Player/Random thoughts from Seattle U

Costa Rican Gopher

Mind of a Scientist
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- 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.
 

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- Bakary Konate ... I attribute that to being at the basketball academy in the Canary islands. ...

I thought it was Gaston who came from the Canary Islands. Looks like both Bakary and Gaston spent some time there. According to Roster Bio's Bakary was at Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas last year although he did not play in games.
 

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.

Lil Dre has a pretty good offensive game for a point guard.
 

Lil Dre has a pretty good offensive game for a point guard.

Yeah I agreed with a lot of what you said above but lil dre has a good offensive game and can get by his guy whenever he wants and is a good finisher for a 5 9 guy
 

Man, what a great, detailed post, CRG. I could have written all of it, except this:

- Lil Dre ... but has no offensive game and that hurts us because we basically play 4 on 5 on the offensive end.

Can't agree with this. But. I do wish LilDre would shoot more threes over the top. I wished that last year and it didn't happen.

But this:

Dre Hollins sure has a sweet stroke from 3

Yes. Holy crap, he took one three in particular, early in the 2nd half against Seattle that was the sweetest looking stroke you could ever see that I knew it was in immediately, despite my poor angle to the play. Just pure.
 


This team has to be riding high right now as they see other big ten teams tripping up against similar quality opponents.

If we can hang onto this swagger and win those first 2 games we might have a team clicking on all cylinders at exactly the right time.
 

- 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.

This is precisely why he should be coming off the bench. Against good teams and their good starting C's, he's not going to get his shot off so easily, he's not going to score a ton and kills us by trying, he's not going to get rebounds by just being tall, and his lack of effort and athleticism is exposed on both ends.

Also, think you're way off on your comments on lil' Dre. His mandate this non-conf season has clearly been to try and get others involved, get assists up and TOs down. We already know from last year he can shoot the 3 (what did he shoot, like 45%?) and take it to the hole and score, and has a sweet mid-range pull up jumper.

With respect to Buggs, maybe fewer mental lapses, I don't know, but now that he's playing on the perimeter more, the thing I notice is that he is not confident at all in his dribbling skills. He looks to pass or shoot almost immediately, I don't think I have ever seen him look to drive to the hoop off the dribble. So he seems like a tweener in terms of position. Basically he's like a more athletic but less polished Joey King -- a spot-up shooter/stretch 4.
 

Marvelous post, CRG! :cheer:

Except for the part about Lil Dre having no offensive game, of course. :)
 

Let me join the chorus on Lil' Dre. He has a solid outside shot and can penetrate and finish with a runner or at the rim.
 



This is precisely why he should be coming off the bench. Against good teams and their good starting C's, he's not going to get his shot off so easily, he's not going to score a ton and kills us by trying, he's not going to get rebounds by just being tall, and his lack of effort and athleticism is exposed on both ends.

Also, think you're way off on your comments on lil' Dre. His mandate this non-conf season has clearly been to try and get others involved, get assists up and TOs down. We already know from last year he can shoot the 3 (what did he shoot, like 45%?) and take it to the hole and score, and has a sweet mid-range pull up jumper.

With respect to Buggs, maybe fewer mental lapses, I don't know, but now that he's playing on the perimeter more, the thing I notice is that he is not confident at all in his dribbling skills. He looks to pass or shoot almost immediately, I don't think I have ever seen him look to drive to the hoop off the dribble. So he seems like a tweener in terms of position. Basically he's like a more athletic but less polished Joey King -- a spot-up shooter/stretch 4.

Mo scored double digits vs. Kaminsky, Olah, Hammons, Vonleh and Egwu last year.
 

This is precisely why he should be coming off the bench. Against good teams and their good starting C's, he's not going to get his shot off so easily, he's not going to score a ton and kills us by trying, he's not going to get rebounds by just being tall, and his lack of effort and athleticism is exposed on both ends.

Also, think you're way off on your comments on lil' Dre. His mandate this non-conf season has clearly been to try and get others involved, get assists up and TOs down. We already know from last year he can shoot the 3 (what did he shoot, like 45%?) and take it to the hole and score, and has a sweet mid-range pull up jumper.

With respect to Buggs, maybe fewer mental lapses, I don't know, but now that he's playing on the perimeter more, the thing I notice is that he is not confident at all in his dribbling skills. He looks to pass or shoot almost immediately, I don't think I have ever seen him look to drive to the hoop off the dribble. So he seems like a tweener in terms of position. Basically he's like a more athletic but less polished Joey King -- a spot-up shooter/stretch 4.
Mo opinions are quite odd.
 

Man, what a great, detailed post, CRG. I could have written all of it, except this:



Can't agree with this. But. I do wish LilDre would shoot more threes over the top. I wished that last year and it didn't happen.

But this:

Dre Hollins sure has a sweet stroke from 3

Yes. Holy crap, he took one three in particular, early in the 2nd half against Seattle that was the sweetest looking stroke you could ever see that I knew it was in immediately, despite my poor angle to the play. Just pure.

He made five 3's in B1G play last year (someone check my math on that). If he was a threat from 3 point land Pitino would have him pulling the trigger as much as possible. I see a mediocre shooter, who at 5'9" in his shoes, can't get his shot off in B1G play.
 

This is precisely why he should be coming off the bench. Against good teams and their good starting C's, he's not going to get his shot off so easily, he's not going to score a ton and kills us by trying, he's not going to get rebounds by just being tall, and his lack of effort and athleticism is exposed on both ends.

