Full breakdown: Four-star C Papa Kante
Papa Kante announced he would be making his college commitment on October 20 at 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. The 6-foot-10 center is the No. 32 player in the 2023 On3 150.
He will choose from a final five programs, which include Maryland, Memphis, Michigan, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers.
The No. 4 overall center in 2023 averaged 10.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game this summer, playing with the NY Rens on Nike’s EYBL Circuit.
With a commitment date set, let’s do a full breakdown of Papa Kante’s game.
Kante’s game is expanding
Two years ago, Papa Kante was a low post guy who could maybe make a layup if he was wide open. Now, he has become a reliable shot-maker on the offensive end of the floor. That progression speaks to the work ethic that so many around him rave about.
The four-star center is a strong and physical post. His game works inside out as he realizes his bread is buttered around the basket. Kante has developed in that aspect as well. He has a go-to move, reliable over his left shoulder. While still developing, the footwork is reliable with the ball, ten feet and in.
His offensive repertoire is also expanding away from the basket. Kante notably worked this summer to become a pick-and-pop threat out to the three-point line. And that aspect gradually improved with optimism. Throughout the summer, on the EYBL Circuit, Kante attempted 1.3 threes per game, and he made roughly 30 percent of those attempts. After finishing the summer making close to 70 percent of his free throws, there is optimism for his development as a shooter.
The efficiency, however, remained in Kante’s game. Back to the ten feet and in talk, Kante shot 52 percent from two this summer on 150 attempts. He scored 0.785 points per possession, which ranks him in the 85th percentile among his peers.
Kante is best around the basket; however, there is clear upside to him developing into a threat from behind the arc.
The dirty work
Even with the talk of Papa Kante stretching things out beyond the arc, he knows what he does best. Kante seems to thrive in the dirty work. He does the things at a high level that many others do not like.
Kante is a very good screener. He understands angles and the footwork involved; he also gets a wide base to ensure contact. Kante is a strong area rebounder, working to end other teams’ possessions. He is also a good team defender in the post. Sure, he averaged 1.5 blocks per game on the EYBL Circuit, and he will be able to protect the rim at the next level, but a lot of that comes from his positioning.
He works hard on the defensive end, doing his work (getting positioning) early and not allowing his man to establish positioning or comfort on the block.
The dirty work ensures Kante has a high floor at the next level.
Kante on defense
Coming into his junior season, these were where some of my questions lay for Papa Kante. I wondered about how he moved his feet and the fluidity in being able to turn and move his hips.
While still not elite in those categories, Kante is fine. He is able to hedge a ball screen, turn and get back to his man. He can also disrupt the ball handler on an all-out switch. During EYBL play, the man Kante was gearing shot 31.2 per from the field and only scored on 23.8 percent of the possessions they had the ball.
Naturally, Kante was guarding mostly post players, but these numbers show the work he puts in on that side of the floor. The four-star center’s man scored only 0.565 points per possession. Kante also averaged 1.5 blocks per game. While he is not an elite shot blocker, and most of his defensive presence is below the rim, it shows that he is capable of protecting the rim.
This probably trickles down from the dirty work section we highlighted earlier, but Kante is a presence on the defensive end of the floor.
On3s Recruiting Prediction Machine
Papa Kante is set to announce his college decision today, October 20. The final five schools he is choosing between are Maryland, Memphis, Michigan, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers.
On3s Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM) gives Michigan an 86.0 percent chance of landing the four-star center.
The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create RPM, the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college. Starting from the ground up, On3 built an entirely new product that utilizes data, human expertise, and machine learning.