Kenner Summer Challenge

[JustAfan]

Went to the Kenner Summer Challenge today to see Marc Egerson. The format is there were two games today and there will be two tomorrow. The first is at 3: 30 and the second is suppose to be at 5:00 o'clock. I say suppose because the second game was an hour late because the Delaware Sharpshooters were stuck in traffic. The first game each day is 16 and under with the second games 17 and under. The cost for the two days was $5.00 a person. The cost for one day is $3.00. The attendence today was very sparse.

The first game was Triple Threat (16-Under) versus the DC Storm (16-under). Triple Threat blew out DC Storm. Chris Braswell of Triple Threat was very impressive and was declared the MVP.

Egerson plays on Lutheran Christian Academy against the afore said Delaware Sharpshooters. The Sharpershooters was the much taller team with three players that looked to be at least 6' 9". But, Lutheran easily outplayed them despite some spectatular dunks by Delaware. The half time score was 33 to 22 and the final score was 60 to 48.

Egerson had a very impressive outing. His box score was 2 for 3 threepoint baskets and 6 for 10 two point baskets plus 2 for 3 at the free throw line for a total of 20 points. He had 4 rebounds and 1 assist. He did have 3 turnovers and one foul. I do not know how many minutes he played, he did set down some in both halfs. He was awarded the MVP trophy. It will be hard not to give him significant playing time this year.

Tomorrow the first game is the DC Blue Devils (16 Under) versus the Mt Royal/Team Melo (16 Under). I plan to miss most of this one. the second game features DaJuan Summers on the Baltimore Cecil Kirk versus the DC Blue Devils - (17 Under). I hope more come out to see our new recruit than showed up for today's games.

[EasyEd]

Thanks for the update and good report on Egerson.

[SFHoya99]

Great to hear about Love. Chris Braswell is also a Hoya target, though I think he's '08? '07? -- so quite a bit in the future.

[RBHoya]

Thanks for the update on Egerson.... the only question I have is, how does he play on a team with such young players? Isn't he older than that by now

An idea that I havent heard much chatter about is the possibility of Marc starting.... thats right, starting as a freshman. I think some people are a little unsure of him because hes not highly rated on Rivals or Scout, but every time I hear a review of his game its always positive. Does anyone think hes got a shot to start next to Ashanti in the backcourt? DJs status is still up in the air I guess, but assuming hes back Im guessing hell start at 3 with Roy coming off the bench, or will come off the bench himself like he did in the middle part of last year. Thus, Eggerson's competition will all be pretty young like him--Josh, Jesse, and Jon. A lot of people think Jesse will start and that could be, but all of the game reviews I hear seem to indicate that Marc is playing as well or better in many situations. Some people also think Jon will start and he's probably the favorite just based on experience and understanding of the system, but if Marc shows he has guard skills, anythings possible. JustAfan, how tall would you say Marc is?

As for Chris Braswell, he definitly needs to be Hoya, but I think he may actually even be in the '08 class.... '07 or '08, Im not positive.

[MCIGuy]

My take.
Eggerson seemed to be going on half speed...and yet he was still very impressive, as good if not better than anyone else on the floor.

He took the first shot of the game which was a three and swished it. In fact he scored Lutheran's first five points because his next bucket came on a slam. In the first half he made 4 of five shots, including going 2 for 2 from the three point line. The only shot he missed was when his layup attempt was blocked by one of the two beasts playing for Delaware. I don't recall him taking a third three pointer during the game and missing. He did take a long two point shot I believe that he didn't make. But I don't remember him taking another shot from the three point line. I could be wrong. The other basket that Egerson scored came on a drive in which he scored in the paint while getting fouled. He missed the foul shot. But later in the first half he was fouled again and knock down both free throw attempts. The score at the half was 32 to 22 in Lutheran's favor. Egerson had 12 of those 32 points even though he left with about 3 minutes to go before halftime.

In the second half Egerson went 4 for 8, all two point shots of course, two of them being slams. The most impressive of the slams was an alley oop he threw down with one hand to finish the fast break. I don't recall him going to the free throw line at all in the second half. With 8 minutes left to go in the second half he was taken out the ball game, his team up very comfortably, and returned five minutes later to play the final 3 minutes of the contest (during which he scored his final two points). By the way I should point out that the Delaware Sharpshooters arrived so freakin' late that for much of the game the game clock would keep moving even during dead ball moments. And the halftime lasted only about 2 and a half minutes. Basically what I'm saying is that maybe as much as two or three minutes of that game weren't actually played (hell, one time the clock was running during free throw attempts). So considering that only 16 minutes were allotted for each half, that a few of those minutes were lost and that Egerson spent about 8 minutes on the bench, his 20 total points become even more impressive.

