Kendall Harris Released from LOI

[Horatio]

Are you trying to be this corny on purpose? I specified non AAU because there's more organziation at the HS level. Try to come off less lame next time if you're gonna go this route.

All I'm saying is if your going to jump into our posts and chastise us for not having "non aau " information you should at least show the courtesy of inviting us to the " non aau" games.

 

[James]

Ace, give me some insight on Samuels. The lack of footage until recently scared me ,and even in those clips whitehead looked so much more polished while being younger. My buddy told me he is a workhorse (Terrence), but how about his other attributes? Does he got the ball on a string? Is he an ATHLETE?

 

[aceboon]

Ace, give me some insight on Samuels. The lack of footage until recently scared me ,and even in those clips whitehead looked so much more polished while being younger. My buddy told me he is a workhorse (Terrence), but how about his other attributes? Does he got the ball on a string? Is he an ATHLETE?

Whitehead is a better player and prospect, but that's nothing new as Whitehead has been hyped as NYC next big thing since 8th grade. Before I proceed all my observations are based off of this year(really the past couple of months) as I only recently started attending PSAL games because my cousin works in the school system and I've been hanging with him after work. Samuel imo is a slightly above average athlete, he doesn't blow you away with speed or hops but coupled with his size and strength it stands out more instead of seeing the same speed and hops in a 6'0', 6'1" guy(Bazz for example). As for handles, I'll keep using our current roster to compare, he's not Bazz, but he's a very good ballhandler and didn't show any issues in handling pressure or when bumped(the refs I observed let alot of go so he should have no trouble adjusting to awful college refs). He pretty much gets into the lane at will and I love his vision, in the games I saw he was always setting up guys with either bounce passes or quick no looks once getting by his man. I actually would've liked to have seen him shoot more or look for his own offense as he showed some crafty moves around the rim.

As for weaknesses, shooting is obviously the biggest one as been pointed out in his scouting report. One thing I noticed in the AAU clips of his New Rens squad on youtube is that he seemed to shoot the ball at the end of his jump, on the jumpers I've seen him take recently he seems to have cleaned this up a bit but he still needs work on his form and consistency. As for defense, he plays way too upright, Ollie and the rest of the staff are going to have to school him on this because he will get blown by at will(ala Jeremy last year) if he plays D like this. He has the physical tools to be a very good defensive player(size, long arms, strength) so I expect improvement there once he gets schooled on technique. Another area that he will have to work on imo is dealing with handling the ball more in our offensive system. On his HS team he plays with alot of guys who are capable of handling the ball(Saint-Hillare on his team who is a JR is a pretty good D1 prospect himself, among others) and he'll give up the ball early in his squad's offensive sets. I know that's probably a product of their system but at UConn everything begins and ends with our guards, maybe that will change in the future if Ollie gets more weapons and guys who are capable of creating, but I feel going forward in the future KO is always going to have an offense that features at least 2 guards and possibly a wing with good ballhandling abilities dictating everything. If Samuel eventually becomes a starting PG or a guy capable of giving 20 minutes he's gonna have to get used to handling the ball more for a longer period of time during an offensive set. All in all I'm a fan of him though, I think there's alot to work with to at least become a solid contributor during his career.

Edit: Didn't mean to hijack the thread, I hope we get Harris for depth and having 2 PGs to groom under hopefully both Bazz and Boat and possibly eliminating the need to sign a PG in '14.

 

[James]

Yeah my buddy trains cardinal Hayes in the Bronx , he told me one thing to know is Terrence is a workhorse. Gym rat. And he loves uconn. Thanks for the report. Way better than go* dam espn, who had olander pegged as a stud.

 

[PomonaHusky]

Whitehead is a better player and prospect, but that's nothing new as Whitehead has been hyped as NYC next big thing since 8th grade. ...shortened to save space.

Awesome reports Aceboon and James. I think with the two bigs coming in and if just one of our current PGs stays (hopefully both), we should be much improved next season.

 

[superjohn]

aceboon, thanks for the great report. One question you said you think he could be a solid contributor during his career. Do you think he will be a solid contributor next year or just further down the road?

 

[husky99]

hearing he is cutting his list in a few days and probably not leaving the state of texas.. could be talk, but good source

 

[aceboon]

aceboon, thanks for the great report. One question you said you think he could be a solid contributor during his career. Do you think he will be a solid contributor next year or just further down the road?

Meant for his career, I honestly think he has the potential to be a starter, and a good one at that. Can't say for sure next year, assuming Boat & Bazz are both back, them 2 along with Omar are going to eat up the majority of the minutes at those 3 spots, leaving someone to fill an Evans type role as far buying some time for the guards to get a quick rest. While it would be nice to have guards available for Boat and Bazz to get their minutes cut some so they don't have to play the whole game, the team is probably going to have them out there to be successful again.

 

[Horatio]

Meant for his career, I honestly think he has the potential to be a starter, and a good one at that. Can't say for sure next year, assuming Boat & Bazz are both back, them 2 along with Omar are going to eat up the majority of the minutes at those 3 spots, leaving someone to fill an Evans type role as far buying some time for the guards to get a quick rest. While it would be nice to have guards available for Boat and Bazz to get their minutes cut some so they don't have to play the whole game, the team is probably going to have them out there to be successful again.

Really