Is it me or does BMK have the worst hands ever

[Niastri]

Keita has never dropped multiple fast break dunks into the cheap seats.

Seriously, we rely on Keita now more than ever, but we worried about every bounce pass to Mr. Roberts. (Disclaimer, I liked the guy in person very much)

Terrance Roberts lost multiple games for us because he couldn't catch. On offense or defense, or on rebounding.

Mr. Keita has recovered many rebounds that Mr. Roberts would have missed through his career.

And I assure you, our guys feel safe throwing a pass to Keita that they wouldn't have dared throwing to Roberts.

Tonight Jones from WVU caught and converted on a pass that was outside the skill level of any of our guys for a long time. Probably since we celebrated in '03

Nobody in their right mind throws that to Keita, Roberts, Mookie Jones, or Fab Melo.

 

[suhoops4life]

Not making excuses for Baye, but I believe the wrist is still bothering him to some extent. Hard to catch some of the passes and hold onto rebounds while getting hacked when you have wrist issues.

In light of the current situation, BK being a dependable threat & thus the expectation to catch more passes is something relatively new. Definitely takes some getting used to. He was better today. In the post, more so than away from the basket, a player has to really want to present for & catch the ball. Getting hacked is routine. Increased confidencem will not hurt his cause.

 

[JohnCuse44]

Is this something that can be improved? Can someone with experience answer?

You would think 30 minutes a day of a team member repeateadly thowing him the ball as stong as he can in various postions would fix this pretty quick. Catching a ball is not a skill you are born with but something you learn. I remember football practices where the coach would line us up by the fence and dill the ball into us over and over again. If you can learn to catch a football you can learn to catch a basketball.

 

[suthrills]

Maybe. I remember everyone saying what a huge surprise he was with the quality of his play. Especially with the disappointing play of Fab last year. Nobody complained about his hands. Later in the year, he hurt his wrist, and he has not been quite the same since.

He didn't catch the ball well b/f the wrist injury but he played inspired basketball and was a pleasant surprise. He's regressed this year but the WV showed the promise of last year. Hopefully that continues b/c we certainly need him playing well as we face by far the most difficult part of the schedule.

 

[OttoMets]

Keita has never dropped multiple fast break dunks into the cheap seats.

Seriously, we rely on Keita now more than ever, but we worried about every bounce pass to Mr. Roberts. (Disclaimer, I liked the guy in person very much)

Terrance Roberts lost multiple games for us because he couldn't catch. On offense or defense, or on rebounding.

Mr. Keita has recovered many rebounds that Mr. Roberts would have missed through his career.

Roberts had horrible hands, but he still managed to average better than 7.5 rebounds a game his last two years. Keita couldn't approach that over 40 minutes.

Keita's hands are so much worse; there's no comparison. Roberts had a lot of difficulty catching the ball. It's shocking when Keita catches a pass or grabs a rebound in traffic. His four boards were cause for celebration yesterday (and were the difference in the game).

 

[sufandu]

It is between Baye and McNeil. I wanted to punch both in the neck

You beat me to it. McNeil was the first guy that popped into my head.

 

[baggerbob]

Guys get some more perspective Fab came from Brazil where at least they have a fairly good basis of basketball even though he started late. In BMK's case senegal has almost no basketball culture, he spent 2 years at oakhill. The first year came of the bench they had Tiny Gallon and other allstars no-one ever passed him the ball. The second year started at center with Rosco Smith and others on the team and they never passed him the ball. Basically Baye has 4 years of basketball experience where he plays defense and sets screens and now he has to get used to catching the ball. Catching the ball in practice and at game speed while moving and being pushed takes getting used to. Rony never started to catch the ball until his junior year when DC got here.

 

[orange03]

As I mentioned before, Keita makes Hot Hands Hanon look like Jerry Rice.

 

[All4SU]

Is this something that can be improved? Can someone with experience answer?

Hand Transplant...

 

[BlueCurtain]

Marathon runners don't need great hands to win races. In fact, they don't need hands in general. Seems like a great kid, hard worker... but if I didn't have high-def I'd be wondering if he was the first double-amputee to play in Div 1.

 

[kuethstheman]

Maybe. I remember everyone saying what a huge surprise he was with the quality of his play. Especially with the disappointing play of Fab last year. Nobody complained about his hands. Later in the year, he hurt his wrist, and he has not been quite the same since.

Actually, people did complain about his hands early last year.I thought maybe they were overreacting but it was mentioned several times. I remember sutomcat in particular.

 

[007]

The best thing about BMK is that he gives you every thing he has, every minute he is on the court. Having good "hands" is simply not one of his gifts. This has very little to do with working harder, poor technique, trying different drills, learning to "juggle." It is not likely to improve much at all over the course of his career.

Knowing this, he needs to try to rebound with two hands whenever possible. And, more importantly, the other players need to be much more aware of when they should or shouldn't be passing to him.

 

[All4SU]

I remember people around these parts being really tough on a young center named Danny Schayes early in his SU career. Folks were pretty tough on him and cackled every time he mishandled a pass. He turned out to be pretty good.