The announcer, at the end of the game when revealing that Egerson was MVP, mentioned that he had four assists. That number seems correct because I definitely recall three passes he made that led to baskets. He also had five rebounds.

More thoughts:

Size/Build -- I knew who Egerson was immediately without being familiar with his face because of his build. It was as advertised. He already has a pro's body. Yes, that's right. He has an NBA build right now. As for height he appeared to be about 6'5 to me. Could he be 6'6 as he is listed? Maybe. Could he be 6'4? Perhaps a smidge over that. But I'm going for 6'5 right now. That appeared to be his height.

Skill --- His three point shots looked very smooth; he had good mechanics on his release. During the warm-ups his shooting was hit or miss, but when the game began everything clicked. Also his shooting looked very good during the scrimmage that preceded the game. What scrimmage, you say? The scrimmage that was a desperate attempt to keep the already small crowd from dying of boredom as we waited for the Sharpshooters to arrived (wait lasted about an hour). His dribbling was also a plus. He didn't get a chance to do much of it but when he did he was mostly successful. Whether it was bringing the ball up the court, driving through the middle or putting the ball on the floor to slash along the baseline he looked very comfortable when having to make a move with the rock. His passing was superb. He looks for teammates and delivered some crisp passes to them, a couple of which should have bee buckets but his teammates let him down.

Defense --- didn’t get too much of a feel for that part of his game. No one was lighting him up and I don’t recall anyone abusing him with the bounce. There was one play that stood out in which a smaller player had the ball on the corner with only Egerson in his way for a drive down the baseline for an uncontested score. Egerson displayed great footwork and quickness to shut that guy off which forced him to wait for his teammates and pass the ball away.

Overall Feel For the Game --- Egerson didn’t force anything. I don’t think he took one bad shot. He surely wasn’t looking to shoot every time he touched it. Don’t get me wrong. He wasn’t being passive like DJ often has been. Instead he just allowed the game to come to him. The two or three times he decided to be aggressive and just go to the hoop were smart decisions on his part because he had the skills and speed to take it to the rack. One of those plays he mad an explosive move straight into the paint and displayed agility and the ability to hang in air in order to get the shot over the outstretched arms of the VERY impressive center playing for the Delaware team. The shot did not go in but the form but it was still an impressive attempt. For the most part he played within the offense and played unselfishly. That highlight one handed jam that I mentioned came on a fast break in which he had the opportunity to keep dribbling the ball until he took off for a jam. Instead he surprised me by passing it to his teammate. That teammate could have easily scored himself because the defender had turned his attention to Egeson and was now rushing back towards him. But the teammate flung it towards the hoop which led to Egerson’s highlight move. Also I didn’t see any negative traits or diva attitude when he wasn’t passed the ball I the halfcourt when he was open. There weren’t any attitude problems whatsoever.

Interestingly enough during much of the game he would play just beyond the highpost in the middle of the offense. Delaware would be in a zone an surround him so if he touched it the ball he would either kick it back to an open teammate or he would spin and try to go 18 feet to get to the basket.

If there was one negative it appeared to be that he seemed as if he was mailing it in for much of the game, specifically the first half. When the other team ran the other way at first he seemed to jog leisurely back as if it wasn’t all that big of a deal to help out on D. One time he was essentially cherry picking at the halfcourt line as if waiting for the opponent to miss so he could have a clear path for a jam if his team got the rebound and threw him the outlet pass (which is what happened). It looked as if he was dealing with an injury because he seemed to be moving gingerly on one of his feet when trying to get back. If he wasn’t at full strength he forgot all about it when opportunities for fast break scores became available. Plus there were shots I thought he could have tried to block or rebounds I thought he could have fought harder for. The latter may be unfair because as I mentioned the Sharpshooters had some impressive big men to go up against. Still a couple of times when he wanted a rebound Egerson show what he was capable of by going after it and snaring it.. So if there was one flaw it was that he appeared to be coasting as if he had a bigger game in a few hours or as if he didn’t want to risk any injury on such a meaningless matchup in front of such a small crowd. I can’t blame him for that. But Sam I Am who is attending Pitt this year is just the opposite in that his motor never stops.

