Vander Blue

[4everwarriors]

I'm waiting for the cat who's going to post that Maymon made Blue and he's nothing without him.

[bma725]

Seems odd that such a disparity (#22 to 100+ and "not good") exists. Could you share your thoughts as to why that is? Also, what are your observations of Vander's game and your expectations next year and beyond. Thanks in advance.

I didn't mean to imply that the recruiting services think he's not good, rather I meant that one could see that he isn't ranked on those services and jump to the conclusion that he's not good.

Mostly that's a function of how often they see a kid and how he's playing when they see him.  Scout, Rivals, ESPN have much larger budgets than the smaller services because of their tie ins with the big time networks.  So they get to see a kid more often, and they get to see some variety in his game.  The smaller services don't travel as much, and don't get to see a kid as often so they generally don't have the total picture of his game.

In terms of general impressions, he's got all the tools, the issue is consistency.  He's not a great outside shooter, but he can do it.  Off the dribble there are few that can stay in front of him in the country.  Passing needs work.  Defensively, it's going to be tough.  He's stuck playing the bottom of a 1-3-1 right now, which doesn't exactly get him ready for the next level.

I think the reason many think he's struggling right now is they don't understand how different this Memorial team is than in years past.  There's a lot of guys with not much experience still trying to figure out what to do, and that effects Vander's stats and how he's able to play.