Yeah he’ll have his fair share of good games I totally agree. Definitely exceeded my expectations entering the year. I just think he’ll have some games (especially early on ie this year when he’s still early in development) where an athletic B1G center makes him look a bit silly by blocking him 2 or 4 or whatever times and people will be thinking back and overreact too far in the other direction and say “how did we ever think that this guy could be good enough to play against Big Ten competition?” When that happens I think he has the right attitude to just keep plugging away and come back for the next one.
Btw one difference between he and the LA center (if I’m recalling the right one) is that dude can shoot the ball in the flow of play. Based on Ryan’s FT shooting (which has been good up until what was hopefully a blip at the end of the Bradley game) he has potential to develop that midrange and then eventually 3pt shot for a pick and pop, but I’m not sure he’s got the confidence to do it yet outside of say 12 feet. He’s a RS freshman so plenty of room for growth!
I think Ryan took some mid range shots on the Europe trip and looked good.
We're all just sort of accepting that he's doing what he's doing. But he's essentially a freshman. He's averaging about 12 pts and 7 rebounds. He doesn't foul out and plays effective post D (he stays on his feet all game). What he does on D hugely facilitates guys like Nance and Beran being able to cheat a bit, block shots and get rebounds.
He's is so beyond what we had any right to expect.
Similarly, Spencer is scoring double digits and has a 2.5 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. He has a handle that seems to get a bit better each game. He also has an elite gear as he showed on a couple drives last night. A month ago the book on him was that he can play basketball and will definitely get minutes and "help."
What Spencer is doing should be a national story. It's cover of SI stuff....60 Minutes stuff. It is unbelievable.
Personally, I though Collins would start him a couple games and then ease Boo Boo in. That's not what's happening.
Spencer and Ryan combined are averaging 22 - 23 pts a game. Who called that? How ridiculous is their pick and roll five games in. How crazy is Young's post passing.
