What a Joakim!

Anyone looking for another person to kiss Noah's ass, keep looking. You will not find him here. Len Elmore thinks people saying Noah left millions on the table by coming back for his junior season are crazy. I disagree. I have not seen Florida play a whole lot this year, but I watched quite a bit of the last three games they've played in the tournament. Noah is fairly tall and athletic for his size. But, those are his only major strengths. He's not overly physical and does not display a wide array of post moves. He's pretty good at laying the ball in from close range and dunking, but there are lots of those guys riding the pine in the NBA. Noah does not shoot from the outside and it's not surprising given his two-handed, side-spin producing, push shot he jacks up from the charity stripe. He also does not create off the dribble much for himself or teammates. There was talk about Noah as the top pick if he'd come out after last year. This year, he won't come close to the #1 overall pick unless a lot of underclassmen stay in school - regardless of how the Gators do in the Final Four. The problem is that Noah is the same player he was last year, without quite as big an impact in the NCAA tournament. He still can't shoot from outside. He's still raw in the post. He's not any more of a physical presence. Noah may have returned to Gainesville to pursue another National Championship, and that's fine. But, you'd have thought he would try to get better, too. It doesn't look like he has, and that's probably as big a deterrent to NBA people as the lack of a jumpshot.

Now to the point I was originally going to make. Someone needs to call an illegal screen on Joakim Noah. Noah spreads his legs like _________ - I can think of a number of things to insert there, but I'll let you come up with your own - every time he sets a screen. Last time I checked, that's not how you set legal screens. Honestly, he gets his feet at least twice shoulder width apart. And, to make matters worse, in the game against Oregon he was leaning to whatever side the defender was trying to get around the screen on. So, not only was the screen set illegally, he was moving his body to block the defender! Was it called? Do I really need to answer?