Costa Rican Gopher
Mind of a Scientist
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2008
- Messages
- 28,601
- Reaction score
- 6,936
- Points
- 113
- We have an unusually high amount of guys on our team that are an adventure to watch. Morris, Konate, Buggs and I presume Gaston shortly, can all either make an ESPN highlight or get yanked from the game for a horrible mistake on any possession.
- Mo Walker is an offensive threat, a very good passer, has gotten himself is good shape and gets some rebounds just by being tall. His downside is that he's not very athletic (definitely a below-the-rim player), can be a little lazy and is soft. He's an incomplete player, but what we need from him to compensate for his weaknesses is that he throw up about 15 points a night, preferably more. When he stops shooting he becomes a liability.
- EE is in amazing shape for a big man. He can run the court hard the whole game which is nuts for a guy his size. He's also a very good passer. The rest of his game though is like a photo negative of Mo. Virtually no offensive threat, but very physical and plays extremely hard, perhaps too hard. He's ends up looking like a spaz a lot and getting in foul trouble. Like Mo being soft, it's just the way it is and if it hasn't changed after four years, it's not going to change.
- Bakary Konate makes me chuckle just looking at him, kind of like looking at Manute Bol used to make me chuckle. He looks like he walks around flexing all the time under that t-shirt in order to not look so skinny. His upper body really isn't THAT thin, but still the way he puffs out his chest and holds his arms buy his side as if he's muscle bound is humorous. Pitino needs to tell him there are machines that work the legs in that gym as well. Clearly Buggs & Morris didn't get the memo either
. Seriously though, tonight was the first time that I actually saw what Pitino must have seen when he recruited him. Obviously he moves well for a guy his size and has great length, but tonight was the first time I really saw flashes of skill. He definitely has some savvy to his game in terms of knowing where to be positioned, his shooting touch, offensive moves, etc. I attribute that to being at the basketball academy in the Canary islands. The downside is he doesn't look instinctual yet. I attribute that to missing about a million pick up games over 15 years that most other guys played. He should get better as the season goes on and should be a real good player over his career at the U.
- Joey King is what he is. He gets everything out of what he has to work with, but in a perfect world he'd be coming off the bench as a 7th-8th man on a good B1G team. Knock down a couple threes, make a couple scrappy plays and sit back down. He's going to be over matched in just about every B1G contest all season.
- Charles Buggs is much improved, but still has a long way to go. He's going to get a ton of minutes this year, so hopefully he can do something with them. Last night he had a great assist in traffic to Bakary Konate, then got yanked after completely blowing a defensive assignment on the other end of the floor. It's nothing new for Buggs, but it feels like the horrible mental lapses are getting less and less. I noticed him pointing/indicating where to be on the floor to Mason once and Bakary another time. That impressed me, because as recently as the NIT run guys were having to show him where to be on the court.
- Carlos Morris looked good, but he's another guy that's an adventure on the court. He's a guy who's not naturally very loud or confident, so getting him some momentum is key. I heard Pitino say he was told he had the green light to shoot the 3 if he's open and he did just that last night. I was impressed with how the team was trying to get him those hots as well. He'll have games this season where he looks All-B1G and some games where he'll approach double digits in turnovers.
- New Guy was kind of fun to watch. Sort of a Rudy feel to it. He got in, someone immediately tried to shoot a 3 over him and he got a piece of it was a nice momentum builder for him. Later it looked like Lil' Dre tried to get him a shot just before the half, but he didn't want to take it so he passed it back to Lil' Dre who was stuck underneath the basket in the trees. I thought it was a novelty that he got on the court, but Pitino said we have no one else to give Morris a rest, so expect to see him a few minutes a game.
- Dre Hollins sure has a sweet stroke from 3 and a rare mid range game. Last night, with two other scoring options to take the heat off of him, he really looked comfortable.
- I've been on the Nate Mason bandwagon before there was a bandwagon and he's playing exactly as I thought he would. He's ultimately confident, high energy, very quick, etc. He's clearly the best guard we have in terms of potential in that he's got Lil Dre's handle with the ball, his quickness, his ability to create for others, his ability to get to the hoops, but unlike Lil Dre he has the ability to finish at the hoop and shoot the ball. He's not where Dre Hollins is in terms of shooting yet (few are) but he's already a legitimate shooter and has the potential to be a really killed from outside.
- Lil Dre is a lot of fun to watch. Great handle, super quick, a real pickpocket, but has no offensive game and that hurts us because we basically play 4 on 5 on the offensive end.
