Could we see our deepest backcourt in years???

[orangefan13]

Thets compare this teams backcourt to the 11-12 team.

Exhibit A)
11-12's backcourt had 5th year Senior Scoop, Jr Triche, Sophmore phenom Dion Waiters and freshmen MCW/redshirt Cooney behind them.

Sophmore MCW had trouble doing 3 things as a fresh and Sophmore.
1. He couldn't really beat his man off the dribble in the halfcourt well as a fresh,
2. He couldn't really shoot 3's to well,
3. He couldn't pullup for a layup midrange jumpshot well as a fresh(he didn't learn that to late in his sophmore year as you look at his half court soph scoring numbers inside the arc for 3/4 of last season).

There was no way redshirt Cooney was ready. He wasn't even ready to be a third guard last year let alone 2 years ago.

Exhibit B)
Scoop could do all 3 of those better then MCW as a PG. And had 4 years more experience passing the rock then freshmen MCW.


That leaves me with three big questions.
1. How far ahead of this years Cooney/Gbinije were Jr. Triche/Sophmore Dion?

2. How far ahead of freshmen Mike and reshirt Cooney are freshmen BJ Johnson and Ron Patterson?? I mean Ron put up 23 points and 11 assists at the king of kings the other night. Thats a rediculous stat line. BJ is 6'7 and could be better taking his man off the dribble in the halfcourt then Gbinije. Actually I hope he will be and is probably a better rebounder at guard then Cooney and Ennis by a longstretch, as it has been said he jumps higher then Southerland.


3. It has been said that it takes time for players to get into the flow of games can we fit 4-5 guards without disrupting that???


One thing is for sure we won't be seeing Fair,Grant or Roberson at SG to much this year in games.
Although I bet practice would be awfully fun to watch and build alot of fans hopes up as players play other positions more. JB should really think about opening 4-5 practices a year for the fans. One for each quarter of the season or something.

 

[BlackSquirrels]

Well, the 13-14 SU backcourt should be the deepest SU backcourt since 11-12, which is two years.

So, technically, I guess the answer to your question is yes, next season's team will have the deepest SU backcourt in years.

 

[cuseincincy]

Thets compare this teams backcourt to the 11-12 team.

Exhibit A)
11-12's backcourt had 5th year Senior Scoop, Jr Triche, Sophmore phenom Dion Waiters and freshmen MCW/redshirt Cooney behind them.

Sophmore MCW had trouble doing 3 things as a fresh and Sophmore.
1. He couldn't really beat his man off the dribble in the halfcourt well as a fresh,
2. He couldn't really shoot 3's to well,
3. He couldn't pullup for a layup midrange jumpshot well as a fresh(he didn't learn that to late in his sophmore year as you look at his half court soph scoring numbers inside the arc for 3/4 of last season).

There was no way redshirt Cooney was ready. He wasn't even ready to be a third guard last year let alone 2 years ago.

Exhibit B)
Scoop could do all 3 of those better then MCW as a PG. And had 4 years more experience passing the rock then freshmen MCW.


That leaves me with three big questions.
1. How far ahead of this years Cooney/Gbinije were Jr. Triche/Sophmore Dion?

2. How far ahead of freshmen Mike and reshirt Cooney are freshmen BJ Johnson and Ron Patterson?? I mean Ron put up 23 points and 11 assists at the king of kings the other night. Thats a rediculous stat line and BJ is 6'7 and could be better taking his man off the dribble in the halfcourt then Gbinije actually I hope he will be and is probablhy a better rebounder at guard then Cooney and Ennis by a longstretch as it has been said he jumps higher then Southerland.


3. It has been said that it takes time for players to get into the flow of games can we fit 4-5 guards without disrupting that???


One thing is for sure we won't be seeing Fair,Grant or Roberson at SG to much this year in games.
Although I bet practice would be awfully fun to watch and build alot of fans hopes up as players play other positions more. JB should really think about opening 4-5 practices a year for the fans. One for each quarter of the season or something.

I'm sure there's some good opinions in this post but I got confused a couple lines in. Are you suggesting perhaps our most inexperienced backcourt in 20+ years will also be our deepest? I guess that could be true based on the number of bodies available. I'd still have to go with 2011/12 and suggest that freshman MCW would have been a pretty good player had he had to play more minutes. And as you indicated yourself, we were so deep we red-shirted a 4 star recruit in Cooney. And as far as last year is concerned I'd say Cooney was just fine as the #3 guard based only on the fact that the team was somehow able to make it to the Final 4 with him as the #3 guard.

