The scouting report on Jaylen on this forum as well as some others was that he was a PG that will remind us of Kareem Reid.
Kareem came here without a jump shot. So the shooting skills of Jaylen match up with Kareem as a freshman. Jaylen may be somewhat ahead of Kareem in that he has a mid range jump shot that Kareem did not have. Kareem was shooting threes by the time he left. I expect Jaylen to do the same by the time he leaves.
It is probably an exaggeration but it seemed Kareem rarely had a turnover. Jaylen is not quite there yet but other than a few bad games, Harris seems to protect the ball as well. Kareem’s handle was extraordinary. Harris does have a pretty good handle.
Kareem was outstanding in dribbling down the court at supersonic speed and finishing with either hand. He was of course left handed which was a huge advantage. This is the skill that I am not seeing from Jaylen. I expected him to score off driving layups and scoring 6 to 10 points a game on layups.
Kareem was outstanding in controlling the tempo of the game even as a freshman. I expected him to steady this inexperienced team when there is adversity. This is also something I have not seen from Jaylen on a consistent basis.
Kareem looked like a finished product the day he got here in all PG skills except the jump shot. Jaylen may get there by the time he is a senior, but he is not quite there yet.
But I suppose that is the difference between a McDonalds All-American 5 star PG and a 3 star PG.
I think Jaylen read the board last week. Almost every post referencing him was he needed to be a better shooter in order to be a better PG. He tried. Needs to focus on passing first.
he would be a target for late game fouling and expect a 50% conversion. Does the team respond positively to him? I dont see a pick me up with him running the floor. I actually fear him especially with Jones, Bailey and Gabe running the floor together when the game is on the line. Harris makes the T to A ratio look good and still seem to have gotten away with iffy passes and possessions. res ipsa loquitur
Jalen has been a good player for us. He is fast, athletic and can get off the floor. He just needs to mature and get better. He is not a good shooter, but he has done his job this year. He doesn’t have a good long-range shot and probably never will at his age. You can either shoot or you can’t by the age of 20-21. He will just need to work on his defense and get better at all other phases of the game.
Yesterday, he had to put it up. Arkansas only has a few guys who can score, primarily Jones, Joe and Gafford. Gafford was seldom in the game, so who is going to need to score…Joe, Jones and Harris. We need some frontline scoring, but without Gafford we don’t have much.
The biggest deficiency I’ve seen, other than three point shooting, is mental toughness/discipline, which was the knock when he was a recruit.
He got inside of his head early in the game. His handle was extra flashy (and very good) in the first half. His passes were on point. He was on the break most of the first half. Really good half for him. Second half, when we weren’t turning them over as much (thanks to CMA staying in the zone far too long), and we needed facilitation in the halfcourt, he chose to dominate the ball too much instead of facilitating our motion offense. I feel very confident he did that because he was feeling over confident and that he could do whatever he wanted against those guards. While he was indeed far quicker than their guards, he limited our already limited offense.
Sitting next to the bench at home games, I can see and hear some things that others don’t. He seems to be a good, fun kid. He whines a little too much at times, and shows signs that he could use a little more maturity to get where you’d want your PG leader to be.
All said, he’s a sophomore and likely 4-year player. He oughta be pretty dang good the next two years. We do need more discipline and leadership (along with improved three point shooting), though.
I think a good majority of his shots yesterday were drives to the hoop and not jump shots. I do think on some of those drives, he could have waited a bit longer to let the play develop. They looked like desperation drives that a PG takes on when the shot clock is running out.
Maybe as RazorAg said he was feeling over-confident. Being over-confident may not be all bad. May pay off in the end.
Sorry, but this just doesn’t make sense (and, yes - I know you weren’t being literal and implying that he actually HAD read the board).
Recognizing the obvious - that he has been and probably will continue to be a very poor outside shooter - does NOT mean that he should take more shoots to prove what we already know. If anything, it should have led to him shooting LESS - especially from 3-point range.
averaging 8.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, shooting 36.4 percent from the field, 14.5 percent from 3 (8 of 55), 70.1 percent from the free throw line and has 129 assists to 40 turnovers
If he works hard at this summer, the outside shooting can improve enough for him to at least be an adequate three point shooter. If he’s adequate, that’s a big plus because we have other guards who can stress the defense on the perimeter, and we do a pretty fair job of going inside-outside for three point shots.
I’m not sure that Harris ever will become proficient at floaters and short pull-ups. Right now when he drives teams are playing him to pass or go to the goal. If he gets to the goal without a real challenge, he’s effective. But there are too many times he ends up putting up poor shots in the lane because he can’t consistently use the space created on drives to hit shots from six to 10 feet out.
I haven’t seen Justice Hill on anything but five second highlight clips, so I really don’t know how his game at point guard will be different that Jaylen’s. Those clips certainly show a guy who looks capable of contributing after his half-redshirt year. I think Sills is going to improve over time, too. I think those two guys are going to give Jaylen enough competition for minutes to help us be more effective at point guard next year. Jaylen is either going to get better or play less.
I will also say that the one thing I have noticed recently, but did not include in the above threads, is something that some of you have commented on in this thread; and that is that Jalen has displayed a disturbing inability to finish at the rim. He is reasonably good about getting there - he just doesn’t finish well. It’s almost like he is so focused on getting past the defender that he “forgets” to formulate a plan for what will happen if he does. In fact, Daniel is about the only consistent finisher we have on the team (around the rim). Of course, his finishes mostly come off of being fed the ball down low rather than off his own drive to the hoop.
The problem with Harris seems simple to me. He is regressing instead of progressing in 2 of the most important stats for a PG. These are the stats during the non-con schedule vs the SEC schedule:
Non-conference schedule stats:
Assists to TO ratio - 4.8-1
Free Throw percentage - .804
SEC stats:
Assists to TO Ratio 2.0-1
Free throw percentage - .585
As we all know, his shooting has been miserable all season, with no improvement. About .150 on 3s and .450 on 2s. The drop in his free throw shooting is pretty startling. He’s had 4 years of high school, one regular season of college, and one red-shirt season to work on his shooting. I believe what we are seeing is what we will see for the next 2 years.
If these SEC stats are the new norm in assists and FTs, and his shooting can’t improve at least 100% (to 30%)on 3s, I don’t see how we can possibly contend in the SEC the next 2 years with him at PG.
Justice, please work extremely hard on your shooting and overall PG skills these next 8 months (which I feel certain he will.)