Photo By Ignacio Murillo | The Daily Mississippian
Sebastian Saiz had the game of his life – at least so far – Wednesday in Ole Miss’ overtime win over LSU. He scored a career-high 20 points in an insanely efficient performance. He was 8 of 11 from the field and 4 of 5 from the free throw line. He also added nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal in 34 minutes off the bench.
He was a Spanish salvation for Ole Miss.
Saiz provided something Ole Miss has sorely missed all season – a big man that can finish at the rim.
When Ole Miss set up a play for Marshall Henderson, the LSU defense was overly aggressive and blitzed him. And Henderson – as he does more than he gets credit for – slipped the ball to the open man. Against LSU, the open man was Saiz; the result was four Henderson assists to Saiz. Half of Saiz’s baskets were assisted by Henderson. This is the most important part of Saiz’s breakout performance.
Ole Miss runs a play called “shooter flip,” where the two post players will set screens for the two off-ball guards. The first guard, LaDarius White below – will run to the wing and catch the pass.
The second guard, almost always Henderson, will run to the corner and look for a pass from White.
Jarvis Summers stays on the far side for the court, and Dwight Coleby flashes to the free throw line, both are for spacing.
Ole Miss is looking to play a two-man game on the baseline with Henderson and Siaz. The Rebels did this a lot last season with Reggie Buckner or Murphy Holloway.
Henderson catches the pass, but LSU didn’t have to double him, and the Tigers have him well defended. This is mostly due to Saiz and Coleby not setting hard screens.
But Saiz has phenomenal positioning in the post. Henderson feeds him the ball and Saiz makes a move along the baseline and scores.
Teams have been able to blitz Henderson coming off of the double baseline screens and on “shooter flip” because no posts for Ole Miss have shown the ability to score at the rim.
Saiz may have changed that.
As a roll man on the pick-and-roll, Saiz could become a huge threat. He sets a ton of ball screens, and with his performance against LSU, Saiz could be a true threat rolling to the basket.
Here, Saiz is about to run a side pick-and-roll with Henderson.
LSU blitzes Henderson with a trap, so Henderson jumps to pass as Saiz is starting his roll. Saiz doesn’t even have his head turned yet.
But Saiz catches the ball near the block. Now Ole Miss has a four-on-three. The potential problem for Saiz is that Aaron Jones’ man has slid in to defend him.
But Saiz shows off his spin move, which results in a lefty hook shot that he buried.
Teams are going to blitz, double, trap and hedge on Henderson. Last year, he could dump the ball off, and Buckner or Holloway could finish. Until the LSU game, no Ole Miss big man was making the opponent think twice about doubling Henderson.
If they continue to blindly double him, Henderson could rack more seven-assist games, but that’s only if Saiz can continue to make defenses pay.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
— Tyler Bischoff
tfbischo@go.olemiss.edu
