Jerome Jordan is a hard guy to evaluate. While on one hand there's plenty to like (7' size, length, good variety of offense skills that it looks like he's still fine-tuning including nice touch out to 17-18', runs the court pretty well, move his feet well in one-on-one defensive situations, plays relatively mistake-free, looks pretty consistent at the foul line) there's definitely some areas of concern. For one, he doesn't look like he gives an all-out 100% effort at all times. I don't see nearly enough effort going to the glass to pursue rebounds on both ends and to use his height & length to shot-block. Looks almost non-existent on the offensive glass and those are the harder rebounds to go get. That's just it - you gotta go get it and unlike a Trevor Booker from the earlier Clemson/Liberty game, Jordan doesn't have anywhere near the killer instinct or the edge Booker plays with. And I'm not talking about being some rah-rah vocal type because talk is cheap. Still, Jordan is relatively quiet out there (a guy like Booker for example gives ya both -- he's demonstative but he backs it up with hard-nosed play and is ALWAYS looking to out-work guys). Joe Dumars had a pretty quiet demeanor but that guy was an assassin out there...I don't see that type of play from Jerome Jordan. Unless he gets the ball and is executing an offensive move or is right at the rim for a rebound or a block attempt, he seems content to just take plays off. Looks disinterested when he's not the focal point and as of right now, no question he's got some skills, but he's no offensive focal point on an NBA team. So will he be able to do enough of the other things to help a club win ballgames? Not sure..Too much standing around and too much of a willingness to just let someone else do it instead of getting himself involved in more plays where he's not the focus..Doesn't look like he gets the most out of his abilities..If he's gonna make it in the NBA, that turning the switch on and off crap can't happen. In the NBA, esp. being a young player, you can't even have a switch. You always go hard. Unless that changes I can't justify taking him too high in the next draft if I were running an NBA team. If taken too high he could disappoint a-la Patrick O'Bryant. DeAndre Jordan is a good guy to compare him to - Jerome probably has more overall skill & potential than DeAndre, but will he be as active & play as hard & come with the same passion & energy DeAndre has in NBA so far? No idea, but he didn't convince me today. He had 19/11/2 today against an extremely inferior team with no frontcourt at all. Curious to see how he'll do against stiffer competition. The NBA's not Conference USA, it's a whole 'notha ball game..

sidsanders wrote:monroe is still soft. kid still plays like a g instead of a big man. gtown continues its struggles from last season. that was some baaaad bball

Yeah that game was pretty rough. Monroe had a double-double and he stepped in to make the good play at the end to bottle up the Temple driver but, yeah, something looks like it's missing with this guy. We'll have to see how much progress he'll make this season. He's got a ton of physical gifts.

Saw some of the Gonzaga/Mich. State game -- This guy Kalin Lucas is a nice talent. He's right there with a lot of the PGs I've been discussing lately. An upgrade over Duhon in every facet of the game which is what we should be looking for -- speed, penetration, outside shooting. This guy averaged 4.6 apg last year which is a good total for a college season, so you know he's looking to give it up as well as looking for his own. This next draft is gonna have a lot of PG talent scattered all over the board -- if they all play well, they may even all go first round.. Gonzaga lost a lot of talent but one guy I was pretty impressed with was 7 footer Robert Sacre. Not the quickest guy but he's big with real nice touch on the ball and some smooth moves in close. Takes his time and executes. Might have some shot-blocking potential as well. This guy might be ready to emerge now that Daye and Heytvelt are gone..