Since when does anyone take anything wrassler writes about JA seriously?? Dang!!!!
I love the coaching staff but I have not been impressed with Benson's improvement this year. And Luka had his moments.
Luka showboating at Assembly Hall is one of my ten favorite moments as an NU basketball fan. (This statement has not been fact-checked.)
He really struggles to finish around the basket. Based on his high school tape, I thought he would play away from the basket more often. It looked like he was capable of hitting 15 foot jump shots.
I also wonder where Benson would be now performance-wise if he'd been thrown into starting at center from day one rather than averaging nine minutes a game.
I assume he would be more confident. He looks very tentative offensively. Given that he is not an explosive athlete, it's tough to be effective when you are not confident and decisive. He can't rely on getting putback buckets and dunks like Pardon.
Well, he got 8 games of starting experience when Pardon was hurt last year. So it's not like he never got minutes.
Yeah, I was thinking about the Luka/Barrett thing and who the different staff might impact their development. Luka ended up averaging something like 20 minutes a game for most of his freshman year and I think by year two was the man at center, doing maybe 25 minutes a game. So on the one hand I ponder how well Barrett might have developed (or cracked under pressure, who knows) with those minutes and this team/staff. And on the other hand I wonder how Luka might have developed with this team and staff, and what difference that might have made. It's just idle and mostly pointless speculating either way.
Wildcat-to-be 6-10 Ryan Young stuffed home a dunk and then both ends of 2 one-and-ones in the final 3-4 minutes to give his Bethlehem Catholic team a close win over Allentown Catholic high school. Ryan Young’s 6-7 junior brother Kyle is a high scoring supporting player, too.