Prospect watch 2011

[Uncia03]

Ohio St at Northwestern (1/29/2011)

Ohio St - Jared Sullinger

A good game from a statline perspective (7/12 FG (7/10 FT) for 21 points and 8 rebounds), but it was a dominating performance by Sullinger in my opinion. He played 38 minutes and his stiffest opponent was 6’11 Luka Mirkovic, so he should have dominated that match-up.

On the first play of the game they got the ball to Sullinger in the post, and NW decided not to double him, and he had a nice little hook for the easy bucket. Northwestern then did a better job of trying to double, and Sullinger did a good job of getting shots of quickly necessary, or passing it out.

He had his usual assortment of good post moves, he made a very, very nice dribble-drive down the lane from the top of the key to spin past a defender and lay the ball in the basket. It’s not something I’ve seen much from him, but he looked smooth making the move.

Most of my notes are of good Offensive rebounds and put-backs, good establishment of post position for quality scoring opportunities, and the like. But with all that said, I expected a bit more, especially against this opponent. I know most players would love a 21/8 game on good shooting percentages, but except for his last two clutch free-throws of the game, he didn’t really seem to have as dominating performance as I would have liked.

 

[Uncia03]

BYU at New Mexico (1/29/2011)
BYU – Jimmer Fredette
Fredette is with-out a doubt a top Player of the Year candidate, and in this game he continued to show why.

In this game he decided to try and show that he had some PG skills, and he ended the day with 7 Assists and 4 TOs, and I believe he had 5 assists in the first half. He had an assist via penetration into the lane and kick-out to corner man for 3, another on a pick-n-roll and hit the big man cutting to the basket, and other in a good look to a man down the court in the fast break. He also had a really nice shovel pass to a big under the basket, when he drew the double on a lane-penetration.

About 2/3rds of the way through the 1st half, he only had a couple of points, and decided to take some shots himself, and scored in 3 straight possession for 7 points. His scoring in that sequence looked effortless. He ended the day shooting 12/26 FG (6/9 3pt) and after watching him for a while, you actually are surprised when his shot doesn’t go in. He ended the night with 32 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists.

New Mexico was going to try and work Fredette on the defensive end, and they didn’t have too much success with that. He got beat off the dribble a couple of times in the game, but was by no means a defensive liability.

A lot of talk is about upside and player position in the NBA, and it can be so very hard to actually gauge. All I do when watching players is see if the player could make a positive impact on our team, and if I continue to see games like this one from Fredette, then I’m going to move onto the Fredette bandwagon. I still don’t think he’s a top 10 pick, but if he can continue to improve on the passing portion of his game, I’ll classify him as a combo-guard, and in that vein, he’s probably the best combo-guard in the draft.

If we’re really going to ‘go small’ with a guard next to Tyreke (which I’d prefer not to do), then I might actually prefer Fredette in that line-up over Beno. Beno could run things for the 2nd unit, and Tyreke would have a guard who has a great cross-over, can find the open man, and absolutely, CANNOT be left unguarded, as his shooting is just off-the-charts. I’d rather go big, but if forced to go small you could do a lot worse than Fredette.

I've got two more BYU games taped, and I'm looking forward to getting to them and seeing Fredette's performance.

 

[Uncia03]

Kentucky at Ole Miss (2/01/2011)

Kentucky – Terrance Jones

This wasn’t that great of a game for Jones. His statline looks good 22 points on 7/15 FG, 8/11 FT, with 12 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 blocks. (I actually counted 5 for the game)

On one of the first offensive plays of the game he made a nice spinning drive into the lane, but got blocked. He used his quick hands to get a steal before Ole Miss could break out, so it was a good recovery. But he had his shot blocked 3 times in the first 5 minutes of the game, and I know he was blocked at least one more time in the 1st half, so his blocks were nice, but he was having his shot rejected as well.

He did play good defense against Terrance Henry (6’9 205lbs Forward), keeping him out of the lane, forcing travels, and generally making things tough on Henry getting into scoring situations.

He also hit four critical FTs in a row, both were 1 + 1’s which make them even more important, but though the stats say he had a good game, it just wasn’t as good as I’ve seen from him.

When looking at Jones I’m trying to picture him at the SF spot, and he’s incredibly strong for that position. I think he’d be able to easily push Casspi and Greene around and work them over in the post. (especially Casspi, as Greene might be able to challenge better with his length)

Jones was more active with his face-up game in this one with decent success, which is what I’ve been wanting to see. He actually had a moment where he got the ball at the 3pt line, took 1 dribble, then pulled up for the made jumper.

It looked pretty decent, and that’s the stuff I want him to show me he can do on a consistent basis. His game is so post-oriented, and I don’t think he can get away with it in the NBA. So hopefully he’ll continue to show some outside/SF game, and as he does, he’ll climb higher in my mind as a player for this team. I just hope he can work on his release, because it’s so slow, especially from the 3pt line, it’s almost painful to watch.

Kentucky – Brandon Knight

Brandon Knight had a horrific 1st half. It was just terrible.
He ended the game with 6 turn-overs, and I believe he had at least four in the 1st half, and they were just bad TOs. He was doing a very poor job of running the offense, and in fact seemed to be content to just move the ball along for most the game.

I’m not certain if something was wrong with him, but he was incredibly tentative and passive. He wasn’t aggressive with the ball to set up teammates, he wasn’t aggressive off-the-ball to get into scoring opportunities, and he wasn’t running the offense.
Finally in the 2nd half he really caught fire and carried Kentucky and scored 10 straight points for his team on 5 possesions. (The 4th possession was travel for a TO)

He was a bit more composed in the 2nd half, and did a bit better job running the offense.

He made the highlight reel when he finally had a really strong take to the hoop with a monster one-handed flush, but was met at the top by Reginald Buckner for the highlight block. That was the only time he was blocked in the game, but it was the only one people were talking about after the game.

So a very poor performance from Knight in this one, especially in the first half. He really raised his game in the 2nd, but not enough to salvage his game.

 

[Uncia03]

Vanderbilt at Florida (2/1/2011)

Vanderbilt – Jeffrey Taylor

After I talked him up so much with the conclusion of the Mississippi State game, I was hoping for a strong performance from Taylor for his first nationally televised game after my write-up. Unfortunately, it was the worst game I’ve seen him play this year.

