FanPost

Kenner League Recap: July 5, 2014

Nothing particularly surprising today, but a nice start to the summer season for the Hoya players

REGGIE CAMERON: 24 pts, 4-5 2pt fg, 5-11 3 Pt fg, 1-1 FT, 5 reb (all defensive), 3 assts, 1 bl, 1to

-Looked to be in good shape, maybe a little lighter and more toned than last year

-aggressive offensively. Looked for his outside shot, attacked the basket effectively twice, and even posted up well a couple of times when he got a small defender on a shift

-missed a few contested 3’s in the first half, but settled in and started nailing his 3s in the second half

-defense, however, was another story. Dwayne Monroe (George Mason) is about Reggie’s height, but a lot stronger. Monroe killed him in the post. Backed him down early for easy hoops. When reggie fronted him, Monroe went back door for a basket. Reggie will always have slow feet, and doesn’t have a strong enough base to defend stronger guys down low

-Reggie also got beat downcourt by his man for baskets 3 times. It was less a matter of hustle than the simple fact that reggie is slow, and if he is covering a fast guy who busts his ass downcourt, reggie will get beat like this occasionally.

-he was also a bit slow to help on D at times; and fairly ineffective when he did arrive with help in time. Reggie is what he is - a talented shooter who can create some offense off his shooting; but a defender limited by real slow feet.

DAVID ALLEN: 15 Pts, 0-1 2PT, 3-8 3T, 4-4 FT, 3 Reb (2 off), 1 asst, 2 st, 4 TO

-certainly a confident shooter! He does have a nice looking outside shot, and he hit it enough today to help his team.

-Made two big plays in the final 30 seconds of a tie game. First a steal, then getting fouled and hitting the 2 foul shots that proved to be the winning margin in the game.

TRE CAMPBELL: 7 Pts, 2-10 2pt, 1-5 3 pt, 4 reb (3 off), 2 asst, 2 st, 2 TO

-Tre looked a bit shorter than I expected him to. he has a little bit of muscle up top, but his calves are super skinny. He got overpowered at the rim in transition by former George Mason power guard Byron Allen. He just is not big/strong enough to handle strong guards around the basket right now.

-Real quick with the ball, and pushes up court every possession. But could not create much offensively. Got to the rim a few times, but failed to finish. With more strength, this should come.

-Hit one nice three when he was wide open on a kickout. But his contested jumpers were off target, and his form on these was not nearly as good as on his wide open make. Played well on defense - right up on his man, nice low stance. you can tell he takes pride in his defense.

-It may be tough for him to be much more than a "do no harm" backup PG this season, but the raw tools are there for him to grow into a solid PG with experience. But comparing him to where Markel was in his first kenner games - Markel was pretty far ahead of where Tre is right now. Markel was notably stronger, and a better shooter. But this is just one game - it will be interesting to see how Tre looks as the summer progresses

PAUL WHITE: 10 pts, 2-4 2pt, 1-3 3pt, 3-3 FT, 4 reb (1 off), 2 st, 1 bl, 1 TO

-White never really got into the flow of the game. He spent fairly long stretches on the bench in each half.

-He hit a nice pull up jumper (probably his trademark shot at this point), but missed a couple as well. Had one nice drive, beating his man off the dribble. He should be able to do this well against bigger, slower defenders. sometimes he looks a bit low-energy. I don’t think it is a matter of not playing hard. He is not very explosive, and he is very skilled and smooth - so I think sometimes he looks more low energy than he is really playing. But I do think there are times when he is not as assertive offensively as he could be.

-Has the tools to be a real good defender. Sees the court well defensively, plays the angles well, very active hands without committing handsy fouls very often. Long arms and good timing to block shots, and plays a little off his man - because he can use the long arms to contest shots. So he can angle off drives with that little bit if added distance from his man.

MIKAEL HOPKINS: 21 pts, 9-12 2pt, 3-5 FT, 14 reb (6 off), 2 asst, 1 st, 4 bl, 3 TO

-Mikael has had some real big kenner games over the years, and this was one of them. Really owned the area around the basket defensively - blocking/contesting shots, rebounding out of his area.

-Offensively: missed some inside shots early, but then began converting inside and went from there. Did not force his offense much, and had a few nice one dribble attack moves.

-He looks so damn athletic at times in kenner, but he struggles to put together his offense and his skilled execution during the regular season. If he could play the way he did today on a regular basis during real games, he would be a real solid starting 4. But he has flashed like this pretty much every summer, and is yet to put things together during the regular season

JABRIL TRAWICK: 21 pts, 6-6 2pt, 3-5 3pt, 1 reb, 4 asst, 1 st, 1 bl, 1 TO

-Probably the best hoya performance of the day. Did a bit of everything. Pretty much ran the point much of the time, doing a nice job setting up teammates for good shots. Could have put up a lot more numbers, but sat for much of the second half in a blowout.

-had a few monster dunks, and hit his threes (at least one of them a pull up off the dribble, which is not a shot I remember him hitting very often in the past)

-very aggressive, but also very much in control. It was encouraging to see Jabril play like a scoring point guard. Again, he has played like this in kenner games in the past, although he was more efficient today than even in his good summer games of past years.

