FanPost

Kenner League Recap: July 6, 2014

Recap of Day 2 of Kenner League action:

DAVID ALLEN: 9 pts, 2-3 2 pt, 1-3 3pt, 2-2 FT, 2 asst

-Allen played another solid game, although he sat for almost the entire second half. He pretty much played PG in the first half, doing a nice job penetrating and either finishing or dishing off.

-he had one really nice play - drove the lane, faked a pass, finished with a reverse layup

REGGIE CAMERON: 10 pts, , 1-4 2pt, 2-4 3pt, 2-2 FT, 2 reb, 2 asst

-had a nice transition layup. With Hayes on his back, Reggie used his body to protect the ball, and finished with his left hand

-sat for about half the second half, after a good first half offensively. His outside shot was solid for the second day in a row

-he had one bad failure to box out defensively, leading to an easy put back basket for the opposition

BRADLEY HAYES: 8 pts, 4-6 2pt, 0-2 FT, 8 reb (2 off), 5 blocks, 1 TO

-Looks to be in good shape, perhaps a little lighter than last year

-Defended the post pretty well, vs. a mid-major player who had a nice offensive game on saturday. He kept a strong base without fouling, and did not fall for most ball fakes

-Bradley has some decent shot blocking instincts - he protected the rim well today

-On offense - he let his defender push him out a little too far when posting up, and when making his move for his jump hook. This left him a little out of his comfortable shooting range a number of times

-hit a nice turnaround jumper of about 12 feet.

AARON BOWEN: 9 pts, 2-8 2pt, 1-4 3pt, 2-4 FT, 4 reb (1 off), 1 asst, 2 TO

-Tough outside shooting day. Hit a couple, but missed most, and missed 2 of 4 foul shots. HIs release is good, lots of rotation. But his arc seems way too high. I don’t know the physics of shooting, but I am sure there is an optimal arc you want to put on a shot. Shoot too flat, and you don’t give yourself as good an angle at the hoop. But Bowen arcs the ball so high, it seems like it would be a lot harder to control the shot accurately - because the ball is covering a lot more distance with such a high arc.

-he was consistently aggressive, attacking the basket off the dribble frequently. But he did not finish consistently today

-had one really nice lob pass to hayes for a basket

TREY MOURNING: 9 pts, 3-4 2 pt, 0-3 3pt, 3-4 FT, 8 reb (4 off), 2 asst

-Had a nice follow up rebound dunk early in the game

-on defense, his man muscled through him inside for a basket a few times

-had a nice cut to the basket on which he was fouled

-In general, through two games - Trey looks like he belongs. He’ll have a learning/growth curve, but he looks like the kind of guy who can be a contributing player over the course of 4 years.

DSR: 17 pts, 4-9 2pt, 2-6 3pt, 3-4 FT, 10 reb (4 off), 5 asst, 1 st, 3 TO

-Played kind of an odd first half. Zero points, and he looked to pass on almost every possession. If felt like he was forcing himself to try to play a pass first point guard game. He even overpassed a few times, passing up good shooting opportunities to pass the ball to a guy who was not really in good position to score - leading to a couple of turnovers

-In the second half, he was back to looking for his own shot, and put up 17 points.

-His three point shot has not been on target so far this summer. But he hit back-to-back contested threes late in the game to bring his team back into the game.

-He was again the best rebounder on the floor during his game. It really is amazing how strong a rebounder he is for a short guy without great leaping ability. He just has a feel for seeing where the ball is going to go, good strength/hands, and really good timing in going after the ball. He is as good a rebounding guard as I can remember seeing suit up for the hoyas.

PAUL WHITE: 8 pts, 3-5 2pt, 2-3 FT, 3 reb (1 off), 4 asst, 1 st

-Quiet offensively for much of the game. But he always seems to be in the right place on both sides of the ball. The loose play of summer basketball probably does not serve the skills of a guy like White particularly well. When the play is much more about individual players beating their man off the dribble, a player like white who makes good cuts and finds open cutters well as a passer is not going to look as good

-that being said, white still had a few really notable plays. He took his man off the dribble for a nice basket. He has a real good first step - not quick, but he gets low and takes a really long first step. this usually gets him past his man and into the lane, where he uses his length and skill to finish, or finds an open man if the help defense stops his drive.