For some reason his coach did not start him for the game, and when asked about it the coach wouldn’t comment, so I don’t know what was going on there. He finally came in after about 5 minutes of play. He did end up starting the 2nd half and played 33 minutes, so I have to assume that Taylor did something either in the previous game or during practice to warrant the benching by the coach.

I don’t know if the benching threw him off, but he could not buy a bucket to save his life and ended the game with only 7 points on 2/12 shooting.

In fact, for the first few minutes of getting into the game, everytime he got the ball on the perimeter for an open 3, he’d pass it up and either look to pass it to an open man, or dribble it around to find an opening.

Early in this game he had a nice steal which he took all the way to the rim, but he missed his shot, but he got the Offensive rebound, but missed that shot as well. This was sort of indicative of his night on the offensive end, he missed all of his lay-ups, and when he finally starting taking the 3pt shot, he only made 2 of his 6 attempts.

In the final seconds of this game he made a fantastic drive and spin right to the basket to beat all the defenders, but found himself so open that he missed the shot. Because he missed that shot the game ended up going to over-time, where he fouled out in the first minute or so.

Now there are a couple of reasons why I’m so high on Taylor. The first is because he plays the game on the offensive end as I’d expect a SG to play, he’ll shoot from the 3pt line when he’s open, he’ll drive into traffic to lay it in, and he’ll take a couple of dribbles, and then pull-up for 10-15ft jumpers. He couldn’t hit anything in this one, but he was taking good shots through-out the entire game.

The second reason I’m high on him is because he’s extremely athletic, and is a fantastic defender. In fact, when the team was not playing zone he was tasked to guard one of two players.

If Erving Walker was in the game, he was guarding Walker, and if Walker was out of the game he was guarding Chandler Parsons. Now Erving Walker is a 5’8 175lbs guard, who is very, very quick and Florida’s best scorer. Parsons on the other hand is a 6’10 220 forward, who is a skilled perimeter big and their other best scorer.

As mentioned earlier Taylor is a 6’7 225 SF, but he’s so quick and athletic he did a fantastic job keeping in front of the smaller Walker all game long, preventing Walker from dribble-penetration or open shots. When he guarded Parsons he also made it very difficult for Parsons to get good scoring opportunities.

So from a defensive standpoint it was actually a very good game. Walker ended up shooting 5/14 from the floor, and Parsons ended up shooting 6/13 from the floor. (Though Taylor was on Walker most of the game and not Parsons)

So Taylor will be one of those guys who should be able to guard the 1-3 positions in the NBA on a consistent basis. He still needs to get more aggressive on the offensive end, but the way he plays on offense and the shots he takes is exactly what I’d want if I paired an athletic defensive stopper at the SG spot next to Tyreke.

I just finished watching the Vanderbilt/South Carolina game on ESPN3, so I'll try and have a write-up on that game later today...a much, much better game from Taylor in that one.

 

[Uncia03]

Tennessee at UCONN (1/22/2011)

UCONN - Kemba Walker

I’ve got a few games taped that I’ve been trying to get too, so some of these write-ups will be on older games as I find the time both to watch the game, and write-up my observations. This is a good example as it took place 2 weeks ago on January 22nd.
This wasn’t a very good game from Walker. He played all 40 minutes, but didn’t impact the game like he normally does.

After watching Walker play a number of times earlier in the season, this was a different game from Walker. In previous games Walker had really dominated the ball. He was looking to score first, but if he found an open man he was good about getting the man the ball.

In this one he played off the ball far more than I’d seen him do before, especially when Shabazz Napier came into the game, and at that point Napier dominated the ball and played the point while Walker played exclusively off the ball.

He didn’t shoot the ball well (6/17) from the floor and ended the game with only 16 points. He also only made it to the FT line 5 times.

What he did do well was take care of the ball and ended the game with 7 assists to 2 TOs, but he took a lot of bad/difficult/contested shots, as he normally does, but this time they weren’t falling.

His other teammates played well, so he didn’t have to carry them, but it wasn’t a particularly good one from Walker.

I have the UCONN vs. Syracuse game taped, so will see if he has a better game in that one and will let you know.

 

[Uncia03]

Stanford at Arizona(1/09/2011)

Arizona - Derrick Williams

Another older game (January 9th) against Stanford that I finally had time to watch.
I’ve seen Williams play a few times prior, and much like Terrance Jones I’m watching to see if he can play the SF spot, as he’s not going to be able to consistently play the PF spot at 6’8 240.

Williams is the biggest starter for Arizona, so he ends up spending all of his time on the defensive end guarding large PFs & Centers in the post. This game was no exception, and he played good post defense on the first possession of the game as Stanford tried to go at him.

On the defensive end, one thing became very apparent. Over and over again Williams’ man would have an uncontested dunk, because Williams would leave his man to help stop penetration into the lane, and no-one would rotate over to take Williams man, which led to easy buckets for Stanford.

Now, I don’t know what Arizona’s defensive schemes are, and if Williams was supposed to be moving up to stop penetration or not, but no-one had William’s back the numerous times he did this. So though it looked pretty bad, seeing William’s man score, I don’t know if I can blame Williams for the lack of defense.

With all that said, there was one play in the 2nd half where Williams feel asleep and his man got an easy dunk, and that was entirely the fault of Williams.

On the offensive end, it was a strange game for Williams. I don’t think he had a shot opportunity until 5+ minutes into the game and I believe only had 3 shots in the first half.

For the game he only had 5 FG attempts, and he made all of his shots, including 2 3pt shots. He also only went to the line 6 times, which is very low for him.

In watching the game, he spent the vast majority of his time setting picks out on the perimeter, and his teammates just didn’t get him the ball all that much for scoring opportunities.

Now what I really like about his game, and hope will translate to playing the SF spot, is that when he does get the ball he always faces up his man to drive to the basket, rather than playing the back-em-up post-up game that you might expect from a PF.

He was 2-2 from the 3pt line, and he only takes that shot if he’s got an open look, and his man gives him too much space. (Except one of his 3pt shots was when his guard passed him the ball with 1 second on the shot-clock so he had to take a contested 3pt shot which he banked in. So he did get lucky in that situation)

So his game looks more like a SF with the face-up game, and the shoot the open shot, so we’ll see if he can continue like this.

Overall it was a solid game by Williams. He still looked smooth and under control, he hit his 3s, he was aggressive in facing up and attacking the basket, he played decent defense, he just didn’t dominate like I’ve seen him do in the past.

