Spent Saturday over at the first Nike AAU stop of the year in Brooklyn. There were a lot of players that the reigning National Champion Villanova Wildcats were looking at. Jay, Baker, and Ashley Howard were all there. Jay left for while in the morning, to head over to the Financial District to watch Trevon Duval play. Let’s dive in.
Team Final, is loaded with talent. I watched them play twice, as did our entire staff, Boeheim, Larry Brown, Pat Chambers & staff, and Phil Martelli among many others. Their roster is loaded with guys that everyone wants.
Lonnie Walker: I keep hearing on the board how great he is, well here is another superlative report. He is going to be great. Can shoot it from deep at a very high level, finish at the rim with amazing acrobatics and through contact. He has excellent athleticism, I swear his head was getting up to the rim on dunks. Has a much better handle than I expected, he is absolutely a combo guard that can shoulder part of the ball handling load. Overall I went in with high expectations, and those were exceeded. I want him to be a Cat so badly.
Daron Russell: The 5’10” point guard of the team. There has been plenty of freaking out among the fan base about where our next point guard is coming from. It won’t be Russell. He is a solid player, high motor and plays very hard. Shots weren’t falling but his mechanics looked good. Decision making was very spotty, turned the ball over way too much. Even if he cleans up the decision making and shooting I don’t think Villanova should be interested, he’s just a notch below. That said Penn State and St. Joes should be all over this kid.
Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree: Another name that has been coming up a lot. He is listed at 6’8” and that seems about right, he also appeared to have a wingspan somewhere in the 6’10” to 7’ range which I really like to see. DCR isn’t an uber prospect like Walker or some of the others. At this stage is a worker bee type of player who defends, rebounds, and scores mostly on put backs. He is pretty athletic, moves his feet well, runs the floor well and can dunk without any difficulty (no getting blocked by the rim!). Amile Jefferson is the comparable in both body type and game. In short, I want this kid, may not be much of a contributor freshman year, but would be a solid BE big by the second half of his career. Fairly sure I sat next to his father for one of the games, he appears to have raised a solid young man.
Cam Reddish: Playing up a year, he is a 2018 kid. Wow, he is going to play in the NBA someday. He is a legit 6’7” wing player. Really good handle for someone that size, his 3pt shot has perfect mechanics and seems always to go in. Can fight under the rim for rebounds and put backs. Plenty athletic and plays defense well. Not sure he realizes just how good he is yet, seemed to be deferring to his teammates some which made me wonder if this was his first year playing up a level.
Team Takeover
Chris Lykes: Probably the most divisive prospect on the vusports board. Here’s my 2 cents… I just don’t see it (you may now crucify me below). In the glorified street ball that is AAU basketball he should be able to shine offensively and not be a liability on defense (because nobody actually runs offense). Is he quick? Absolutely, but I didn’t see the ability to use it in half court offense. His points mostly came in transition or from 3pt shots (some good shots some bad, he finished 2-6 from 3pt). Didn’t see a floater or mid-range game, didn’t see him finish in the trees in half-court offense. I wonder if people want him to be Tyler Ulis. As far as direct comparisons.... Ulis is 5'9" with a 6'1" wingspan, while Lykes is 5'6" with a 5'9" wingspan. I consider that to be a real significant difference. The other comparison is Maurice Watson of Creighton, but he is 5'10" with a wingspan probably just over six foot as well. Watching him play is at times spectacular, you don't expect someone his size to be able to do what does, I certainly was hooked watching. But I think the AAU game is made for him, and just don't think his game translates to the next level. Namely because they actually play defense in college, and transition is harder to come by. I may be dead wrong, and I really hope the kid has a great career, but I think the bust potential will be way too high, I hope he is successful somewhere else.
DJ Harvey: Way over ranked by the various services, he is not a super star. That said he is far from a bum either. Harvey plays within the flow of the game, and in AAU that is essentially a passive player because everybody is trying to get theirs. I think he is hurt by the lack of structured offense at the AAU level. In a real college offense I think he would really do well. He is an athletic (but not the quickest 1st step) wing, that can shoot it from deep and finish at the rim. Just looking at him you think he has a perfect basketball body for a wing player. I think his stock will take a hit this summer but I still like him, and would take him on the Cats.
