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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1338133, member: 289"] FORWARDS Chris McCullough 6-10 220 freshman- When McCullough first committed a couple of years ago there was a lot of excitement. People were saying that he was our best recruit since Carmelo Anthony and that he would be the #1 recruit in the country. You-tube highlights showed a smooth, tall kid who moved easily about the court and had a sweet-looking jump shot. Things waivered a bit in his senior year. He played for three different high schools, the last one down in Florida, far away from his home in the Bronx. There were complaints from some scouts that his shot selection was questionable and his “motor” was not always running. The first complaint is common for high school players and the second is common for big guys and talented players who can easily dominate at that level. But there could be adjustment problems now that he’s playing at the college level. His ratings dropped. He just missed being a MacDonald’s All-American, (they take the top 20 guys), but still projects as a star in college and major pro prospect. People looked at Chris as a possible one-and-doner. If he is, that’s good news because it means he had a big, (or at least good) freshman year. If he isn’t, we’ll get him back next year when he could be really great. He’s been a very productive player in the early games. In an exhibition against perennial Canadian champion Carleton he had 14 points, 6 rebounds. Against Division III Adrian, he had 13 points and 16 rebounds and a couple of blocks. The regular season started with a win over Kennesaw State and Chris had another double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds to go with 3 steals. Hampton proved much tougher but Chris got 13 points, 4 rebounds and 3 blocks. He’s clearly going to be a major cog in this year’s machinery. He also clearly needs to get much stronger. Adrian didn’t have any player taller than 6-5 but Chris went 2 for 11 from the field. He had trouble making lay-ups and for some reason seemed reluctant to dunk the ball. Hampton was the most physical team we have played and Chris got only 4 rebounds in 27 minutes. He does get to the line, attempting 32 free throws in those games. His jump shot has a very high trajectory. That’s good in that it makes it impossible to block, (especially since he’s 6-10 to begin with). A high trajectory also increases the apparent size of the basket as the ball isn’t approaching it from a severe angle. But I remember Arinze Onuaku’s free throws. He was the worst free throw shooter we’ve ever had and he attempted to solve his problem by throwing the ball up as high as he could. It would come down with such violent force, (I compared it to the comet that killed the dinosaurs to much laughter), that if it wasn’t dead on, it would bounce off the rim and far from the basket. I’ve always heard that the idea on a shot was to just get the ball over the rim. So far Chris, (a very different player from AO), has made his only three pointer and 21 for 32 from the line, (a percentage AO could only dream of) and that includes a 9 for 9 game. A combination of difficulty finishing inside and problems with his jump shot could be problematic but it’s too early to draw conclusions. [I]Comments: In his first 8 games, Chris averaged 14.4 points on 45/79 shooting, (.570) and 8.8 rebounds in the first 8 games. Then he really struggled in his next 8 games, averaging 4.3 points on 9 for 34 shooting (.265) and 5.6 rebounds. There were no next eight games. He struggled from the line (.563), as those high arching shots clanged out too often. Now he’s going to be coming back from an ACL injury. His time-table will be just right for him to be physically ready at the beginning of next year. The next question would be how far his game has advanced. It’s like those Rob Lowe commercials. There’s the 14.4/8.8 Chris McCullough and the 4.3/5.6 Chris McCullough . Which will we have? [/I] Tyler Roberson 6-8 212 sophomore- A lot of people expected big things from Tyler last year. They got small things. JB said he just wasn’t “ready to help us”. He was tentative in everything he did, seemingly afraid of making a mistake and he didn’t seem able to learn the offensive or defensive schemes. He was supposed to be a strong inside player who could also shoot the ball. He was neither. With Jerami Grant leaving early, Roberson suddenly became an important guy. I felt that it might do him good to play extensive minutes without having to worry about being yanked from the game. In the first four games he’s had 28 points and 21 rebounds in 87 minutes. He’s shot the ball aggressively but not well: 12 for 33 (36.4%, but that’s up from 29.8% last year). He may or may not be “ready to help us” but we need him anyway. [I]Comments: Tyler did improve with more playing time and he was coming on strong at the very end of the season. In his last seven games T-Rob II averaged 12 points and 8 rebounds a game, including 35 points and 19 rebounds in two games against mighty Duke. The big thing missing from his game is that jump shot that’s always open for him from 10-12 feet away. He still hesitates to shoot it and almost always misses it. He either needs to find a way to make that shot, (suggestion: don’t think about it), or he needs to abandon it for moves to the hoop, which he’s pretty good at. He’s also a surprisingly good passer, so that’s another option. [/I] B. J. Johnson 6-7 185 sophomore- This was the guy I was really excited about a year ago. He seemed like a firecracker in his You-Tube clips, a guy who could win a dunk contest or a three point shooting contest. But he, too, wasn’t “ready to help us”. With Roberson and Patterson, people called this trio “My Three Sons”, a play on their last names and on the old TV series where Fred MacMurray would give his sons fatherly advice: all three had some maturing to do. BJ was the youngest player on the team, (born 12/21/1995: the season John Wallace led us to the national championship game). He was skinny and shot only 25%, including 2 for 16 from three point range. He did show one flash of what he could do in a pre-season game in Canada when he scored 20 points. He’s going to explode someday. The only question is: how long is the fuse? [I]Comments: It’s a very long fuse. BJ was pressed into service for 366 minutes after 55 last year but he kept missing shots, shooting 31% from the field and 26% from the arc. His shots often seemed be long and to the right, so perhaps and adjustment can be made. He also needs to adjust his body, getting strong enough so he can do some business in the paint. But a bigger adjustment may be on the way. There are rumors that BJ may be transferring to another school. His name gets mentioned in this regard more than any other player. [/I] [/QUOTE]

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