UCLA at Arizona(1/27/2011)

Arizona - Derrick Williams

This was just a flat-out spectacular game from Derrick Williams. Every once in a while Williams will do something explosive like get an Offensive Rebound and just explode to rim to jam it down, but for the most part he’s a smooth controlled player, who does what he needs to do to get the bucket.

In this one, he really showed this athleticism and made some spectacular plays.
As mentioned in the earlier write-up, he almost always has the task of guarding the opponent’s biggest man.

In this case he started on Stanford’s Anthony Stover (6’10, 240) and did a good job on Stover who ended up with 0 points and 1 rebound. The reason for this is that Stover only played 8 minutes, because Williams used his face-up game to aggressively attack the rim and drew 2 quick fouls on Stover in the first 4 minutes of the game, and Stover never recovered.

When Stover went out, huge Joshua Smith (6’10, 305) came into the game. Unfortunately, that’s a huge undertaking and while Williams had some success in denying Smith the ball, if Smith got the ball in the post there was nothing Williams could do to prevent him from scoring.

Williams did a good job at contesting Smith, who only shot 3/9 from the floor, but typically what happened is that Smith would get fouled under the hoop where he went to the line 10 times.

Fortunately, Williams was able to use his quickness to his advantage, and on one of his first offensive possessions was able to drive to the rim and draw a foul on Smith.

Williams was also able to run in transition as Smith had no hope in keeping up with Williams on the break, and on the biggest play of the game Williams made a fantastic 1-handed alley-oop dunk on the fast-break, where the pass was too high and behind Williams, but Williams got up and completely outstretched was able to slam it down.

In another fast-break, he had a beautiful spin around a defender, and finished with a 2-handed flush.

The coordination and athleticism he showed on the play was outstanding.

As mentioned Williams played good post defense against Stover, and did as much as he could against Smith, but in this game he demonstrated the same issue of having his man get an easy bucket as he left him to stop guard penetration, and there was no rotation to cover his man.

Williams ended the game with 22 points on 7/10 shooting (2/4 3pt) and 5 rebounds. He was aggressive with his face-up game, attacking the basket and getting to the foul line 10 times.

After seeing this game, I’m feeling more confident that he could play the SF spot, and he showed more consistent displays of great athleticism than I’d seen in the past. That combined with his smooth play, good basketball IQ, high shooting percentages, currently puts him at the top of my list for potential SFs in this draft.

 

[Uncia03]

North Carolina at Miami(1/26/2011)

North Carolina – Harrison Barnes

So far Barnes has not performed anywhere near the level expected of him this season, and in the games I’ve seen, he didn’t stand out in any way.
This game is hard to grade for Barnes, because it was basically the same thing I’ve seen from him in the past.

He was completely uninvolved in every facet of the game for the majority of the 1st half, had basically no rebounds, assists, points, or impact. He finally got his first points in the 1st half with 2 minutes left, where he got an OFF rebound and +1, and then hit a 3 about 30 seconds later, for 6 points at the half.

The second half was the same. He didn’t get his first points until 6 minutes left in the game, where he got fouled on a fast break and hit both FTs of the 1 & 1.

He then goes 5 more minutes with-out any sort of impact in the game, and no points.

Then with 1 minute left in the game he drove past his man on the left wing, made a step-back and hit a 18ft shot to tie the game. His step-back was very similar to what Kevin Martin used to do, with the step-back and rise up to shoot.

Then with 7 seconds left in the game, and with no time left on the shot-clock he hit a 3pt shot. His man had fallen down, so it was an uncontested look, but he knocked it down, and it was the play which won them the game.

So I don’t know how to grade this game. He was completely invisible for 18 minutes of the first half, but picked up 6 points in the last 2 minutes.

Then after only having 2 points in the 2nd half, gets 5 points in the final minute on 2-2 shooting to win the game.

He only had 3 rebounds, shot 4-11, with 0 assists, and just didn’t do much.
So had 3 minutes of good play for the game, and won it, but I think I have to consider it a poor game, as it was just difficult to watch, especially for someone touted so highly.

Also, wanted to mention that Barnes was the first person subbed out in both the 1st and 2nd halves of the game, which isn’t really a sign of confidence in his play.

North Carolina at North Carolina St(1/29/2011)

North Carolina – Harrison Barnes

So this game was coming off of the Miami game where he had a ton of unproductive minutes, but scored 5 straight points to give his team the win.
So the question would be whether or not he’d be able to gain some confidence and build some momentum.

This was his best game of the year thus far. He ended up with 25 points on 10/16 shooting and 6 rebounds. It looks as if the last few minutes of that Miami game really helped with his confidence.

Unfortunately the coverage of the game didn’t start until 4 minutes into the game, due to the previous game going over. By the time it got to the game Barnes already had 9 points on 4/4 shooting.

They replayed the Barnes FGs and he hit a step-back from the wing (similar to what he did in the Miami game), got two buckets from Offensive rebound/put-backs, and another one from a nice cut to the lane and lay-in.

As with the Miami game he was the first person on the team subbed out, and this happend four minutes in, just as I was starting to watch.

When he got back in he missed a 3 in transition, hit a nice 16ft pull-up, as he caught the ball on the 3pt line, took a dribble past the closing defender, and pulled up.

He basically had his offense firing on all cylinders, and he hit at least one more of those step-back pull-up jumpshots on the dribble from the left wing.

On defense he spent some time guarding Javier Gonzalez (6’0 guard) and did a decent job doing so. Played solid defense, but nothing spectacular.

So a good game from Barnes, and the most active I’d seen from him this season, it will be interesting to see if he can round into form and start playing to the level that was initially expected of him, and put himself in the running as a top SG/SF draft pick.

 

[Uncia03]

Considering that Williams is shooting 63.4% overall from the floor, and 68.6% from beyond the arc, I'd hardly say he just jacking up shots. If he were, he'd be averaging over 40 pt's a game. He's a very smart player that seldoms forces things and has very high basketball IQ. To be honest, you'd be hard pressed to find another player in the draft thats a better all around player, that also has as much potential as Williams. I'm more impressed everytime I see him play. Last night he had 21 pt's on 8 of 14 shooting. He also grabbed 8 boards.

The more I watch him, I'm starting to believe he can play SF full time, as oppossed to being a stretch 4 like Jeff Green. He's a very good athlete, and he fools you because he has the body of someone that can play PF. He does spend the bulk of his time closer to the basket than away from it, but if you watch him enough, and note his reactions, he has very good reflex action, and can move very quickly when he has to. Someone commented on his turnovers possibly being a problem. He's only averaging slightly over 2 turnovers a game. And he averaging slightly over 2 fouls a game. So at least at the college level, neither are a problem. I really like him and now have him at number 2 on my list. Unfortunately, I think the NBA scouts are moving him up their lists as well.