 

[orangefan13]

Yeah that is question 2. Question 2 really goes hand in hand with question 1.
I agree Mike did do some good things as a freshmen but never even came close to catching up with Scoop, Dion and Triche and being in the top three. Imo, he wasn't ready for that yet. And thats high props to Scoop, Dion and Triche.

BJ and Ron both could come close to catching up with Ennis Cooney and Gbinije group. It wouldn't surprise me if one maybe even both of them deservingly belong in the top 3 guard group. And I just can't see Gbinije or Cooney getting thrown out of that group as Gbinije is 3 years older and Cooney 2.

imo Cooney had nothing to do with making the final four. Maybe helped in the Gtown big east win but that is all he was never really a 3rd guard material. More of a 4th-5th guard who got hot 1-2 nights. That being said he has the potential to be a true second scoring option someday, maybe even first if he ever learns to pullup off the dribble like Gmac or Dion. But he will be benched if he tries that from three this year and misses I think. Where BJ and Ron are expected to pullup off the dribble. Patterson has a better sidestep pullup then any guard on this team although I think BJ is catching up. Ennis is more a straight line pullup guy like Scoop was,

 

[Shermthegeneral]

11-12 was the deepest ever IMO! MCW should have played more but with Dion, Scoop and Brandon there wasn't any room.

 

[cuseclappy]

did you confuse frontcourt with backcourt? everyone agrees we are stacked in the front court, see recent thread by Lawrinson about this. however i dont think anyone would say we are deep in the back court when not one person who will be starting there has ever started an NCAA game,

 

[Upstate]

Put me in the boat that Ennis is going to be the best Frosh PG SU has had in a long, long time.

 

[Shermthegeneral]

11-12 was the deepest ever IMO! MCW should have played more but with Dion, Scoop and Brandon there wasn't any room.

Actually, looking back, the 88-89 had a crazy back court of Douglas, Thompson, Roe, D Johnson, I would rank that above 11-12

 

[orangefan13]

Better doesn't have to mean the deepest though. That backcourt went 31/4 deep as long as its first 3 stayed healthy. This backcourt could go a solid 4 every game. Mike only played 269 minutes and 26 minutes in the last 13 games of the season. By comparison 03-04 Gmac, Edelin, Pace and Louie was deeper as Louie got more minutes and JB was looking for alittle bit of leadership out of him.

Thats exactly the point Scoop kept MCW off the court at PG and Dion and Triche were both good enough scorers to keep him off the court as a freestride guard. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 4th guard crack the rotation full time though.

5th year scoop > Freshmen Ennis (although hes good).
Soph Dion > Gbinije
Jr Triche >= this years Cooney

Fresh MCW >= Fresh BJ and Buss as they could be better scorers then freshmen Mike.
Fresh BJ and Buss >= freshmen Cooney.
5th guard this year if he plays will get more playing time then Cooney because he redshirted.

Depends how many minutes Ennis Gbinije and Cooney eat.

Not questioning how loaded our frontcourt is

 

[Shermthegeneral]

I have no idea how long you have been an SU fan but there have been a good 20-30 players that came in highly rated but never lived up to the hype. I'm not saying this group isn't going to be good but you are giving a group of untested players waaaaaay to much credit! A redshirt soph, transfer soph and a bunch of freshmen, wait, I'm actually nervous about our guards to be honest!

 

[pfister1]

I have no idea how long you have been an SU fan but there have been a good 20-30 players that came in highly rated but never lived up to the hype. I'm not saying this group isn't going to be good but you are giving a group of untested players waaaaaay to much credit! A redshirt soph, transfer soph and a bunch of freshmen, wait, I'm actually nervous about our guards to be honest!

What do you mean untested??? Patterson put up 23 points and 11 assists in the kIng of kIngs league the other night...untested my butt.

 

[orangefan13]

The point of the thread is can the 4th or/and 5th guards contribute to crack the rotation full time or average around 500 minutes on the season or better? Nothing more and nothing less!

