Friday Pro-Am

[MUfan12]

Caught a good bit of the games tonight at Greenfield. Saw the first half of Jamil and Lockett's game. Jamil looks good, hit a couple jumpers and was bringing the ball up quite a bit. Lockett was impressive. Nice looking shot, good off the bounce, finished strong at the rim. He's pretty built, but is deceptively quick and gets up in a hurry.

The best game to watch was Vander/Davante/Ferguson vs. Junior and Steve Taylor. Vander looks like he's added some weight since the season ended. Jumper is still funky, but he did a better job of finishing in traffic. Davante looks damn near 100%. He's dropped weight and seemed a little more explosive. He had one play in particular where he stole it at halfcourt, crossed over Junior, wrapped a guy, then went down the lane and dunked hard with two hands. Ferguson is very, very thin. Athletic, but didn't do a whole lot.

Junior looked good, as he typically does in these settings. Finished with something like 18 assists. Steve Taylor was the big surprise for me. He's got a college ready body. Very quick, good leaper, excellent handles for a 6-7 guy. His outside shot was off, but his form looks good. His game reminds me a lot of Jamil. He and Davante were getting after each other, and Steve was getting under his skin a bit in the second half.

TJ Taylor was out with a shoulder injury, I guess. Didn't get to see much of Thomas/Swanson/D. Wilson's team, so if anyone watched that game I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[jsglow]

Thanks MU.  I made it a point to come up last year and watch the final day down at the Al last year and really enjoyed some good hoops. It was a nice way to spend a weekend afternoon.

[Boone]

Thanks for the report. Steve is listed on gomarquette at 230lbs. Do you think that's accurate (for comparison's sake, Jamil is listed at 220lbs)?

[MUfan12]

Thanks for the report. Steve is listed on gomarquette at 230lbs. Do you think that's accurate (for comparison's sake, Jamil is listed at 220lbs)?

I'd say so. Very similar body types.

Mark Miller tweeted that Taylor finished with 30 and 23 tonight. He was everywhere in the second half.

[Boone]

I know it's the summer league, but love to see Steve hitting the boards like that. We haven't had a monster rebounder at the 4 in ages.

[Mr. Nielsen]

Good crowd tonight!

Steve Taylor, looked very good to me. He worked hard on the inside.

Can't believe the team of Lockett, J.Wilson and Milwaukee's James Haarsma  lost their game. Lockett was quiet in the 2nd half.

Jake Thomas made about 5 three's.

TJ Taylor wasn't cleared to play. Don't know if that's true or not.

[GGGG]

TJT tweeted that he shoulder was "messed up."  Not sure what that means.

[bilsu]

[quote author=MUfan12 link=topic=3290

The best game to watch was Vander/Davante/Ferguson vs. Junior and Steve Taylor. Vander looks like he's added some weight since the season ended. Jumper is still funky, but he did a better job of finishing in traffic. Davante looks damn near 100%. He's dropped weight and seemed a little more explosive. He had one play in particular where he stole it at halfcourt, crossed over Junior, wrapped a guy, then went down the lane and dunked hard with two hands,
[/quote] You missed the best part about this play. It was preceded by an alley oop pass from Blue to Gardner who scored by laying it off the back board. Gardner was immediately pointed at and laugh at by a young man standing with McKay. I am pretty sure it is was Burton, who was making fun of Gardner for not dunking the ball. The very next play Gardner steals the ball drives the floor and dunks it as you described. He than points at Burton(?). The play was great, but at the same time he came down hard on his knee an it appeared to bother him. He went out of the game and then came back with no apparent ill effects. In my opinion Gardner's team loss because Cadougan made his team better and Blue did not. I was very impressed with Steve Taylor. The most exciting player I saw was Mckay. I first saw him standing with Anderson and he is significantly taller than Anderson. Assuming Anderson is 6'6" McKay is at least 6'9" and looks like he can run all day. I cannot wait to see him in an MU uniform.

[BCHoopster]

Did McKay play?

[GGGG]

I'm not sure he can play.  I thought I had read that somewhere.

[MtAiryGoldenEagle]

McKay didn't play; he tweeted that he was watching the games.

[Ellenson Guerrero]

You missed the best part about this play. It was preceded by an alley oop pass from Blue to Gardner who scored by laying it off the back board. Gardner was immediately pointed at and laugh at by a young man standing with McKay. I am pretty sure it is was Burton, who was making fun of Gardner for not dunking the ball. The very next play Gardner steals the ball drives the floor and dunks it as you described. He than points at Burton(?). The play was great, but at the same time he came down hard on his knee an it appeared to bother him. He went out of the game and then came back with no apparent ill effects. In my opinion Gardner's team loss because Cadougan made his team better and Blue did not. I was very impressed with Steve Taylor. The most exciting player I saw was Mckay. I first saw him standing with Anderson and he is significantly taller than Anderson. Assuming Anderson is 6'6" McKay is at least 6'9" and looks like he can run all day. I cannot wait to see him in an MU uniform.

I think I know the kid laughing at Gardner that you are referring to and if I am, it certainly was not Burton. I didn't see Burton or Du. Wilson there tonight. I'm not sure how McKay could have been the most exciting player you saw while he was standing in street clothes. He most definitely not 6'9 (maybe he appears that way because of the hair). He's 6'7 and maybe 200 if he's eaten a big lunch. Given the schools that were after McKay, I'm sure he can play, but from looking at him, he definitely looked like a 3.

