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Basketball Recruiting Megathread 1.0 has run its course

Hope some of his classmates are keeping up with Tyler. He is having a great year and i'd hate for him to feel unloved and change commitments.
 
Went to Episcopal last night and checked out Arnaud Moto in action. So I'll give a little report here.

First of all, I stopped by on the way to the bar to watch the Duke game, so only saw the first half. His team on the whole did not play that well in the first half, particularly the first quarter, but I heard they went on to win going away.

For those that will not read the rest of my post, Ill try to sum up what I saw in a sentence or two: we have a guy with a ton of potential. At the same time, he is currently pretty raw and needs some coaching. Probably the #1 positive I took away is that he is a guy who has rock solid hands and a good bit of fight in him around the basket. I think we all agree that we need more of that. He also looks good with the ball in his hands and makes good decisions. #1 negative I suppose is his shot, it lacks ideal rotation and is very slow developing. But its not all bad, he has good arch and decent form/follow through, I did see him hit a few from outside including one three. Just dont ask him to light it up from outside all night long.

Now for the nitty gritty:

First impression is obviously that he is big, wide shoulders that will support a whole lot of muscle, extremely long (I mean his arms reach basically to his knees). With a few years in a college weight training program he could be a true physical specimen. When he gets two hands on the ball, no one is going to slap it out of his hands (unlike so many of our current players). He's got the typle of lethal elbows that you do NOT want to run in to. He grabbed several rebounds that were pretty impressive, over 2 guys, sandwiched between 3 guys, etc. He should be able to effectively crash the offensive glass for us from the 3 position.

It took a while for him to settle in to the game. His team ran a few set plays where they tried to lob it to him backdoor but they didnt work cause the opposition was playing a zone and just clogging the lane. This was an issue also when he was posting up, they would double or triple him. He made a lot of good decisions with the ball though. He would drive baseline and they would double him and he would kick it out to the opposite side to open shooters. He looked good with the ball in his hands, pretty aggresive, but not looking to do too much, willing to distribute, move the ball, etc. Wish he had gotten the ball more, frankly, while I was there. When he started settling in to the game he was scoring a few downlow and in transition and getting tip ins. He looked good in transition with the ball in his hands, but needs to hustle more to fill the lanes. He's not as fleet of foot as, say, Travis. But I would say he is a good deal stronger.

I would have liked to see more energy on defense, but I think that is correctable with coaching and playing against higher level players. He also basically plays center on his team, which isnt natural. They went to a zone at one point and put him up top. He looked pretty good there, no one is going to shoot over him, but he does need to improve lateral quickness. Small fast guards will probably be able to get around him at the next level. But there's no reason to believe he can't be a very good defensive player in college with some good coaching and time.

He also needs to get his wind up. There were a couple times when things got sloppy, as they often do in high school, several turnovers in a row and both teams sprinting back in forth. After these stretches he was pretty burnt and not able to stay out ahead of the guards. He will need to get better in the regard if we want to take advantage of his transition game.

All in all, I would guess he had about 10 and 7 in the first half. Maybe 2 steals and at least one block. Looks like he ended up with 14 and 15 according to the boxscore. Not his best night statistically nor did it look like he was playing his best. But there is a lot there to like.

I may check him out again in a couple weeks and actually stay for the whole game.
 
I've talked to a couple other Wake guys here interested in watching him play - maybe we could get a Wake contingent out for the next one...
 
Appreciate the report. Sounds like pretty much what we've heard. Coming off his injury this summer/fall, I doubt he is in his best condition. Think he can help immediately with his rebounding ability from the wing position and use his athleticism in the paint to get some garbage buckets. Hopefully his midrange game can continue to develop so he can be a consistent threat.
 
Dalrymple was a scorerat GT.

A few mothns ago I said a bigger LD, with a bit more scoring potential. Several so-called recruiting gurus have said Moto is a very, very good defender.
 
TwentyONE said:
First impression is obviously that he is big, wide shoulders that will support a whole lot of muscle, extremely long (I mean his arms reach basically to his knees).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the report. FWIW Moto was a 7'1'' wingspan... which of course is freakish for a 6'6'' wing.

ETA: LD was 6'4'' with a 6'7'' wingspan. Shorter wingspans make defending much more difficult but your dunks look cooler. LD had lots of other good defending traits though. Some worry that Blake Griffin will never be a very good NBA defender because he only has a 6'11'' wingspan.
 
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I was pleasantly surprised with his ball handling. The thing is, he never had the ball for more than a few seconds because it seemed like he was trying to stay within the system. But the times that he did take it to the hole off the dribble he looked pretty impressive doing it, really aggressive and a quick first step. I dont think I saw him turn the ball over. Didnt see much of a post game, he's not as polished as Travis in that regard but I think he can add that to his game.

