I know Boatright is pretty small....

[Palatine]

Kemba continued to over-pentrate as a sophomore.Only when he learn to stop at 12 feet did he become a super star. Boatright has already learned this lesson. He is going to be very, very good.

 

[upstater]

Not sacregious. One of the best things about Kemba was how hard he worked to improve his game. Did any of us think that Kemba would be in the discussion of all time greats his freshman year? It's only 2 games for RB but it appears he will have a bigger impact as a freshman than Kemba

I didn't think Kemba would be an all-time great but I think this tends to get exaggerated. Kemba did not have a solid outside shot. Otherwise, he was a great defensive presence and very dynamic as a freshman.

If someone could watch his games against Syracuse his freshman year, they'd see the same sort of moves and athleticisim they saw in his third year. He made some incredible plays, but he just didn't see much time with Price and Dyson ahead of him.

His biggest improvement, IMO, was his outside shot.

 

[Catsailor]

I don't care if he's 5'11", because a kid called Iverson had a decent NBA career and 2 games in we don't even know his upside. He will play at the next level I predict.

+1
And before AI there was legit 5' 9" Connecticut native, HOF, Calvin Murphy
I'll take talent & desire (heart) over height any day!

 

[caw]

Kemba was a different type of defender as a freshman; he seemed to go for the charge by jumping the route of the PG, rather than a pick your pocket defender that Boat seems to be. Kemba as a junior was a lot stronger and got a lot higher on his jumper. Kemba was probably a tad faster also. Boatright might have a better handle, Kemba almost moved too fast for the ball sometimes.

Scout:

1) Teague: 30 mins, 10 pts, 2.5 RPG 4.1 APG, 1.8 Steals, 44%, 52%, 37%
2) Kabongo 28 mins, 10 pts, 3.6 RPG 5.9 APG, 1.6 Steals, 39%, 67%, 31%
3) Turner 21 mins, 7 pts, 2.9 RPG, 1.7 APG, 0.7 Steals, 38%, 64%, 14%
4) Wroten 24 mins, 13 pts, 4.2 RPG, 3.8 APG, 2.2 Steals, 45%, 49%, 29%
5) Young 22 mins, 13 pts, 4.0 RPG, 2.5 APG, 0.5 Steals, 50%, 80%, 40%
6) Scott 12 mins, 3 pts, 1.0 RPG, 2.1 APG, 0.6 Steals, 44%, 33%, 20%
7) Carson DNP
8) Cook 8.4 mins, 3 pts, 0.9 RPG, 1.0 APG, 0.5 Steasl, 35%, 89%, 30%
9) Branch 21 mins, 6 pts, 3.2 RPG, 3.2 APG, 0.7 Steals, 52%, 00%, 43%
10) Hinds 28 mins, 12 pts, 3.3 RPG, 4.0 APG, 2.8 Steals, 55%, 65%, 44%
11) Johnson 8 mins, 1 pts, 0.4 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.3 Steals, 30%, 50%, 50%
12) Randle 27 mins, 11 pts, 3.4 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.6 Steals, 45%, 79%, 40%
13) Abrams 16 mins, 3.5 pts, 2.3 RPG, 1.8 APG, 0.8 Steals, 42%, 78%, 25%
14) Jones DNP
15) Boatright 34 mins, 19 pts, 3.0 RPG, 4.5 APG, 1.0 SPG, 63%, 77%, 50%

I don't think WVU is crying that much, it looks like (assuming stats hold) they got the second best PG last year tied with Wroten and Kabongo. It will be interesting to see if Boatright can keep this up and if any of the above can improve. Not sure anyone lower is putting up stats to warrant following. Red means they were McD AA's. ESPN had Boatright at 14, and Hinds at 20, Rivals had him at #9.

And just for fun:

Scout SG's
1)Barton
2)Bullock
3)Brown
4)Ross
5)Waiters
6)Lamb, not UConn's
7)Blue
8)Coleman
9)Harrell
10)McRae
11)Appling
12)Lamb, still not UConn's
13)Zeigler
14)Brown
15)Sibert
16)Terrell
17)Crabbe
18)Bejarano
19)Head
20)Byrd
21)Canty
22)Jeremy Lamb, umm yeah.

