Post by SaintsFan on Jul 5, 2018 7:25:45 GMT -5
Not much to make of this one. Darwiche's Romania team was dominated pretty much from the start by Netherlands, final score 77-52 Netherlands. Georges played 20 minutes and finished with 3 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist along with 3 turnovers (one was not his fault at all).
Romania's offense was horrible all game, so it's hard to differentiate some of the things Darwiche did poorly with the struggles Romania had. Their only offense was straight isolation from whoever was handling the ball or post-ups to their young star big man Emanuel Cate. Darwiche played some as the true point guard and others as the 2 in 2-point guard sets. He did a good job handling the ball against pressure, but played very tentatively (which is fair when you are the youngest and one of the shortest players on the floor). His points were scored off an excellent catch-and-shoot 3, the release was very smooth. When he was the lone point guard, he mostly just dribbled around and was unable to get any offense going, but as I said earlier much of that could be attributed to the lack of offensive flow Romania had, rather than a criticism of Darwiche. When off the ball, he floated around the perimeter looking for jumpers.
Defensively, he competes hard despite being smaller and less mature than the players he was guarding (for example, one of the guys he had to guard was former St Bonaventure point guard Charlon Kloof, who is 28 years old and averaged 12 points and 5 assists in his senior season at Bona). That said, players were able to drive past him which opened up offensive opportunities for Netherlands.
His best stretch of the game came in the second quarter, when he hit the 3, grabbed a big rebound in traffic, and made some nice passes that could have easily wound up being assists. That keyed a little run for Romania and was the best they looked all game.
He also displayed some leadership in the huddles (which were mic-ed up) which I was surprised by given his youth. The team spoke all english in the timeouts, so there shouldn't be issues with language barriers when he comes over to play with us.
Overall, hard to take too much that we didn't already know away from this one. Playing against legit MEN, he struggled to create separation and didn't pop off the screen, but for the most part played composed. I think we'll get a lot more out of watching him play at the U20 European Championships this summer than we will with the senior team, where he's basically a backup guard and spot up shooter. Next game is another World Cup Qualifier against Croatia on Monday.
much of what is stated here is my observation as well. That Romanian team offensively relies on the bigs. Often times with the bigs distributing and or feeding the post. In the numerous games I have watched they play a very different style. Darwiche is used to energize the team coming off the bench. He does so through pushing pace and aggressiveness on defense. Darwiche plays much more of an American game than the rest of his team. Oftem times once he gets rid of the ball he never sees it again. Going to be interesting to see how it all translates at the American college level but with some coaching and legit offense I believe he will thrive. He is a VERY capable passer