Kolek planning to go pro
Tower-I've seen tons of D1 prospects come through the WI HS basketball ranks. I compare where Joey was in high school to other players when they were in HS.Then I compare how those players performed in college versus how Joey is performing. The college versions of Sam Dekker, Markus Landry, Sam Hauser, Henry Ellenson, and Jeronne Maymon had the speed and athleticism I expected based on their HS performances. But Joey didn't. That's my observation.
Sam is averaging 22 PPG and 7 rebounds in the G League with 55 percent from 3, 11 for 20.
I’m not sure it means much. Vander Blue is the second all time leader scorer in the G League.
Agreed. Joey was skilled. He was never super-athletic.
Sam will play in a lot more more NBA games than Vander did or will. A lot more. He is elite at the one skill that every NBA team is desperate for.
Skilled, good size, and at the HS level, that bigger guy who can go inside outside really covers up a lot of deficits.But get to college, thats no longer unique. He's slow of foot, doesn't seem to have a great work ethic given how little he's progressed, if at all, and he's immature
I've said it before, but it is difficult to get someone to work hard at something that they've never had to work hard because they've always been better at it than everyone they knew.Unfortunately, the world is a big place, and there will always be someone better.
But doesn't that happen all the time?Aren't most 5-star and 4-star recruits (and hell, lots of 3-stars and 2-stars, too) the best player on their teams and even in their leagues when they're in high school? Don't the ones who turn out to be good in college get that way in part because they're willing to work hard, even if they never really had to work that hard in high school?
It depends. Very few of those exceptional recruits continue progressing without the work ethic and that starts young. People often don't realize it. I remember when they talked about Tebow was going to be an NFL success cause he "worked so much harder" in some silly statement overlooking the fact that even the best athletes still bust their ass from HS on.My best friend in college was a FB player. Freakish athlete. All State safety, All conference WR. Best player on every team he played except his HS team cause he played with his older brother who played a few years in the NFL. It all came easy to him. He did what he had to, but he didn't have some insane work ethic. He was pretty open about saying he'd rather play basketball than football. He was an all conference BB player, but there weren't many D1 offers for a 6'2 SF.In college, he wasn't lazy, he was a good student, did what he had to football and lifting wise, but just kind of coasted. Never was a significant minute gettor even as a RS Senior. He stayed every summer on campus, but just lifted and hung out. Meanwhile, his brother was insane, driven, went back to Michigan for a month each summer to train with some guys he knew that played at UM and MSU. Lifted so much his coaches had to tell him to chill (he set combine records for a time). Always kept getting better. But my buddy never had to go 150%, cause his 80/90/100% was good enough and once he was in college, he was fine just being on the team and figuring his life out after.So either you have the "im gonna do whatever it takes" even if you're killing fools at lower levels, cause you have your eye to the future. Or you don't. Same as being a good student. You can get good grades without having to study in middle or HS, but then college is a bleak reality if you never learned how to study and its hard AF to learn at that point.
So either you have the "im gonna do whatever it takes" even if you're killing fools at lower levels, cause you have your eye to the future. Or you don't. Same as being a good student. You can get good grades without having to study in middle or HS, but then college is a bleak reality if you never learned how to study and its hard AF to learn at that point.
I'm sure all that you describe here is true in many cases. But it would be very unfair to assume that for every high school star - or even a majority - who doesn't progress on the next level, it's a result of them not working hard enough or not wanting it enough.For all sorts of reasons, everybody has a different athletic ceiling and they reach it on a different schedule. Some kids hit that ceiling at 17, and other kids passing them by after that isn't a reflection of their character. It's more likely a reflection of their genes and uniqueness.We make the same mistake the other way, fwiw. When some small school kid who was lightly recruited out of high school develops into a star, we marvel over their hard work and dedication, when in reality they hit their peak a little later than their peer group, and they didn't just catch up in college, they zoomed on by,
I'm not saying Joey Hauser was ever a great athlete, but on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say he was a 6 before the ankle injury.After the ankle injury, he looks like a 3. Just no lateral or vertical explosion whatsoever. I agree with Dr. B's assessment of Sam Hauser. Sam has a great basketball IQ and maximizes his average athleticism (5 out of 10). Joey doesn't have the same sense of positioning and anticipation, adding to his defensive struggles.For all the hype Joey had, he's certainly underachieved. Like others have said, maybe he lacks the drive to be great. Sam and Joey had similar freshman stats, but Sam became an all conference performer as an upperclassman. Joey isn't close to that level.
Having paralyzing flashbacks of being there with Markus "the cancer"?
Joey out with Injuryhttps://www.mlive.com/spartans/2021/11/joey-hauser-sits-with-injury-malik-hall-steps-up-for-michigan-state-vs-emu.html