Quote Originally Posted by MHettel View Post
This dude is intriguing to me.

I tried to research his recruiting rankings coming out of HS, and ran across an article where he could have been part of the 2016 class, but instead reclassified to 2017. I never could locate any type of actual recruit ranking or "number of stars" or whatever. Ultimately, he was basically "Hampton level" talent. And then he sits out a year as a redshirt. And then he doesn't really play that much in his Redshirt Freshman season (10 mpg), and then suddenly as a Sophomore he was basically unstoppable. Suddenly he became on of the hottest transfers on the market. What a ride for this guy!

I definitely want to see if his game translates to the BE. He doesn't really take 3's (often), and he shot 57% from the field and would rank 5th among 60 former XU players in getting to the FT line per minute. So, he's an absolute BEAST inside.....against Hamptons opponents.

At 6'6", can this translate? The BE has a gang of 7 footers in the league, and these aren't the stiff clumsy 7 footers. These are the glass cleaning, shot blocking NBA aspiring type.

Obviously this guy was a late bloomer. We've had our share of these kind of players over the years, so my hopes are high. Is he still developing? is there still some ceiling? Even if he's fully developed, he could be productive in the BE.

He's spoken about having NBA aspirations. I assume he realizes the list of inside player that are 6'6" is pretty short. He must know that developing a reliable 3 pt shot is simply a "must" for him to have any shot at the NBA. If he shows up next year as a 3 point threat AND with the ability to do damage on the inside.....watch out.

really like this pickup.

On a related note, I think XU has found a real niche in the transfer market. we have had VERY few transfers that didn't work out. We always seem to get at least one productive year from them...as opposed to many incoming freshmen who just flame out after a year or 2. I'd like to see 3 transfers on the roster in most years (1 as a senior, 1 as a junior, and 1 sitting out).

Quick List of Transfers, broken into groups:
Key contributors- Hankins, Stainbrook, Lavender, Crawford, Myles, Thornton, CJ, McLean, T Taylor, Kanter, Massey, Sears,
Role Players- Andre Walker, Philmore, Abell, Gaston, Bernard, Castlin, Welage, Moore, Carter, A Taylor
Busts- Obi Harris, Desmond Walker, maybe 1 or 2 more guys from 20 years ago....
So what you're saying is he scored 22ppg in what could have been his Junior year.