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2024 Recruiting

Canedude08 said:
I don't disagree that 4 years with L would have made him a better player. The problem is that I think his ceiling was a lot lower than anyone truly anticipated. Quan's recruitment was one of the first times I realized that the recruiting services didn't know a **** thing about the game of basketball and they just went off of raw numbers, instead of actually understanding how things work. When I went and watched Quan's HS tape, it didn't take me long to realize "This dude can't shoot, nor dribble and if he's asked to do anything outside of dunk or be an athlete, it's not happening".

If you were to compare Quan's tape to say a Isaiah Wong, you would say "This Wong guy isn't nearly the athlete of Jones, he's an inferior player". But to anyone with actually basketball IQ, Wong's tape was more impressive. Zay is a hooper, he was the day he came to campus, dude understands the game, and developed through a ton of hard work. Zay is a gym rat, you can't teach that. Zay understands that basketball is a matchup and movement game, even when he was developing, you could see that he saw the game differently. That's a gift you just can't teach, and Quan never had it. I think Quan's ceiling as a player would have been a solid transition scorer, a nice explosive play guy, who could lock up multiple positions due to his athletic ability. However, when he first got here, people thought he was going to be a transformative superstar, and honestly, that wasn't him.
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I agree for the most part I just think it’s hard to know what could have been.

Wooga may end up a first round draft pick and I don’t think there’s anyone who would have predicted that his freshman year.

I just remember that Quan was a noticeably improved player towards the end of his first and only season under L… after being a mega disappointment under Haith.

I would argue that Zay wouldn’t have even been an all conference player, and likely wouldn’t have sniffed the NBA, under Haith…. work ethic is has to be paired with direction and guidance that develop the right skills and habits.

Look at Jordan Miller also… not close to an “NBA guy” when he transferred here.
 
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AmherstCane said:
I agree for the most part I just think it’s hard to know what could have been.

Wooga may end up a first round draft pick and I don’t think there’s anyone who would have predicted that his freshman year.

I just remember that Quan was a noticeably improved player towards the end of his first and only season under L… after being a mega disappointment under Haith.

I would argue that Zay wouldn’t have even been an all conference player, and likely wouldn’t have sniffed the NBA, under Haith…. work ethic is has to be paired with direction and guidance that develop the right skills and habits.

Look at Jordan Miller also… not close to an “NBA guy” when he transferred here.
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Yep. Zay, in his first major stretches of PT under Coach L, played out of control. Poor shot selection, etc. But Coach L was able to see the upside that he flashed and stuck with him. Other coaches might well have nailed him to the bench. In the end, L's faith in Zay paid off for both of them in a big way.

As for DeQuan, some players just never innately have, or develop, much of an outside shooting "touch." DeQuan, imo, was one of those players. He could run like a deer and jump out of the gym but you coulda brought in Buzzy Braman and Chip Engelland (the NBA Shot Doctors) to work with him and he was never gonna end up being a guy you hoped would take a 3 pointer. For a Guard, that's very limiting when outside shooting is so key.
 
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ALLoverCANE said:
You can't tell anything about a guy's outside shooting from highlights. Every guy is going to make a smooth-looking 3 or two. Long range shooting is about consistency. His shooting numbers that I've seen from 3 are pretty bad.

He may develop into a good outside shooter here. But we shouldn't expect him to contribute from outside the first year or two (or three).
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I can tell if he has the correct form and balance as a shooter. I can’t tell you how much touch he has but the fundamentals are his feet, elbow, release point, follow through, etc. Those fundamentals look good to me. If the fundamentals are in place then typically all the player needs is repetition.
 
hotshot said:
Yep. Zay, in his first major stretches of PT under Coach L, played out of control. Poor shot selection, etc. But Coach L was able to see the upside that he flashed and stuck with him. Other coaches might well have nailed him to the bench. In the end, L's faith in Zay paid off for both of them in a big way.

As for DeQuan, some players just never innately have, or develop, much of an outside shooting "touch." DeQuan, imo, was one of those players. He could run like a deer and jump out of the gym but you coulda brought in Buzzy Braman and Chip Engelland (the NBA Shot Doctors) to work with him and he was never gonna end up being a guy you hoped would take a 3 pointer. For a Guard, that's very limiting when outside shooting is so key.
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That’s totally fair but my memory (admittedly hazy) was that he had a not-horrible midrange jumper. His free throw % also suggests a lack of repetitions. Looking back at his stats it’s clear Haith pushed him into a starting role his sophomore year with no appreciable guidance or development and he was in a full on tailspin his junior year. My memory seems to correspond with the stats that L made him a serviceable bench player his senior year… though you’re right his 3p% was still woeful but it only looks like he had 8 attempts his entire senior year and made 2 of them.

Regardless it is SO amazing to know that we have a coach who develops players and puts them - and the team - in the best spot possible to succeed.
 
AmherstCane said:
That’s totally fair but my memory (admittedly hazy) was that he had a not-horrible midrange jumper. His free throw % also suggests a lack of repetitions. Looking back at his stats it’s clear Haith pushed him into a starting role his sophomore year with no appreciable guidance or development and he was in a full on tailspin his junior year. My memory seems to correspond with the stats that L made him a serviceable bench player his senior year… though you’re right his 3p% was still woeful but it only looks like he had 8 attempts his entire senior year and made 2 of them.

Regardless it is SO amazing to know that we have a coach who develops players and puts them - and the team - in the best spot possible to succeed.
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It feels like Coach L is the first coach we have had who truly develops players since….Coach Ham? is that possible considering all the years in between?
 
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AtlAtty said:
I can tell if he has the correct form and balance as a shooter. I can’t tell you how much touch he has but the fundamentals are his feet, elbow, release point, follow through, etc. Those fundamentals look good to me. If the fundamentals are in place then typically all the player needs is repetition.
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Nah, you can't really tell that. If a guy has inconsistent form, he's going to have some shots that look good, and others that don't. It's the nature of being inconsistent. If sometimes your elbow is flying open and other times it's not; you can cherry pick the times that it looks good for your highlights.

On the Adidas 3SSB circuit this summer, he shot 6/34 from 3. That's much more meaningful than a couple of highlights where he happened to look good shooting.

He could definitely develop. We've seen guys improve their shooting before. But it's unlikely he'll be a reliable shooter here early in his career.
 
CTCANE said:
What's the board view on Bethel? Will he choose Miami?
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jersey shore yeah buddy GIF
 
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