Wednesday Links: Delvon Roe Edition
Posted by kj on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
Eric Lacy has a couple encouraging updates on Delvon Roe: First, he remains on schedule to be ready for the start of the season; he participated in “basketball related activities” for the first time in nine months on Monday. Caveat:
“If Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, God took off nine months, they aren’t going to return and be the same player right away,” Izzo said. “Delvon works on his game maybe as hard as anybody since the (Mateen) Cleaves’ or (Jason) Richardsons (players in that era). “The guy is a workaholic and a good kid.”
Don’t expect to hear Roe talk much about the NBA anytime soon. In fact, during a recent conversation with Izzo, talk of the NBA annoyed Roe. Roe told Izzo he’s sick of all the pro speculation and simply wants to enjoy college. Roe’s ultimate goal is no different than Cleaves’ – Big Ten and national titles.
Raymar Morgan is a first-team preseason all-conference pick by the Big Ten Geeks. The Geeks think Morgan is likely to leave for the NBA after this season. I’m not convinced–still a lot of work to do in the areas of ball-handling and perimeter shooting for someone will play the 3 spot in the NBA. With the lack of interior players in the conference to stop him near the basket, though, I agree he’s got a great shot at conference player of the year this season.
Kalin Lucas is the #8 NBA prospect in the Big Ten, according to DraftExpress.com. The best part of the scouting report:
Lucas is at his most dangerous in the transition game where he gets to use his speed and aggressiveness to his advantage. He is very tough to stay in front of when he has a full head of steam going, and doesn’t back down from bigger defenders. He shows great body control around the rim and is capable of hitting some pretty acrobatic shots, but this is a result of his lack of size. Lucas tended to force the issue often when driving the lane, making life easy for bigger defenders who would be waiting for him around the basket. This is certainly a sign of inexperience and will be something to keep an eye on as Lucas will need to drive and dish more often as a sophomore. He has good court vision and doesn’t turn the ball over at too high a rate, though, which leaves plenty of room for optimism regarding his playmaking skills, which already show a lot of promise.
Tom Izzo has been an employee of Michigan State for 25 years. How about we skip the watch and get him a championship banner instead?
Northwestern Wins looks at eight candidates to be the preseason #2 team in the nation behind UNC, our Spartans among them.
Frightening thought: Robbie Hummel could be even more versatile this season than he was last season. Seth Davis reports that Hummel worked on both his inside game and ball-handling skills during Purdue’s preseason tour of Australia.
The Hoosier Report looks at Marquette’s tempo-free tendencies under Tom Crean to get a sense what his basketball philosophy is. Conclusions: Marquette was consistently good at rebounding the ball, and could be very good on offense when they limited turnovers. Sound familiar?
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