Gilbert's Team Takes Title

[Sphinx]

(Sorry, can find no video of this.)

Miller Grove defeated Alatoona last night, 50-48, to take the Georgia Boys AAAAA Title. Alterique Gilbert had 15 points, 4 assists and five steals in a defensive battle. Alatoona was previously undefeated at 31-0, Miller Grove finished 30-2.

Cannot overstate the importance of AG to next year's hopes. although, unlike most here, I do not necessarily see a Gilbert-Adams starting backcourt. Need a shooter at the 2. Gilbert allows that. He is a legit 5-star McD's AA PG who can take over the team from the get-go. This will permit the luxury of having a pure shooter, Purvis, at SG with Adams coming off the bench behind both of them. It will dispense once and for all with DHam as a point forward, allowing him to operate from the 4, DeAndre-style, using the baseline on his drives, rebounding, taking the corner trey. This will free the 3 slot for Larrier or another pure shooter in Jackson.

My hope, anyway. And maybe Durham comes in healthy and surprises at the 5.

 

[Hoophound]

I don't see any way that Adams doesn't start. You are underestimating the growth he'll have this offseason and you are overestimating the ability of an undersized PG to walk into the job successfully on day one as the leader.

Adams will be a great player. I think what you are seeing this year is a delay in Jalen's growth due to the Gibbs experiment. Adams gets to the rim with ease.

 

[jibsey]

"Take over the team from the get go"? As much as I hope that this happens and we need this, I'm tempering expectations. Let myself get way overhyped last summer, kept thinking why are we ranked so low at 18? I knew we were way better than that. I'm thinking that by Enoch and Adam's 3rd season and Gilbert's second we could have something special.

 

[UConnSwag11]

http://highschoolsports.blog.ajc.com/2016/03/04/class-aaaaa-boys-miller-grove-50-allatoona-48/

and either adams and gilbert are starting together or gilber is coming off the bench

 

[husky99]

Guy I talk to said his game reminds him of Melo Trimble from MD. The height is different but the ability to control a game and carve a D to the basket

 

[sammydabiz]

Gilbert's a PCC'er

A potential program changer, him signing his LOI was the highlight of 2015

 

[tzznandrew]

I don't see any way that Adams doesn't start. You are underestimating the growth he'll have this offseason and you are overestimating the ability of an undersized PG to walk into the job successfully on day one as the leader.

Adams will be a great player. I think what you are seeing this year is a delay in Jalen's growth due to the Gibbs experiment. Adams gets to the rim with ease.

I'm not going to blame Gibbs here. Other than KEA (who had Jr. Ricky Moore already there) and Sheffer (who had Jr. KO), we generally don't have a young PG do a good job running the show in his first year: KO, Moore, Brown, Price, Kemba, Shabazz. All these kids really struggled as freshman or sophomores without another more experienced PG.

Add Adams to this list. He shows signs of brilliance, and then shows signs of being a freshman.

It's a hard position, and Gibbs alleviated some of the pressure.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

It'll be nice to have a spark off the bench with Gilbert. It's how kemba, bazz, and boat started out at uconn and it seemed to help them all.

KO appeared to try and do that early with Adams (who really knows KO's logic at this point), but with our personnel it didn't make sense since he is the only one who can run an offense

 

[The Viking]

Unless the kid is an unreal talent, you should never rely on starting a freshman. Game is so much quicker at this level, players are bigger, stronger, faster.
Have him come off the bench and learn and he'll be a valuable asset that way. Adams and Purv as your backcourt with Gilbert off the bench is the way to go.
And tell Purv the only thing to work on for 5 straight months is finishing layups and he'll be a stud for us next year.

 

[tzznandrew]

It'll be nice to have a spark off the bench with Gilbert. It's how kemba, bazz, and boat started out at uconn and it seemed to help them all.

KO appeared to try and do that early with Adams (who really knows KO's logic at this point), but with our personnel it didn't make sense since he is the only one who can run an offense

I think that was exactly his idea.

I think this team is better with Gibbs than without. Also, if Gibbs were a PG, this team would be very good. If he were a slasher who could get into the paint and score, but maybe not a PG--someone like Dyson--we would be better. But, sadly, Gibbs is a shooting guard, and the team as constructed has some fatal flaws stemming from that.

 

[superjohn]

I think that was exactly his idea.

I think this team is better with Gibbs than without. Also, if Gibbs were a PG, this team would be very good. If he were a slasher who could get into the paint and score, but maybe not a PG--someone like Dyson--we would be better. But, sadly, Gibbs is a shooting guard, and the team as constructed has some fatal flaws stemming from that.

