Don’t recall reading much about his play in the exhibition games. Does it appear that he has stepped up his game? What is weight and body shape these days?
He’s played some good positional defense and appears to be entrenched as the team’s third big. You know you’ll get good passing from him and he’s played enough that I think Mike trusts him to be in the right places.
He is still hesitant to shoot, but it seems like he’s making an effort to be more assertive. I think it was the first game, he passed up a wide-open mid-range jumper, took a few dribbles and still didn’t shoot even after the defense didn’t close out. Later, he took two semi-contested mid-range shots and missed both.
I don’t know if someone said anything to him (that’s the biggest bummer about the media seats being moved to where they are now a while back… it is very difficult to have a clear view of the Arkansas bench), but it almost seemed like it.
I’ve seen them in practice enough to know he’s got a nice, soft jumper. For whatever reason, that hasn’t carried over to games. He rarely uses it and hasn’t hit it with regularity when he does. It seems like a confidence thing. Maybe the light comes on.
That said, it’s not like they’re gonna ask/need him to score a ton. I think he’ll play quite a bit this year. It’ll be interesting to see how the development of the freshmen goes and how the playing time shakes out next season.
Never going to be a star, but will have some significant minutes and be a plus player in their success this season.