Williams has been immensely impressive so far this year. He does the majority of his damage by facing up and attacking the basket as well as hitting his set 3pt shot, and because of that I think he'll be able to play the SF position. T. Jones just hasn't been able to show me what Williams has shown me thus far, which is why I currently have Williams higher than T. Jones as a SF prospect.

We're not going to know how good of a defender Wiliams is until he gets into the NBA. Against UCLA he was guarding 6'10, 305lbs Joshua Smith, so as long as he's forced to guard the PFs & Centers in College we won't see how well he can play SF defense. With that said, because he likes to attack the rim, he's shown that he has quick feet, so I don't see him as being a defensive liability in the NBA.

He's a very composed young player, keeps his calm, plays smart basketball, and usually does a fantastic job of knowing when to attack and when to move the ball along.

I would expect his draft stock to climb if he continues this sort of play, but I don't expect him to move up past T. Jones due to the publicity that Kentucky gets, which is fine by me.

Of course there is plenty of time in the season for T. Jones to show me more pure SF skills, but right now if I had to take a guy for SF from the draft, Williams would be my choice. (I'm still waiting on P. Jones to show me the competitiveness to match his athletic talents, as I don't have questions about his position like I do of T. Jones, I just question a lot of those intangible qualities)

 

[Uncia03]

The only comparison between Balkman and Faried are their ponytails. Faried is taller, quicker, tougher, and better looking than Balkman. I'm with you on Perry Jones. On paper he has the most upside of any player in the draft, and, he scares me more than any player in the draft. He's an athletic freak, and is 6'11". He handles the ball like a guard and is a very good passer. He has good form on his jumpshot, and runs the floor like a deer. If you just heard that description, visions of Kevin Garnett would start springing to mind. He plays like a guy 6'7", doesn't rebound very well and fails to impact most games that he's in. But, I'm sure someone will pick him in the top five spots on potential alone.

I very interested in watching Barnes next game. He was very aggressive in the last game I saw against North Carolina St. If he starts bringing every game like he did in that game, he'll start moving up the charts again. You can see the talent he has. This may sound strange, but its almost as if he's so fundamentally sound, that he doesn't allow himself any freedom to create outside of the rigid framework of those fundamentals. Corey Joseph needs to stay in school, but I think both Barnes and Knight, although they could use another year of school, will be fine in the NBA. I think Joesph would spend a lot of time in the D-League.

I also am not a big fan of Marcus Morris. Very fundamentally sound guy, but undersized and I see him as a slightly better version of Sheldon Williams. I think Gooden is high praise. I also like his brother Markieff. Better defender, and much better rebounder. And taller. Strange how one twin can be taller than the other. Travis Leslie is a disappointment to me so far. His 3 pt shot has really fallen off a cliff this year. This was a year one expected him to break out, and instead he seems to taken a step backwards.

I'll admit to only seeing Faried play once, but I was incredibly impressed. He truly looks like a game-changing role-player, freak athlete who crushes everyone in his way on his path to clear the boards.
During that game the broadcasters mentioned that Faried doesn't have a very refined offensive game, and that his father told him that the easiest way for him to get good offensive attempts was to get Offensive rebounds, since he'd be in good scoring position for put-backs and dunks.

So if I have an elite rebounder who I don't have to worry about getting shots in the offense, who I know will get his points purely by offensive rebounds, then I'll take it. He's a fantastic athlete and a wonderful defender. He isn't as long or as tall as Whiteside, but I think you could plug him in as that defending PF and go a long way towards NBA contention. He wouldn't be a good fit on a lot of teams, but he'd be a great compliment next to Cousins, which is another reason why I like him so much.


As far as Barnes goes, I agree that he could be rounding into form, and it all starts with his aggressiveness. If he's not aggressive, he basically has no impact on the game. If he is aggressive, then you can see he has the skills to be a good player, but it's up to him to show it night in and night out.

And with respect to Brandon Knight, he's suffering quite a bit by following in the footsteps of Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, & John Wall. He's a different type of player than those three.
With-out question he's the best shooter of the bunch, and he's a fantastic defender.
He handles the ball quite a bit, but he's not a magician at setting up his teammates or driving into the lane to create scoring opportunities.

He makes good passes in transition, and he'll find the open man, but he doesn't penetrate into the lane all that often.
I think he would be a much, much better fit next to Tyreke than either Rose or Wall. Since he's a good 3pt shooter and a good defender and because he could be a guy who would not have to dominate the ball, if you went another small guard next to Tyreke, he'd fit in nicely.

 

[bajaden]

Williams has been immensely impressive so far this year. He does the majority of his damage by facing up and attacking the basket as well as hitting his set 3pt shot, and because of that I think he'll be able to play the SF position. T. Jones just hasn't been able to show me what Williams has shown me thus far, which is why I currently have Williams higher than T. Jones as a SF prospect.

We're not going to know how good of a defender Wiliams is until he gets into the NBA. Against UCLA he was guarding 6'10, 305lbs Joshua Smith, so as long as he's forced to guard the PFs & Centers in College we won't see how well he can play SF defense. With that said, because he likes to attack the rim, he's shown that he has quick feet, so I don't see him as being a defensive liability in the NBA.

He's a very composed young player, keeps his calm, plays smart basketball, and usually does a fantastic job of knowing when to attack and when to move the ball along.

I would expect his draft stock to climb if he continues this sort of play, but I don't expect him to move up past T. Jones due to the publicity that Kentucky gets, which is fine by me.

Of course there is plenty of time in the season for T. Jones to show me more pure SF skills, but right now if I had to take a guy for SF from the draft, Williams would be my choice. (I'm still waiting on P. Jones to show me the competitiveness to match his athletic talents, as I don't have questions about his position like I do of T. Jones, I just question a lot of those intangible qualities)

Yeah, I have Williams ahead of T. Jones now. Unfortunately for Jones the NCAA ruled Enes Kanter ineligible to play for Kentucky. As a result Jones is one of the tallest and strongest players on Kentucky other than the center. I think if Kanter was there, you would see Jones at the SF position more. But alas he's plays PF most of the time. I think he can play SF in the NBA. He's certainly a good enough athlete, but he does have holes in his game. The good thing about T. Jones is that he never disappears during a game. Sometimes thats a bad thing, but he's always hustling and trying to impact the game in some way. If you could harness that, and refine it, you'd have yourself a very nice player.

