Despite the title, there’s very little talk about Saunders in this video. However, the back half is a discussion with I think a SDSU beat writer…near the end, he says Saunders probably had the most NBA potential of any player on their team this season.
Really excited for this one @Treymank3
He’s a great dude, I really appreciated his time. We are going to love him, I can already tell!
I think Saunders and Ames may bring some fire back to the team!
I know TJ Power had the HS 5-star ranking, but Saunders is going to earn the starting PF job this season running away.
Love that he’s already rocking the UVA polo and is very active on social media repping the Hoos. Should be a great addition to the locker room
Unless we are playing a team with a solid 5 I suspect we’ll see lots of Power and Saunders at the 4/5.
TJ Power seems destined to be a 6th man who plays starter minutes.
My concer is that if the starting 5 is Ames, IMac, Warley, Saunders, BB. IMac is the only consistent 3P shooter, I know Ames showed some improvement in that area late in the season but not really a 3P shooter and Saunders can hit a 3 but again not really a 3P shooter.
I think Power may need to be on the floor in place of Saunders to offer a 3P shooter with IMac to keep the defense honest. Now Power at 4 and Saunders at 5 could work for stretches too, but I really like BB and hope he takes a big step forward next season.
Over the years, Tony has really leaned on versatile defensive 4’s when he can, to the point that sophomore Zay was starting over senior Tobey in the 2016 NCAAT. I’m not saying Tony won’t go offense for defense in the starting lineup, especially when the player is an all-ACC level scorer (see: Hauser, Sam, 2020-21). But given Power’s lack of experience, I just don’t see any way the starting PF job isn’t Saunder’s to lose.
Re: Saunders at the 5 over BB, let me put together some projections of the starting front courts we’ll see in the ACC this year, and could spur some good discussions about the best deployment of our six rostered bigs.
Saunders is good enough that you cant just leave him wide open from 3. Not so good that you cant help off him at all but good enough that his defender cant just camp out in the lane. I suspect Ames will be in that range as well. Should be fine from a spacing perspective.
Just trying to reconcile “the visit was awesome and I was ready to commit” with “we stunk it up so bad on national TV against CSU that no one wants to come here”.
Interviews with Warley, Dai Dai, and Power next?
I think you are 100% correct!
I wonder if we will see more TJP-Saunders pairings at the 3/4 than at the 4/5.
In that pairing, Saunders can guard the 3 and TJP guard the 4 on defense. And flip those roles when on the offensive end.
Saunders rebounding rates & heavy 3pt shot % makes it really hard to wrap my mind around him as a 5.
I think solid chance of this. Excellent group brought in for next year, and Saunders is the one I’m most excited about.
Well done. Thanks man.
