Thursday, October 5, 2017

Who are our big upside players?

Who may have a breakout year? Ordinarily newcomers would be excluded from this type of discussion since they have nothing on the books from which they can break out, but since we have so few returning players, I will throw them in. Here they are, in no particular order.

Andre Jones. He got plenty of minutes last year, for a freshman. He certainly has the athletic ability. His problem last season was that his shooting was not good. He does not have to be a big 3-point shooter to be an impact player, but he does have to understand his role and stay in it. The natural ability is there.

Oliver Black. This guy passes the eye test big time. He is an impressive-looking specimen. Last year he did OK when he shot (55%), but he did not shoot much. This year we are going to need him to shoot more and to be more dominant on the boards.

I am not including Deondre Burns, since his breaking already came late last year.

Jaizec Lottie. You get the impression the staff thinks this kid could be special. We do not know much about him, and he could be a year or two off, but who knows?

Camron Reedus. 19.6 points/game and 39.7% from the arc last season in juco. If he is even close to that this year, that will do nicely.

Damir Hadzic. It is possible he could be ahead of the curve for freshmen, since his dad is a coach and he has played internationally in Europe.

K. J. Gilmore. He appears to be a sort of all-round player who does a little of everything. Sometimes those kinds of guys find their niche in D1.

Ben Marcus. He only played 191 minutes last season, but he shot 57% from the floor. Small sample, but it might indicate something interesting.

Or maybe one of the others. We don't know much about Cezanne Carson and Khari Harley, but they could turn out to be players. Mompremier probably is strictly a role player, but he might play that role better here than he has in the past.

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