Watch Carlos Morris and Chipola play for the Florida Juco State Championship at 4 pm

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Carlos is out now after playing about the first ten minutes. I have him at 1-4 from the floor (0-2 from 3), 2 rebounds, and a steal. Chipola is playing a 2-3 zone and Carlos was playing a bottom wing position, so it was tough to get a feel for his defense. The biggest positive I saw from Morris so far is on the 2 rebounds he got, he dribbled the ball up himself and looked for a transition opportunity (neither time it was there and he just pulled it out). He looks very comfortable handling the ball, but that's against JUCO defense. Not very impressed with Chipola's offense as everything has pretty much been a one on one play with little attempt to create shots with screens or any type of designed play. I can easily see how Morris's scoring is up and down in this type of offense. The other thing is a lot of the shots taken are contested (including 2 of Morris's opportunities) because the shot is so often coming off the dribble.
 


Carlos is number 11 and wearing the blue shoes.

Update at half: Since I last posted Carlos had two nice steals when Chipola broke out the press, those type of plays certainly translate to what the Gophers are trying to do defensively. He missed a tough layup after one of the steals and is now 1-5 from the field. Later, he had a nice rebound where he simply outjumped the offensive player to grab a tough board. Finally, after Chipola called a timeout after a bunch of sloppy possessions in a row, Carlos got in the lane and dropped a nice assist to Bowers for a layup. I've unofficially got him at 1-5 from the field (0-2 from 3), 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists with no turnovers.

From what I've seen Carlos has been the best Chipola player on the floor today as the team is really playing some sloppy basketball. Their two smaller guards Cassell Jr and Floyd have both taken a number of terrible shots and seem not that interested in getting the rest of the team involved. Cassell Jr is usually a very good scorer, and I'd expect him to bounce back in the second half. He has a lot of mannerisms similar to his father.
 


Thanks for the link EG#9 - It's nice to be able to just click and watch - instead of having to set-up an account or pay :) I can see why Pitino likes Morris. Kind of a Austin Hollins type..he looks to be legit 6'5. Can dribble and dish while protecting the ball. With Cassell Jr. and their point guard jacking up shots - Morris doesn't seem to get many shot opportunities. Oh, and the production quality is much better than Aggie Vision and better than early season games via BTN.com. He's number 11 by the way.
 


Thanks for the link.

It's hard to see how good Morris is with the weak 2-3 zone that Chipotle is playing. I'm struck by how slow and plodding this game is. Morris is going to have to get used to the speed of B1G play if this game represents the norm in JUCO ball.
 

Missed about the first 10 minutes of the second half as I was watching Clemson absolutely melt down. When I returned to the Chipola game, it was pretty much a procession to the free throw line over the last ten minutes or so. Carlos had another nice rebound where he went up and got it above the rim and went 4-4 from the line down the stretch. Cassell Jr finished with 22 points, so I believe he had 20 in the second half. There are things to like and dislike about both Cassell Jr and Bowers who were two of the other highly regarded kids on Chipola. Bowers is a big body down low, but struggled to move laterally and picked up a lot of fouls because of it, he also is 50% free throw shooter and doesn't have the greatest bounce to his game. On the positive side is his size and his willingness to go get rebounds as well as a bit of a nasty streak. Cassell Jr is a scorer, but I wonder how much of his game translates to the high major level. He's a lot like his dad in that he's much more crafty than athletic and it's tough to know how successful he will be scoring the ball against high major defense. Obviously it is i just one game that I am going off of for all these players, so it's certainly an insignificant sample size.

Morris seems like a guy who will play. I like that Chipola used him as their inbounds guy and he seemed like one of the few Chipola players who was consciously looking to make the best play for the team as opposed to the best play for himself. As tinyarch mentioned, it's tough to get a real feel for how Carlos will play on the defensive end with Chipola playing zone. I do think that's a concern that we're bringing in a JUCO guy who has to learn man to man D at the highest level, especially when that player is going to be guarding 2's and 3's.
 



It's tough to glean too much info out of this but he definitely looks comfortable handling the ball & is a fluid athlete, I see why Pitino wants him.

The first thing that strikes me about Morris is his body, which is much more muscular & athletic than I had imagined. Not sure why, but I thought he was a real string bean. I'm not saying he'll ever be this good, but who he reminds me of physically a bit is JR Rider. Not as muscular or explosive of course, but his height & just the way he walks/runs remind me a bit of Rider.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
It's tough to glean too much info out of this but he definitely looks comfortable handling the ball & is a fluid athlete, I see why Pitino wants him.

The first thing that strikes me about Morris is his body, which is much more muscular & athletic than I had imagined. Not sure why, but I thought he was a real string bean. I'm not saying he'll ever be this good, but who he reminds me of physically a bit is JR Rider. Not as muscular or explosive of course, but his height & just the way he walks/runs remind me a bit of Rider.
Click to expand...

The person I connected him with as a similar build was Vander Blue who played for Marquette last year. This one game was not a big enough sample size, but if Morris could bring a bit of Blue's game to the Gopher's I'd be ecstatic.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
It's tough to glean too much info out of this but he definitely looks comfortable handling the ball & is a fluid athlete, I see why Pitino wants him.

The first thing that strikes me about Morris is his body, which is much more muscular & athletic than I had imagined. Not sure why, but I thought he was a real string bean. I'm not saying he'll ever be this good, but who he reminds me of physically a bit is JR Rider. Not as muscular or explosive of course, but his height & just the way he walks/runs remind me a bit of Rider.
Click to expand...

You probably thought that because people have been talking about his listing at 175 lbs. You are right, he is athletic.
I have seen him play a few times, and I believe he will be in our top 3 or 4 in scoring next year. Couple of key observations:
1. He puts the ball on the floor quickly. He is not a catch and shoot player. He seems to know his shot chart well, and immediately tries to get there. If he cant get there, he looks inside first, then the perimeter.
2. He is athletic, but not an explosive leaper. More apt to be on the giving end of an ally oop than receiving it.
3. Very active defensive player. Uses length to disrupt passing lanes.
 

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