Its about skillset not Hype. Thats why Dajuan is ahead of Xmas on the offensive end, and Devendorf was ahead of Paul Harris as a scoring guard, and why Triche played 33 minutes cutting down Cooney to only 11 instead of 18-20. Why MCW got less then 300 total minutes as a freshmen behind Triche,Scoop and Dion.

There are all kind of stats you can throw out there, like the best Triche did in the king of kings going into his senior season was something like 15points and 5-6 assists in a game. BJ Johnson had 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Ron Patterson had 23 more points and 11 assists in one king of kings game just to compare. Meanwhile Gbinije averaged something like 2 ppg and 2 rebounds/assists in 4 of his 5 games in Estonia. By that logic hype would have it Gbinije and Cooney would be the 4th and 5th guard in the rotation right now but that is about a 0% chance.

 

[SteveC]

The point of the thread is can the 4th or/and 5th guards contribute to crack the rotation full time or average around 500 minutes per game or better? Nothing more and nothing less!

That's a lot of minutes per game

 

[orangefan13]

lol er minutes on the season

 

[stuckinbig11]

I do not like that you put down Cooney.

 

[cap2nine]

Thets compare this teams backcourt to the 11-12 team.

Exhibit A)
11-12's backcourt had 5th year Senior Scoop, Jr Triche, Sophmore phenom Dion Waiters and freshmen MCW/redshirt Cooney behind them.

Sophmore MCW had trouble doing 3 things as a fresh and Sophmore.
1. He couldn't really beat his man off the dribble in the halfcourt well as a fresh,
2. He couldn't really shoot 3's to well,
3. He couldn't pullup for a layup midrange jumpshot well as a fresh(he didn't learn that to late in his sophmore year as you look at his half court soph scoring numbers inside the arc for 3/4 of last season).

There was no way redshirt Cooney was ready. He wasn't even ready to be a third guard last year let alone 2 years ago.

Exhibit B)
Scoop could do all 3 of those better then MCW as a PG. And had 4 years more experience passing the rock then freshmen MCW.


That leaves me with three big questions.
1. How far ahead of this years Cooney/Gbinije were Jr. Triche/Sophmore Dion?

2. How far ahead of freshmen Mike and reshirt Cooney are freshmen BJ Johnson and Ron Patterson?? I mean Ron put up 23 points and 11 assists at the king of kings the other night. Thats a rediculous stat line. BJ is 6'7 and could be better taking his man off the dribble in the halfcourt then Gbinije. Actually I hope he will be and is probably a better rebounder at guard then Cooney and Ennis by a longstretch, as it has been said he jumps higher then Southerland.


3. It has been said that it takes time for players to get into the flow of games can we fit 4-5 guards without disrupting that???


One thing is for sure we won't be seeing Fair,Grant or Roberson at SG to much this year in games.
Although I bet practice would be awfully fun to watch and build alot of fans hopes up as players play other positions more. JB should really think about opening 4-5 practices a year for the fans. One for each quarter of the season or something.

Projecting the depth of this year's backcourt makes a couple of wild assumptions and the comparison to the 11-12 squad is rather silly.

Your "Exhibit A" makes no sense really. With Cooney redshirted for 11-12 you can take him right out of the conversation. And MCW was a freshman on that team, not a freshman and/or a sophomore. Also, within the 11-12 season he averaged only 7.5 mpg in the conference games in which he actually played. He didn't play at all in 6 conference games nor a single second of the NCAA tourney that year so clearly MCW wasn't much, if any, of a factor. All this really means is that the appearance of depth is just an aberration and a safeguard against serious injury issues. 11-12 is the perfect example of that as most of us recognized that our bench 5 (MCW, Waiters, Southerland, Christmas and Keita) could have been top 25, possibly top 10, in their own right and still Jimmy pared down to 7 or 8 guys getting quality minutes. JB may fiddle with things a little in the non-con games this year but don't fool yourself into thinking that there will be a 4 or 5 man rotation at guard come conference games. Buss may get some garbage minutes, probably even less than what MCW got his frosh year, and the real minutes will come from Ennis out of necessity and Cooney and Gbinije out of seniority.

Your "Exhibit B" compares Scoop with MCW, neither of whom will be on our team this year making the exhibit quite irrelevant.

As for your three big questions, #1 is a good one. If I consider what my expectations were of Triche/Waiters prior to the 11-12 season I have to say that I will expect Cooney/Gbinije to outperform their predecessors from behind the arc and hold their own, statistically, on the defensive end while Triche/Waiters (largely Waiters) will have been better at attacking and getting to the rim.

