Demo

You’ve seen more of his streams than I have, but that assessment strikes me as dead accurate.

If Lander wants to reclassify, that’s obviously up to him and his family. But Vonleh had the body of a 25 year old man. Lander has the body of a 17 year old kid.

I’ve written some above about the nature of his school’s competition. But a couple of things to maybe assuage your concerns: 1) Mohammed was the leading scorer at last summer’s Pangos 100 camp, which included, among many others, Jonathon Kuminga, Cade Cunningham, Paolo Banchero and Terrance Clarke. 2) He was one of the leading scorers on the EYBL circuit last year while playing up a year for Boo Williams. He was the leading scorer on a team that included Cam Thomas, who’s a top 25 type kid going to LSU. So, yeah, he’s beating the hell out of a lot of HS kids who have no chance against him. But he’s done the same against some of the best players in the country. The kid is really, really good. If anything, his level of HS competition might be depressing his ratings some. If he was playing for a basketball factory he’d be a top 5-8 type kid, even in a class as good as ‘21. IU’s roster is likely to include several similarly sized wing guards in ‘21-22. In this case, I don’t care. Mohammed is on a different level from them. If he wants to come, you take him and figure it out. He’s a 15-17 pts/gm guy the day he walks on campus. fwiw

If anyone ever wants to see the value of an orchestrator on offense, they need to watch Rutgers’ last possession. 20 seconds and they ran nothing at all.

Not sure the kid is really physically ready to play in the Big Ten, but there are 2 things he can absolutely do. He can really ratchet up ball pressure on the perimeter. And he is a rocket end to end. So if Archie is really serious about upping pace of play, and I’ve been skeptical of that, Lander can be a big piece of that. Very nice get.

What?

Crane is supposedly a pretty decent small school team. They have some mutual opponents that Greenwood beat worse in every case. Nobody else would have any shot unless Mohammed rolls an ankle or some such. Would be pretty shocking if his season ends next week.

Yeah, that’s the only 1 I’d seen, and it’s better than most. Shows a variety of skills. But wouldn’t you think these days even a junior college would stream it’s games? Kills me because I would really like to see this kid play a game. He looks a little better to me than his offer list.

I’ve been trying to find a live stream or some extended footage of this kid since you mentioned him last month. Nothing. Just the 1 YouTube clip that’s already posted. Fascinating. A bear can be eating some dude in the middle of nowhere and a random hiker ends up filming it, but I can’t find game footage of a college basketball player.

Not able to watch but flipped through the box score. Shows Mich with 1 turnover. Is that right?

The more I see of him the more I see him maybe evolving into, an admittedly unconventional, Ty Jerome-type PG. Yeah, the shooting needs to get better, and I think it probably will. But I love the vision and instincts and the defense will absolutely play. Watching him defend Jalen Blackmon last year was eye opening. He flat smothered that kid. He had no problem staying frontal, he fought over every screen and he contested everything. And even if the shooting doesn’t come he has a chance to be a really tough matchup for a lot of pg’s with his sheer size and physicality.

Ordinarily I’d agree with you on the timing not being ideal. But, actually, I like it in this case for 3 reasons: 1) The kid’s already seen a game at AH(Maryland). 2) He’s too late to see a game on campus, but that also means he’s too late to see one anywhere else(Md, Louisville). 3) If what I have been told is correct, this will be Mohammed’s 4th visit to Bloomington in something like 18 mos. So a chance to get a really focused look at the school and the program outside of the season may be exactly what he’s looking to see.

State Tournament starts next Monday for the 3 smaller classes. Somewhat similar to Indiana, but a week shorter. Open with District play, equivalent of sectionals. Usually 8 teams per district. 16 districts. Top 4 teams are seeded. Greenwood is in, I believe, District 11 and would play Mon/Thurs/Sat. The 16 winners play down to 4 Wed/Sat the following week. The final 4 would play 3/13-14 at Mo St, which is literally across the street from the Greenwood campus. So if Mohammed is, in fact, going to take a Jr OV to Bloomington, barring a fairly shocking upset, it would be after 3/14.

Yeah, great call. And somebody needs to tell Anthony Leal to study Mitchell Ballock every night. Love that kid’s game.