I saw all the games you critiqued and agree with your assessment. I thought North Carolina St. was the worse major conference basketball team I've seen in a very long time. They looked absolutely horrible at times.

If the draft were held today and we could come away with either Irving or Williams, I'd be estatic. I compare Williams to Griffin, in that he does only whats necessary to get the job done. As a result, in some games he looks good, but his athleticism doesn't stand out. But if you watch enough games, every once in a while, you'll see that explosion and almost lightning like quickness that leaves you saying WOW! Where did that come from? Griffin was the same way. He could go 2 or 3 games and get his points and rebounds, but then all of sudden he would just explode to the rim. I remember one game where he was persuing a ball and he leaped the entire scorers table and two rows of chairs behind the table before crashing into the next row. Pretty impressive. And then I had people on this fourm telling me he wasn't a very good athlete.

 

[Uncia03]

South Carolina at Vanderbilt(2/05/2011)

Vanderbilt – Jeffrey Taylor

A very nice offensive come-back game for Taylor after his poor performance against Florida.

I still believe his biggest weakness is his aggressiveness. He’s such a good athlete that he should be more willing to aggressively take the ball off the dribble and go up strong to the rim. He does it a couple of times each game with fairly good success, and he should be doing it more.

With that said, he ended this game with a game-high 17 points on 5/12 shooting (4/4 from 3pt) and he showed that when he gets the ball with his feet set, he can knock down the 3pt shot with good consistency.

He was very aggressive on the offensive boards where he ended up with 7 Offensive rebounds in the game. He was blocked a couple of times at the rim, where he got the Offensive board and put it up in traffic, which contributed to his under 50% shooting.

He made some nice dribble-drives into the lane for 12-15ft pull-ups but they did not go in. The form looked good, so hopefully he’ll get more consistent with that shot.

From an offensive standpoint he had a good game. He hit all four of his 3’s, he crashed the boards with very good results, he made some really nice passes ending the game with 3 assists, and he made some nice moves that he just wasn’t able to convert.


On the defensive end, he was just outstanding. As mentioned before he’s a 6’7 225lbs player, and his task tonight was to stop South Carolina’s best scorer, 5’9 190lbs guard, Bruce Ellington.

Taylor has such quick feet that he was able to keep in front of Ellington, preventing penetration all game long. Ellington only had 2 points at the end of the half, and it was completely due to Taylor shutting him down.

On the last play of the 1st half, Ellington had the ball at the mid-court line, dribbling out the clock for the final offensive play with Taylor on him. Ellington begins his move and Taylor keeps him from getting past him, Ellington keeps the dribble alive, and drives through the left wing trying to get space, and puts up a 14ft shot which Taylor blocks.

Taylor ends up blocking Ellington 3 times in the game, and the last was a fantastic recovery where he was slightly hedged out on a screen and was still able to recover to block Ellington’s 3pt shot.

Ellington ended the game with 11 points, but 6 of those were in the 2nd half when Taylor was not playing him.

So Taylor shut down this 5’9 guard and South Carolina’s primary offensive weapon, while getting 17 points and hitting 4/4 from the 3pt line and collecting 7 offensive boards.

I believe that Vanderbilt will be playing next against Alabama on February 10th, and that they’ll be showing the game on ESPN2, so if you haven’t seen him play, you should take a look, and see if he’s someone you could see playing that big guard next to Tyreke.

 

[Uncia03]

Yeah, I have Williams ahead of T. Jones now. Unfortunately for Jones the NCAA ruled Enes Kanter ineligible to play for Kentucky. As a result Jones is one of the tallest and strongest players on Kentucky other than the center. I think if Kanter was there, you would see Jones at the SF position more. But alas he's plays PF most of the time. I think he can play SF in the NBA. He's certainly a good enough athlete, but he does have holes in his game. The good thing about T. Jones is that he never disappears during a game. Sometimes thats a bad thing, but he's always hustling and trying to impact the game in some way. If you could harness that, and refine it, you'd have yourself a very nice player.

Do you think that Calipari would play T. Jones at SF with Harrellson at PF and Kanter at Center?
If he was planning on doing that, then I agree that Kanter being out really hurts T. Jones' draft prospects.

I've seen some posts indicating that T. Jones isn't a great athlete, which I completely disagree with, as he's just incredibly strong, and has shown the ability to outquick bigger players.
He's really hesitant to shot jumpshots, especially from the 3pt range, and his release on his shot, is incredibly slow. He's a great rebounder, especially on the offensive end, and he likes to back-down his defenders in the post on the offensive end.
So his game is just too much like a PFs at this point in time, and strong as he is, he's not going to excel at the next level as a PF.

So I want to see him develop SF skills, as I think he'd be a great player at that spot if he can develop the tools he needs to be successful from there.

I absolutely love his intensity and desire to excel and win, so I'm not going to count him out, and if we were planning on picking a SF in this draft, I'd consider him a toss-up with P. Jones at this point in time.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

So Williams, and all the other players eligable to return to college will have a hard decision to make. Especially those expected to go high in the draft. They could be throwing away a couple of million dollars by not entering.

Sorry for responding late. Is this true? I assumed rookies entering this year would be signing their contracts under the terms of the new CBA (lockout or not). If that's the case I may as well already plan on kissing him goodbye.

 

[bajaden]

Sorry for responding late. Is this true? I assumed rookies entering this year would be signing their contracts under the terms of the new CBA (lockout or not). If that's the case I may as well already plan on kissing him goodbye.

Yep, its true. Since the draft takes place before the old CBA expires, the old rules apply. At least everything I've read about it says so. The new salary structure may not be all that much less than the old one when the smoke clears. But would you take a chance on losing a couple of million dollars? I sure wouldn't.

 

[bajaden]

Do you think that Calipari would play T. Jones at SF with Harrellson at PF and Kanter at Center?
If he was planning on doing that, then I agree that Kanter being out really hurts T. Jones' draft prospects.

I've seen some posts indicating that T. Jones isn't a great athlete, which I completely disagree with, as he's just incredibly strong, and has shown the ability to outquick bigger players.
He's really hesitant to shot jumpshots, especially from the 3pt range, and his release on his shot, is incredibly slow. He's a great rebounder, especially on the offensive end, and he likes to back-down his defenders in the post on the offensive end.
So his game is just too much like a PFs at this point in time, and strong as he is, he's not going to excel at the next level as a PF.