#2, BJ won't be playing at guard so I'm not sure why you're including him in a backcourt discussion at all. And, a single KoKs game, impressive as it was, is a whole different animal and nothing to seriously base Patterson's freshman contributions on.

As for #3, and as I mentioned already, we (JB) will have a 3-man backcourt in crunch time and/or meaningful games.

So, steering away from your original question about depth at the guard position, the real comparison, if you're trying to make one, with 2011-12 is... were Scoop, Triche and Waiters a better rotation than Ennis, Mike G and Cooney will be? As excited as I am about our team this year and as anxious as I am to see how they perform, with a total of 548 minutes of college ball played between them, it will be hard to fill the shoes and meet the expectations of the 2011-12 guys. Not impossible, but hard.

 

[orangefan13]

Not to make a SWC-like post but heres 4 strong cases where we went 5 deep at guard for BE and NCAA play.

91-92 Moten, Autry, Hopkins, Edwards, and Johnson all played guard and played in 31 of their 32 games. (BET champs)
93-94 Moten, Autry Jackson, Sims Mcorkle all played Guard for 26 of 30 games (sweet 16)
99-00 Hart, Bland, Shumpert, Williams and and Griffin all played only guard in 30 of their 32 games (BE Champs loss to Mich state nat champs in sweet 16)
01-02 Williams, Duany, Theus, Pace and Shumpert all saw time at guard and played 32 of their 36 games.
If those are the years we went 5 deep for the enitre season, there is probaly double the amount we went 4 deep.

In recent years...
In 02-03 JB went with Pace at guard against Kansas our 4th guard down the stretch and Pace put up 12 points against Auburn and someone else and pulled down 7-8 rebounds a few times. melo played sf for 36 mpg.
In 03-04 Gerry Edelin Pace and McCrowsky all played at guard during conference play.
In 04-05 Had Edelin stuck around we could have went four guards deep.
In 05-06 Gerry, Devendorf, McCrowsky and Wright all played in 31 of their 35 games. All guards.
In 06-07 we went with Wright, Devendorf, Rautins and Harris was in many ways a 4th guard who rebounded well so he played forward. They all played 35 games.


You can make a strong case the reason we haven't gone 4 guards deep every game since 06-07 (or 08-09 depending how you look at it), was just coincidence and better guard play from our first 2-3 guards.


07-08 Devendorf and Rautins both went down during the season and Josh Wright Quit.

In 08-09 Flynn, Devendorf, Rautins all played guard Harris in many ways was a 4th guard but Flynn and Devendorf were needed for so many minutes that even Andy joined Harris at Forward for good minutes. Technically it was a 3 guard lineup all year in many ways with Andy spelling the 1,2 and 3 a rest. They all played 36 games.

09-10 Mookie as the 4th guard wasn't ready defensively, that was the main reason he didn't play. He also didn't have much a dribble game offensively and wasn't a combo guard like freshmen Triche.

10-11 Same thing with Mookie as the year before.

11-12 MCW only played in 26 of their 37 games because he wasn't ready to score at will which is a SG job, so he was more of a true point then combo guard.
Scoop was a better point and scorer shooting 38 percent from 3 and 47.5 from the field. Although you could make a case MCW was strong for limited minutes scoop was a 5th year senior and arguably the most important player on the floor. Scoop also toasted MCW's soph shooting numbers as a 5th year senior. Scoop, Triche and Dion were that good that MCW only played 26 games.

12-13 Cooney was our third Guard we didn't have a forth as Dion jumped and Gbinije had to sit.

.

 

[reedny]

#2, BJ won't be playing at guard so I'm not sure why you're including him in a backcourt discussion at all. And, a single KoKs game, impressive as it was, is a whole different animal and nothing to seriously base Patterson's freshman contributions on.

You sure about this?

 

[edowd26]

According to his father he will be a 2 and 3

#2, BJ won't be playing at guard so I'm not sure why you're including him in a backcourt discussion at all. And, a single KoKs game, impressive as it was, is a whole different animal and nothing to seriously base Patterson's freshman contributions on.

You sure about this?

