Re: What are our needs?

[opi@unesco.org]

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> A few thoughts following up on posts by Jaime and Joe:
>
> Although this is a deep PG group, I don't think it's especially strong. Each
> player has weaknesses. Cota isn't a great shooter or defender. Gottlieb
> can't shoot from anywhere (including FTs), is small and can't defend.
> Cleaves isn't a great shooter or especially creative with the ball (I like
> his size, defense and leadership). Scoonie (one of my all-time favorites
> here in Buckeyeland) is short and isn't a strong defender (good shooter from
> deep and off the dribble and great floor/emotional leader). Sanchez is a lot
> like Gottlieb. Barkley probably is the most complete of the bunch, but he's
> not a real creative type PG either. I think he's the only guy worth a shot
> where we'll be picking. Reminds me of William Avery.
>
> On the big men: Pryzbilla (I'm sure I butchered that) will be long gone
> before we pick (unless we luck into the top 3). I'd love to see him in
> green. He's big, long, has a knack for blocking shots and is improving
> offensively (although he doesn't need the ball to be a factor). He has quick
> feet for a guy his size (read: he's no Big White Stiff). Mihm and Martin,
> likewise, are out of our reach. Etan Thomas is a mystery to me. I've watched
> him in this tournament and, to be honest, I liked him more as a freshman. He
> has really bulked up, but seems to have lost some of his quickness and
> explosiveness in the process. I'm not sure he'll still be around when we
> pick, but I guess I wouldn't be disappointed if we took him. Fizer: Who
> knows? Karl Malone or Gary Trent? He's much quicker afoot than Fortson. He's
> dominated the Big 12, which is a big step up from the MAC (Trent's
> conference). I think he'll score at the next level, but I'm not convinced he
> can defend the PF spot much better than Toine. In my mind, he's not exactly
> what we need, but would be a nice acquisition in a "best player available"
> sort of way.
>
> The scorers: It sounds like Murphy is staying at ND. Peterson and Richardson
> (who is slipping, at least before private workouts) could be there for us
> and may be options. I've seen Peterson a lot and he's really improved. Still
> needs to work on his ball-handling and passing, but has good size (6-7), can
> really shoot it, run the floor, attack the basket and defend. Pitino wants
> athletes, and MoPete is just that. The others mentioned seem like reaches at
> our draft position, although I like Hemsley's potential. He's one of the few
> athletic, big guards who defend and actually hit the open shot when they get
> it. He may move up in postseason workouts.
>
> A couple of players who have piqued my interest: Jerome Moiso. Not a
> finished product, but I watch him and ogle at his potential. He's 6-10, runs
> like a deer, blocks shots and has some nifty moves from 15 feet and in. I
> like this guy. His teammate, Dan Gadzuric looks pretty good too. And unlike
> most players who would benefit from staying in school, these two no doubt
> would get much better coaching on an NBA bench than they would from Steve
> Lavin.  Jabari Smith. Stromile Swift's running mate at LSU is 6-11 and
> athletic. Probably a reach for us, but I would think a mid-to-late first
> rounder. Richie Frahm is much more of an NBA prospect than I gave him credit
> for. Again, probably not a guy we'd consider at our spot, but he's 6-7, a
> great shooter and a pretty good athlete. Think Craig Ehlo.
>
> And Joe, I love Terrence Morris. I think he's said he'll stay for his senior
> year, but what a nice player. He's 6-9, can handle, rebound, shoot and run
> the floor. He's unselfish to a fault (Gary Williams wanted him to be a
> little more assertive offensively). He'd be a great fit at SF if we keep
> Toine at PF and Paul at SG. He gives us the intangibles of an Adrian Griffin
> in a more talented package. I think the Derrick McKey comparisons are pretty
> good.
>
> Anyway, it sounds like I'm not the only basketball junkie who plays NBA
> scout when watching these NCAA games. Jaime and Joe, I enjoyed your opinions
> on all these players.
>
> Mark

Hola, Mark-meister!  ( I'm getting carried away in the whole Jim Rome/Craig
Kilborn/George Bush "confident fratboys like me are America's greatest asset"
sentiment)  Comments on your "El Posto": Pepe Sanchez of Temple is a major,
major impact defender in the Marc Macon mold (of course Macon was an NBA bust).
In the best case scenario, I could imagine him nearly leading the NBA in steals
the way Brevin Knight nearly did as a rookie. If you look at Temple's record
with and without him, you can really make a case that he is the MVP of college
basketball. If you were drafting according to need, he seems tailor-made as a
sparkplug for the Pitino system, provided others can put 110 points on the
board.

Terrence Morris is a bit of a wallflower, but he's a sublime talent in the Lamar
Odom or young Danny Manning mold. I don't object that he let Steve Francis
assume the show-off role last season, but this year he played second fiddle to
little Juan Dixon's slick shooting. The nicest way you can put it is that Morris
is a total team-oriented player. If only Maryland could win under Gary Williams,
this would be a desirable attribute. Still, he is the closest thing the NCAA to
a triple-double type talent and I look forward to how he plays next year. At the
earliest, that's when we should cash in our Denver  Ron Mercer dividend.

I can easily conjure an image of Rick Pitino drafting St John's sophomore Erick
Barkley, even though arguably the last thing we need is another
shoot-first-to-prove-I-belong NYC point guard. If Pitino loved Chauncey Billup's
"measurables" (great maturity, great clutch, great defense, nice handle, but no
clue), he'll like Barkley nearly as much. Mateen Cleaves is an international man
of mystery. I love that type of clutch college player with a strong, bruising
body and heart, but I also adored Big 10 pointguard Rumeal Robinson and thought
the Quinn Buckner acquisition would assure five more championship banners in the
Gahden.

I don't know if you all remember the Sports Illustrated article on Kenny
Anderson when he was in high school in Queens. He  was the most hyped NY school
player since Lewis Alcinder. Anyway, that article described how Kenny would
dribble the ball to school and back and absolutely everywhere in between. My
co-worker, a whiteboy who got a full basketball scholarship at the University of
Florida, reminded me of that article and how it inspired him to do the very same
thing.

Incidentally, Jerome Moiso is a Frenchie. In general, "les froggies" are even
worse at basketball than American men are at soccer, so it is a freak of nature
that several have been first round NBA picks in the past few year (Fred "Edel"
Weis and Tariq Wahad). The far-out, unnatural concept of using your arms and
wrists to either throw, pass or aim a ball in a certain direction is totally
alien to the Euro culture, just as footwork and lower body balance don't come as
instinctively to Americans. That's why Europeans look like such fruit-boys from
our perspective when they play rugby or toss the ball inbounds in soccer.

We have two 6-10 French African guys who hang around the UNESCO basketball court
a lot (I assume it is one a half dozen courts in Paris, judging by the
unmanageable turnout for all our scrimmages).  There is also a really tall, kind
of spooky UNESCO staffmember named Michael Ratliff who supposedly played briefly
in the NBA in the early 1980s. He refuses to play for our inter-agency club team
because he knows that playing with clods like us could lead to injury. Paris
also has a picaresque outdoor caged court just under the Eiffel Tower a few
hundred yards from my office, but it is stone hard concrete.


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