Jared Lucas has become who I hoped he would
Mar 12, 2021 23:43:45 GMT -8
TheGlove, beaverbeliever71, and 14 more like this
Post by beaverstever on Mar 12, 2021 23:43:45 GMT -8
Jared seemed like a Mike Riley-type recruit; great history of production at the HS level that Riley loved, yet serious doubts by other programs that the physical attributes would enable any of his production to translate to the next level.
As it turned out, Jared's HS game as it stood largely did not translate to the D1 level. However, instead of wasting away not the pines or transferring to DII, he's evolved his game to produce at the D1 level. He's greatly improved his ball-handling, he's sped up his release (to the point it looks pretty unorthodox), and he's created a slashing game that works with his physicality, which includes dribbling curls to quick spinning, short fade-way shots that are really effective and hard to defend. The results are that he's been able to get his 3 pt % up 60 points over last year (with at 40%, top on the team), averaging double-digits at 12.6, has led the team scoring in 7 games.
In the tournament games, he's been stuffing the box. His line tonight was 11 its, 6 Reb, 4 Ast, 1To. Against UCLA, he had 17 its, 1 Reb, 2 Ast. 2 steals and 1 TO.
But the thing that seems to be the most impactful is his confidence, and how contagious it is. He wants to be the guy taking the big shot, and his dagger tonight when they had the game down to a 5 point lead was a step-back over a double-team of both guys with 3 inches on him, and he just wouldn't be denied the opportunity to stop the bleeding. It seems that Ethan and Reichle, our senior leadership, can be pretty susceptible to stretches where they get taken out of their games mentally, and it seems that Jared (and I'm sure credit to some of the other young guys as well) have created this winning blend with our senior leaders with their (misguided at times) optimistic confidence.
And even very recently, there were posts here that Jared doesn't belong in the Pac. He seems to strongly disagree, and I look forward to seeing him continue to evolve his game in crafty, effective ways.
As it turned out, Jared's HS game as it stood largely did not translate to the D1 level. However, instead of wasting away not the pines or transferring to DII, he's evolved his game to produce at the D1 level. He's greatly improved his ball-handling, he's sped up his release (to the point it looks pretty unorthodox), and he's created a slashing game that works with his physicality, which includes dribbling curls to quick spinning, short fade-way shots that are really effective and hard to defend. The results are that he's been able to get his 3 pt % up 60 points over last year (with at 40%, top on the team), averaging double-digits at 12.6, has led the team scoring in 7 games.
In the tournament games, he's been stuffing the box. His line tonight was 11 its, 6 Reb, 4 Ast, 1To. Against UCLA, he had 17 its, 1 Reb, 2 Ast. 2 steals and 1 TO.
But the thing that seems to be the most impactful is his confidence, and how contagious it is. He wants to be the guy taking the big shot, and his dagger tonight when they had the game down to a 5 point lead was a step-back over a double-team of both guys with 3 inches on him, and he just wouldn't be denied the opportunity to stop the bleeding. It seems that Ethan and Reichle, our senior leadership, can be pretty susceptible to stretches where they get taken out of their games mentally, and it seems that Jared (and I'm sure credit to some of the other young guys as well) have created this winning blend with our senior leaders with their (misguided at times) optimistic confidence.
And even very recently, there were posts here that Jared doesn't belong in the Pac. He seems to strongly disagree, and I look forward to seeing him continue to evolve his game in crafty, effective ways.