 

[tee1222]

According to his father he will be a 2 and 3

Yeah, I agree and this is what the staff has communicated with BJ. I would expect him to play more 2 early on based on the loaded front court and possibly moving to more of a 3 role as he becomes an upperclassman. Also, that he's one of the youngest freshmen in the country, he might end up growing a little more and then obviously, end up a forward exclusively. I'm making an assumption though, but it's a sensible guess. Possibly.

 

[OGBJ20]

#2, BJ won't be playing at guard so I'm not sure why you're including him in a backcourt discussion at all. And, a single KoKs game, impressive as it was, is a whole different animal and nothing to seriously base Patterson's freshman contributions on.

You sure about this?

As the all of the coaching staff have stated to me, BJ will be playing the 2 and 3 so you can list him in the back court and the front court. So don't misquote me in your statements. I am in conversations with them on a regular basis and get current updates on his progress and situation.

 

[cuseincincy]

Just to play devils advocate, it is just as likely that SU has its shallowest backcourt in over 20 years also. We have a freshman PG who is very likely to be our best guard. After that we have a sophmore 2G who struggled mightily at the one skill he was suppose to excel at. After that we have a transfer swingman who may be more of a SF than a 2G. That may be OK because as many have said in the past the 2 & the 3 are very similar in SU's offense. At 6'7" though we're not sure what we'll get from a ballhandling perspective. Next is a freshman 2 guard that may be alittle under the radar but how ready to he is to contribute is a little unknown. Lastly we come to another freshman who many think primarily of as a SF. Also 6'7" he likely won't be a strong D1 ballhandler in the backcourt as a freshman. In fact the primary reasons he is being put in this discussion at all is based on inside info from his father that the staff sees him as a 2G contributor. And the fact that there is likley little time available at the SF position with Fair, Grant and Roberson all being very capable at that spot leads to the thinking that any contribution from him this year will be at the 2. Good genes, and a strong work ethic seem to be abundant in this player also. Hopefully all of the players are working as hard as BJ. We are fortunate to get so much info from his father on this board that most if not all of us are pulling for him to make more of an immediate impact than perhaps we should expect. Lots of options however does not necessarily lead to great depth. Ennis has more expectations on his shoulders than perhaps any freshman in SU history. That is almost as scary as it is exciting.

 

[OGBJ20]

Just to play devils advocate, it is just as likely that SU has its shallowest backcourt in over 20 years also. We have a freshman PG who is very likely to be our best guard. After that we have a sophmore 2G who struggled mightily at the one skill he was suppose to excel at. After that we have a transfer swingman who may be more of a SF than a 2G. That may be OK because as many have said in the past the 2 & the 3 are very similar in SU's offense. At 6'7" though we're not sure what we'll get from a ballhandling perspective. Next is a freshman 2 guard that may be alittle under the radar but how ready to he is to contribute is a little unknown. Lastly we come to another freshman who many think primarily of as a SF. Also 6'7" he likely won't be a strong D1 ballhandler in the backcourt as a freshman. In fact the primary reasons he is being put in this discussion at all is based on inside info from his father that the staff sees him as a 2G contributor. And the fact that there is likley little time available at the SF position with Fair, Grant and Roberson all being very capable at that spot leads to the thinking that any contribution from him this year will be at the 2. Good genes, and a strong work ethic seem to be abundant in this player also. Hopefully all of the players are working as hard as BJ. We are fortunate to get so much info from his father on this board that most if not all of us are pulling for him to make more of an immediate impact than perhaps we should expect. Lots of options however does not necessarily lead to great depth. Ennis has more expectations on his shoulders than perhaps any freshman in SU history. That is almost as scary as it is exciting.

As I am in conversations with the coaches regularly, it has been stated to me by all of them that they are very surprised with BJ's development and that they underestimated where he was after they started working out with him. He is a lot further along than they thought. G-MAC "its going to be hard to keep him off the floor because he can shoot the ball" . REDS "He is going to be a good one here" "He is a lot stronger than we thought, he is wirery strong." "WE see BJ as a 2-3 in our system and more 2 early on." "His handle is very good at this point. We will just continue to work on improving his game. He continues to shoot the ball well and his shot release is much quicker spotting up and off the bounce." DEVO "They gonna be ready" Just know this that BJ has strength and conditioning 6days a week with the trainer and is in the Gym w/wo coaches everyday working on his game. He will also return to school early before practices start to work out. For those who know BJ nuff said but for those who only know what has been stated in the last clips and statements over the last year, YOUR GOING TO BE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED OF THE 172/3yr old FRESHMAN!!! The young MAN can PLAY!!!

