Re: interesting scoop on espn radio

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

If Leo and Wallace are watching individual game videos, they'll see that Rodney
White was quite consistent in general and played against a level of competititon
that is a lot tougher than you'd think. I mean you might think "Charlotte, who
do these guys play, Vasser and Bryn Mawr!?" but in fact they came out on top in
a league with some of the most storied names in college basketball (DePaul,
Cincinatti, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, St Louis, Alabama-Birmingham).

I have no intention of emphasizing the negative, but a couple of games that
Wallace and Papile might want to order tapes on are the three games against the
Cincy Bearcats (a top defensive team). In his first game in January, White
fouled out in 17 minutes but still scored 18 points in a blowout loss. The
second time they played, White was held to a season low 4 points on 2-10
shooting. When they met again for the conference championship, White stepped up
for 7-12 shooting and 8 boards. He must have figured something out.

A second area of "concern" is the NCAA tourney, where two very athletic teams
(Tennessee and Illinois) clearly focused on White and held him to 9-29 shooting
and 10.5 ppg. That's the kind of shooting night we might expect pretty regularly
from any freshman making the big jump to the NBA, but at least he won't face
pressure to score with Pierce and Walker on the team.

In the illimination game versus Illinois, White shot 4-13 thanks to a 0-6 effort
from 3-point land, hence the "Antoine Jr" analogies. Antoine was a much more
promising passer and rebounder in college, but White shot an impressive .487FG%
for a guy who was the focus of every defensive strategy. He actually shot an
excellent .533FG% from 2-point land. Sounds like a kid with a really natural
shooting eye.

Overall, White averaged 18.7 points and did so with remarkable consistency (no
stat-padding games as was the case with Eddie Griffin early on). On the other
hand, at this stage he is by no means a plus rebounder (6.5) or shot-blocker
(0.6) or playmaker (1.5 assists, 2.9 turnovers). If that were our drafting
criteria, I suppose we could do a lot better looking elsewhere with the 10th
pick.

Chances are that White is one of many who will have a bumpy rookie year. Of
course, he could have an immediate impact on our "shoot first, think second"
offense.