Who Defends Ben Simmons?
College of Charleston (3–2, 0–0)
LSU (3–2, 0–0)
TD Arena
Tipoff at 7:00 pm
Tonight marks the biggest home game of the season for the College of Charleston as they host projected #1 NBA draft pick Ben Simmons and the LSU Tigers at TD Arena for a primetime matchup.
Simmons, the 6'10 225 lbs freshman forward, is a defensive nightmare. He leads the country in rebounding at 14.4 per game, is a smooth moving precise passer and chips in 16.2 points per contest despite complaints of being too passive offensively at times.
So far this season, how Simmons goes is how the Tigers go. The team offense too regularly devolves to four guys standing around and waiting for him to go to work, and they have lost their past two contests in that fashion. For the Cougars, they’ll need to be zeroed in on #25 all night long and hope he doesn’t put together a SportsCenter-worthy highlight package against them. It’s going to take a total team effort, but here are five options to check Simmons in the half court.
1) Canyon Barry
Canyon is a likely Cougar to be tasked with slowing down Simmons and it makes sense on many levels. For one, Simmons will probably be the one guarding Canyon because of the similar positions they play and the stats they put up for their team. Canyon has also proved to be a competent defender on the perimeter and has the NBA pedigree and genetics of his father and brothers.
When guarding the bigger Simmons, Canyon has to be aware that the refs are going to be watching him very closely. The Cougars cannot allow their leading scorer to be on the bench in foul trouble with an SEC team in the building. Barry also has to avoid turning the ball over or leaking out on offense before the Cougars gain possession — because you know Simmons is crashing the glass
2) Jarrell Brantley
If we’re putting freshman on freshman, Jarrell Brantley may be following up his big day against Western Carolina with a tall defensive task. Brantley can hang with Simmons athletically and actually might have a few pounds on him. The two also have similar strengths in rebounding and getting to the rim on offense.
But Brantley has not yet been asked to be a defensive stopper, as fifth-year senior James Bourne has usually been trusted to stop opposing big men one-on-one. Brantley’s weaknesses in this matchup are experienced-based. If he is put on Simmons, he’ll need to be in sync with his team, avoiding screens, staying low, boxing out and not getting called for hand checking.
3) Donovan Gilmore
In terms of pure athleticism, Gilmore is the Cougars’ best option. Remember this? Gilmore can run, he can jump, he can dunk and block shots. He’s not the bulkiest player, but neither is Simmons — who plays a lot of power forward like Gilmore. Donovan falls into the same buckets as Brantley — namely in lack of experience and a still unproven ability to be a defensive presence. Like many players, Donovan is adjusting to the new NCAA rules on fouling and it has at times limited his playing time. But if LSU is getting out on the break, as they like to do, it might not be the worst thing to have Gilmore going stride for stride with Simmons.
4) Nick Harris
In terms of height, sparingly used redshirt freshmen Nick Harris is the only player on the CofC roster who can stand eye-to-eye with Ben Simmons. Nick is still being slowly integrated into the rotation following an early fall injury that put him out of preseason practice, but Saturday against Western Carolina he saw the most minutes of his career so far.
Nick is still a question mark, but in limited time he has shown himself to be a capable player now and one with a lot of room to fill out. He projects to be a major piece for the next few years, but he’s still growing into his potential. We don’t yet know if he can check someone out on the perimeter and not get left behind on drives, but he can defend the paint and alter shots with his enormous wingspan. The Cougar big man rotation is deep, and if Nick can make a quick impact, Coach Grant might lean on him a lot.
5) Cameron Johnson / Marquise Pointer
The Cougars’ dynamic duo of underclassmen guards (the healthy ones at least) might be the two best defenders on the team. Cam Johnson has proven from Day 1 of his freshman year that his football background has helped him to become a tenacious and physical presence on defense, and he takes a lot of pride in being asked to guard the team’s best player. Pointer is also very quick on his feet and can move laterally and keep his hands active.
What neither of these guys possess is the necessary height to contest a near seven footer from shooting threes. If Simmons is settling for outside jumpers because the CofC guards are preventing him from getting past them, that’s one thing, but that’s about the best the Cougs can hope for from these guys.