 

[cap2nine]

As the all of the coaching staff have stated to me, BJ will be playing the 2 and 3 so you can list him in the back court and the front court. So don't misquote me in your statements. I am in conversations with them on a regular basis and get current updates on his progress and situation.

I don't believe that you were misquoted since reedny was quoting me and I had quoted orangefan13's OP, unless you were referring to a different quote of course. And I'm not questioning BJ's ability or your close relationship with the coaching staff but it really becomes a math problem. There are 80 minutes of guard play per game. I think we can all agree that Ennis will be taking the vast majority of minutes at PG and I'll say, conservatively, 30 mpg. I see no reason that the sacrifices of Cooney's redshirt or G's transfer (or their talents) are going to be overlooked and since each of them have already played at least some college basketball I think 20 mpg each is a very fair estimate. This leaves, on average, 10 mpg and that number is likely to shrink as the season goes on and may be non-existent come ACC and NCAA tournament time. Will Buss get a few minutes from time to time this year? Yes, but I just doubt that many of those minutes will be in a close or important games. Is it possible that BJ will also get some scrap minutes at the 2? Sure it is, and again I'm not knocking your insight from conversations with the coaches, but I don't understand how he could usurp Cooney or Mike G or leap over a fellow freshman that was actually recruited to play the 2.

Does this all equal depth? I think that depends upon how you look at it. When looking back at the 2011-12 team, and specifically the backcourt, we had great depth because MCW and Waiters could have started for 95%+ teams in the country. This year we could make an argument that Cooney or G (whoever doesn't start) would likely be a starter on most other teams. But would Buss? Or would BJ start elsewhere at the 2? I’m just not comfortable assuming two incoming freshman constitute the same quality depth at guard as two guys that went on to be lottery picks. Perhaps I'm wrong and if so I’ll be delighted to eat my words.

 

[OGBJ20]

I don't believe that you were misquoted since reedny was quoting me and I had quoted orangefan13's OP, unless you were referring to a different quote of course. And I'm not questioning BJ's ability or your close relationship with the coaching staff but it really becomes a math problem. There are 80 minutes of guard play per game. I think we can all agree that Ennis will be taking the vast majority of minutes at PG and I'll say, conservatively, 30 mpg. I see no reason that the sacrifices of Cooney's redshirt or G's transfer (or their talents) are going to be overlooked and since each of them have already played at least some college basketball I think 20 mpg each is a very fair estimate. This leaves, on average, 10 mpg and that number is likely to shrink as the season goes on and may be non-existent come ACC and NCAA tournament time. Will Buss get a few minutes from time to time this year? Yes, but I just doubt that many of those minutes will be in a close or important games. Is it possible that BJ will also get some scrap minutes at the 2? Sure it is, and again I'm not knocking your insight from conversations with the coaches, but I don't understand how he could usurp Cooney or Mike G or leap over a fellow freshman that was actually recruited to play the 2.

Does this all equal depth? I think that depends upon how you look at it. When looking back at the 2011-12 team, and specifically the backcourt, we had great depth because MCW and Waiters could have started for 95%+ teams in the country. This year we could make an argument that Cooney or G (whoever doesn't start) would likely be a starter on most other teams. But would Buss? Or would BJ start elsewhere at the 2? I’m just not comfortable assuming two incoming freshman constitute the same quality depth at guard as two guys that went on to be lottery picks. Perhaps I'm wrong and if so I’ll be delighted to eat my words.

Your right on the misquote statement. But BJ will have a chance to earn minutes at 2-3 positions on the floor and I say pt. forward because of his ability to handle the rock and good decision making abilities. These are the positions that need to be filled with quality play and he is going to get a chance to make his mark as his has already started since day one of coming on campus and day one after the State Title game. It is going to be a competitive battle for playing time for all of them because of all of the talent on the team which could only improve the team. And for the record, BJ has and was recruited by SU to play 2-3 from the beginning and the more they saw him they playing the 2 more than the 3 became evident because of his skills. He was also recruited by ACC, BE, B10, A10 and other colleges to start at the 2 0r 3 or play meaningful minutes for them. He'll be ready.