OT...men's NCAA in Hartford....an entertaining player!

[Blakeon18]

Ja Morant of Murray State...12 seed..led his team to an easy win over 5 seed Marquette.
They play Florida State on Saturday.

I had only seen some highlights of this kid....I think he is a soph. I heard many raves about him with predictions that he would go #3 in the draft behind Zion and some other Dukie.

About 6'3"...kinda skinny...he looked just great yesterday...and he made it look easy. 17 points [9 shots]…..11 boards....16 assists.
#3 in the draft from Murray State? Gotta be a first. Several commentators had him up to #2 after this performance.

Good game against FSU...bad game....he is seriously fun to watch.

 

[meyers7]

I guess he had played with Williams in AAU. But wasn't really recruited all that highly????

RJ Barrett is probably the other "Dukie" you're thinking of.

 

[oldude]

Projected to be a top 5 pick in the NBA draft. As talented as he is, it’s a wonder that all the big time basketball powerhouses missed him on the recruiting trail.

 

[eebmg]

Projected to be a top 5 pick in the NBA draft. As talented as he is, it’s a wonder that all the big time basketball powerhouses missed him on the recruiting trail.

I imagine his development was slow and he was not the blue chipper in HS that Zion was. His freshman stats were good but by no means NBA ready. He is a beautiful player to watch. Truly unselfish and takes greater pleasure in passing and setting up his teammates than scoring. I was lucky to see the entire game against Marquette and the highlights and numbers do not do him justice. He was toying with them. His decision making is fantastic. They tried everything including hard double teams out high. He just maneuvered around to the half line or made quick passes to break any pressure.

Many think he may impact the NBA more quickly than Zion will.

 

[oldude]

I imagine his development was slow and he was not the blue chipper in HS that Zion was. His freshman stats were good but by no means NBA ready. He is a beautiful player to watch. Truly unselfish and takes greater pleasure in passing and setting up his teammates than scoring. I was lucky to see the entire game against Marquette and the highlights and numbers do not do him justice. He was toying with them. His decision making is fantastic. They tried everything including hard double teams out high. He just maneuvered around to the half line or made quick passes to break any pressure.

Many think he may impact the NBA more quickly than Zion will.

I’m sure you’re correct. Since he’s a little on the lean side, it may simply be that his body wasn’t quite ready for his game as a freshman. Once he spent some time in the weight room, he blossomed into one of the best players in MBB.

In some ways, Ja Morant’s path to stardom might foreshadow the path of another lean but talented player by the name of Aubrey Griffin.