Darian Thibodeaux will draw one of his toughest defensive assignments of the season tonight against the Mustangs.
The 6-foot-3 senior guard has been pegged to shutdown SMU leading-scorer Robert Nyakundi.
“I’m always excited for a challenge,” Thibodeaux said. “He’s a good player, a good shooter, great size. It should be a nice matchup for me.”
Nyakundi, a long-6-8 forward, presents an interesting challenge for the Cougars because of his size and shooting ability from beyond the arc.
Despite the disparity in height between the two, “Tip,” as his teammates call him, has the confidence of head coach James Dickey after locking up Nyakundi last season. In that game, Nyakundi went off for 16 first-half points on 5-7 shooting, 4-6 from three-point range.
Nyakundi went scoreless in the second half with Thibodeaux shadowing him and managed only one field goal attempt.
Dickey said that the Cougars will have several other players guarding him as well because of unique matchup that he creates.
“We’ll have to mix it up because he plays the 4-position,” Dickey said. “A lot of times you’ll have one of our 4-guys on him and then if we do put a guard on him, it forces one of our bigs to guard one of their smaller players. He’s one of those guys that’s a hard matchup.”
SMU relies on a grind-it-out style, holding opponents to the second fewest pointers per game (59.5) in C-USA, but also only managing 62.7 points per game themselves on 42-percent shooting.
The Cougars are second in points per game this season at 75.3 with four players averaging double figures.
The Cougars plan to energize their offense by spreading the floor and creating greater opportunites to get into the lane for layups or open jump shots.
“Getting to the glass, not dribbling from baseline to the mid-court line; you have to penetrate,” Dickey said.
The Cougars have put their loss to Memphis behind them and have had great energy and focus in practice since the 89-55 loss.
“I believe all that is behind us and we’re just looking forward from there,” Thibodeaux said.
“It’s going to be a dog fight; it’s going to be a grind. We just have to stay together overall.”