So I want to see him develop SF skills, as I think he'd be a great player at that spot if he can develop the tools he needs to be successful from there.

I absolutely love his intensity and desire to excel and win, so I'm not going to count him out, and if we were planning on picking a SF in this draft, I'd consider him a toss-up with P. Jones at this point in time.

Its hard to say how Calapari would use Jones if Kanter was there, but at least he might get a chance to play away from the basket more. I always hate when a player is projected to play one position by pro scouts, but available talent in college dictates he play another, which hinders his progression at his future NBA position.

 

[Uncia03]

Yep, its true. Since the draft takes place before the old CBA expires, the old rules apply. At least everything I've read about it says so. The new salary structure may not be all that much less than the old one when the smoke clears. But would you take a chance on losing a couple of million dollars? I sure wouldn't.

I heard today that the Union might be pushing for potential draft picks to not participate in the Combine or any pre-draft evaluations to put leverage on the Owners during the negotiations.
But with the sort of money on the line, all it takes is for one top prospect to fold and participate to cause all of them to get involved, so I don't see that being a successful maneuver.
So ultimately I do expect the top prospects to come out this year so that they'll maximize their financial gain, rather than waiting to see what the new CBA will look like.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Yep, its true. Since the draft takes place before the old CBA expires, the old rules apply. At least everything I've read about it says so. The new salary structure may not be all that much less than the old one when the smoke clears. But would you take a chance on losing a couple of million dollars? I sure wouldn't.

No chance in hell.

I had always been under the impression that rookies didn't actually sign their contracts until the opening of the signing season which would coincide with the start of the next CBA. As a Kings fan this would potentially be great news as this is (although we say this every year now) the last time we'll be at the top of the draft for a while. And I'm thrilled with what Coach Miller is doing in Arizona that I'm not too worried about the program dissolving when Williams decides to book.

 

[Uncia03]

Baylor at Texas A&M (2/05/2011)

Baylor – Perry Jones III

Jones’ biggest issue so far this season has been mental. He’s been pretty passive on offensive, not being assertive and using his athletic gifts to try and dominate games.
Today has been the best that I’ve seen from Jones so far from an aggression standpoint.

He was very active in working towards getting into scoring position, and his teammates did a good job of getting him the ball.

He was guarded primarily by two different players, David Loubeau (6’8 230) and Nathan Walkup (6’7 210). Whenever he had Walkup on him, he worked to get good post position, and then used his length to score around and over Walkup in a variety of ways.

Jones ended the game with 27 points on 9/16 shooting and 9/9 from the FT line. He doesn’t attempt a lot of 3pt shots, and he didn’t make any attempts in this game, primarily because he isn’t a good 3pt shooter at the moment.

What he can do better than either T. Jones or D. Williams is get the ball and take a dribble or two and knock down the jumper. The form on his jumper looks good, and he’s really smooth pulling up and shooting the jumper out to 18 ft. It's because of this that I feel completely comfortable pegging him as a SF in the NBA, and with his size, length, smooth athleticism, and hops he has superstar written all over him. (Unfortunately he's got the highest bust potential if he can't put it all together, which makes him a bit of a scary pick as well. Right now Derrick Williams looks to be a safer pick)

He made some great post moves, hit some nice pull-up jumpers, and hit his free-throws for a very active and effective offensive game.

And it all basically came about because Jones was active in fighting for post position, and moving with-out the ball and making himself available to receive a pass in perimeter scoring positions.

If he continues to do that for the remainder of the season, he’s going to justify his top 3-5 pick, and I might move him back up past Derrick Williams.


On the defense end, it’s really difficult to gauge his abilities due to the zone that Baylor plays. In this game in particular I thought he did a good job in playing post defense. In two early defensive sequences he forced his opponent to make a bad pass when Jones denied the post move, and another trip down he forced his opponent into a travel.


But he had some defensive lapses where he wasn’t aggressive, and he allowed a man to get to the rim, and he also let David Loubeau get a few shots around him.
He also made a horrendous inbounds pass which was picked off for a TO to help fuel Texas A&M’s run.

He still struggled on the defensive glass, only picking up 3 in 43 minutes of play. Part of the issues I’d seen earlier with him moving himself out of position to box someone out, didn’t seem to be as big of an issue in this one, though I still did see it a few times.

Instead, he was working hard to challenge most of the shots which were put up, even if he had no chance to block the shot, and that put him out of rebounding position. He only ended up with 1 block, but he probably lost out on a good 5+ defensive rebounds.

He had a total of 7 boards, 4 offensive, and 3 defensive, but being under the basket in the center of that 2/3 zone he should be clearing off a lot more than 3 defensive boards a game.

He still has a lot of things to work on, but this was a very good game for him against a ranked opponent. His intensity levels were a lot higher, and I think it was mostly due to being more aggressive and active on the offensive end.

I hope to continue to see efforts like this out of him, as it will make it really interesting come draft time.

 

[bajaden]

Baylor at Texas A&M (2/05/2011)

Baylor – Perry Jones III

Jones’ biggest issue so far this season has been mental. He’s been pretty passive on offensive, not being assertive and using his athletic gifts to try and dominate games.
Today has been the best that I’ve seen from Jones so far from an aggression standpoint.

He was very active in working towards getting into scoring position, and his teammates did a good job of getting him the ball.

He was guarded primarily by two different players, David Loubeau (6’8 230) and Nathan Walkup (6’7 210). Whenever he had Walkup on him, he worked to get good post position, and then used his length to score around and over Walkup in a variety of ways.

Jones ended the game with 27 points on 9/16 shooting and 9/9 from the FT line. He doesn’t attempt a lot of 3pt shots, and he didn’t make any attempts in this game, primarily because he isn’t a good 3pt shooter at the moment.

What he can do better than either T. Jones or D. Williams is get the ball and take a dribble or two and knock down the jumper. The form on his jumper looks good, and he’s really smooth pulling up and shooting the jumper out to 18 ft. It's because of this that I feel completely comfortable pegging him as a SF in the NBA, and with his size, length, smooth athleticism, and hops he has superstar written all over him. (Unfortunately he's got the highest bust potential if he can't put it all together, which makes him a bit of a scary pick as well. Right now Derrick Williams looks to be a safer pick)

He made some great post moves, hit some nice pull-up jumpers, and hit his free-throws for a very active and effective offensive game.