If Gibbs were Steph Curry we would be really good.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I'm not going to blame Gibbs here. Other than KEA (who had Jr. Ricky Moore already there) and Sheffer (who had Jr. KO), we generally don't have a young PG do a good job running the show in his first year: KO, Moore, Brown, Price, Kemba, Shabazz. All these kids really struggled as freshman or sophomores without another more experienced PG.

Add Adams to this list. He shows signs of brilliance, and then shows signs of being a freshman.

It's a hard position, and Gibbs alleviated some of the pressure.

KO had Chris Smith, Kemba had Price, Shabazz had Kemba, Moore had Sheffer IIRC. Your point seems to apply to Taliek primarily unless I am missing something. AJ could fit too, I guess. His time was rather unique over the first 2 years.

 

[Sphinx]

I wonder if our over-assessment of Adams last fall is setting us up for an under-assessment of Gilbert. The consensus here was that Adams was an overlooked 5-star McD's AA. The fact that no service rated him above 4-star and he was not chosen to the McD's AA team was seen as an oversight. Even now, hope proves to be a stubborn thing. We look for greatness next year from a PG who has no outside shot, must still learn to protect the ball, and while he can penetrate wondrously, cannot actually run a play. We are reduced to counting on "the growth he'll have this offseason."

In Gilbert we have a consensus 5-star McD's AA. We need not dream up credentials for him; his skills are nationally-recognized. He is a true point, not a combo-guard who must be taught to play the point. Adams no doubt can do an improved job next year, possibly get us to the tourney -- and maybe Gilbert will require a learning curve. But Gilbert is our only hope for a special season. My opinion anyway.

 

[tzznandrew]

KO had Chris Smith, Kemba had Price, Shabazz had Kemba, Moore had Sheffer IIRC. Your point seems to apply to Taliek primarily unless I am missing something. AJ could fit too, I guess. His time was rather unique over the first 2 years.

Their first year on their own:
KO 1993. NIT
Moore 1997. NIT
Brown 2001. NIT
AJ Price 2007. No Postseason
Kemba 2010. NIT
Shabazz 2012. 9-seed despite having Lamb, Drummond, Daniels and Boat.

Shabazz with Boatright, each of them were the primary ballhandler and had no one else to help them out. Help would arrive: Sheffer in 1994, KEA in 98, Gordon in 02, Napier in 11, and Bazz and Boat figured out their alpha issues in 13.

I think having Gilbert come in will help Adams since Gilbert is a PG, and so we'll see 2 PG sets next year like we did in all our PGs best years.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Their first year on their own:
.

Okay, I thought you meant as freshmen.

 

[tzznandrew]

Okay, I thought you meant as freshmen.

Fair enough. I was editing it and maybe messed it up in one of my go throughs.

Each of them had difficulties running the show without another PG level player.

 

[lange10]

If Enoch can improve defensively or if Brimah continues to improve as a rebounder a line up of Gilbert, Adams, Purvis, Hamilton, Enoch/Brimah sounds like some fun.

 

[Hoophound]

To be clear, I don't blame Gibbs for being a bad pg, I blame KO for trying to pound a square peg into a round hole when we could have developed Jalen faster.

I like KO and I think having capable distributing guards will right the ship. I'm not as concerned about coaching as I am about guard talent.

 

[tzznandrew]

To be clear, I don't blame Gibbs for being a bad pg, I blame KO for trying to pound a square peg into a round hole when we could have developed Jalen faster.

I like KO and I think having capable distributing guards will right the ship. I'm not as concerned about coaching as I am about guard talent.

I'm really not sure that Jalen would "develop faster." Freshmen are freshmen, and you don't want to sacrifice our OOC games early in the year when the AAC isn't strong--although probably better than we thought in November. Now we didn't win enough of those games, but I doubt we do any better than we did with a Freshman PG.

Also, I'm pretty sure Gibbs looked pretty good leading the team in practice. Part of that is because Nnamdi Amilo is a scholarship player for us, which tells you almost all you need to do about our team. And when Gibbs struggled, I'd bet KO reflected on what Gibbs did at Seton Hall and assumed he could play through it.

 

[JimHurley]

0% chance Adams doesn't start next year. If Adams, Gilbert, and Larrier start i'll be happy.

 

[tzznandrew]

0% chance Adams doesn't start next year. If Adams, Gilbert, and Larrier start i'll be happy.

I mean, you've only seen one of them play at this level in the last year. While the coaching staff has left us underwhelmed this year, let's not already put too much pressure on Larrier and Gilbert.

 

[Chief00]

Gilbert will start by December or earlier.

 

[AstarIsBorn31]