Bottom line, just cause his shot is not quite there yet and he's physical, I wouldnt really compare him to LD. He is a LOT bigger than LD was, especially as a freshman. You can't discount that. He will be able to finish around the rim and protect the ball in the lane better than LD could. The kid is basically built like a young Ron Artest with the potential to add that type of muscle. He is not a guy people are going to enjoy banging with under the basket. I would guess that he would be the strongest player on our team right now.

That being said, he does have work to do to be a true impact player. But right now he is a very nice piece for us and brings things that we need more of.
 
it sounds like he'll be a great guy to bring off the bench next year.
 
If Moto turned out anything like LD I think that it would be a fairly significant disappointment.

That's not a knock on LD as much as indicating how much potential a player like Moto has with a certain developmental trajectory.

Again, I think Josh Howard's career arc is far more useful of a comparison than LD, a player who, in addition to being 6'4, simply never scratched the surface of what he could have been... I love LD, but let's be real. With his natural defensive ability and athleticism, there is no reason why he couldn't have cracked an NBA rotation (should he have developed a respectable jump shot or slashing game, which was entirely reasonable to expect given that he stayed for four years). He just never got better. Look at the undersized SGs in the league drafted recently and tell me I'm wrong...

LD rant aside, the point is simply that, if Moto develops as a player with his natural tools and potential has the potential to develop, then he's a borderline lottery pick.

If he doesn't?

Well he's 6'6 with a 7'1 wingspan, who has the makings of developing into a solid spot-up threat in time, regardless of any particularly grueling off-season training.
 
Saw Christian Hairston, 6'7" guard at Greensboro Day, play this evening.

Talked with one of the player's parents after the game and they indicated he is being looked at by Wake, NCSU and VCU. Does anyone know anything about this kid?

Thanks!

Btw, he looks absolutely awesome in person. A 6'7" guy who can handle the ball and run the floor.

ETA: Hope my post doesn't cause a rolling of the eyes. I just don't keep up with recruiting.
 
coredeac said:
Saw Christian Hairston, 6'7" guard at Greensboro Day, play this evening.

Talked with one of the player's parents after the game and they indicated he is being looked at by Wake, NCSU and VCU. Does anyone know anything about this kid?

Thanks!

Btw, he looks absolutely awesome in person. A 6'7" guy who can handle the ball and run the floor.

ETA: Hope my post doesn't cause a rolling of the eyes. I just don't keep up with recruiting.
Click to expand...

I'm a huge fan of this kid! Nobody around here really talks about him, but he's a major sleeper who likes us. He's going to have a Tree-esque bump in the rankings this summer once he gets familiarized with the circuit's competition.

I also know our some members of our staff know who he is and presumably like him as a player, as well. Outside of that, I can't say for sure if there is any legitimate interest from a recruiting perspective.

Looking at our current recruiting targets in 2013 reveals that unless we whiff on every single one of our top targets, we probably won't need his services. It's a shame, though, because he's an intriguing player flying under the radar so far.
 
Strickland33 said:
I'm a huge fan of this kid! Nobody around here really talks about him, but he's a major sleeper who likes us. He's going to have a Tree-esque bump in the rankings this summer once he gets familiarized with the circuit's competition.

I also know our some members of our staff know who he is and presumably like him as a player, as well. Outside of that, I can't say for sure if there is any legitimate interest from a recruiting perspective.

Looking at our current recruiting targets in 2013 reveals that unless we whiff on every single one of our top targets, we probably won't need his services. It's a shame, though, because he's an intriguing player flying under the radar so far.
Click to expand...

Thanks Strickland. What I loved about the kid was his length, speed and ability to fly down the floor, at 6'7", stop on a dime and shoot. You don't see many quality guards with his range and height.
 
coredeac said:
Saw Christian Hairston, 6'7" guard at Greensboro Day, play this evening.

Talked with one of the player's parents after the game and they indicated he is being looked at by Wake, NCSU and VCU. Does anyone know anything about this kid?

Thanks!

Btw, he looks absolutely awesome in person. A 6'7" guy who can handle the ball and run the floor.

ETA: Hope my post doesn't cause a rolling of the eyes. I just don't keep up with recruiting.
Click to expand...


He really impressed the coaches at the Wake Elite camp this summer. He is definitely on the radar. Possibly a better version of Rountree.
 
http://highschoolsports.pennlive.co...al-dauphin-edges-bishop-mcdevitt-56-55-in-ot/

Among so many other heroic moments, Issah’s game-winner followed a go-ahead bucket 10 seconds earlier by Crusaders freshman Milik Gantz as well as a running, banked-home 3-pointer by CD’s Devin Thomas at the regulation buzzer to force overtime.

lololol

devin3.jpg
 
I know Devin's like 240 or whatever, but most of that weight must be in his legs. He never has the "look" of a guy that's 240.
 
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