 

[Burnsbros23]

The rankings are a joke. If you asked anyone from Illinois who watched any high school basketball who was better Tracy Abrams or Ryan Boatright they would laugh. One Illinois basketball site that does a solid job had Abrams as the 16th best senior in the state Boatright was 4. Shows how little the high school season matters.

 

[Mr.Phat]

After reading all these messages I wanted to add: is Boatright THE best playing recruit at this stage in the Calhoun era? I don't remember Calhoun ever having a player who has stepped in so quickly (two games) and contributed so much. He plays like a seasoned junior. Maybe I'm overstating his Arkansas performance, he hasn't faced BE defenses yet and it's only two games but this kid is unreal so far. Donyell? Rip, RA? El Amin? Gordon? Who was playing like Showboat (and I mean that in the best sense) after two games?

 

[jleves]

After reading all these messages I wanted to add: is Boatright THE best playing recruit at this stage in the Calhoun era? I don't remember Calhoun ever having a player who has stepped in so quickly (two games) and contributed so much. He plays like a seasoned junior. Maybe I'm overstating his Arkansas performance, he hasn't faced BE defenses yet and it's only two games but this kid is unreal so far. Donyell? Rip, RA? El Amin? Gordon? Who was playing like Showboat (and I mean that in the best sense) after two games?

I can't find the box scores for the first two games, but ElAmin averaged 16pts, 4.2 assists and had a 1.56 A/TO ratio for his freshman year. Pretty good numbers. I think I would be happy with Boat achieving that for the year. Maybe closer to the 2.0 A/TO ratio.

 

[tzznandrew]

Khalid is certainly who came to mind in response to this.

 

[caw]

I can't find the box scores for the first two games, but ElAmin averaged 16pts, 4.2 assists and had a 1.56 A/TO ratio for his freshman year. Pretty good numbers. I think I would be happy with Boat achieving that for the year. Maybe closer to the 2.0 A/TO ratio.

PTS, RPG, APG

Ben Gordon had a mediocre first game with 8, 5 and 2, but followed that with 23, 6 and 5 and then 19, 4 and 5.
Kemba was similar with 8, 3 and 5 then 21, 5 and 2 and 23, 3 and 4
Caron had 20, 4 and 0 then 21, 12 and 5 then 15, 9 and 3 (jeez he was a beast)
KEA had 23, 2, 5 and 5 steals, then 10, 1 and 6 then 23, 2 and 3

http://statsheet.com/mcb/teams/connecticut

No clue how accurate that site is, but it seemed to jive with what I remembered.

 

[jleves]

PTS, RPG, APG

Ben Gordon had a mediocre first game with 8, 5 and 2, but followed that with 23, 6 and 5 and then 19, 4 and 5.
Kemba was similar with 8, 3 and 5 then 21, 5 and 2 and 23, 3 and 4
Caron had 20, 4 and 0 then 21, 12 and 5 then 15, 9 and 3 (jeez he was a beast)
KEA had 23, 2, 5 and 5 steals, then 10, 1 and 6 then 23, 2 and 3

http://statsheet.com/mcb/teams/connecticut

No clue how accurate that site is, but it seemed to jive with what I remembered.

Cool site - pretty charts!

 

[Mr.Phat]

Cool site - pretty charts!

I completely forgot Caron! snow.

 

[jleves]

O

PTS, RPG, APG

Ben Gordon had a mediocre first game with 8, 5 and 2, but followed that with 23, 6 and 5 and then 19, 4 and 5.
Kemba was similar with 8, 3 and 5 then 21, 5 and 2 and 23, 3 and 4
Caron had 20, 4 and 0 then 21, 12 and 5 then 15, 9 and 3 (jeez he was a beast)
KEA had 23, 2, 5 and 5 steals, then 10, 1 and 6 then 23, 2 and 3

http://statsheet.com/mcb/teams/connecticut

No clue how accurate that site is, but it seemed to jive with what I remembered.

One thing to consider in comparing the first games, the 4 above were playing against the cupcakes of the first week of the season while Boat has done it against major D1 teams.