-he had a great pass late in the game which led to an easy layup - which proved to be the game winning points.

-got called for a few reaching fouls. He has very active hands on D, which leads to steals -but can also lead to fouls, depending on how the game is being called.

TRE CAMPBELL: 12 pts, 5-9 2 pt, 0-3 3 pt, 2-4 FT, 2 reb (1 off), 5 asst, 2 st, 3 TO

-Played well today. He used his quickness to get to the rim, and had some nice finishes. He even hit a tough floater. also had a few nice steals and assists.

-He does seem to look to shoot most of the time when he drives. He needs to develop an instinct for passing off his penetration to really play like a point guard.

-Tre overpenetrated a few times, leaving him stuck under the basket with no shot and nobody to pass too

JABRIL TRAWICK: 31 pts, 12-17 2pt, 0-2 3 pt, 7-8 FT, 3 reb (1 off), 5 asst, 1 st, 3 TO

-Another very strong game from Jabril. He is playing with tremendous confidence and aggressiveness

-Had a great lob dunk in transition early in the game, and a few more dunks throughout the game

-His outside shot was not as sharp today as it was on saturday. But he was drawing fouls and hitting his fouls shots today to balance out the missed jump shots

-He consistently posted up when he got a smaller man on him. Jabril and DSR are probably our two best post up players. Now that we have some forwards that can hit an open jump shot - it would be interesting to invert the offense at times, posting up the guards and clearing out the defensive lane by pulling the big guys outside. This is the core of the offense that Wisconsin usually runs, and it can be very effective when your forwards can hit jump shots if the bigger defenders collapse down on the guards. Our shooting was not good enough to run this kind of stuff last year - but Copeland and White are the kind of shooters that could allow this kind of offensive plan to work as an occasional change of pace, in the right matchup situation.

-Jabril really has played great ball through this first weekend. If he can play like this during the regular season, we will again have a very solid offensive backcourt.

MIKAEL HOPKINS: 19 pts, 9-13 2pt, 0-1 3 pt, 1-2 FT, 14 reb (2 off), 1 st, 3 bl, 1 TO

-Hopkins also had a very strong weekend. The loose, up and down style of kenner games suits him well because he is athletic and runs the floor really well. He finished pretty much everything around the basket today on offense, and grabbed a lot of out-of-area rebounds on both ends

-he was pretty dominant defensively at times, very mobile in the lane to contest/block shots. I don’t know if the refs are a lot more lenient in the summer - but it is nice seeing Hopkins play a full game being called for only a couple of fouls after seeing him rarely go more than a minute or two without being called for a foul last year. You could see how frustrated he was with the constant foul calls last year. When he is not getting called for fouls, Hopkins can be a very good interior defender.

-He also defended Will Thomas (big man from George Mason who played on their final 4 team). Thomas is a skilled, cagey offensive player - good mid range shooter, has all the "old man" post moves. Hopkins did a good job getting out to contest Thomas’ jumper without falling for ball fakes. He showed a strong base in the post, and generally defended Thomas about as well as you could ask for.

-Good decision making - took only one bad outside shot, and took/hit a wide open 10 foot baseline jumper. He can make that shot, and needs to take it when he is left wide open. This will force defenders to come out on him, where he can use his favorite move - a one dribble drive to his right, followed by a driving shot off the glass. he was very effective with this move today, as he is too quick for most bigs. He’ll need to develop some counter move to his left off this, as good defenders will overplay his right. And his ball handling is not really strong enough to avoid getting stripped on this move when teams are expecting it. But it is a nice foundation move to build off when the lane is open and he has space to operate. Again, with better outside shooting forwards this year, Hopkins should have more space to use this kind of move this year than he had last season.

RIYAN WILLIAMS: 0 pts, 0-1 3 pt, 2-2 FT, 1 TO

-At least Williams got into the game today, but only for a couple of minutes.

Stay Casual, my friends.