MADNESS 2024 — Official NCAA Tournament Thread 2024

[PushDaRock]

Edey not moving well enough to guard PnRs against college kids had exactly nothing to do with avoiding foul trouble. It had to do with him being one of the worst movers in the NCAA. The vast majority of teams in the country just aren’t skilled enough to take advantage of that but UConn did. It will only get even worse for him against better athletes and shooters at the next level.

Yeah agreed. Also people need to stop deferring to combine measurements to say someone is a good or a poor athlete. Combine stats don’t take into account fatigue, reaction time, general awareness and spatial intelligence, physical coordination, hand eye coordination, explosiveness through contact, etc. The best way to measure athleticism is to watch what players can do in game situations. It’s like that guy at the park who can only dunk off alley oops while shooting around because they can’t coordinate themselves or explode through contact in a game situation.

Based on what I saw last night, Edey has a long way to go. And it’s not just because of his foot speed, but his awareness/reaction time isn’t great. And he needs to work on his coordination, ironically, when he doesn’t have the ball. His arm placement for contesting shots and deterring drives could use lots of work.

You look at a guy like Jokic…terrible athlete on paper but his awareness and instincts are off the charts. He’s also phenomenally coordinated. That stuff doesn’t show up in the combine.

And you could see that last night side by side (literally) with Clingan. Clingan has a much faster reaction time than Edey, which made him an intimidating defender. Edey looked like an old stop-action King Kong (ironically) movie out there.

Of course Clingan has zero offensive game, and shoots FTs 100 point below what Jak did in college.

I remember watching Brook Lopez in his rookie year when the Nets played the Raps. He looked so good. I would have been willing to trade Bosh for him immediately. I suspect Mustard Tiger would have, too.

Clingan is obviously the better defender and way more mobile, but you have to compare the teams they're playing on too. If you switch teams for them, Clingan is not looking quite as good with Purdue's guards not being able to stay in front of anyone and Edey looks a bit better being surrounded with much better defenders that can stay in front of people.

[PushDaRock]

Yeah agreed. Also people need to stop deferring to combine measurements to say someone is a good or a poor athlete. Combine stats don’t take into account fatigue, reaction time, general awareness and spatial intelligence, physical coordination, hand eye coordination, explosiveness through contact, etc. The best way to measure athleticism is to watch what players can do in game situations. It’s like that guy at the park who can only dunk off alley oops while shooting around because they can’t coordinate themselves or explode through contact in a game situation.

Based on what I saw last night, Edey has a long way to go. And it’s not just because of his foot speed, but his awareness/reaction time isn’t great. And he needs to work on his coordination, ironically, when he doesn’t have the ball. His arm placement for contesting shots and deterring drives could use lots of work.

You look at a guy like Jokic…terrible athlete on paper but his awareness and instincts are off the charts. He’s also phenomenally coordinated. That stuff doesn’t show up in the combine.

Most people consider him a complete stiff, when I say better athlete than people think it's over a very low bar. Nobody is saying he is even an average NBA athlete overall but he is quite good for his size. Edey also had a late start, he only has been playing basketball for 7 years.

I agree that he gets up and down the floor well and actually slides his feet pretty well, especially given his size. It’s his reaction time, change of direction, hip turning that concerns me.

Those are things most bigs don't do well though, it's something that can be improved with more experience. It's just a lot of reps and processing the game quickly so you are in spots you need to be and playing angles to where he uses his size as an advantage. It will take some work to get there but it's possible he becomes at least an adequate defender.

[kieferli]

This game remind me why I don’t watch NCAA

Yeah, not a great showcase for the game. I thought the big vs. big battle would be intriguing, but it petered out when Edey lost his confidence and Clingan got in foul trouble.

Did you watch the women's game last night? Now THAT was a showcase.

Yes I watch the last 2 games because if Clark’, that’s way more entertaining than the man one

[MEDIC]

Edey is gonna be fighting to get drafted in the 1st round again like last year.

You seem very sure of yourself that Edey will get drafted late 1st or 2nd round. I'm holding you to it.

I think he will go top 20.

I'll give you props if you are right though.

[bballsparkin]

You seem very sure of yourself that Edey will get drafted late 1st or 2nd round. I'm holding you to it.

I think he will go top 20.

I'll give you props if you are right though.

The logic doesn't make sense. "This draft sucks!" But don't use a mid FRP on a 2 time CPOY who happens to be 7 foot 4, 300 pounds, 7 foot 10 reach, oh yeah pretty much plays all the minutes of his team, made Cling Kong look "just okay" on defence. I mean it's a bad draft but not THAT bad that a team would use a first on Edey. Which one is it?

That said, I'm not completely sold on Edey either. I'd rather draft Clingan.

[Randle McMurphy]

Edey is gonna be fighting to get drafted in the 1st round again like last year.

You seem very sure of yourself that Edey will get drafted late 1st or 2nd round. I'm holding you to it.

I think he will go top 20.

I'll give you props if you are right though.

If Edey got a 1st round guarantee last year (when he was also the best player in NCAA by a long shot), he'd never have even returned to Purdue. I can't see any reason why he'd get such a guarantee this season given he is exactly the same player with the same strengths and weaknesses.

If he goes any higher than 20, a team will have made a very serious mistake. Unfortunately for him, it's 2024 in the NBA, not 1994 or even 2004 (around the time of Araujo).

[Randle McMurphy]

You seem very sure of yourself that Edey will get drafted late 1st or 2nd round. I'm holding you to it.

I think he will go top 20.

I'll give you props if you are right though.

The logic doesn't make sense. "This draft sucks!" But don't use a mid FRP on a 2 time CPOY who happens to be 7 foot 4, 300 pounds, 7 foot 10 reach, oh yeah pretty much plays all the minutes of his team, made Cling Kong look "just okay" on defence. I mean it's a bad draft but not THAT bad that a team would use a first on Edey. Which one is it?

That said, I'm not completely sold on Edey either. I'd rather draft Clingan.

Edey being a 2 time CPOY has almost next to nothing with his ability to play in the NBA. They're really completely different sports at this point (the NCAA is like stepping back in time effectively to a bygone era).

[bballsparkin]

Edey being a 2 time CPOY has almost next to nothing with his ability to play in the NBA. They're really completely different sports at this point (the NCAA is like stepping back in time effectively to a bygone era).

Eh I have my doubts too. That said dude is a beast. I wouldn't be surprised if he carves out a JV like role in the league.