Just want to give a shout out Kentan Facey. He does all the behind the scene things a team needs to be really competitive. He played a team high 37 minutes against Cinci. Kentan is going to be an amazing player by his senior year. Love the college game for reasons like this as we watch him grow from a player with potential to a Player!
I was JUST thinking about making a post about Kentan. He is definitely doing a lot behind the scenes that goes unnoticed.
Watch tcf's highlights of the Cinci game and see how many of those plays he's involved in on second glance:
- 34 seconds- KF wide open after loose ball, adjusts to and absorbs the contact for the and-1
- 1:10- KF sets great screen to get Calhoun open for jumper
- 4:07- KF sets 2 screens. Second one is PERFECTLY timed and positioned, opens up Boat for the easy wide-open 3
- 4:26- KF again wide open after loose ball. Receives and slams it home, no wasted effort.
- 5:28- KF plays superb defense and gets block which leads to easy transition bucket.
He's setting perfect screens to get guys open and he's making himself available for easy baskets. He's got a knack for always in the right place at the right time, especially on the boards. We finally have a post guy who is good at anticipating where the ball will go on rebounds. Once he has his hands on the ball, he's not losing it. He's got the strength down low to keep the ball high after securing it and go right back up for the bucket (this is tough to teach and our bigs always seem to struggle with it). He does a good job of absorbing contact and adjusting his shot for and-one put backs... he's had several so far this year.
Kentan has certainly made an impression on me. There were a lot of questions as to whether he could capably fill in for DeAndre at the 4 and I think he's answered all of those questions. He obviously doesn't bring the same offensive skill-set as DeAndre, but he's a better rebounder and a stonger body down low.
I think we do need to start utilizing him a little bit more on offense end to see what he's got. He doesn't look for his shot and I think that needs to change a bit more because in his limited shot opportunities he looks smooth. I think we could put him in the middle of a zone much like we can with Hamilton.
It's also worth noting that he's improved a lot defensively which was a big question coming into the year. Still work to be done in this area, however.
Overall, very satisfied with Kentan and I think he is a major contributor on this team even though he's not getting the hype. He seems like a likable and humble kid too. The fact that he played a team-high 37 minutes vs Cinci says a lot about how import KO thinks he is to this team.
