- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 3,050
- Reaction Score
- 6,248
Granted one game, but for a players debut, Boatright was impressive. Consider this; he performed at a high level in his first game, against a legit high major program and did so throughout the game including winning time.
I remember watching KU's 2010 freshman combo-guard Josh Selby have an outstanding first game last year after he had to sit out a bunch of games, but that turned out to be the high point of his KU career. But based on watching Ryan in HS and finally in a UConn uniform, I'm convinced he's the real deal.
I had anticipated he'd play at a much more mature level than one would expect and he didn't dispel that believe on Saturday. That's not to say he's not going to make freshman mistakes and have some bad games along the way. Consider how well Napier has been playing, and how horrible his play was on Friday. It's going to happen, and happen more often with Freshman, though Boatshow is very talented.
I replayed part of the game and here's what impressed me:
Sees the floor well and delivers the ball quickly. There were a number of plays where he recognized the open man and delivered the ball to him. A few times he did not get the assist because the player either was fouled or missed a make-able shot.
Big time handle - He's just a freshman and he already has a handle that looks as good if not better than Kemba's. There was a play where the dribbled into traffic, really had no play and somehow dribbled his way back out of trouble. Probably not the best decision, but his escape-ability was impressive there.
Big time shot maker - Wow! He had two amazing drives where he used that big time handle (impressive crossover) to weave his way through traffice, elevate and knock down a pair of very difficult shots. He can also knock down the deep ball, making him extremely dangerous. We haven't seen enough of that to tell if he's going to be a big enough outside threat that defenders will have to play up on him. But if he is, he's going to be able to set up his drives like Ben Gordon used to do, when players tried to close on him quickly. Inside the arc, Kemba had that type of effect, but his 3 point shooting, which improved over time, wasn't as big of a threat as Ben's was. As my title suggests, Boatright's game looks similar to what we've seen from Kemba and Allen Iverson. He's more Iverson's size and is more athletic than Kemba, so the Iverson comparison seems more accurate. Note, I'm not saying he'll be as good as Iverson. Just comparing his style of play. But if he finishes on a consistent basis like he did the other day, he just might come close. What separated AI from the rest of the small athletic guards was his prolific scoring ability. I've never seen a player who was able to score from all over the court with defenders all over him. There were many times that he didn't even see the rim while taking his shot and still found a way to knock down a good number of those shots.
He seems to be a Big Moment guy, like Shad, Kemba and his current backcourt mate, Shabazz. Just about any freshman playing his first game, having to knock down 3 FTs to prevent his team from losing would likely fail. RB calmly went to the line and knocked 'em down. I must admit the last one which was delivered a tad to the left scared me, but it went down. Although Bazz missed a huge FT a few plays earlier, RB gives this team another Plus-FT shooter for end of game situations along with Bazz, Lamb and Daniels. There isn't a coach out there that doesn't dream about having a couple of very good FT shooters to put on the floor during end-of-game situations. JC has at least 4.
RB was fortunate not to have any TOs. He had at least a couple of bad passes that didn't result in TOs. One of his 3s got snuffed out by Snear, who is one of the best perimeter defenders I've seen in a long time.
I wish it was a 5 game suspension. I have little doubt that we would have beaten UCF with him. What he brings to the game is exactly what was missing in that loss. During that time when they squandered the big lead, they really struggled to disrupt UCF's defense. Boatright would have been able to get into the teeth of their D, especially when they went zone, and made enough plays to get that W.
I remember watching KU's 2010 freshman combo-guard Josh Selby have an outstanding first game last year after he had to sit out a bunch of games, but that turned out to be the high point of his KU career. But based on watching Ryan in HS and finally in a UConn uniform, I'm convinced he's the real deal.
I had anticipated he'd play at a much more mature level than one would expect and he didn't dispel that believe on Saturday. That's not to say he's not going to make freshman mistakes and have some bad games along the way. Consider how well Napier has been playing, and how horrible his play was on Friday. It's going to happen, and happen more often with Freshman, though Boatshow is very talented.
I replayed part of the game and here's what impressed me:
Sees the floor well and delivers the ball quickly. There were a number of plays where he recognized the open man and delivered the ball to him. A few times he did not get the assist because the player either was fouled or missed a make-able shot.
Big time handle - He's just a freshman and he already has a handle that looks as good if not better than Kemba's. There was a play where the dribbled into traffic, really had no play and somehow dribbled his way back out of trouble. Probably not the best decision, but his escape-ability was impressive there.
Big time shot maker - Wow! He had two amazing drives where he used that big time handle (impressive crossover) to weave his way through traffice, elevate and knock down a pair of very difficult shots. He can also knock down the deep ball, making him extremely dangerous. We haven't seen enough of that to tell if he's going to be a big enough outside threat that defenders will have to play up on him. But if he is, he's going to be able to set up his drives like Ben Gordon used to do, when players tried to close on him quickly. Inside the arc, Kemba had that type of effect, but his 3 point shooting, which improved over time, wasn't as big of a threat as Ben's was. As my title suggests, Boatright's game looks similar to what we've seen from Kemba and Allen Iverson. He's more Iverson's size and is more athletic than Kemba, so the Iverson comparison seems more accurate. Note, I'm not saying he'll be as good as Iverson. Just comparing his style of play. But if he finishes on a consistent basis like he did the other day, he just might come close. What separated AI from the rest of the small athletic guards was his prolific scoring ability. I've never seen a player who was able to score from all over the court with defenders all over him. There were many times that he didn't even see the rim while taking his shot and still found a way to knock down a good number of those shots.
He seems to be a Big Moment guy, like Shad, Kemba and his current backcourt mate, Shabazz. Just about any freshman playing his first game, having to knock down 3 FTs to prevent his team from losing would likely fail. RB calmly went to the line and knocked 'em down. I must admit the last one which was delivered a tad to the left scared me, but it went down. Although Bazz missed a huge FT a few plays earlier, RB gives this team another Plus-FT shooter for end of game situations along with Bazz, Lamb and Daniels. There isn't a coach out there that doesn't dream about having a couple of very good FT shooters to put on the floor during end-of-game situations. JC has at least 4.
RB was fortunate not to have any TOs. He had at least a couple of bad passes that didn't result in TOs. One of his 3s got snuffed out by Snear, who is one of the best perimeter defenders I've seen in a long time.
I wish it was a 5 game suspension. I have little doubt that we would have beaten UCF with him. What he brings to the game is exactly what was missing in that loss. During that time when they squandered the big lead, they really struggled to disrupt UCF's defense. Boatright would have been able to get into the teeth of their D, especially when they went zone, and made enough plays to get that W.