Lighty and Butler must produce next season
David Lighty and his USA teammates moved to 6-0 after beating France 87-82 last night in the U19 FIBA World Championship in the tourist hotbed of Serbia. The victory clinched a #1 seed in the medal quarterfinals and a match up against #4 Argentina (3-3) on Friday. A member of the starting five, Lighty played 31 minutes producing 6 points and 5 boards and continued to impress head coach Jerry Wainwright who called Lighty the best defensive player in the tournament.
Of course, Buckeye fans already know D-Light can be a defensive stopper. From my standpoint, the greater benefit of Lighty's participation in this tournament is the extra gametime needed for him to develop offensively. Next year's Buckeye squad will need 10+ ppg from Lighty to challenge for the conference title considering the top two returning point producers are Jamar Butler (8.5 ppg) and Othello Hunter (5.7). The good news is that Lighty is capable of producing on offense as evidenced by his 19 point performance in Monday's 90-81 win over Lithuania. D-Light was on fire hitting all 8 of his shots including two from downtown. Hopefully, we'll see more of this agressiveness as medal play begins so he returns to Columbus with the confidence to look for his shot with greater frequency in the absence of Oden, Conley and Cook.
Comments
This is great for Lighty and the Buckeyes!! I have been following the box scores and Lighty has started every game and is 3rd on the team in minutes played. This is getting him experience in playing big games, in which he can bring back this season. We will need 10+ points from him this year, but having a defensive stopper is more important for the Bucks. Remember Jeff Green? Lighty shut him down and he was the 5th pick in the draft. Is David Lighty the best defender in the world under the age of 19? We will see.
You can't put a price tag on this kind of experience. Lots of mins in big games and I'm guessing they're played in relatively hostile environments...Thad's got to be lovin' it.
10/game would be sweet this season, but having a stopper is definitely a key component in a championship caliber team. Tourney time rolls around and the ability to neutralize one stud on the opposing team is huge.
No doubt. Lighty's first priority will be defense but we'll need some points from him unless we want to rely on freshmen to consistently produce. The points I'm talking about are the ones on the road in the 2nd half of tight games. We're gonna be 10 deep so a lot of young guys will be taking shots with no real go to guy. It'll be critical that the veteran leadership (JB, Lighty, Hunter) provide that late game scoring punch in a half court set. It will be fun to see which new guys truly step up and play big minutes. Obviously, Koufos is most likely to emerge but Diebler, Turner or Wallace could step up considering the gaping hole at one of the shooting guard / wing spots. I assume we'll use more full/half court trap press defenses with all the athletes.. And dont forget about the Wiggler either.
Hopefully the 2nd coming of Pistol Pete, Jon Diebler, will be good for about 38.6 a game as a frosh.
Looks like Lighty had another solid game. I like the 5 offensive rebounds, but he has lacked in the assist department for this tournament.
http://www.serbia2007.fiba.com...
[...] should be David Lighty and Jon Diebler. Lighty gained valuable experience as the captain of the USA Basketball U19 team this summer and he should have more confidence in his shooting stroke. He has taken 9 shots in [...]