I only have horses, no gazelles, so I will leave the analysis of his performance to others.He's definitely a gazelle — not a horse! — and human highlight reel in open court, so hopefully Dave can find a good way to exploit those skills in our 3-man-weave offense.
One thing I would caution all of our fans is it's it's tough if not damn near impossible to gauge his halfcourt game without knowing the level of competition he faces up there in curling/hockey country. I thought Javon was going to come in and average 20 points a game after seeing him score 57 points in a high school game (many of his points impressively came on drives through traffic), but the level of defense is no much better at the DI level.
Oh, and for those caught up in star ratings, 2 stars in the U.S. equates to 2.6 stars with the current Canadian exchange rate.
I had very similar thoughts. I have no idea how competative Canada basketball is, but he sure looks the part on tape. I understand I am judging him off 2 minutes of highlights. But I never saw him go Left. Maybe he has the ability, but it appears from a 2 minute highlight tape that he prefers to go right. So he might have to work on that. Easier said than done too.As someone who thought JD-S would tear it up this year and Hartwell would be a project, you should really be interested in my thoughts, so here you go:
The positives:
The Height - if he plays anywhere between the 1 and 3, he will have the height advantage. After seeing a few of our three point attempts get blocked vs St Bonaventure, we won't have to worry about that with him.
The Handles - he can obviously handle the ball pretty well for someone 6'7". He drives well too which is important in our offense.
Coaching - not a dig at the coaches up in Canada, but when you land someone like Oduro who is playing at Paul VI, you know that he is getting coached up well and doing things the right way. I just think Haidara is going to be a little more raw, which to me means more room to grow and get better. I think our staff does a good job of developing our guys - and Daddy is going to be like a nice new mound of clay ready to be molded.
Oh Canada - really like that the staff is going a little off the beaten path to find guys.
Quality Kid - from what I've been told, he's another high quality kid and that's something that's important to our staff. I don't mind an occasional knucklehead if they can play, but given the choice, I'll take the high quality kid every time.
The negatives:
The Competition - Not really sure the quality he's played against. In some of the videos it did not look strong. He also played on the AAU circuit, so I gotta think one way or the other he's played against some DI level guys.
The Offers - The only one I've seen was Maine. I don't question our staff's ability to get him to be a A10 caliber player, but here we are again with a kid that nobody else was very interested in. Could it be because he hasn't been seen by many? Maybe. But coaches are going to find talent. Did we get lucky finding him or is there a reason?
The Frame - Another pretty thin kid. He can put on some muscle and get bigger, but his frame doesn't look like it can hold a whole lot more. If he plays guard for us it won't matter as much, but if he's going to mix it up and play a point forward spot some, he will have to get thicker.
Out of Scholarships - Not a knock on him at all, but unless someone else is leaving, we are done for 2019. Since most agree we really need a down low forward type asap, we are not getting him anytime soon - again, unless someone else is leaving.
As someone who thought JD-S would tear it up this year and Hartwell would be a project, you should really be interested in my thoughts, so here you go:
The positives:
The Height - if he plays anywhere between the 1 and 3, he will have the height advantage. After seeing a few of our three point attempts get blocked vs St Bonaventure, we won't have to worry about that with him.
The Handles - he can obviously handle the ball pretty well for someone 6'7". He drives well too which is important in our offense.
Coaching - not a dig at the coaches up in Canada, but when you land someone like Oduro who is playing at Paul VI, you know that he is getting coached up well and doing things the right way. I just think Haidara is going to be a little more raw, which to me means more room to grow and get better. I think our staff does a good job of developing our guys - and Daddy is going to be like a nice new mound of clay ready to be molded.
Oh Canada - really like that the staff is going a little off the beaten path to find guys.
Quality Kid - from what I've been told, he's another high quality kid and that's something that's important to our staff. I don't mind an occasional knucklehead if they can play, but given the choice, I'll take the high quality kid every time.
The negatives:
The Competition - Not really sure the quality he's played against. In some of the videos it did not look strong. He also played on the AAU circuit, so I gotta think one way or the other he's played against some DI level guys.
The Offers - The only one I've seen was Maine. I don't question our staff's ability to get him to be a A10 caliber player, but here we are again with a kid that nobody else was very interested in. Could it be because he hasn't been seen by many? Maybe. But coaches are going to find talent. Did we get lucky finding him or is there a reason? I’m hoping we can get lucky and land a special A10 player - is he the one?
The Frame - Another pretty thin kid. He can put on some muscle and get bigger, but his frame doesn't look like it can hold a whole lot more. If he plays guard for us it won't matter as much, but if he's going to mix it up and play a point forward spot some, he will have to get thicker.
Out of Scholarships - Not a knock on him at all, but unless someone else is leaving, we are done for 2019. Since most agree we really need a down low forward type asap, we are not getting him anytime soon - again, unless someone else is leaving.
Abram 2.0?
Aren't they all tweeters these days?This kid looks more like a true wing. Abram was more of a tweeter, like Mar.
Aren't they all tweeters these days?
I hope fans will sing to him like we did for Jessefirst Canadian recruit since Jesse Young!
WOW, I know its Canada but to be the #12 player in any modern industrialized country is not bad ...... except maybe Vatican City. Although Cardinal Vito Latucci does have some game. He scored a game high 8 points in the famous Priests vs. Seminarians epic battle of 2016.If you look at the rankings of the top Canadian players (I've seen him listed #12), many of the top guys are going to Power 5 schools - so there is a lot of talent in Canada. I just don't know what the talent is like in his specific area.