-Interesting that he had a really good game without getting to the foul line - Jabril usually gets to the line a lot in his best games.

-Team Takeover (with Mikael and Trawick) was far and away the best team today - they destroyed The Tombs, playing fast, aggressive basketball from the opening tap. They look like the team to beat this summer, based on day 1. Also - Josh Hart is a real nice player (he is also on Takeover). I did not track his stats, but he did a little bit of everything. His outside shot form/rotation looked good, but he missed quite a few more than he made. Even though he plays for the enemy, it is hard not to root for Hart - plays hard, plays smart, just seems like the kind of 4 year guy that is going to win a whole lot of games before he graduates. I’m not whining that he did not end up a hoya, just noting a guy that we recruited pretty seriously is developing into a nice, likable player to watch.

LJ PEAK: 12 pts, 5-13 2pt, 0-1 3 pt, 2-4 FT, 3 reb (1 off), 3 asst, 1 st

-Not in sych in the first half. did not get many looks or even many touches. Got to the rim a few times early, but failed to convert

-Was more aggressive and effective in the second half, using a good first step, length, and leaping ability to attack off the dribble. You can see that this is his game, and the more he can get into the open court, the better he’ll play

-Hit one mid range jumper. But on the whole, his shooting was not strong today. Only 2-4 from the foul line - takes his FTs very quickly, one bounce and then fires the ball right up.

-Hard to judge D - but he likes to try to sneak in and steal the inbounds pass after the basket, then go right to the hoop. He did this often in HS, and he pulled it off once today

-You can see the physical talent is there, but the game was a big fast for him today. He tried a 360 spin move into a lefty layup that the defender swatted halfway to the bleachers on the far side of the gym. As he learns what he can and cannot do at this level, he should develop well.

ISAAC COPELAND: 10 pts, 5-9 2pt, 0-2 3pt, 0-1 FT, 5 reb (3 off), 2 asst, 2 st, 2 bl, 1 TO

-You cannot miss his athleticism - had some nice blocks, a powerful follow up dunk, and just moved around the court very well

-not too assertive today. Played within the flow of the game, not forcing anything. His mid range jumper looked smooth, but college 3’s seemed just a bit out of his comfortable range for now. He should develop the 3 pt range over time. Very comfortable handling the ball, looked like he could potentially take defenders off the dribble in time.

-had a tough matchup - he was the primary big man on his team, and he had to defend Hopkins and Chris Braswell (big, strong interior player). Isaac held his own, but he’ll need to get stronger to really handle those kind of players, as he is still pretty thin.

DSR: 32 pts, 9-14 2pt, 0-3 3pt, 14-14 FT, 7 reb (2 off), 1 asst, 4 st, 1 TO

-He did what DSR does - score points, grab rebounds, and sneak in a couple of steals

-His 3 pt. shot was off - although he and the ref disagreed on whether he was fouled on two badly missed 3s.

-pretty unstoppable going to the basket, scoring most of his points on a series of layups in traffic and foul shots. The foul shooting really is a thing of beauty.

-I hate to say it, and I may be wrong: but it looked like he may have gained a little bit on weight since the season ended (and not the good kind of weight). He wore a t-shirt under his jersey, so maybe this threw off my perception. But another fan made the same observation. If he did gain any weight, however, it certainly did not impact his game today.

-HIs team talked really well on defense. Chris Matthews (from St. Bonnies) was the leader on this, but DSR was also vocal. You don’t see this too often in Kenner league, and the team’s effort to communicate on D was notable.

TREY MOURNING: 6 pts, 1-3 2pt, 0-2 3pt, 4-4 FT, 6 reb (1 off), 1 asst, 1 TO

-looked like he belonged, which was the main thing I was looking for

-not explosive, but seems pretty coordinated. early in the game, caught a tough pass on the move and positioned his body well enough to draw a foul

-slow release on his 3s, but he hit a nice mid range jumper, and his FTs looked really solid

-Worked hard to set solid picks throughout the game. Set a wide base, and rolled/popped out well. also made a nice pass after receiving a kick out pass, beating the defensive rotation to set up a shooter for a wide open 3. He seems to understand the fundamentals pretty well, and had himself in the right place/made good decisions much of the time.

-it will take time to see if he can really contribute, but for a first game from a kid who did not play AAU, played at a pretty low level of HS comp, and whose recruiting was pretty unusual- I would say relatively encouraging.

-RIYAN WILLIAMS: I think he suited up for Higher Level, but did not play

-JOSHUA SMITH: according to reports, he is out of town for the summer. It would be nice if he stopped by McDonough at least once for a visit during kenner league, so we can get a sense of how his weight management efforts are going!

-HENRY SIMS: was in the gym for a visit today, but did not suit up.

-FINAL NOTE: limiting summer league teams to only 2 players from a college team really does hurt the kenner atmosphere a bit. The Tombs games used to be real events, with all the freshmen plus a couple of good upperclassmen. Now, there is no real "Georgetown" team (or GW/Mason team, as in years past). The crowd was good for Clyde’s and the first half of Tombs/Takeover. But not the kind of energy you felt in the past when the Tombs had a really exciting group of freshmen, the way the hoyas do this year.

Stay Casual, my friends.