I agree that Mo likely will not be able to score as easily against Big Ten competition, but I still think he should start. He's improved all around from last year. Secondly, in case you haven't noticed, the second unit is developing a nice three forward combination of Elliot, Bakary, and Buggs and they're showing potential to work well together. Finally, Mo only averages about 5 minutes more per game than Elliot anyway. Over the last two years, I've usually had a slight preference for Elliot because of his better defense, interior passing, and quicker outlet passes after a defensive rebound but this rotation seems to me to be working better than last year's.
 



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

Stand next to the kid and you will notice his shoulders are 3' wide and his arms/chest are extremely strong. The kid is going to be a beast.

I could care less about his chicken legs, he gets up and quickly. He got that ball and dunked over 6'-11" Crook before the kid could even react. EE would still be holding he ball thinking of what to do.

That little jump-hook he put in looked damn nice too.
 

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- Mo Walker is an offensive threat, a very good passer, has gotten himself is good shape and gets some rebounds just by being tall. Agreed.

- EE is in amazing shape for a big man.Agreed.

- Bakary Konate " Seriously though, tonight was the first time that I actually saw what Pitino must have seen when he recruited him". Watch Louisville they take athletic bigs who are very raw. Konate is the future big man type for Patino.

- 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. Having 4 3pt shooters on the court compared to previous years really opens up the inside for Mo. King has value and defeciencies.
- Charles Buggs..agreed.

- 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.. Only needed to say all jr college guys need to make adjustments: shot selection, turnovers.

- 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. Great insight. I also see his defensive limitations now that we have some guards with lateral quickness that I didn't before. Great player.
- I've been on the Nate Mason bandwagon before there was a bandwagon and he's playing exactly as I thought he would. Just for fun i searched under your moniker with "Nate" and "Mason" and i didnt see any preseason posts stating such?

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. I mostly agree, he has adequate quickness but to say he is as quick as the 5-9 Mathieu is a stretch. He reminds me of what Justin Cobb became out in CAl.
- 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. Others have clobbered this comment. He scores layups over bigs every game, other times he gets rejected. 51% from the field last year, 48% this year is a super high percentage for a pg.

- 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.
Agreed but i would add that this could be the best quickness on the defensive end on the perimeter we have ever had.
 

Mo and Goose remind me very much of Ralph and Colt 45. If you could somehow just fuse them together you'd have a really solid big man.
 

CRG: - "I've been on the Nate Mason bandwagon before there was a bandwagon and he's playing exactly as I thought he would."

MarchMadness: - "Just for fun i searched under your moniker with "Nate" and "Mason" and i didnt see any preseason posts stating such?"

Nate Mason commits thread 10/27/13:

CRG- "My general take is that he's a scrappy, undersized guy, who's a score-first, ball handler. Could turn into a poor man's Bobby Jackson for lack of a better reference.

The fact that he played so well among the very top competition this summer calms my fears over his lack of offers. This kid has proven that he can play with Tyus, Reid & that caliber of player."

I found other posts of mine on Mason as well and I'm guessing my first posts on him were in his recruitment thread, but I can't find it, not sure how far back the archives go?
 

Stand next to the kid and you will notice his shoulders are 3' wide and his arms/chest are extremely strong. The kid is going to be a beast.

I could care less about his chicken legs, he gets up and quickly. He got that ball and dunked over 6'-11" Crook before the kid could even react. EE would still be holding he ball thinking of what to do.

That little jump-hook he put in looked damn nice too.

That made me laugh. Good one.
 

On Dre Mathieu: I shouldn't have said he has no offensive game, I was being flippant. He has a limited offensive game. He doesn't have a great looking shot and at his height it's hard for him to get open looks against good competition. He absolutely gets to the hoop, but I'd hardly call him a great finisher. This is not to say I don't appreciate Lil Dre and admittedly I was too hard on him in my write up.
 

On Dre Mathieu: I shouldn't have said he has no offensive game, I was being flippant. He has a limited offensive game. He doesn't have a great looking shot and at his height it's hard for him to get open looks against good competition. He absolutely gets to the hoop, but I'd hardly call him a great finisher. This is not to say I don't appreciate Lil Dre and admittedly I was too hard on him in my write up.

He's like a lot of college players - he doesn't have a classic stroke, but he does knock down outside shots at a very good percentage. Part of it is good shot selection, which is a virtue.
 

That made me laugh. Good one.

Bakary had a nice game against Seattle. He's not B1G ready, but there were flashes of what may come. We were trying to imagine your reaction when he made some nice plays and hit a few free throws.
 

Bakary had a nice game against Seattle. He's not B1G ready, but there were flashes of what may come. We were trying to imagine your reaction when he made some nice plays and hit a few free throws.

I've obviously mellowed some from when I remarked that it looked like he took up basketball three weeks ago. :) He's on a steep improvement curve; I think part of that is his obvious IQ, so he's able to pick up schemes and game plans fast. He's also developing a feel for the game. There's some serious hope for this dude.
 

He's like a lot of college players - he doesn't have a classic stroke, but he does knock down outside shots at a very good percentage. Part of it is good shot selection, which is a virtue.

If shot selection is a virtue, then Lil Dre is a saint. :D He only made five 3 pointers in conference play last year. I'm just not seeing the same threat others see.
 




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