Jesse Edwards is SO @#$& good

[RF2044]

I get that he was behind, totally understand that. But he got 23 minutes in that game vs. Miami in mid-January and scored 7 with 6 boards. Then he didn't see meaningful minutes again for 5 weeks, where he had back-to-back 8 rebound games. I found it all immensely frustrating, knowing that the team was desperate to play a real center, and we had one planted on the bench for 2 months who contributed meaningfully in the rare instances he got PT.

"He wasn't ready."

 

[MDCuse]

And he's just starting to get comfortable and scratch the surface of his capabilities. Wow.

It's a shame he wasn't ready to see the floor last year

 

[TexanMark]

But he's just scratching the surface. Can still get stronger, can still improve his defensive positioning, needs to avoid foul trouble.

But this kid has better upside than anyone we've had in a LONG time.

Agreed...he didn't have the AAU pedigree and was way behind as a Frosh. He looked brutally inept at first but he started to have a couple flashes later his first year. The second year was more block building but frustrating to watch some inconsistent play.

I think the game has slowed down for him this season. I assume the language barrier is almost nonexistent now. If he continues to improve, get stronger and work on rebounding and court savvy he could be a NBA player...I love he shoots FTs in the 70s now...a hidden weapon there.

I'd love to see him add 10lbs of good weight by next year. We will need it if Buddy leaves.

 

[Orangezoo]

Jesse's finishing on top of all the other good things he does is the really incredible thing. As noted we need to feed the big man. He is starting to show that confidence he can get a bucket on anyone we saw with Senior year Rak. Needs to be stronger but his touch on that half hook from 8 ft is a weapon vs beefier bigs. The more he develops he should get more respect from the refs too. He had 3 fouls last night but called for 5. IU's big star had 7 called for 3.

 

[721Comstock]

Execution was terrible, but I want him to keep looking for the opportunity to throw over the top to Edwards. The concept is good.

AND Jesse has shown he can finish when the pass is on target.

Jesse high-points those passes better than any WR on our football team.
Maybe we can loan him to Dino for a few months next Sept-Nov?

 

[RF2044]

Scoring, check.

Shot blocking, check.

Comfortable out there now, check.

Really needs to improve his rebounding. If he does, he's a pro.

 

[stlorange]

I especially like the way Jesse uses the backboard on many of his shots.

 

[721Comstock]

Scoring, check.

Shot blocking, check.

Comfortable out there now, check.

Really needs to improve his rebounding. If he does, he's a pro.

Fab averaged a hair under 8, 6, & 3 in a little over 25 mins/game as BE DPOY.

Jesse is currently much better on O, similar boards, roughly similar blocks.

Would love to see him rebound better, but given he's still soooo damn skinny, that may be difficult, vs. some of the beasts he's going to be matched up against.

Cool stats:
Jesse already has more total points and blocks this season, than his prior 2 years combined.
And he's got 19 swats in 7 games to date, many against solid talent not cupcakes.
He's had from 1-4 blocks each game, with 3 being the most common #.
He's also had 1 assist in every game but 1.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I wouldn't say that we stumbled into him as a starter last year, Scooch. It is easy to forget now, but he was stuck in the Netherlands due to Covid and didn't work out with his teammates over the summer. By the time he got to the States, he was way behind. Then we had quarantines and practice suspensions. The plan was to redshirt him and both he and his parents were on board. They knew he needed the time to develop. It is true that he would not have played had Bourama been healthy, but it's also true that he is light years better now than he was last year. Last year he showed flashes but was still very raw. He has made a huge leap in the off-season.

While I understand the scenario you described was the plan, there are two parts to it that make absolutely no sense to me.

1, all players were given a bonus Covid year. Why did the idea of redshirting necessitate in that circumstance that Edwards not see the floor, especially given

2, when Sidibe went down, it was immediately clear we had needs for good minutes from the 5, to the extent that JB even experimented with Ajak and Frankie early on. Why didn't we try early on to go the "in case of emergency break glass" route and get Edwards going? At that point, he had shown a whole lot more than those guys.

I don't buy that coming from the Netherlands he was so out of shape and conditioning was so bad that he wouldn't have given us more than Ajak did.

Here's how I explain it - Buddy's Covid games made JB extremely uncomfortable. It forced him to start Kadary, which he wasn't comfortable with to begin with. He absolutely wasn't going to go all chips in on an actual center solution that was unknown when he could default to Marek.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Fab averaged a hair under 8, 6, & 3 in a little over 25 mins/game as BE DPOY.

Jesse is currently much better on O, similar boards, roughly similar blocks.

Would love to see him rebound better, but given he's still soooo damn skinny, that may be difficult, vs. some of the beasts he's going to be matched up against.

Cool stats:
Jesse already has more total points and blocks this season, than his prior 2 years combined.
And he's got 19 swats in 7 games to date, many against solid talent not cupcakes.
He's had from 1-4 blocks each game, with 3 being the most common #.
He's also had 1 assist in every game but 1.

Fab was on a team with better rebounders.

I get the comparison you're making though. I think it's a situation where we need Jesse to be a stronger rebounder to a much greater degree than the Fab team ever needed him to be.

 

[CardiacCuse]

I'm bullish on Jesse and think he should be more integral to the offense.

His defense is improved.

But there are still big areas of his game where he could improve.

