Bear with me here. My mind is wandering this morning.
Watching the Warriors/Rockets series, and seeing the Warriors win game, after game, despite more often than not not playing ANY traditional bigs... and certainly not ever playing any semblance of a "rim protector"... against a team that is regularly countering them with 2 very interior oriented bigs in Adams and Sengun... one of which is an all star, and one of the better interior scorers in the league... I'm just not sure how big of a deal having a rim protector is, for IU? I think it is for some other teams...the idiots just north of IU, as an example, because of how poor a couple of their main perimeter players are defensively. But if IU can play a collection of 6-3 to 6-8 guys, that all guard the ball well, all play physical, and are all active rebounding... there are examples of teams and programs thriving without a rim protector.
I included the Badgers and Bennett Virginia teams as well...because while CDD won't be implementing exactly the same version of the Ryan/Bennett pack line defense... everything in his history says he will be implementing his own version of it. And while those two coaches sporadically had some guys that could block or effect shots at the rim, they had many teams that thrived without them. Rim protectors help pretty much any type of defense...not trying to make that case. But effective pack lines are designed to funnel opposing offenses away from the paint. If our current collection of guys execute DeVries system well, we can be a good defensive and rebounding team without a rim protector.
With regards to the Warriors... I've issued the disclaimer before, I KNOW IU doesn't likely have 2-3 guys that are equivalent to what Curry, Butler, and Green are, versus college competition. And watching the Final Four, its obvious to be a legit Natty threat, you need to check that post depth and rim protecting box. But IU can be good next year without it. Heck, IU can be one of the best teams in the last 30 years good, without checking those boxes.
So while getting at least one more big, preferably an effective rim protector, is obviously something that would help out quite a bit. If it doesn't happen... this team is still setup to be really good. And I suspect, A LOT of fun to watch. Tons of solid to good shooters, lots of guys that have proven themselves to be willing passers... should be a brand that's really interesting, and really fun to follow.