The PSA Cardinals were the deepest and best coached team that I saw. Not surprisingly their game against a very good California team was the only one nationally televised, and there were a decade’s worth of national championship rings watching the game.
Mohamed Bamba: I was excited to see this mega prospect, that many think is the #1 overall player in the class. What the #1 player actually means here I think is interesting however. Bamba to me is a clear one & done, and likely to go top 5 in the NBA draft. But his offensive game at this point is still raw. He may end up the #1 player in the class, but he isn’t walking in and winning you a national title by himself. Defense and rebounding are already at an elite level, he has clearly been coached well, he has great hands, great footwork, he was playing against two other elite bigs in the game and he handled them well. He is already a very disciplined defender, who does not foul, stays vertical and uses his insane length to alter or block shots. He could be one of the best rebounders in the country day 1 his freshman year. He can run the floor like a 6’10” gazelle, which is something to see in itself. I couldn’t begin to estimate his condor wingspan. Offensively his game is limited to dunks and put backs. He has a ways to go but I think he will definitely get there, he is just too athletic, too coordinated, too smooth not to. Would I take him? Of course, he is the kind of 1 & done that you actually want, just calibrate expectations accordingly.
Quade Green: Best player I saw all day, not sure it was particularly close. When I say best player I don’t mean NBA prospect, I mean who played better than anybody else that day. Quade can do it all. Sweet 3pt shot? Check. Midrange step-back? Check. Acrobatic finish at the rim in traffic? Check. And I think sometimes he created different shots for himself just to show that he could do it all, and he was dropping dimes at a ridiculous rate (he now has 31 through 3 games), some of them truly spectacular, and he didn’t turn the ball over much. His game reminded me a lot of Quinn Cook (except he doesn’t constantly whine at the refs like Cook did in high school). Probably will never be a pro prospect but I think will go down as one of those truly great college players. Him and Lonnie Walker I want far more than anybody else I saw.
Brandon Randolph: Listed at 6’6” but that seems like a little bit of an exaggeration to me. The PSA team is loaded, so I’m not sure he had as much opportunity to shine, but I was watching him since we are interested. I liked what I saw a lot. Very good athlete, very quick, can finish at the rim, high energy. Didn’t get to see his outside shot. Probably not a guy that comes in day 1 and lights the world on fire, but I think he can be yet another Jay Wright wing that progresses annually and is eventually a hell of a player.
OTHERS
Hameir Wright / Jermain Samules: Went to the bar for an hour, missed them. I believe the staff watched both however.
Kevin Knox: He is a legit 6’8” wing player with one hell of a body, elite. Very athletic, but not the fastest first step you’ve ever seen. Couldn’t get anything to fall from the outside but the shot looks good. The exciting part about him is that he isn’t a string bean, he already has a college body that can play inside or outside just as well. He can rebound, he can guard anywhere on the court. I like Lonnie Walker a bit better but Knox is going to be a very good player.
Jordan Tucker: See plenty of potential there, not as good as some of the other guys I saw, slower 1st step, but a big frame mature body. I liked his teammate Hamaidou Diallo a lot, no idea if we are involved with him. A little smaller wing / guard but quick, with great athleticism. Diallo is a really similar player to Brandon Randolph I thought, but better.
Chris Duarte: Not a player we are recruiting to my knowledge but he seemed so similar to Hilliard in both body type and demeanor. Very long wingspan player, who is versatile. Couldn’t get anything to go in to save his life, but I couldn’t help but think this is exactly the type of lesser ranked player that Jay has developed into a beast over time. I expect to see him playing really well for somebody else in 3-4 years and say, oh yeah I remember that kid.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- Jay had the biggest smile on his face the entire day, he was just beaming.
- Jay and Calipari get along really well, you can tell they like each other. They sat next to each other for a long stretch, not sure they watched any of the game, and every time I looked over they were laughing out loud. Seriously, they didn’t stop laughing.
- Jay also spent a bunch of time talking, laughing, hanging out with Mark Turgeon.
- Tubby Smith is one of the most liked and respected guys in basketball. It seemed like every coach went over to congratulate him on the Memphis job.
