Post#55 » by Hair Canada » Wed Nov 24, 2021 1:38 pm
NCAA Power 10, Week 2
1. Zach Edey (Purdue). Edey continues to be wonderful and this week he did it against some of the college's elite. North Carolina managed to make life a bit hard for him on D and drive him off the court with their stretch bigs (well, not exactly; after all, stepping up from the Purdue bench is an all-American candidate, who’s also been playing great). But Edey made the adjustment and was the MVP of the Cheez-It Hall of Fame Tip-Off (what a strange name) final, leading Purdue to the title over a tough and experienced Villanova team. His per-40 numbers remain ridiculous and his PER for the season so far is 46 (second in all of college). I expect to start seeing him on draft boards as a second-rounder soon enough and more games like the last one, where he shows he can decently contain quick shooting bigs might do the trick in convincing teams to give him a shot.
2. Ryan Nembhard (Creighton). Ryan continues to excel with this young Creighton team. They are not terribly good, but he’s been playing excellent basketball, shooting well, and looking like a senior guard out there, also scoring his first, and I suspect not last, game-winner on Monday. The most impressive thing about him is how composed he looks out there. Yes, he still has quite a few turnovers, but it’s mostly not because he’s rushed or makes bad decisions. Rather, it’s about him still adjusting to the size and the different level of athleticism. And here’s another thing: He’s actually been even better than what his terrific stats (14ppg and 5apg on 64% true shooting) show. The reason is that in each of the games I’ve watched, he’s been legit robbed of at least 2 assists. It’s the strangest thing – he’d make a great pass for a bucket, and then it’s either counted as an assist for someone else or no assist at all. Some of it might be the strange way they count assists in college (still haven't figured it out). But some is just plain oversight. And that’s not even mentioning the point-blank misses by teammates on some of his passes.
3. Ben Mathurin (Arizona). After a slow start, Ben’s been looking much better in his last three. The shots are starting to fall, the energy level has picked up, and in the last Arizona big win against Michigan (told you they’re better than what most people said!), he’s also finally started to create. He’s still not the smoothest ball-handler or decision-maker in traffic and looks better in the open court and when he keeps things simple. But the defensive awareness has been better, he’s mostly taking good shots and passing on tough ones, and he’s looked like a lottery pick.
4. Fardaws Aimaq (Utah Valey). Aimaq continues to dominate and he’s almost up to his rebounding numbers from last year, while scoring and shooting the ball much better. Watching him this week, I still have a hard time imagining this working out at the NBA level. He can certainly bang it with bigs in the paint but he’s not a great rim protector with his decent but not great length, burst, and speed. He also doesn’t seem quite comfortable with taking shots from the perimeter and is not quick enough to blow by guys. This leaves him mostly with the back-to-the-basket game, in which he has an advantage over current opponents, but it's on that will likely disappear at a higher level. All that said, he’s a hell of a college player. An out-of-this-world rebounder, who plays hard and will certainly play professionally somewhere after he’s done.
5. Andrew Nembhard (Gonzaga). A look at the averages might suggest that Andrew has had a slow start to the season. But if we ignore the easy games against weak opponents and focus only on the two big games that really mattered, where Gonzaga played against top-10 teams, Nembhard has actually looked great. Mark Few trusts him blindly and in these two big wins against Texas and UCLA he didn’t rest for even a second, playing the full 80 minutes! And he’s been awesome in both games, playing great defense, making excellent decisions, and remaining aggressive, putting up 17ppg and 7apg in these two and shooting the ball well. Now, can we just ask that he remains this aggressive on a more consistent basis? Because this version of Andrew Nembhard is an NBA player.
6. Emmanuel Akot (Boise State). A very good second week for the talented senior, who scored 16ppg in 3 games and added 4apg, also making 11 of his 17 shots from 3. When the shot is falling like this, it’s easy to get excited about a 6’8 with good physical tools, who plays full-time PG. But I’d like him to be more aggressive and create more. Akot is very decent with the ball. But unlike someone like Dalano Banton, he’s not that quick and has a bit of a hard time getting into the paint. He’s bulkier and stronger than Banton, but doesn’t have those quick long steps and wiry shiftiness, and he’s also not as long and agile. So even though he now plays lead guard for Boise, I’m not sure that can be his position at the next level and he’ll need to keep shooting well and defend to get a shot at the NBA.
7. Charles Bediako (Alabama). The younger Bediako continues to look better than I expected, playing for a very good Alabama team. After fouling out in 10 minutes in his first game, in the next 3 he’s played 25 minutes per game, producing very nicely with 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game, shooting 70% from the field.
8. Keeshawn Barthelemy (Colorado). As expected, he’s coming back to earth after his unreal start to the season. Scored in single digits for the first time in Colorado’s last game and didn’t look great. Still managed to come up big in the final minute with a big bucket and then an intentional miss from the line that didn’t leave the other team time to get a quality shot and basically won the game.
9. Noah Kirkwood (Harvard). Kirkwood continues to be very solid. Nothing spectacular, but he’s getting to his spots and shooting the ball well.
10. Josip Vrankic (Santa Clara). Didn’t play this week (I believe he’s injured) but for now he still has a spot in my top-10.
Honorable mentions:
James Jean-Marie (Portland State). Jean-Marie continues to be as steady as a rock. Double-doubles in all 4 of his games so far, posting 15 points and 10 rebounds for the season.
Ben Krikke (Valparaiso) Coming back from an injury that sidelined him to start the season, Krikke had a great first game, leading the struggling Valpo to their first win of the season with 25 points (career-high), 2 blocks, and 2 steals. His second game was not as impressive but I think he’s on his way to a very good season.
Kobe McEwen (Weber State). An uneven week for the senior, first scoring 30 points and then only 6 with a 2 for 14 from the field performance.
Josh Morgan (Incarnate Word). Continues to shoot the lights out from 3 (4.5 per game on 56%). His team has lost all its games but he’s been great.
Reasons for concern:
Caleb Houstan (Michigan). What happened to that deadeye shooter, who shot better than 40% from 3 on high volume in high school? It didn’t look good in the U19s and also doesn’t look good to start this season (6 of 26). And when his shot is not falling, the mediocre athleticism and physicality are also exposed, as he’s been finding it hard to score and create. Michigan has had a pretty disappointing start to the season, already amassing two losses and falling down the rankings. And while Houstan is not the only reason, he certainly has a big part in it. Shouldn’t overreact to a couple of bad games and hopefully, he’s just in a bad slump and will get out of it soon. But the college season is short and if he can’t start producing soon, he’ll be dropping in the draft big boards real quick.
Quincy Guerrier (Oregon). And here things look even worse. After a good year at Syracuse, everyone expected Guerrier to make another jump at what should have been a better and more versatile team. But so far it looks bad for both him and the Ducks with bad big losses to good but not great teams. And Quincy is really not playing well, with 2ppg in his last 2 and overall terrible shooting since the start of the season.
“If every basketball player worked as hard as I did, I’d be out of a job.”
— Steve Nash
