He's a fine player, but he is a freshman and his name isn't Cousins. He's their best player. If we can't stop him with Prince or Chism, we need to get a bag of popcorn and watch the rest of the tourney on TV. His game is in the low post, but he's 6'7. I'd normally say Prince will guard him, but the way Leonard rebounds and thrives down low, it may be Chism taking him while Prince takes Thomas, who is a bit more lightweight than Leonard, who is 225. Thomas is 6'9 215, much more JP's size.
I still say, however, that we should zone this team. Their top three players are all low-post players - Leonard, White, and Thomas -- who have 24 three pointers among all three of them all year. Their shooters are the two starting guards, who are on the small side -- 6'2 and 6'0. Our length at the 2 and 3 positions should give them trouble against a zone. Those two are the only 30% + three point shooters on their team who have launched more than 10 on the season.
Of course, SDSU will zone us, but you have to think that Hopson, JP, Wayne, Kenny, and Brian will dominate the paint against smaller and less physical guys. And as Bruce is fond of saying, low post defense starts on the wings -- SDSU will have a 6'0 and a 6'2 guy trying to create havoc on the wings as our guys seek to feed the post. We lose if we fall in love with the three point shot. We win if Scotty and JP drive on the zone and Wayne and Brian pass the ball in the paint against it. This is the type of game that Wayne should have 25 points and 15 rebounds. He just needs to play smart and not get in foul trouble. Guarding Leonard, that will not be hard to do if he doesn't play smart.
The biggest weapon SDSU has is their Coach -- he's the real deal.