That Beekman article is a good read, with a few new (to me) nuggets.
Some tough stuff on his older brother
Interesting about his Dad (more reading here – you can see the resemblance)
Quote from Tony on Reece’s trainer, but could have been on i-Mac:
“Luke did a good job,” Bennett said. “You always have a dilemma when a young man comes into your program, you know, he’s shot hundreds of thousands of shots, and habits are formed. … So, you’re always smart with your changes. But sometimes they need to be made, and they help.”
Also the assessment of the shot change for Reece was great, talking about the hunching/posture stuff and pushing the ball away from his body that was pretty apparent his first year. Even when he was hitting game winners…
Yeah I’m still confused about *changes that iMAC needed to make when he arrived on campus? Although I’ve seen his kind of returned to his leg kick action and all of a sudden his now back up to hitting many more shots.
the main thing i’ve seen is it just seems so much quicker. seem to recall more of a Ty Jerome like loading for the shot (not nearly as exaggerated) from his high school highlights. Now it seems to be one motion without pulling the ball as close to his head?
this is a really horrible job of describing it, does anyone else see this or am i losing my mind?
I remember him getting *alot more height on his shot, and also having the explosion to dunk on guys, BUT a benefit I do see from this year is that if he’s not wasting a lot of energy jumping so high then he can play defense etc. longer. In addition some D-bag won’t be able to Bruce Bowen him and he roll an ankle.
On Reece and the Naismith, I haven’t read those articles but I bet him getting hurt essentially put him behind the other guys. A healthy-all-season Reese wouldn’t be left off that list.
Tenn.'s offense is much better than UVA 2020, but only top 35 (kenpom). The correlation is really strong the last 20 years between the eventual national champion and a top 10 (and usually top 5) offense with the exception of Syracuse in 2003, and Conn. in 2011 and 2014. Surprisingly, those Syracuse and Conn. teams were very good defensively, but not below 91 in AdjD and only Conn. 2014 was top 10 (#10 specifically). So maybe the conclusion is that if you don’t have a top 10 offense, maybe only be a really good on defense, but not top 9 if you want to win a national championship?
The conclusion might also be if you’re not UConn or you don’t have the best player in the country in Anthony … then you need to be Elite offensively …
UConn is 18th offensively and 19th defensively … might wanna watch out for them …
Purdue is 12th offensively and 37th defensively - and have the best player in the country.
Alabama probably has the best freshman in the country like Carmelo in 2003 …
Low key cool thing to see about what opponents think when Reece has an open look from 3 … watch the Cuse coaches body language sag as soon as he catches it … pretty cool…
symbol on it and nothing else. If you know you know.
