Gary Parrish isn’t gonna be able to contain himself.
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Memphis is going to be a very interesting team this upcoming season. In a lot of ways, they will mirror Duke. There is a lot of top-end talent but questions about the way it all fits together. They have questions about their point guard play, in particular.
Bates was discussing his decision and the pitch that Penny Hardaway made to him. Bates said that Hardaway envisions him as a point-forward, a player that can initiate the offense. That seems optimistic considering Bates is not known as a particularly good passer or distributor. Bates has been criticized for being a shot taker and scorer that hasn't had to get his teammates involved much. Jalen Duren is another player that, while talented and skilled, is not known as a playmaker. He strikes me as a jack-of-all-trades type rather than overly dominant in one area. The rest of the roster has talent. Landers Nolley is a very talented wing that will help with spacing. The same can be said for Lester Quinones. DeAndre Williams, a 6'9" F, might be their best passer. He's a Swiss Army Knife kind of player. You put those five out there and you've got a TALL and LONG team that goes 6'5", 6'7", 6'9", 6'9", and 6'10". Memphis had a really good defense last year and I expect they will again this season. The offense was atrocious, though, and they continue to lack an obvious playmaker on the roster. Alex Lomax, a 6'0" PG, only plays sparingly, and he and Williams have been turnover prone. I'm sure Memphis will be better on offense this upcoming season and a terror in transition. I just wonder if their ceiling is not quite as high as the talent suggests on account of the lack of playmaking.
So now the to remaining uncommitted player in the 2021 class, a kid who is ranked #132, is going to the Overtime Elite. Yes, #132. I know ranking can be off, blah blah blah, certainly in the 2021 and 2022 classes they can be, but come on. They ain't that far off. He may not want to play college basketball, and he of course has the right to do what he wants and more power to him etc., but he belongs in college basketball. At least the basketball part of it. Plus, with a name like Kok Yat, we NEED him in college basketball.
But dang. High school juniors bypassing their last year of high school, and now you've got a guy who was a borderline mid-major/high major prospect before signing with DePaul (after having reclassified from 2022), and they're going straight to getting paid. At least for a year or so anyway. Getting kinda nuts . . .
Here's the link:
https://twitter.com/i/topics/news/e1...D&refsrc=email
Duke MBB's twitter account posted a cute video yesterday of the team singing happy birthday to Mickie Krzyzewski. In the background, there's a tall, gangly kid, about 7 feet tall. Looks like a freshman. He's not listed on the official Duke roster. Some sleuthing by folks over at another message board suggests this might by Stanley Borden, who was on the Portuguese U20 nation team that played in the Euro Championships this past summer. I am looking forward to seeing more info about this kid. Good tip from kidA!
https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/1442298136832225284
Not sure where else to put this, but here's an interesting analysis of college sports and the transfer portal, examining different sports, programs, and conferences.
https://www.athleticdirectoru.com/ar...ansfer-portal/
Borden's stats from the Portuguese U20 team are underwhelming. I would guess that, at most, he's on the practice team. It takes more than being tall to play basketball at Duke.
Turns out the sleuths were right. Borden is now officially on the team.