- Excited about having Mason, Kevin Dorsey and Jarvis Johnson next year/beyond in the back court together. That's three guys who can all handle the rock and it means we'll always have two guys on the court together who can push/protect he ball. This is probably the most striking difference from Tubby teams where we had one ball handler, sometimes none and we walked it up the court.
- Mo Walker is an offensive threat, a very good passer, has gotten himself is good shape and gets some rebounds just by being tall. His downside is that he's not very athletic (definitely a below-the-rim player), can be a little lazy and is soft. He's an incomplete player, but what we need from him to compensate for his weaknesses is that he throw up about 15 points a night, preferably more. When he stops shooting he becomes a liability.
- EE is in amazing shape for a big man. He can run the court hard the whole game which is nuts for a guy his size. He's also a very good passer. The rest of his game though is like a photo negative of Mo. Virtually no offensive threat, but very physical and plays extremely hard, perhaps too hard. He's ends up looking like a spaz a lot and getting in foul trouble. Like Mo being soft, it's just the way it is and if it hasn't changed after four years, it's not going to change.
- Bakary Konate makes me chuckle just looking at him, kind of like looking at Manute Bol used to make me chuckle. He looks like he walks around flexing all the time under that t-shirt in order to not look so skinny. His upper body really isn't THAT thin, but still the way he puffs out his chest and holds his arms buy his side as if he's muscle bound is humorous. Pitino needs to tell him there are machines that work the legs in that gym as well. Clearly Buggs & Morris didn't get the memo either
. Seriously though, tonight was the first time that I actually saw what Pitino must have seen when he recruited him. Obviously he moves well for a guy his size and has great length, but tonight was the first time I really saw flashes of skill. He definitely has some savvy to his game in terms of knowing where to be positioned, his shooting touch, offensive moves, etc. I attribute that to being at the basketball academy in the Canary islands. The downside is he doesn't look instinctual yet. I attribute that to missing about a million pick up games over 15 years that most other guys played. He should get better as the season goes on and should be a real good player over his career at the U.- Joey King is what he is. He gets everything out of what he has to work with, but in a perfect world he'd be coming off the bench as a 7th-8th man on a good B1G team. Knock down a couple threes, make a couple scrappy plays and sit back down. He's going to be over matched in just about every B1G contest all season.
- Charles Buggs is much improved, but still has a long way to go. He's going to get a ton of minutes this year, so hopefully he can do something with them. Last night he had a great assist in traffic to Bakary Konate, then got yanked after completely blowing a defensive assignment on the other end of the floor. It's nothing new for Buggs, but it feels like the horrible mental lapses are getting less and less. I noticed him pointing/indicating where to be on the floor to Mason once and Bakary another time. That impressed me, because as recently as the NIT run guys were having to show him where to be on the court.
- Carlos Morris looked good, but he's another guy that's an adventure on the court. He's a guy who's not naturally very loud or confident, so getting him some momentum is key. I heard Pitino say he was told he had the green light to shoot the 3 if he's open and he did just that last night. I was impressed with how the team was trying to get him those hots as well. He'll have games this season where he looks All-B1G and some games where he'll approach double digits in turnovers.
- New Guy was kind of fun to watch. Sort of a Rudy feel to it. He got in, someone immediately tried to shoot a 3 over him and he got a piece of it was a nice momentum builder for him. Later it looked like Lil' Dre tried to get him a shot just before the half, but he didn't want to take it so he passed it back to Lil' Dre who was stuck underneath the basket in the trees. I thought it was a novelty that he got on the court, but Pitino said we have no one else to give Morris a rest, so expect to see him a few minutes a game.
- Dre Hollins sure has a sweet stroke from 3 and a rare mid range game. Last night, with two other scoring options to take the heat off of him, he really looked comfortable.
- I've been on the Nate Mason bandwagon before there was a bandwagon and he's playing exactly as I thought he would. He's ultimately confident, high energy, very quick, etc. He's clearly the best guard we have in terms of potential in that he's got Lil Dre's handle with the ball, his quickness, his ability to create for others, his ability to get to the hoops, but unlike Lil Dre he has the ability to finish at the hoop and shoot the ball. He's not where Dre Hollins is in terms of shooting yet (few are) but he's already a legitimate shooter and has the potential to be a really killed from outside.
- Lil Dre is a lot of fun to watch. Great handle, super quick, a real pickpocket, but has no offensive game and that hurts us because we basically play 4 on 5 on the offensive end.
- Excited about having Mason, Kevin Dorsey and Jarvis Johnson next year/beyond in the back court together. That's three guys who can all handle the rock and it means we'll always have two guys on the court together who can push/protect he ball. This is probably the most striking difference from Tubby teams where we had one ball handler, sometimes none and we walked it up the court.
