Opposing teams in the NCAA Tournament have thrown the kitchen sink at Cameron Boozer in the NCAA Tournament so far. Blitzes, traps, and plenty of hard fouls. Boozer, despite getting everyone's best shot and being the focal point of every gameplan, has delivered three consecutive double-doubles for the Blue Devils to push them into the Elite Eight.
Duke will need Boozer to deliver once more to get past UConn and advance to the Final Four for the second consecutive season.
Boozer will again be at the top of the gameplan for the Huskies, just as he was against Siena, TCU, and St. John's. Dan Hurley knows that Boozer provides a tremendous challenge, and stopping him brings a lot of complications.
"Boozer is a unique challenge, just because of he's a threat pretty much from everywhere," Hurley said. "He scores at the 3-point line at a pretty efficient clip. Obviously, he's devastating in and around the paint, on the offensive glass. But what makes him unique is how much he plays on-ball and the way they kind of ball screen him.
"You've just got to figure out the things you want to take away from him, the things that you're not going to allow him to do in the game. You can't take everything away, so we've got to pick and choose. Are we going to let him play one-on-one in the post versus Tarris? Will we allow him to play one-on-one in the post versus Karaban, or are we trapping that? Are we going to make him beat us from the 3-point line? Are we going to blitz him or go under those ball screens? We've got to make decisions on a quick turnaround on what we're going to do."
UConn has the ability to make life difficult for Cameron Boozer
Boozer has struggled - relative to his ridiculous season - against length and physical play. UConn has that with Tarris Reed, who had a ridiculous 31 points and 27 rebounds in UConn's win over Furman in the first round of this year's tournament.
But what makes Boozer so challenging is that Jon Scheyer is totally comfortable playing his freshman forward on the ball. That's the position he put him in when Duke was struggling on offense against St. John's on Friday, and the soon-to-be National Player of the Year made right decision after right decision to help the Blue Devils comeback and win.
UConn's gameplan could revolve around forcing Boozer to shoot from the perimeter. He's at 39.6% from three on the season, but he's in a bit of a funk during March Madness. He's just 1-of-7 in three tournament games and 2-of-12 over the past four.
He could certainly catch fire and make UConn pay, however, but as Hurley said, you can't take away everything. It's pick your poison when it comes to Boozer, and you're probably going to pick wrong.