And it all basically came about because Jones was active in fighting for post position, and moving with-out the ball and making himself available to receive a pass in perimeter scoring positions.

If he continues to do that for the remainder of the season, he’s going to justify his top 3-5 pick, and I might move him back up past Derrick Williams.


On the defense end, it’s really difficult to gauge his abilities due to the zone that Baylor plays. In this game in particular I thought he did a good job in playing post defense. In two early defensive sequences he forced his opponent to make a bad pass when Jones denied the post move, and another trip down he forced his opponent into a travel.


But he had some defensive lapses where he wasn’t aggressive, and he allowed a man to get to the rim, and he also let David Loubeau get a few shots around him.
He also made a horrendous inbounds pass which was picked off for a TO to help fuel Texas A&M’s run.

He still struggled on the defensive glass, only picking up 3 in 43 minutes of play. Part of the issues I’d seen earlier with him moving himself out of position to box someone out, didn’t seem to be as big of an issue in this one, though I still did see it a few times.

Instead, he was working hard to challenge most of the shots which were put up, even if he had no chance to block the shot, and that put him out of rebounding position. He only ended up with 1 block, but he probably lost out on a good 5+ defensive rebounds.

He had a total of 7 boards, 4 offensive, and 3 defensive, but being under the basket in the center of that 2/3 zone he should be clearing off a lot more than 3 defensive boards a game.

He still has a lot of things to work on, but this was a very good game for him against a ranked opponent. His intensity levels were a lot higher, and I think it was mostly due to being more aggressive and active on the offensive end.

I hope to continue to see efforts like this out of him, as it will make it really interesting come draft time.

Without a doubt this was P. Jones best game of the year. I'm not going to nic pic his defense, because it was nice to see him be aggressively looking for his shot on offense. He made some nice passes as well during the game. He should be a much better rebounder, and maybe after he puts on some muscle he will. He gets pushed around too easily in the post, which is not where he should be playing anyway. I got a little irritated that every time Jones had a chance to defend one on one, they would doublt down on whoever he was guarding. I don't know if that just part of their defensive scheme, or they fell they need to help him on defense. With the zone they play, I'm inclined to believe its the former. All in all, he looked more like a top five pick in the draft tonight. Overall, very good game.

 

[bajaden]

Watched the Arizona/Cal game. Tough game that went to overtime in which Arizona prevailed. Not the usual game for Derrick Williams. I believe he only took 8 shots in the game, and ended with 12 pts. His teammates didn't look for him very much. Could have been because of the injury he suffered in the UCLA game when he had is little finger on his shooting hand bent backwards. At any rate, he had that finger and part of his hand bandaged, and I'm sure that didn't help his shooting. He did have 18 rebounds though and played pretty tough defense against Cal's center who looked like he weighed around 290 pounds.

Cal has a 6'8" player named Harper Kamp. He's a very nice player, and managed to score 33 pts against Arizona's defense. I kept wishing that they would put Williams on him, but not to be. Jorge Gutierrez, a SG/PG for Cal is a fun player to watch. He reminds me a bit of Vasquez of Maryland last year. Tough, gritty and fundamentally sound. He may never play in the NBA, and I think he can, but he's one of those glue guys that just does a little bit of everything. They need to have a glue player of the year award.

My boy Jimmer Fredette coughed up 29 pts tonight to go along with 7 assists. He went to the line 16 times and made 16 freethrows. He's a foul magnet in college. Right now he's a top candidate for College player of the year. And deservingly so. Without Fredette, BYU isn't even in the top 50, much less the top 10.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I heard today that the Union might be pushing for potential draft picks to not participate in the Combine or any pre-draft evaluations to put leverage on the Owners during the negotiations.

I'm not really sure that they can do that, can they? The college kids won't be members of the union until they've actually signed contracts, right? Putting pressure on people that aren't even members of the union...I'm no lawyer, but that doesn't sound legal.

 

[bajaden]

I also watched the St. Marys/LMU game. Thats stands for Loyola of Marymount U. St. Marys is currently in first place in their conference and trying to unseat Gonzaga, who has dominated the conference for the last few years. St. Marys made the big show last year with the great Omar Samham and Co. They made it all the way to the sweet 16. Turns out there were some other very good players on that team, and one of them is Mickey McConnell, their PG. In physical appearence, he'll remind you of John Stockton. Similar type body and stands 6' tall. Even his facial appearence is similar. But when he plays he'll remind you of Steve Nash. He is a pass first PG, but at the same time, he's third in all of college in 3 pt percentage. His court vision is absolutely amazing. Everytime you think he's going to do one thing, he does something else. Offensively, he's just a joy to watch.

While some college PG's will amaze you with their speed and agility, like Wall did last year. They border on spectacular with highlight reel plays. McConnell is just the opposite. He makes it look easy. You still go wow. But its a different kind of wow. Like watching a magician wow. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know how well he would fare defensively in the NBA. By that addmission, I'm not conceding that he'll be a terrible defender. I honestly don't know. St. Marys does so much switching with 6' players ending up on 6'7" players and then doubling down, that its hard to get a read on McConnell. But he's a decent athlete, and has very good end to end speed. And you dare not leave him open. The dude is shooting 48.4% from beyond the arc. Anyway, I suggest you take in one of his games. He's like watching an artist at work.

I'd like to mention a player that I'm sure a lot of you haven't heard of. He's averaging 23 pt's a game. So he's one of the top scorers in college. He plays for Providence, and his name is Marshon Brooks. He's a 6'5" SG, and he laid 43 pts on Georgetown today in a losing cause. I've watched him play 3 times this year, and he's very, very, good. Please don't take this the wrong way. But he reminds me a lot of Kobe. In the way he handles the ball. The moves he makes on offense. Just the way he carries himself. He drips with confidence. Yeah, I know he plays in a smaller conference against lesser competition. But today he played against a ranked team and they simply couldn't stop this kid. And he knew it. He threw in 10 boards and 2 steals as well. Remember the name..

 

[Uncia03]

I'm not really sure that they can do that, can they? The college kids won't be members of the union until they've actually signed contracts, right? Putting pressure on people that aren't even members of the union...I'm no lawyer, but that doesn't sound legal.

I don't honestly have any idea. It was mentioned by one of the announcers at the start of one of the games I watched today, but I can't remember which game it was. I'm not at home, but when I get back I will probably watch the start of all the games to get the exact quote, as I wasn't paying as much attention at the time. Hopefully it wasn't the Vandy game, as I won't be able to watch that online again.

