NCAA tourny prospect thread

[UGA Hayes]

Thought it might be good to keep a single thread on the performance of prospects throughout the tourny. Sort of dissapointed the way the brackets broke down as it seems some of the prospects are pretty spread out. Most interesting games to me are Oak v Tex and Lou vs Morehead St. Vandy vs Richmond. Super dissapointed that Uconn and BYU aren't going up against NBA caliber players early. Ariz Tex in the second round would be interesting though would be the winner of UGA Wash against NC. Otherwise prospects wouldn't meet until second round of tourny in most cases.

[Jazzfan12]

Alec Burks didn't make the tourney either which is super lame.

[UGA Hayes]

Watching Vucevic on USC vs VCU for the first time and I'm fairly impressed. Has good mobility size and is a solid athlete. Looks to be a fairly good rebounder and has solid hands and skills. Not a world beater but to my eye he looks to have some first round talent in him. Despite being a junior he is a young 20 (born in October). He is currently ranked 48 by draftexpress but I would take quite a bit higher than that.

[teamjosh04]

Vucevic is on his way up draft boards. Id rank him as a early second round, but he could hear his name called earlier with the lack of centers on the board that can get it done in the halfcourt.

He has great size, might be even bigger than 6-10, and the wingspan that goes along with it. His size has made him a good college rebounder, but I dont see that as a big strength in the NBA. He cant rebound much outside of his area and his hands are a little shaky. Not much of an athlete either, I can see him being a average rebounder and defender but not much more.

His real strength is on offense, where he can work in the post and float out and shoot a jumper. He's a natural in the post, showing great footwork and moves. He makes it look easy. He has good strength and constantly battles for post position down low. Tough and competitive. He sees a lot of double teams and has proven to be a good passer out of them. Gets frustrated at times because of terrible guard play, he works so hard for position and his guards choose to chuck up shots instead. Still shows maturity in making the right decision whenever he has the ball.

I see some Mehmet Okur in his game. Better back to the basket player and less of a shooter. Similar capabilities defending and rebounding. Okur also had strength to defend inside, but lacked the lateral quickness to be more than average.

[UGA Hayes]

More guys who have made a favorable impression:

LEonard-SDST- Looks like he has the makings of a nice utility player.

Faried- Struggled finishing layups, but he was getting a good amount of high percentage shots. I'll need to see him a couple more times to see if some of the misses were flukey or if he is just a Ben Wallace type guy. Hard not to be impressed by his rebounding or to see why it wouldn't translate to the pros. Definitely NBA caliber athlete. Might struggle on D.

Ezeli-Vandy. Showed a lot of solid moves in the post. Looks fairly long and like he could be a solid defender. Solid rebounding.

Benson- A bit stiff offensively although he was going up against a relly good defender in Thomson and did execute some nice moves. Another guy I wish I could see again to evaluate more.

[ThreeYearPlan]

Who's a better prospect, Isiah Thomas or Jerome Randle last year?

[teamjosh04]

Good question. Give me Jerome Randle.

I dont think Keith Benson is stiff, he actually moves very well. He's just weak in the post and doesnt have a high BBIQ. His lack of strength eliminates a lot else of what he does well in my eyes. The rest of his tools could belong to a center prospect who gets selected #1 overall, but his strength prevents him from being a good defender or scoring in the post. He reminds me of Courtney Sims of the Dleague. He puts up great numbers but no NBA team wants him for the same reasons.

I think he is going to end up a career dleaguer/12th man, at least his first few years under contract. Most teams wont be able to develop him. I could see the Thunder and him being a great mutual fit, though, in the second round. They use their D-league right and can coach him up. Benson would offer them midrange scoring that doesnt come from Perk and Ibaka, while having the great length and athleticism they salivate over.

[princeofpalace]

The Tristan Thompson vs Derrick Williams matchup is gonna be great to watch tomorrow. Any predictions on who wins the matchup?

[Cammo101]

The Tristan Thompson vs Derrick Williams matchup is gonna be great to watch tomorrow. Any predictions on who wins the matchup?

Agreed.

I think Williams wins it. His experience and versatility should be the difference. Williams is going to have to win that matchup for Arizona to have a chance in the game.

[mattg]

Texas wins that game IMO. Unless Rick Barnes goes (Please Use More Appropriate Word) mode(which is possible), Texas will throw 3 different guys at Williams. Having multiple guys who can guard him is huge. I just don't think Arizona's guards are good enough to win that game, they chuck a little bit too much and just make some bad decisions in general.

Williams will still get his, but if Arizona wins it will be because one of their guards really stepped up.

[Cammo101]

Harper vs. Faried is in intriguing matchup as well today.

[Ruzious]

You know that pretty much every game, Derrick Williams is going to take 10 FG attempts, score 20 points, grab 10 rebounds, and make the game saving block. Tristan Thompson loses the matchup, but his team wins.

Does Harper take Faried away from the basket shooting jumpers, or does Morehead State have someone else cover Harper?

[TB]

You know that pretty much every game, Derrick Williams is going to take 10 FG attempts, score 20 points, grab 10 rebounds, and make the game saving block. Tristan Thompson loses the matchup, but his team wins.

Does Harper take Faried away from the basket shooting jumpers, or does Morehead State have someone else cover Harper?

They will run their zone with Faried camped out in the middle. I don't see them going away from that.

[Jazzfan12]

Faired has looked so bad in this game. His BBIQ other than rebounding is pretty horrible.

[Jetset]

Just a few names that I'm interested to hear you guy's thoughts on: Dwight Hardy, Malcolm Lee, Reeves Nelson, Keith Benson.

[UGA Hayes]

Good tourny if you are a draft fan as almost all of Draftexpress's first round is still alive, and if the favorites win out tomorrow a lot draft picks will be playing each other next week, which happens less than you would think in the tourny. Will be very interested to see how Jimmer does against florida next week as they have some pretty quick guards.

[babyjax13]

I was really impressed by Kenneth Faried. His body can get a lot better than where it is at, he has great rebounding skills, and he is a great shot blocker. He's not going to be a barn-burner, or a great scorer, but what he does, he does very well. I wouldn't be surprised to see him as a sixth man on a very good team, or even a starter on a team like New Jersey that already has a good center but needs a defensive power forward that can cover them up.

[Jetset]

I am throughly impressed by Washington PF Matthew Bryan-Amaning. Decent footwork, great explosion but he is a little offensively challenged. Could be a great NBA player if he works on that facet of his game.

[UGA Hayes]

I like him too (MBA that us), enough so that I started a thread on him a little while back. His productivity numbers have been good for a few years now.

[Cammo101]

The more I see of the UNC big three, the more I like them. They all have their pluses and minues, but they play hard and play big in the clutch.