Few players of the Jordan Reed mold exist, strong 6-foot-4 athletic freaks who bull their way inside and out-body bigger players for loud rebounds and thunderous dunks.
But when the Binghamton men’s basketball team hosts Radford on Saturday, Reed will square off against his Big South counterpart, Javonte Green.
Each player stands at 6-foot-4, 205 pounds. Green has averaged 16.7 points and seven rebounds in three games — both team-highs — while Reed leads the Bearcats in both categories with 17.3 points and 12.5 rebounds per game.
“There’ll be some great matchups between those two on Saturday,” BU head coach Tommy Dempsey said. “They’re both kind of dynamic tough guys that can score inside. They play well in transition.”
While an influx of freshman contributors has lightened Reed’s load this year, Green’s role has actually increased since last season, when he averaged 14.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. He takes 32.2 percent of Radford’s shots when he’s on the floor, a year after accounting for 27.5 percent, according to KenPom.com. Only 81 players across the country have launched at such a high percentage.
With the new foul rules predicated on a stricter enforcement of hand-checking rules, Reed and Green have each drawn whistles at a higher rate than they did a season ago. Dempsey said he might have to wait to assign Green to Reed until late in the game to keep his star out of foul trouble, despite the mismatches that could ensue with any other Bearcat on Radford’s leading scorer.
“I think they’ll end up playing against each other, maybe not much early because both coaches would like to keep them out of foul trouble,” Dempsey said. “For us, Jordan has the ball in his hands a lot. Green’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot. That creates opportunities for fouls so you have to be a little careful with that. If there’s not foul trouble going down the stretch, they’ll probably be matched up against each other.”
That said, the Bearcats have battled foul trouble in every game except Cornell. Only Reed has fouled out, as he did against Loyola Md. and Brown, but several Bearcats have finished with four fouls. Dempsey ran a drill devoted to defending drives with the body rather than hands at Thursday’s practice, as he hopes to keep his impact players off the bench.
Redshirt junior guard Rob Mansell has been whistled for just six fouls through four games. He picked up two quick ones against Brown, but otherwise has stayed clear of making impermissible contact. However, the team’s leading scorer in 2011-12 hasn’t found his offensive rhythm after missing all of last year as he recovered from tears of the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his left knee.
In 22.8 minutes per game, Mansell has averaged four points on 20 percent shooting. He’s just 1 for 7 from long range, and 5 for 8 from the foul line.
“I don’t have an issue with Rob shooting the ball. I’m trying to let him play through his struggles a little bit,” Dempsey said. “I think if he starts seeing the ball go in a little bit, his confidence will develop, and that will be big for our growth.”
With Mansell still in the process of returning to his sophomore form, freshmen Nick Madray and Marlon Beck have picked up the scoring slack with a combined 30.6 points per game.
Beck and classmate Yosef Yacob have shared time at the point, but have struggled with turnovers in the early going. They’ll face a high-pressure Radford defense on Saturday, one that differs from VCU’s havoc but is orchestrated by Shaka Smart disciple Mike Jones. The Highlanders haven’t reached their midseason defensive form yet, but they forced turnovers on 21.6 percent of their defensive possessions last year.
“There’s not as much full-court pressure [as VCU],” Dempsey said. “They do play very fast. They do play very hard. It’s a really good team. It will be a good test for us on Saturday.”
Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the Events Center.