I’m oddly fine with this pickup. When the alternative expectation was ‘nobody,’ I’m not sure how anyone could object.
I am (still) learning not to trust highlight tape, but it does give you an idea of how someone moves, and the confidence they have in executing certain plays. That said, I saw some really nice stuff in his video. Just taking some of those shots, the form, and the decisiveness—a lot of that was better than what we saw from Frank.
And in the GW full game… he moves well, is active, and when he challenges shots, he makes them very difficult for the offensive player. He’s big and relatively agile. Coordinated. In a way that makes Frank look awkward. Whether that translates to actual effectiveness over Frank is another story, but he doesn’t look like a stiff or a gawky kid. This was his freshman year, and after only 4 years of playing the game, I can see reason for optimism. Plus, playing (mostly?) zone, he‘ll look different as a defender and I can see that kind of structure benefiting him.
I‘m discounting his team’s suckitude. We had Jesse on a sucky team—doesn’t mean the kid himself is the reason why. And, again—Freshman. If you didn’t know who was who and could ignore the uniforms, I’d suggest he looks better as a frosh than Frank did, even factoring competition.
I‘m anticipating Jesse being less foul-prone with another year’s experience, and with more respect from refs. I hope Hima’s minutes come from resting Jesse strategically. And I hope this frees My Boy Carey to concentrate on playing the 4. Hima shouldn’t block him.
Yeah, it would have been nice to get a strong 6’9” power forward, who scored 15ppg at a ‘lesser‘ school, who could do 5 in a pinch, but JB has been talking to the recruited class, and got them with certain expectations. I’m fine with honoring that. Maybe that, sadly, is because I no longer think of our program the way I used to, and next year seems like a lark anyway? I just hope it’s the last lark and we get back to loftier demands and expectations.