Its easy to critique Blue for his teams loss, but I thought he looked pretty damn good running the point all-game for his team. He got into the paint, didn't take too many horrible shots, and had a few really nice assists. Their team lost because outside of Davante and Blue, no one else did anything for them. Ferguson is exactly what I expected: one of Buzz's first commitments. He's relatively athletic and looks that wiry kind of strong. But last night he didn't show anything that he could do particularly well.

The Jamil comparisons for Steve are pretty accurate. They are about the same size, with Steve maybe even being a bit taller. They both like to shoot the three in this event. Steve can hit the shot fairly regularly, but he needs to work at it quite a bit before Buzz will give him the green light in real games. His shot doesn't have good rotation and isn't soft on the rim at all. He kind of winds up those long arms and catapults the ball at the hoop, rather than extend through the elbows and wrist. Regardless of his shot, I think he can definitely fill a Jamil-type role for us this year, hopefully playing fewer minutes because of healthy guys in front of him. If we can get a solid ten minutes a game combined out of he and Anderson our front-line will be very solid, definitely the best in the past decade.

[wadesworld]

I know it's the summer league, but love to see Steve hitting the boards like that. We haven't had a monster rebounder at the 4 in ages.

Personally I thought Jae Crowded was a pretty good rebounder.

[Lennys Tap]

Personally I thought Jae Crowded was a pretty good rebounder.

Crowder was a really good rebounder. Maurice Lucas was a monster rebounder.

[GGGG]

Personally I thought Jae Crowded was a pretty good rebounder.

Yeah...8.4 per game is pretty good.  People were looking at Juan's numbers during the Pro Am and commenting that he seemed to get every rebound.  That didn't exactly translate to his first regular season.

BTW, in looking at Jae's stats, I continue to be amazed at the improvement in his stat line from last year to the year before.

[4everwarriors]

Well, when all you got to concentrate on is basketball, there should be improvement.

[mklenn]

I was at the games too, caught the first half of the DWill/Jake Taylor game. DWill hit a 3 which surprised me, he also had some nice passes in traffic but I thought he really struggled finishing at the rim, missed a couple lightly contested lay ups against a not very athletic team. Taylor was quiet while I was there but he must have heated up in the second half if someone said he finished with 5 3's. In warm ups Taylor was hitting 3's from inside the half court circle with ease. Garrett Swanson was also on their team (transfer from Idaho St someone was saying??). I was underwhelmed when I realized he was on MU but I will say that Taylor/Swanson are 10x more athletic than our past walk-ons. I was shocked how strong Trent Lockett looked. He was only an inch or two shorter than Jamil and thicker. He and Jamil had some sloppy turnovers but Trent had a really impressive play where he drove down the right side, got under the basket, jumped and somehow dunked the ball with his right hand after avoiding the backboard and he did it effortlessly. Vander threw down an alley oop that was definitely the highlight of the night for me. It looked like he could have hit his head on the backboard. Davante was walking funny in warm ups but after watching a few of his coast to coast drives I would say his knee is fine. He also showed off a Dirk-like mid range jumper off 1 foot. First one he hit, second one he got swatted. Steve Taylor will benefit a lot from having to guard Davante in practice everyday, he was given a few lessons in the post. This year Davante will be the crowd favorite. Everything he did had the crowd cheering and at the end of one of the quarters a little kid yelled "We want Davante" when he was on the bench. Steve Taylor was pretty solid for a freshman, Ferguson didn't do anything memorable. 

[Sharpie]

It's Jake Thomas. Not Jake "Taylor". Not to be confused with TJ Taylor and Steve Taylor.

[YoungMUFan4]

It's Jake Thomas. Not Jake "Taylor". Not to be confused with TJ Taylor and Steve Taylor.

But I thought we added Jonathan Taylor Thomas to the team

[martyconlonontherun]

It's Jake Thomas. Not Jake "Taylor". Not to be confused with TJ Taylor and Steve Taylor.

Charlie Donovan: Yeah, wound up in the Mexican League. Had problems with his knees.
Pepper Leach: Wish we had him two years ago.
Charlie Donovan: We did.

[kclem]

I agree with the assesments above. Davante had some great moves dribbling down the floor and going through traffic in addition to his usual strong moves under the basket. It looks like he could use some more conditioning, but that should be expected after going through the recovery. Steve Taylor was impressive with his energy, athleticism, and strength under the rim. The one that I am surprised to see left out so far though is Junior Cadougan. I think he is ready for a big step up. He showed willingness to pull up for a 3 or drive to the rim, but is penetration and passing was most impressive. For awhile it seemed like he was getting an assist on every possession.

[MtAiryGoldenEagle]

Highlights: http://midwestballers.com/

[MtAiryGoldenEagle]

Results: http://www.brewcityball.com/forums/content.php?389-Milwaukee-Summer-Pro-Am-Opening-Night-Results

[forgetful]

Highlights: http://midwestballers.com/

Based on the highlight reel, Jake Thomas has a lot more athleticism than people have been giving him credit for.  Move me into the camp that thinks he will contribute this year.

[Skatastrophy]

Based on the highlight reel, Jake Thomas has a lot more athleticism than people have been giving him credit for.  Move me into the camp that thinks he will contribute this year.

Which highlights were you watching?  Jake Thomas wasn't on the Pro-Am highlights...

From watching him play in the Pro-Am (which means nothing) he is better than our previous walk-ons, but not by a ton.  I could see him being in games situationally, but I would be very surprised if he ever ended up in the rotation.