Front court should have eye opening depth — Matthews, Livers, Brazdeikis, Johns, whatever improvements Watson makes. Back court should have bodies, but less proven options — Simpson looks solid at PG but beyond that it is projecting & guessing. Poole has flashed potential but will need to become more consistent & adjust to a more demanding role (both seem logical w/Beilein’s & Sanderson’s developmental backgrounds), Brooks should be able to fill more minutes next year. Can DeJulius or Nunez adapt fast enough to make an impact? Can Matthews improve his handle enough to play minutes at the 2-guard? Bodies & options, but not a lot of proven — but that’s a lot of skill & options for Beilein to work with.
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I talk to Matt all the time. He expected Dave to have a big year but I don’t think he or anyone realistically could’ve envisioned it would be this good. He believes Dave is the clear cut leader for Mr. basketball right now. I agree with that too but high school coaches tend to think a little more irrationally when the votes have to be placed so hopefully if Dave keeps it up, he will get the mr. Basketball award like he deserves as of now. I think Dave should and will get a bump in all scout services. I’m sure he will get a bump in Matt’s rankings. Not sure how big of a jump but I definitely think he deserves one and i will push hard for him to get a bump in the Prep Hoops national rankings when we update ours as well. We currently have him at 84 nationally, and Loyer at 80 but these rankings were done months ago during the fall before even preseason started. I’m thinking Dave should certainly climb into the top 75 in the next update for the national ranking. To give an idea at how old these rankings are, we still got Tyger Campbell listed as committed to DePaul. The guys who update the table are based in Minnesota so I can’t manually update these. FYI Iggy is not in the prep hoops rankings because I think he’s never played high school ball in the US. But Lugentz Dort is ranked so I’ll need to have a chat about that too.
I’ve also been in some of the ears of guys who work for the bigger scout services like 247 and rivals, so hopefully they will give him a bump. Into the top 100 at the bare minimum.
Here is a link to the prep hoops national rankings although they are pretty outdated. https://www.prephoops.com/2018-rankings/
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He can play defense when he wants to. Against Columbus northland a few days prior to the Clarkston game, Dave forced a couple turnovers and 5 second calls. It was spotty but whenever his team truly needed a stop he stepped up in big moments on defense. Same as when they played Clarkston. He didn’t defend Loyer in the first half but he did in the 2nd half and especially the 4th quarter and I heard he locked Loyer up outside of 1 or 2 nice buckets by Loyer. High school is a different beast than defending a quality big ten level guard though so we will see.
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Tell Ryan James and Nick Carroll to get their butt in gear and update more often (Nick played for me in college).
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I don’t see the the returning backcourt are any less proven than the returning front court Livers/Teske. Simpson/Brooks start all games this season and Poole has already provides sparks off the bench in key victories.
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He reminds me of Scottie Reynolds.
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The mr/mrs basketball voting is a crazy system. They do tend to end up with a correct top 3 or so when all is said and done, but it’s a wild system.
DD probably front runner, but lots of hoops left.
Another angle from the recent 49 point game that David Dejulius had against Chicago Orr, one of the best teams in Illinois.
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Nice video.
I liked the announcement at the end of the game: “David DeJulius put in 49 with 9 3 pointers. I guess we know who the MVP is.”
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Ho hum. Another outstanding game.
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Gotta be the frontrunner for Mr. Basketball at this point
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Highlights from yesterday’s game. Dave had a triple double… 26 points 13 rebounds 12 assists.
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Really hoping Dave’s game is college ready right out of the box next year.
Our three “PGs” now have the three lowest - 3 point percentages on the team.
Simpson - .340
Simmons - .273
Brooks - .256
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Z’s plummet is so disappointing. When he was knocking in a healthy % of wide-open 3s, that seemed both ideal and totally reasonable. Now he is clanking identical shots; if anything, teams are sagging off even more and leaving him even more open.
Making 3s in high school is one thing, let’s see if David can do that at the next level as a freshman. The PGs that we have now were great high school scorers, too.
None could shoot off the dribble like Dave can in HS. Plus Dave is doing it against high caliber competition.
Like I said, hope it translates immediately, because shooting and creating off the bounce is this team’s major weakness.
It really isn’t going to take that much for him to be an immediate contributor next year. That’s obvious.
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Speaking of point guards that can shoot…It’s insane to me that Cassius Winston is shooting 52% from three on the season still on 4 attempts per game. He’s 3-3 against Minnesota in the first 3 minutes of the game.