The long and the short of it.

Wow, that really defines it, I forget how vertically challenged he is until you see shots like this. I love how in sideline huddles he makes our players all look giant, I hope it has a small intimidation effect on the other players if they happen to look.

Love the vertical look (and lack of one) in the same shot. Thanks!

Jones was a great player for us and I am happy for her current success, but I believe Beers will have far out-shined her when their college careers are all said and done.

Beers was so impressive against Seattle. It’ll be interesting to see how she maneuvers around larger posts, but all-around really solid for a frosh. She and Jelena have some tough tests coming up with Czinano and (likely) Brown.

From my perspective Jones peaked early. She was able to use her length and wingspan very early on. She still had a way to go in respect to learning spacing and awarness as to where other people on the court ( both teammates and opposition players ) were. Blocks do not always define an elite defender. Often they happen because players excel in recovering from being out of position which her physical skills made her good at.. The opposition used to challenge her a lot because of that and she was actually even a better off ball defender than an on ball one. I have yet to watch Beers enough to evaluate her defensive capabilities. One thing is obvious. She will not be pushed arround under the basket. Jomes was and that was because her body type gave her a high center of gravity and she had not learned how to compensate yet. Thats one reason I am curious as to how she will develop farther, especially in her floor awareness. If she is able to become more aware it would give her another upside to develop. If it is because of limited peripherral vision or a lack of mental multitasking ability then she has already hit her ceiling. Its hard to tell with her because in high school she could get by with just her physical skills. She never had to play against higher level post players who would challenge her to improve.

I wasn't really going for the body type comparison. I was thinking about the ways she makes herself open to shoot. Just one opinion.

highlight tape:

She's only listed at 6'2" right? Sorry, haven't seen either of the first two games. Someone mentioned use her assets. I remember that reference about a men's center we had many years ago... I think he came up recently because he scored more in his debut than any other Beav.

If being high centered is true of Jones double that with Jalena she has that problem and cannot get low enough to position other players. Is just one of her issues. She stands like an oak tree when receiving the ball with her back to the basket. She is not fluid in that position but acts very uncomfortable not being able to position her height against the defender. Then turns out of balance to the basket and misses where the basket is. She is not a true post like Beers is. Beers with her body has learned to feel then position herself into the soft spot to the basket.

Where Jalena is helpful is she is better facing the basket. She reacts much better that way comfort wise on defense and offense. She can coordinate much better getting a look to the basket. She can pass block shoot more comfortly. She does miss opportunity on defense though because she stays pretty low in the key. She feels uncomfortable on defense if she gets to far away from the basket. But slashers no this to and will pull up to shoot a few steps away from Jelena to Flote shots over her.


Watch game film of when the post player on South Carolina whose name is Boston, posted up at 6-5. She moved much like beers very fluid and leveraged her body manipulating the defender. Her moves are the prototype you want all your centers to evolve too.