here are my bball and non-bball observations. first, i saw all three DCA 16U games today. josh hairston is a beast. he's a legit top 30 guy in my mind. he has such a great touch on his 8-14 ft. jumper and he creates space so well when his back is to the basket. next, i was REALLY impressed with thornton. he doesn't have a fantastic jumper but his build is really solid, his handle is good, and his court awareness is top notch. not afraid to bang inside and finish the play when he drives into the lane. i also saw every DCA 17U game. rodney was good all day. he's been working on his range and his 3 point stroke is looking very solid. he is also a very good defender, going after boards and getting steals and blocks. he's uber-athletic. i really can't say enough about him. he could work on his FTs a little more. didn't really get to see too much of wally because 1st and 3rd games he was in alot of foul trouble and in the 2nd game he went down with what looked (at the time) to be a bad ankle injury. i like his athleticism and i LOVE his ball-handling skills but he never really impressed me in any of the games. he has almost zero touch on his shots around the rim. if he did, he'd have scored over 20 points in every game. his jumper was short all day. he doesn't do ANY help defense - not even raising his hand or taking a step toward the shooter. frank will yell at him A LOT for this. Spiece Indy Heat is a really good team. their PG/SG (number 33) is awesome. great shot and awesome athleticism. i was only able to watch 1 Bass game, but i really liked what i saw of tay. uber-althetic, just like mcgruder. fantastic touch around the rim and good enough body control to finish with contact. could be a little lazy at times, but hey, the same was said about MB in HS. also, a beast on the boards and his defensive instincts are good - i don't think i ever saw him foul when going for a block or a steal. number 1 for Bass is also crazy athletic and their PG ain't shabby either. nobody on MOKAN spiece really impressed me but they just played good basketball.
now for the off-court stuff. during the 2nd half of the DCA 16U - KWA game, traynham, judge, pullen and samuals were sitting up in the stands talking with one another. looked like pullen was giving traynham advice.
oh yeah, traynham also does a weird little "fish out of water" body shake whenever he gets any contact. more annoying than effective. tay may not be committed and you may hear rumors that he's falling out of love with manhattan, but fear not wildcat nation - there is hope. i have seen it - in the form of a manhattanite brunette POA that was hanging out with him all afternoon.
also, austin meek is nowhere near as...well, meek-looking...as his picture on cjonline portrays. boyish good looks out the ying-yang, but he doesn't look like a 130 lb 8th grader. oh and also colon and clemente came out to watch the Bass-Speice Indy Heat game. i think frank might have been sending "representatives" to every game of interest today.
that's all i got.
