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AN IDEA ON HOW TO GUARD AND DEFEND JIMMER FREDETTE
In my opinion, Jimmer Fredette of Brigham Young University is the best player in
the nation this year in men's college basketball. Fredette's talents
handling the basketball, passing the ball, and shooting the ball make him a
difficult match-up and may be the biggest reason why BYU fans have hope that
they will be making their first Final Four appearance in school history.
However, after watching the game tapes, there may be some ways to slow down Jimmer Fredette and give yourself a chance to defeat a team like Brigham Young.
While I do not profess that I have all the answers on how to defend Jimmer
Fredette and come out with a win, I merely want to give some ideas on how a
player or a team can guard him
What Jimmer Fredette Does Well
In starting with the things that Jimmer Fredette does well is quite lengthy and
all of these things make him a difficult match-up. The first, and most
glaring, is his shooting range. In several games this year, including the
games that I watched, Fredette took shots well behind the three-point line and
made several of them. Obviously, he is not shy about taking such a long
shot and can at least hit the rim when he does shoot those particular shots.
Second, Fredette is an outstanding facilitator. When he does not have a
good to great scoring opportunity for himself, Jimmer has the unique ability to
get other people involved in the offense. He's not a classic "ball hog" in
that he does nothing but shoot. Rather, Jimmer Fredette has the ability to
create scoring opportunities for his teammates. He does a great job of
getting other players open because he commands such attention when he has the
ball in his hands. As a result. when a team totally commits to shutting
down Jimmer Fredette, that team allows themselves to become vulnerable to the
other four players on the court.
Third, and what I think is the most underrated part of his game, is his level of
toughness. When he was in high school, Jimmer Fredette was known to go to
a nearby state prison in Glens Falls, NY and play with the prisoners.
Needless to say, this was a great way for him to deal with hostile crowds and
tough-as-nails defensive players. Because of this, he can overcome tough
situations and is always at his best when his best is required.
Other Observations
One of the first observations that can be made about Jimmer Fredette is how he
uses his hands when handling the basketball. The first is that he is a
right-handed shooter and favors his right hand when he goes to the rim.
Meanwhile, he will use the left hand as much as his right when dribbling in
place. If he is made to attack the basket with his left hand, he will do
one of three things: he will pull up and take the mid-range jump shot, he will
attempt to draw the defender or he will try to go back to his right to attack
the rim or pass to an open player on the perimeter.
The second observation is how he is utilized on defense by the BYU coaching
staff. Actually, this could be how the coaching staff is hiding him on
defense. There's no shame in doing it and I am certainly not saying that
Jimmer Fredette is a bad defensive player. It's just that with all the
minutes that Jimmer Fredette is playing (nearly 37 minutes per contest) and his
scoring punch, there is just no way that Fredette could possibly be asked to
expend himself on the defensive end nearly at the same rate as on offense.
His role is to spearhead the offensive efforts for his team, not to be a great
shutdown defender.
Finally, the other observation is that Jimmer Fredette is not a team entirely to
himself. While he can certainly do the scoring of two or three players, he
has yet to show that he could do all the scoring of all five players in a game.
If Fredette isn't scoring, the slack is certainly picked up by Jackson Emery
(#4) on the perimeter and by the rest of the supporting cast including, Noah
Hartsock (#34) who knows how to spot up and hit big shots. At the time of
this article, Jimmer Fredette is averaging 27.3 points per game, best in the
nation by more than two points per contest. While he has the ability to
score and these numbers seem jaw-dropping, they aren't overly daunting and don't
get into "Pistol" Pete Maravich territory.
Ideas on How Not to Defend Jimmer Fredette
The first and most obvious way not to defend Jimmer Fredette is by playing a
zone defense. Playing a zone is just asking for trouble with a talented
shooter like Fredette. Against a zone defense, he has the ability to
stretch the zone with his shooting range. The BYU coaches can also put him
in a favorable position by placing him in the gap of a zone that allows him to
just stroke three-point shot after three-point shot. Simply put, allowing
Jimmer Fredette to shoot an unguarded jumper is just asking for trouble.
Second, with the supporting cast around Jimmer Fredette, playing a "junk"
defense is certainly out of the question. Playing a box-and-one or a
diamond-and-one would allow someone like Jackson Emery or Brandon Davies to get
out of hand and have a big game. After playing any one of these types of
"junk" defenses for a few possessions, you would come to the realization that
BYU has players who can score other than Jimmer Fredette.
Pressing would be the kiss of death because it would allow one of the most
efficient offenses in college basketball to do some serious damage in a
high-scoring game. Not only would Fredette be able to take advantage, but
his teammates would all get involved in the scoring, especially with
high-percentage lay-ups and dunks against the press.
So now the question becomes how to defend Jimmer Fredette...
How to Defend Jimmer Fredette
If you decide to guard Jimmer Fredette in a conventional man-to-man defense,
there are some pointers that should be taken into consideration. Remember
how I mentioned earlier about his tendencies going left? The game plan
would be to make him go left and force him into a mid-range shooting game or to
attack the basket using his left hand only. On all closeouts, you need to
fly right at his right shoulder and force him to put the ball on the floor with
his left hand. When he attacks the basket, keep him to his left and let
him either attack the basket or pass to a teammate who may be a more suspect
shooter. Whatever you do, never let him go to his right hand on the
dribble or he will have the ability to attack the basket for an easy lay-up.
Remember, he is a scorer, but a right-handed scorer nonetheless.
You can also consider using double teams as a part of your team's defensive
strategy. In a recent game against San Diego State, double teams were used
in an effort to make Fredette give up the basketball. These proved to be
successful and San Diego State even came close to getting some turnovers in that
game.
Another idea that could be considered as a part of your game plan is to make
your offense a part of your defense. What I mean by this is that you need
to make Jimmer Fredette play defense when you have the ball on offense. If
he gets into foul trouble, he becomes less of a factor, especially if the BYU
coaching staff decides to sit him down when he is in foul trouble. The
best way to do this is to find a way to post up the player he's been assigned to
guard. This can be done with special plays or adjustments to your offense.
Also, you can put your best three-point shooter against him when BYU goes to
their 2-3 zone defense. Fredette will always be placed on the top row of
the zone on the left side. Making Fredette point the ball will force him
to exert some of his limited energy reserves on the defensive end. If this
development happens, he will likely lose his legs on his jump shot.
Finally, the last of these is to do what Adolph Rupp did to the aforementioned
Pete Maravich...absolutely nothing. Instead of trying to guard and defend
Jimmer Fredette, focus on shutting out his supporting cast and daring Fredette
to do all of the scoring by himself. Understand that this would be only
used as a plausible strategy if you know for a fact that you don't have anyone
who can slow down (much less shut down) Jimmer Fredette.
Conclusion
If nothing else, I hope that I have given some ideas as to how to guard and
defend Jimmer Fredette. His is obviously one of the most talented players
in recent memory in college basketball. Just remember that if none of
these ideas work, you can always use Kryptonite.
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