BROWNSBURG — Evening, everyone, me again, the guy who only publishes stuff in the middle of the night these days.
I spent today at the Sneakers 4 Santa event at Brownsburg High School, and will have video and whatnot to come from the three games I was there to see — and an update on Xavier Booker — but in the meantime here are just a rundown of those games and some impressions of the players involved.
This was a Mr. Basketball sort of game for the Purdue signee, as Homestead won comfortably over Carmel, earning a measure of revenge after the Greyhounds ended its season last year.
This was about toughness, a characteristic you don't normally associate with players of Loyer's body type and skill set, especially when they look as young as he does. But this was a really physical game — a really physical game — and Loyer was playing hurt, essentially, dealing with an ankle injury.
He spent the afternoon getting run off the three-point line, running through 200 screens on and getting trapped and pressed at the end of the game. His defender, Josh Whack, lived up to his name and did a good job making Loyer work for everything, but Loyer did an even better job driving past the pressure and more than once finishing through contact around the basket.
Loyer was just 1-of-6 from three — that's his thing — but finished with 25 points, and the one three he made was an absolute dagger and one he enjoyed very much. This was not a friendly game, shall we say.
I hesitate to even type this right now, but Loyer did a great job beating Carmel's pressing and trapping, legitimately wanting the ball in his hands in those situations.
Again, this was a Mr. Basketball sort of performance, if you ask me.
After a slow start against Lawrence North, Colvin wound up with 21 points before fouling out midway or so through the fourth quarter, most of his points coming on threes or dunks.
Heritage Christian looked like it was going to get blown out early, but Colvin was key to them making a game out of it before falling 73-64.
It's great that Heritage is playing some bigger schools. This stuff will make Colvin better, but his context right now is much different than it will be when he gets to Purdue.
He is an outrageously talented athlete and has some real game to him as a scorer, but his value will come out more in structure, playing with players who can space the floor and give him room, and play at a tempo that'll get him in the open floor. He's going to be a classic kick-ahead wing, where you want to get the ball to him quickly up the sideline in transition, either for threes or to give him angles to attack.
He definitely had to settle into this game against L.N., but there were definitely flashes of his awesome potential. He is definitely still more prospect than he is player, though, with a good deal of refinement left to be done. By contrast, Loyer is more of a player than he is a prospect.
Colvin will get be as physically ready for college basketball as anyone, but his immediate impact will be determined by his acclimation to high-level structure and his defensive ability, IMO. We are talking almost a year-and-a-half from now.
You have to recruit a player like Xavier Booker, because when it all comes together for a 6-foot-11 player who's skilled, you don't want to be on the sideline. But things haven't come together for him quite yet, it doesn't seem.
Booker scored seven points tonight in a loss to Brush High School from Ohio and one member of the high school basketball media told me this the best he's seen him look in a high school game.
His offensive role in the halfcourt was mostly to hang outside the three-point arc — he made one three on probably four or five tries — and run the floor, which he does very well for a big man. I don't recall many contested rebounds, and even though people are recruiting him to be more of perimeter big, he didn't show a whole lot from a rim-protection perspective against Brush, which has some really physically mature guys.
I did see a little more competitive spirit from him tonight than I remember in the past, but that's something that might still be a work in progress, too.
Booker just visited Purdue again for the Florida State game. I'll post a quick update on him tomorrow or Monday. Not much new there.
I spent today at the Sneakers 4 Santa event at Brownsburg High School, and will have video and whatnot to come from the three games I was there to see — and an update on Xavier Booker — but in the meantime here are just a rundown of those games and some impressions of the players involved.
This was a Mr. Basketball sort of game for the Purdue signee, as Homestead won comfortably over Carmel, earning a measure of revenge after the Greyhounds ended its season last year.
This was about toughness, a characteristic you don't normally associate with players of Loyer's body type and skill set, especially when they look as young as he does. But this was a really physical game — a really physical game — and Loyer was playing hurt, essentially, dealing with an ankle injury.
He spent the afternoon getting run off the three-point line, running through 200 screens on and getting trapped and pressed at the end of the game. His defender, Josh Whack, lived up to his name and did a good job making Loyer work for everything, but Loyer did an even better job driving past the pressure and more than once finishing through contact around the basket.
Loyer was just 1-of-6 from three — that's his thing — but finished with 25 points, and the one three he made was an absolute dagger and one he enjoyed very much. This was not a friendly game, shall we say.
I hesitate to even type this right now, but Loyer did a great job beating Carmel's pressing and trapping, legitimately wanting the ball in his hands in those situations.
Again, this was a Mr. Basketball sort of performance, if you ask me.
After a slow start against Lawrence North, Colvin wound up with 21 points before fouling out midway or so through the fourth quarter, most of his points coming on threes or dunks.
Heritage Christian looked like it was going to get blown out early, but Colvin was key to them making a game out of it before falling 73-64.
It's great that Heritage is playing some bigger schools. This stuff will make Colvin better, but his context right now is much different than it will be when he gets to Purdue.
He is an outrageously talented athlete and has some real game to him as a scorer, but his value will come out more in structure, playing with players who can space the floor and give him room, and play at a tempo that'll get him in the open floor. He's going to be a classic kick-ahead wing, where you want to get the ball to him quickly up the sideline in transition, either for threes or to give him angles to attack.
He definitely had to settle into this game against L.N., but there were definitely flashes of his awesome potential. He is definitely still more prospect than he is player, though, with a good deal of refinement left to be done. By contrast, Loyer is more of a player than he is a prospect.
Colvin will get be as physically ready for college basketball as anyone, but his immediate impact will be determined by his acclimation to high-level structure and his defensive ability, IMO. We are talking almost a year-and-a-half from now.
You have to recruit a player like Xavier Booker, because when it all comes together for a 6-foot-11 player who's skilled, you don't want to be on the sideline. But things haven't come together for him quite yet, it doesn't seem.
Booker scored seven points tonight in a loss to Brush High School from Ohio and one member of the high school basketball media told me this the best he's seen him look in a high school game.
His offensive role in the halfcourt was mostly to hang outside the three-point arc — he made one three on probably four or five tries — and run the floor, which he does very well for a big man. I don't recall many contested rebounds, and even though people are recruiting him to be more of perimeter big, he didn't show a whole lot from a rim-protection perspective against Brush, which has some really physically mature guys.
I did see a little more competitive spirit from him tonight than I remember in the past, but that's something that might still be a work in progress, too.
Booker just visited Purdue again for the Florida State game. I'll post a quick update on him tomorrow or Monday. Not much new there.
