schedule employing the same dirty tactics the only thing that really slowed him down was his usage rate. If Graham didn't wear down he would have continued to dominate people like he did for the majority of the season. The staff knows that. They're going to keep him fresh this year. So what can Graham do to improve his game in the post?

1. Continue to improve his free throw shooting. Graham's free throw shooting became clutch last year. He was great when the game was on the line and much better than the season before. He needs to keep improving this since he has to be one of the most fouled players in college basketball, if not the most fouled player. He needs to punish people for fouling him and he really started to do that last year.

2. Don't take the bait. Guys are going to hammer him, play dirty, grab handfuls of shirt, and try to bait him into picking up offensive fouls. Graham can't take the bait. He needs to maintain his level of ferocity without letting it spill over into an emotional foul. That's a fine line to walk. The best ability is availability and you can't help the team sitting on the bench. Graham needs to eliminate emotional fouls. He's still going to get called for offensive fouls because of his physical dominance. He needs to get rid of the emotional fouls.

3. There's no way to eliminate the other team flopping. Graham got called for a lot of hooks with his elbows up high last year. You might be able to keep your elbows lower(not in line with the opponents head) to keep from giving them flop material, but this one is impossible to stop.

4. People are going to deny the entry pass. I think taking his game outside and starting to take people from the outside/in is going to help Graham get more post touches. People are NOT going to double Graham at the three point line.

5. If you're Graham Ike, you know the double is coming every time you touch the ball in the paint. You have to be aware who you can pass to before the double comes. Teams started doubling from the blind side last season so Graham couldn't recognize it. They started doubling off the power forward because we didn't have as high of a shooting percentage at the 4 last year. You don't have to pass the ball straight to the man left open on the double. You just have to get the ball out to exterior and let them pass to the open man. Graham has to get better at getting the ball out quickly and accurately to an open man. He's already good at this, but there's a lot of room for improvement here.

That's what I think Graham is working on to help his post game.

What is Graham going to need to do to become a lottery pick in the NBA draft? Everyone in the NBA has an elite, athletic, 7'0" tall shot blocker. Some teams have them lined up at the 2 guard spot. I think the biggest improvement Graham can make to help his chances of succeeding in the league is to take his game outside. Graham knows it. Our staff knows it. The NBA knows it. They want to see if Graham can play around the three point line.

This is what I think Graham has been working on at 6:00 in the morning this year: becoming Graham Ike the NBA power forward. In the first scrimmage I saw Graham take a couple of guys off the dribble to the rim. I didn't really know he had that in his game because we didn't see much of it last year. I saw Graham bury a couple of threes as well. It's just a guess, but I'll bet that Graham has spent hundreds of hours in the gym this summer working on those 2 things: outside shooting and getting to the rim by dribbling past guys.

Linder is an analytics guy. He plays percentages. Right now, one of the highest percentage chances to get a bucket is to feed Graham Ike the ball in the post. I expect to see a lot more of that. People expecting Maldo to stop playing the point are going to be extremely disappointed when they realize it creates high percentage shots and great mismatches. I wouldn't be surprised if Graham is going to utilize his great hands to avoid the double team and get paint touches by driving past people to the rack.

So what do I expect to see that I don't think many people are expecting out of Graham Ike: Graham Ike the NBA power forward. I expect to see Graham playing from the outside in. I might be completely full of crap here, trying to predict something that we have little to no evidence of. Don't be surprised if Graham Ike's game is moving out to the three point line a lot more often.

21 days left until the home opener. Go Pokes!!

[CowGalxoHoops]

Thanks for the thoughtful informative post. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts about Graham. He seems like a special person will such a strong work ethic. Meaning all the intangibles are there. Let's wish for a season of good health to our entire team, staff and fans. With good health the sky is the limit.

-Lexi

[stymeman]

I hope he brings more of a K(iller) I(nstinct) with himself and his lunchpail and gets down and dirty on the offensive glass and becomes our Windex man and down low scorer that truly hasn't been seen here since #43 patrolled the paint in Mr Eric Leckner. Oh this season is gonna(hopefully) be fun!!!