Maybe it's just me but every time i watch a Pitt game. I see Elton Brand playing on there team. If you look at there numbers Brand and Blair are not that far apart and they play a very similar style. Anybody see the comparison. Comments?
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Maybe it's just me but every time i watch a Pitt game. I see Elton Brand playing on there team. If you look at there numbers Brand and Blair are not that far apart and they play a very similar style. Anybody see the comparison. Comments?
I see the similarity, though, IIRC, Brand is a bit taller. Blair is a beast in a similar way - really strong, soft hands, mobile.Quote:
Originally Posted by chadlee989
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He is a truly strong and talented player, but he benefits greatly from lax enforcement of the 3 second rule. Many of his O-Boards come after he has camped out in the lane for waaay too long. In a recent game I timed him (with TIVO) at 8 seconds in the lane (no shot during this time) before getting a put-back basket!
Yeah, this is a lost call, as far as I'm concerned. I can't remember a Duke game this season when three seconds has been called, offhand.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neals384
To be fair to the officials, I worked as an official for a little while for high school and middle school basketball. Three seconds really is the last thing on your mind because it's the hardest violation to observe when you're following the rest of the action on the court, especially in the two man crews you work with for the lower levels of ball. You have to count to three while watching a player stay in the lane while also keeping your eyes on the rest of the action.
Brand's offense is FAR more potent than Blair's. Brand was practically unstoppable one-on-one, and frequently very difficult to stop one-on-two.
Blair gets most of his buckets (AFAIK) off rebounds, put-backs, etc.; Pitt doesn't really run their offense through him the way Duke's did through Brand.
that play where he slammed dunked Thabeet, and i don't mean slammed dunk ON Thabeet, we pertty impressive....
he seems to have that tough "you're not gonna stop me" presence inside..
Z got called for it once against VT I think. Only reason I remember was because it was such an anomaly.Quote:
Originally Posted by COYS
I agree that he exhibits a toughness. To an extent, that's very positive for his game and for the Pitt team. But he crossed the line beyond toughness to excessive and unnecessary roughness.Quote:
Originally Posted by moonpie23
The body slam of Thabeet was a dirty play. He threw Thabeet to the floor in a judo like move that was completely unnecessary and could have resulted in serious injury to Thabeet. Blair should have been T'd up.
I've seen Blair do dirty plays in other games. You may recall when he head locked and slammed Singler to the floor last year. Blair needs to get his tough guy behavior under control before he really injures somebody.
I didn't think it was a dirty play against Thabeet at all. He correctly didn't get called for ANY foul. Thabeet was the one reaching over his back.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fish80
Blair is built like a tank. He's physical, but definitely not dirty. Also, he plays in the Big East. I think he's going to do as much as he can get away with as far as physical play goes.
True, Thabeet fouled Blair, but that doesn't make it alright for Blair to grab Thabeet's arm (which he did) and then execute a basic Judo throw. It didn't look like a case of their arms getting tangled up as much as it looked like he intentionally grabbed Thabeet's arm.Quote:
Originally Posted by FireOgilvie
Every time I see him on the floor. Seriously.Quote:
Originally Posted by chadlee989
He grabbed his arm. Really? I watched it like ten times and it looked to me like Thabeet had his arm over Blair's back and his hand under the ball. When Blair pulled the ball down with both hands, he hyper-extended Thabeet's elbow and flipped him over his back, using Thabeet's elbow on his shoulder like the fulcrum of a lever. It was definitely unnecessarily rough, as Thabeet tried to pull back and Blair didn't let him, but I didn't see him grab anything. I last saw it several days ago, though, so I could be wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by Clipsfan
Blair reminds me of high schooler Joshua Smith only a little thicker and not quite as athletic as Smith.
They talk/sound the same, too...kinda higher pitched, raspy voice....Quote:
Originally Posted by chadlee989
Blair didn't grab Thabeet's arm. He grabbed the ball with both hands and yanked it down (it's common for rebounders to do this). Thabeet tried to yank the ball back over Blair's with his right hand, and thus his hand was on the far side of the ball. He didn't free his arm fast enough, so when Blair yanked down the ball, Thabeet's body landed on Blair, and he was pulled over Blair's body.Quote:
Originally Posted by Clipsfan
It certainly didn't look very nice. But the replay pretty clearly shows that Blair didn't grab Thabeet at all.
I didn't see anything wrong with what Blair did to Thabeet. It certainly didn't look good but there's a reason Blair didn't get called for the foul.
Outside of Blake Griffin, I think Blair's arguably the best big man in the country. He'd get my vote.