Not sure i’ve seen a better 10 mins of offensive basketball this season. Been a pleasure to watch.

Since Kalscheuer has had such a tough shooting year in Conference, I’m putting his over/under on made 3’s tonight at 6 1/2, including 1 from at least 28’ with the shot clock under 2.

He’s playing all right.

Interesting developmental arc. When I saw him as a Soph he had a reputation as a kid who could make shots but needed to improve his athleticism. Now as a Sr he’s become a better than average athlete who can’t make shots. Weird.

Wouldn’t happen in a million years, the kid’s too talented, but if I were advising him I would suggest at least considering the possibility of Lander reclassifying/redshirting. I’m not sure he’s ready physically for the Big Ten but another year of HS doesn’t make a ton of sense, developmentally. A year in a college weight room and practicing at that level of intensity and he’d be ready to absolutely kill guys from game 1. But, yeah, no chance.

Yeah, it’s been my feeling that Smith is absolutely going to go, someone is going to be really excited to get him as a grad transfer, and they will learn, as Archie has, the definition of “tease.”

Someone on HSN wrote that Mike Roberts went down to Vincennes the other night. I assume to watch Craig Porter, VU ‘20 PG. Sort of wondered why they hadn’t already done it, a highly regarded PG at a top JC program who played in HS at Terre Haute South. Given the roster construction, clearly worth a look. Looks like Roberts caught him on a good night. 14pts/11 assts/6 blks/1 to vs John A Logan, which has Jay Scrubb, , a Louisville commit. Might have legs. Fwiw

I don’t know, man, look at the hammer they dropped on Will Wade. Oh, wait......

The starting lineup is fine for me. Care less about who starts than distribution of minutes. But Hunter is at the point where he needs to play 25 minutes. He’s ready and his talent and versatility create matchup advantages that no one else on this roster brings. Since Archie refuses to go smaller, I’d be interested to see him try going bigger. Put Brunk or De’Ron on the floor with TJD, Smith, Hunter and Rob for stretches. Does a couple of things: creates an exploitable matchup for either Hunter or Smith. Would love to see Hunter run that curl cut off the pindown that Archie likes to run for Al. He could also take it to the wing for a 3. Also like it defensively. When Brunk or De’Ron hedge a ball screen and can’t recover, the backside rotation help for the roll man would be Smith or Hunter, not Al or Franklin or Green. Also, if the passer throws the skip pass to the weak corner for the 3, you have a bigger, longer guy to recover and contest. Of course, that lineup might turn it over like there’s no tomorrow. But I just really want to see it.

This is the most I’ve gotten to watch of Kaufman. Interesting kid. Clever, little bit of an old man game. Reminds me of Kyle Anderson when he was at UCLA, but a better athlete. Would think he’d be a handful playing the pinch post in a spread system, but that game would play anywhere. They kept saying he’s 6’9”. Anyone know if that’s true? Didn’t look quite that big to me.

The system? Stop it. Watch UK play in the half court tonight against Auburn. Almost all of their base actions are the same as what Miller’s running. But, ya know, Cal really struggles to recruit guards. Kept hearing that Underwood couldn’t recruit guards to Illinois because he runs so much spread while big time HS guards want to play in pick and roll to show off for the League. Dosunmu, Miller and Curbelo would indicate otherwise. The issue isn’t Miller’s philosophy or his systems, though I’m not a packline guy at all. But any coherent philosophy can be successful if taught and recruited to in a disciplined, focused way. Any of them. Jay Wright and Tony Bennett have 3 NC’s coaching completely different systems. They win by being slavishly committed to what they do. Crean’s ultimate downfall here wasn’t scheme, he’s got some beautiful actions, it was failure of discipline. The question is can Miller teach, motivate and construct a roster? That’s a legitimate question. I question why you take both Leal and Galloway in this class. I question why he offered Anderson, who’s a poor system fit. That’s not on the kid. I question why after 50 games in the system Rob still can’t read the back side action. Brunk and De’Ron are a mess trying to hedge and recover and smart teams will just keep them in ball screen, So the defense constantly ends up in rotation. Unless you’re Chris Beard, that ain’t what you want. So why doesn’t he alter that, either schematically or by personnel changes? And I question why this team isn’t growing faster mentally. But, no, the system ain’t the problem.