Texas Tech basketball: What to expect from grad transfer Marcus Santos-Silva
His entire offensive game comes inside the lane
Wating Santos-Silva play on the offensive end of the floor, I couldn’t help but see a more athletic version of Norense Odiase. That’s because everything he did to earn his 19 points came in the low post. But make no mistake, he’s far more aggressive when looking for his shot than Odiase was. Still, the way he moved and muscled defenders out of the way looked like Odiase, who played like a bull when he got the ball in the low post.
Against Purdue, he was 8-10 from the field. Interestingly, he took only one shot from outside of the paint, and on that contested jumper, he was fouled which means that each of his ten official shot attempts came right around the rim.
That’s par for the course as he has not even attempted a 3-pointer in his college career. But that doesn’t mean he lacks touch.
In fact, he’s rather masterful when putting the ball up from a number of off-balance angles and with either hand. He’s a left-handed shooter who finished a number of shots against Purdue while absorbing contact or working his way around a defender.
Once, he flipped a shot up over Haarms that kissed off the very top of the backboard before falling in. On another occasion, he scooped the ball in using an underhanded shot to shoot around the outstretched arms of a defender.
Down the stretch, everything VCU did on offense ran through Santos-Silva in the low post. In that regard, he’s much more skilled than Odiase as he is a true back to the basket scorer that Tech will be able to isolate on the blocks. That’s something we haven’t seen a Chris Beard team have the luxury of doing in his time in Lubbock.
However, it was rare to see Santos-Silva handle the basketball in the half-court the way he will need to in the motion offense. When he wasn’t posting up, almost everything he did against Purdue was in the form of setting a screen for other players, something his 250-pound frame is specially built for, much as was Odiase’s frame.
Another way the newest Red Raider can help the offense is by crashing the glass. Last season, he led VCU with 92 offensive rebounds, 41 more than Tech’s leader, T.J. Holyfield.
It will be interesting to see how Santos-Silva fits into the Red Raider offense given the fact that he’s not going to shoot from outside the lane. That will allow his defender to sag off of him but when that happens, he might be able to attack off the dribble and get going downhill towards the rim and when that happens, he’s a load to handle.
He will certainly give Beard more options in the offense by being a true low-post scorer and it should be fascinating to see how his presence may open up the offense for shooters like Davide Moretti or Kyler Edwards, especially if the opposition feels the need to double him in the paint.