Purdue vs. Ohio State (01/25/2011)
Ohio State - Jared Sullinger (PF)
A solid game from Sullinger. In the opening moments of the game showed some nice passing out of the double-team to keep the offense moving and open up good shooting opportunities.
However, for the early part of the game was really neutralzing and being neutralized by JaJaun Johnson. Didn't really have any offense going, and was just letting his teammates run the offense and provide scoring.
Ended up having to take a 3-pt shot with the clock running down. His feet were set, and he made the shot, and that seemed to really loosen him up a bit, as he became a lot more involved in the offense. He ended up hitting another 3 later in the game.
He shot a great percentage (7/12) and had 7 boards in the game. It wasn't a fantastic game, but the way the game went, he didn't have to be spectacular. So he didn't force anything, played solid ball, and ended up with a decent game.
I will say that though he ended the game with just 2 assists, he did a very good job of passing the ball today.
Purdue - JaJuan Johnson (PF)
As mentioned, was playing against Sullinger for a good amount of the game, and neither he or Sullinger really got much of anything going in the first part of the game.
He was more active than Sullinger on the offensive end and showed good skills. He was 3/4 from the 3-pt line, and you could tell that Sullinger did not like playing him out that far. But he also had a couple of nice moves in the paint, using his length to go over or around Sullinger.
Johnson forced a couple of bad shots, trying to get things going for his team, and there were a few instances where he had defensive lapses that cost his team points.
He had a good game, and I'd say that he outplayed Sullinger in the game, but due to how the game went, he was forced to try and make a lot of things happen, while Sullinger didn't have to carry any sort of load in this one.
Texas vs. Oklahoma State (1/26/2011)
Texas - Jordan Hamilton (SG/SF)
So Jordan was matched up quite a bit with Jean-Paul Olukemi, who is an athletic player, but though is listed at 6'7 is noticably shorter than Hamilton. I was hoping to see them matched up for most of the game, because the big question for me with Hamilton is whether or not he's quick enough to play the SG position.
I really want him to be able to play the SG position, because if he can, he'd be one of my top choices for this Kings team. He's a great shooter, and put that on display hitting 4/5 3-pt shots. He's a great rebounder and showed that again with 11 boards. He's a good athlete and is showing some decent passing abilities.
I don't think that his ball-handling is good enough for a SG, though it is good enough for a SF, and I'm not certain if he's quick enough to play at the SG position.
So I keep hoping to watch a game where I see him play in a manner that would make me feel comfortable claiming that he could be an ideal SG for us.
Back to his match-up against Olukemi. For the most part he played good defense against Olukemi. However, whenever Olukemi used a screen to try and get by Hamilton, Hamilton would just switch off to defend the screener rather than staying with Olukemi. There were a couple of times that Olukemi was able to find a seam and get past Hamilton, and Hamilton fouled him in two of those situations.
So over-all, this wasn't an encouraging game from a SG defensive stand-point. I'm sure there will be plenty of match-ups to watch in the future.
On the offensive end, I mentioned that he hit 4/5 threes, but that was the entire extent of his offense. He ended the game with 12 points, didn't get to the free-throw line, and was 0/4 from with-in the arch.
The reason he didn't get to the free-throw line was because he really wasn't aggressive on the offensive end. I've seen games where he's spent a lot of time working in the paint, trying to get position, but he did very little of that in this game. He also only had one or two drives into the lane.
He played good team defense, shot the open 3, and rebounded well, and made some good passes, so it was a decent game from him, but I've seen him perform better.
Texas - Tristan Thompson (PF)
Played great defense at the start of this game.
Unfortunately he steped out-of-bounds baseline twice in first 4 minutes and then delivered a difficult pass into the post for a turn-over.
He then picked up two fouls and was gone for the rest of the half. I'm not certain he scored at all in the first half.
In the 2nd half he really turned it around.
He was very active in the paint, and ended up scoring 12 points on dunks and put-backs. He's only credited with 3 rebounds for the game, but he was really active in there today, so it didn't seem as if he was underperforming in that department.
San Diego St vs. BYU (01/26/11)
BYU - Jimmer Fredette (PG/SG)
If you haven't seen Fredette play, then watching this game would give you an idea of what his game is like. Fredette is a 6'2 combo-guard, who can shoot the ball from anywhere on the court, has a great handle and cross-over and is a tenacious competitor.
He's got some bulk on him, so he isn't wafer-thin, and though he isn't the most athletic player in the world, he is able to get to his spots on the floor and get his shot up past almost anyone, and can finish through contact fairly well.
He's a great FT shooter shooting 90% for the year, and hitting 10/11 against SDSU in this game.
He put up 43 points on 14/24 shooting while hitting 5/8 from the 3. He also had 4 rebounds, 4 TOs, and no assists.
He's with-out a doubt a shoot-first guard, but he does hit the open man on the break and will set up other players, but when he's feeling it, you typically want him to take his shots.
Because he's got a good handle, he's got a very nice cross-over which he uses quite a bit to either get past his defender and into the lane, or to create space to get an open shot. When he drives into the lane he'll either take it all the way to finish, pull up for a 6-8 ft jumper, or utilize a nice floater.
He basically took the game over for his team in this one, and with his continued great play, he's going to see his draft stock rising.
Right now he's trying to market himself as a PG, but you know how that goes. Ultimately it will come down to whether a team believes that he can play some at the point, or if he'll end up being an under-sized shooting guard. He has a good handle and will look to set up his team, but he's by no means a pure PG.
SDSU - Kawhi Leonard (PF)
Leonard had a good game today.
He started the game with an offensive rebound and continued to rebound the entire game, ending up with 15, 9 on the offensive end. He was just active around the boards the entire game. He ended up with 22 points on 8/20 shooting, and 5/8 from the charity stripe. What hurt him was his 3pt shooting where he was 1/5.
He took a number of really tough turn-around jump shots while fading away. He made one but missed a couple of others, and when things started to tighten he began to force things. He took some bad shots, forced drives into the paint, and made some bad passes, which all hurt his team's ability to get good scoring oportunities. Most of it was just him trying to do to much, but with what Fredette was doing on the other end, I think he was trying to keep pace.
But through it all, he was always incredibly active around the bucket, getting his team 2nd and 3rd opportunities to score.