But even if it isn't something that is legal from the Union standpoint, I can easily see the Union speaking with the Agents behind closed doors, and having the Agents recommend this course of action for their clients, and it all being done in a way which would make it difficult to prove any wrong-doing.
I mean, player Agents have all but killed the competitive nature of the combine, not allowing the top prospects from participating in the drills and pick-up games.

So if Agents felt that it was in their best interest to advise the top prospects to not participate at all to help provide leverage....I don't know what would happen.
I suspect that all it would take would be for the mid-to-late 1st rounders to attend, to force the top prospects to attend as well to ensure that they don't slip, but who knows for certain.

I really hope that there isn't a lock-out next season, but I'm not overly optimistic.

 

[Uncia03]

I'd like to mention a player that I'm sure a lot of you haven't heard of. He's averaging 23 pt's a game. So he's one of the top scorers in college. He plays for Providence, and his name is Marshon Brooks. He's a 6'5" SG, and he laid 43 pts on Georgetown today in a losing cause. I've watched him play 3 times this year, and he's very, very, good. Please don't take this the wrong way. But he reminds me a lot of Kobe. In the way he handles the ball. The moves he makes on offense. Just the way he carries himself. He drips with confidence. Yeah, I know he plays in a smaller conference against lesser competition. But today he played against a ranked team and they simply couldn't stop this kid. And he knew it. He threw in 10 boards and 2 steals as well. Remember the name..

I had the Georgetown/Providence game on this morning, but wasn't really paying attention as I was getting some work done, but I saw the final play of the game, and they reshowed it quite a few times during the course of the day, and he looked absolutely devastated at not being able to close out the victory.

 

[Uncia03]

I have him #1 on my list. I just hope the Jones's stay above him with the scouts. He's not getting the pub like the midwest and east coast guys. Fine by me. I highly doubt Petrie would pass on this guy.

Unfortunately people have noticed. Draft Express now has him at #5, with T. Jones down at #8.

Williams was in the mid-teens just a couple of weeks ago.

I'd be happy with Williams or either of the Jones' with our 1st round pick, but here's something to consider: Petrie might be looking at our #1 pick as an asset to use to make a mid-season trade to bring in a veteran SF such as Danny Granger or Gerald Wallace.

So I'm trying not to get attached to any particular player in the draft until after the trade deadline, as it could be a smart move on the part of the organization to make a big play and use our 1st round pick as an asset to get something of significance done.

If the deadline passes, and we haven't brought in a quality veteran, then I can start to get attached to prospects just like last year when all I wanted was either Turner or Cousins.

 

[chief bromden]

I'd like to mention a player that I'm sure a lot of you haven't heard of. He's averaging 23 pt's a game. So he's one of the top scorers in college. He plays for Providence, and his name is Marshon Brooks. He's a 6'5" SG, and he laid 43 pts on Georgetown today in a losing cause. I've watched him play 3 times this year, and he's very, very, good. Please don't take this the wrong way. But he reminds me a lot of Kobe. In the way he handles the ball. The moves he makes on offense. Just the way he carries himself. He drips with confidence. Yeah, I know he plays in a smaller conference against lesser competition. But today he played against a ranked team and they simply couldn't stop this kid. And he knew it. He threw in 10 boards and 2 steals as well. Remember the name..

The Big East is a smaller conference with inferior competition?

 

[bajaden]

The Big East is a smaller conference with inferior competition?

Ha Ha, yeah, my bad. I should have said a lesser known basketball school in a big conference. I had forgotten that Providence plays in the Big East.. Hey, when you get old, you forget things. Thats why I try to look up everything I write about and not rely on my memory. However, my point is the same. I doubt most people have heard of him. Especially here on the west coast.

 

[bajaden]

I don't honestly have any idea. It was mentioned by one of the announcers at the start of one of the games I watched today, but I can't remember which game it was. I'm not at home, but when I get back I will probably watch the start of all the games to get the exact quote, as I wasn't paying as much attention at the time. Hopefully it wasn't the Vandy game, as I won't be able to watch that online again.

But even if it isn't something that is legal from the Union standpoint, I can easily see the Union speaking with the Agents behind closed doors, and having the Agents recommend this course of action for their clients, and it all being done in a way which would make it difficult to prove any wrong-doing.
I mean, player Agents have all but killed the competitive nature of the combine, not allowing the top prospects from participating in the drills and pick-up games.

So if Agents felt that it was in their best interest to advise the top prospects to not participate at all to help provide leverage....I don't know what would happen.
I suspect that all it would take would be for the mid-to-late 1st rounders to attend, to force the top prospects to attend as well to ensure that they don't slip, but who knows for certain.

I really hope that there isn't a lock-out next season, but I'm not overly optimistic.

I'm not sure why it would be in the best interests of the agents to advise their clients to take a gamble on losing a couple of million dollars. Considering that the agents make more money when the players do. What would be the Players orginizations arguement? Back the players orginization so that if we win, you can make the same amount of money you'll make if you don't back the players orginization. Not going to the combine and not working out may be fine for the guys projected to go in the top ten or so, but the guys that are hoping to move up in the draft by impressing teams at the workouts, would be shooting themselves in the foot.

The bottom line would be that players that already have a contract, would be asking young players that don't, to take a risk at losing money for people that are already guaranteed money.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Ha Ha, yeah, my bad. I should have said a lesser known basketball school in a big conference. I had forgotten that Providence plays in the Big East.. Hey, when you get old, you forget things. Thats why I try to look up everything I write about and not rely on my memory. However, my point is the same. I doubt most people have heard of him. Especially here on the west coast.

Hey I went to BU, Providence is just a stark reminder about how nothing of a program we have. Every once in a while we get a Pitino or even a Jarvis and they quickly vanish and we get to go 9-18 in America East. I guess that's what you get when you go to a hockey school... a life spent rooting for Pac-10 teams.

 

[bajaden]

Hey I went to BU, Providence is just a stark reminder about how nothing of a program we have. Every once in a while we get a Pitino or even a Jarvis and they quickly vanish and we get to go 9-18 in America East. I guess that's what you get when you go to a hockey school... a life spent rooting for Pac-10 teams.

Yeah, fame is fleeting as they say. I remember when St. Johns was a powerhouse in basketball. Just like USF on the west coast. When you have your moment in the sun, remember to enjoy it, because there'll be plenty of cloudy days ahead.