So there you go. If you’re reading this post and think that al of this can’t be true let me write it out all over again in short form. He has a great build. Has great height to play on the wing. He seems able to shoot better than originally thought. He’s unselfish. Appears to be very skilled. Can pass effectively. Can rebound. Doesn’t act like he’s God’s gift to the world. Appears to be able to play defense. And he’s very athletic. If he plays with fire….well, I won’t say anymore. Don’t want to jinx any more players that I see. Lets just say he has plenty of tools to succeed.

I didn't really feel like taking notes during the game so that's all I can provide at this time.

[SFHoya99]

Thanks for the novel, MCI. It's appreciated. Some thoughts on your post and RB's questions.

I think, that since Egerson is 19 or 20, and it was an under-17 game, that his complacency/lack of effort or whatever you want to call it could account for that. Marc's got his scholarship and is playing to stay in shape, since he was in town and it was his old AAU team versus his prep school. I can just a guy coasting, not trying to be a show when he SHOULD be the best player on the court.

As for Love starting, it's certainly a possibility, but I don't see it at the 2. Last year, III made a concerted effort to keep Ashanti's mentality as an off-guard. He always had Jon or Ray out there bringing the ball up if he could help it. And Ashanti really responded. My guess is that III will want a player out there that's comfortable thinking of himself as a point, which means that either Jon, Josh or Jesse will be on the court, fouls and ability permitting.

I'm sure the early games will feature veterans starting, but by the time the BE tourney rolls around, I wouldn't be shocked to see DJ coming off the bench and either Tyler, Tay or Marc (or Roy, with Brandon rolling to the 3) starting. DJ has a great shot when he is hot, and has skills, including some nice length on defense, but his rebounding is sub-par. I'm pretty sure all the options I mentioned will rebound better. And putting DJ as our "microwave" might not be a bad option.

That said, I wouldn't also be shocked if some folks challenged Ashanti for minutes. He's a senior, so he'll keep his starting role, but I think there will be points next season where people ask whether the starters or backups are better in the backcourt. Which will be a good thing for us.

[MCIGuy]

Ashanti played as much pg as Wallace did last season. Cook will keep his starting spot because he's only has a year left and can play both guard spots (and he has a lot more experience). Its Wallace who has to look over his shoulder.

[SFHoya99]

mciguy said:

Ashanti played as much pg as Wallace did last season. Cook will keep his starting spot because he's only has a year left and can play both guard spots (and he has a lot more experience). Its Wallace who has to look over his shoulder.

I agree that Wallace's spot is more tenuous, but I'll stick with my assertion that Ashanti was not asked to play PG much. Oh, he'd bring up the ball, but Ray or Jon was always on the court -- even when it seemed to made sense, we almost never saw Tyler or DJ at the 2. We saw them at the 3, most times. I suspect we won't be seeing a Egerson/Crawford-Cook backcourt.

[MCIGuy]

Last season there wasn't any traditional point guard play in that system. Ashanti may not have brought up the ball as often but in the halfcourt he ran the team more in the halfcourt than Wallace did. Didn't he have a whole lot more assists than Wallace too? Regardless the fact of the matter is that as the season progressed Wallace got less time as his impact on the court, in terms of his scoring and shooting percentage, had sharply gone down. He can definitely add something to the team with his smart court awareness and his outside shooting. But he still has to prove he can handle playing in the Big East. Cook, while not a great player either, has already proven that and has less holes in his game than Wallace. He could easily slide over and play the pg spot.

[SFHoya99]

We rarely had Cook out there alone as a ballhandler. (And neither Ray nor Jon was really alone much, either). I cannot see the SG being taken by someone without a 1's handle. That seemed to be the way of it last year, at least.

Either way, though, I hope the freshmen really press Jon and Ashanti. Just means the talent level on the team overall is higher. And it'll help Jon and Ashanti improve as well.

[MCIGuy]

This thread has been hijacked by a Cook-Wallace discussion for which I'm partially responsible. So I'll drop that angle for now.

Getting back to yesterday's game, I was told on HR that the big man who was playing like a beast in the paint for the Delaware Sharpshooters was none other than Vernon Goodridge! JT3 reportedly shook hands with him way before the game which is a class gesture considering VG picked MS over Gtown.

[SFHoya99]

More on Egerson:

depreps.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=695&tid=53816423&sid=&style=2

[Deleted]

III's going to put the five guys who best run the system out there - I agree we didn't really have a true point. Sure, one of three maybe four guys brought it up every time, but once they got in the sets, all bets were off. Hell, Green played as much of a distributing "point" role as anyone.