The star for Indiana had like 8 sportscenter dunks on him last game...and once again the opponent scored triple digits. part of that is definitely scheme-related but not all of it. he's the anchor of the defense...its not nearly all on him ...but he can be better.

he needs to move his feet quicker

sometime his reactions are just so slow.

he needs to develop some kind of inner bulldog out there and be more aggressive on rebounds and defendig the rim...i guess he is also not trying to foul but sometimes he is way too passive.

its a fine line but he needs to learn to skate it better

 

[RF2044]

I'm bullish on Jesse and think he should be more integral to the offense.

His defense is improved.

But there are still big areas of his game where he could improve.

The star for Indiana had like 8 sportscenter dunks on him last game...and once again the opponent scored triple digits. part of that is definitely scheme-related but not all of it. he's the anchor of the defense...its not nearly all on him ...but he can be better.

he needs to move his feet quicker

sometime his reactions are just so slow.

he needs to develop some kind of inner bulldog out there and be more aggressive on rebounds and defendig the rim...i guess he is also not trying to foul but sometimes he is way too passive.

its a fine line but he needs to learn to skate it better

Agree with all that, but clearly some of the problem was that Jesse was trying to avoid picking up falls at the end, when he was in fall trouble. Which enabled the Indiana big man to attack.

So, in addition to rebounding, we need to add doing a better job of staying at a fall trouble, and avoiding picking up those silly over the back falls that inhibit him being on the floor as to do's.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I don’t understand your point here. Jesse had the best assist of the game I saw last night, hitting Jimmy in the corner.

And he didn’t miss any of the shots he took. So what passes should he have made?

He should pass: if doubled; if he wants to reset deeper; if he doesn’t have a shot he likes; easier or better shot available for teammates.

 

[pwong]

Doesn’t Jesse want to become a doctor or something? Wonder if he utilizes his 5th year down the road.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

"He wasn't ready."

Coach’s track record of player development is unparalleled. Our recent history of guys having good games, but not being ready and being force fed minutes, has some disastrous outcomes.
I’ll take the Jesse of now, and to come, over what might have been.
The biggest issue is whether Frank moves on, being behind Jesse, or if Jesse can move over and play some PF, which I believe he can.

 

[RF2044]

Coach’s track record of player development is unparalleled. Our recent history of guys having good games, but not being ready and being force fed minutes, has some disastrous outcomes.
I’ll take the Jesse of now, and to come, over what might have been.
The biggest issue is whether Frank moves on, being behind Jesse, or if Jesse can move over and play some PF, which I believe he can.

I don't think that the highlighted statement is true, at all.

And it certainly has not been true of the past several years.

 

[RoatanCuse]

Doesn't Allen Griffin coach our centers? I think Red coaches the forwards.

Yup. Sorry….my error.

 

[0.2 YNdeeR]

I mean, he's shooting 82% from the field. Him holding onto it generally works out in our favor.

I don’t understand your point here. Jesse had the best assist of the game I saw last night, hitting Jimmy in the corner.

And he didn’t miss any of the shots he took. So what passes should he have made?

Agree with both of you that he's playing very well. This wasn't as much of a criticism as something to improve - along with rebounding - now that he's more comfortable on the court. Yes he had one assist, and sometimes dimes cutters. But as he progresses I'm hoping for more of a back and forth between him and the strong-side perimeter guys. He's a threat to score inside, so as they get better at feeding him he should leverage the threat against the defense. If they stay on shooters make a move and score. If they double, kick it out. It's an ideal tactic for this lineup (shooters and a big).

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Agree with both of you that he's playing very well. This wasn't as much of a criticism as something to improve - along with rebounding - now that he's more comfortable on the court. Yes he had one assist, and sometimes he hits cutters. But there needs to be much more of a back and forth between him and the strong-side perimeter guys. Since he's a threat to score inside, he needs to leverage that against the defense. If they stay on shooters make a move and score. If they double, kick it out. They do this in the pros and it's perfect for this lineup (shooters and a big).

In other games where he faces more than one guy and has a couple misses, I completely agree. The shooters will realize that when they do this, they'll likely end up with a much cleaner second look as well. But the guards and forwards need to make the first pass to Jesse, which as we see now is very rare.

I find it odd that the forwards don't pass to Jesse often. You typically see SU teams where the bigs feed each other really well. Many guards don't really understand how to make that entry pass so that the big not only gets the ball, but gets it exactly where they want it and where they can do the most damage. But our forwards are usually better at this. Maybe because they are both new to the team and aren't familiar with Jesse as much yet.

 

[shandeezy7]

I think this may have been mentioned earlier in the thread, but it's worth repeating:

Total points scored in 19/20 and 20/21 combined: 84
Total points scored in 7 games in 21/22: 88

 

[OrangeFoo]

Don't slap me, but he has the potential to be the best big man we've had since world famous house producer, DJ Rony

Rak, AO, Fab would all like a word w you

 

[orangefog]

Rak, AO, Fab would all like a word w you

And Etan would like a word with both of you.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I don't think that the highlighted statement is true, at all.

And it certainly has not been true of the past several years.

Think of all the lower recruits who became stars and pros. Moten, Warrick, Rautins, Douglas, Lydon, Grant, Boeheim, etc., Look at Jesse and Frank. Huge improvement. Our guys who put in work almost always get better.
One UNC player/announcer (might have been Hubert Davis) even commented one time about the year 1 to year 2 jumps SU players make.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

And Etan would like a word with both of you.

Yeah.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Yeah.

I think Jesse will hold his own with those guys, 3 years from now