![]() There may have been some fatigue or disinterest, so feel free to take all of this with a grain of salt. ![]() To his credit, he’s coming off a week of McDonald’s events straight into Hoop Summit. Holland is going to be one of the most polarizing players next season, and he didn’t really do anything to convince me otherwise at Hoop Summit. There will be a learning curve for both, but a huge Sophomore season for them shouldn’t surprise anyone. He has the athleticism to get to the rim, the foundation of the shot looks promising, and he’s shown some ability as a second-side creator. Walter still has some work to do on his jumper (I know, what a shocker for a teenager), but his off-ball scoring arsenal is really impressive. While Little is the ice, Walter is the fire. Little’s performance fell off some in the games and scrimmages compared to practice, but his combination of quick decision-making, quality shooting, and physical defense should fit in nicely at Baylor. No matter where you were in the gym, you could hear Little calling out rotations, cheering on teammates, or directing traffic. He constantly does all the little things like boxing out, taking charges, diving for loose balls, and talking constantly. Little is a pure point guard who acts like a coach’s kid. We unfortunately didn’t get to see them play together since they were on opposite teams, but their styles should complement each other really well. It would be surprising if either of these guys were a one-and-done player, but they make it impossible to not be excited about the future of Baylor’s backcourt. In a draft class that doesn’t have a standout top prospect yet, Risacher could vault to the top of a lot of lists if he continues making significant developmental strides. There was still plenty of rawness to his game, but he was more assertive, pushed in transition, and was a dog on defense. Once they rolled the balls out and let the kids play, Risacher looked completely different. It was a concerning first couple of days. Risacher struggled with some of the ball-handling drills, and his shot looked like a work in progress. It’s an intimidating setting to be thrown into, especially if you’re naturally a bit shyer. It may have been a language barrier issue or that he was one of the few players there with zero USA basketball experience. Don’t be surprised if he measures closer to 7’0” come the 2024 NBA Draft.īack to the relevant stuff, though. Since then, Risacher’s game has improved a ton, and he looks a lot taller. Last summer he was one of the most impressive players in the entire FIBA U17 World Cup as France lost to the USA in the finals. Even though he doesn’t have great height, don’t for a second think he’s not a good athlete. He even had a scrimmage-sealing rebound where skyed over multiple opponents to secure the ball with one hand, and he turned multiple steals into transition dunks. In the long run, he’ll be a one-position defender, but he showed a high IQ and impressive fundamentals. Shelstad is strong and has excellent feet. The area of the game where you’d expect Shelstad’s size to hurt him the most would be on defense, but he more than held his own. To his credit, the kick-out passes always found an open teammate, but at some point, he’ll need to prove that he can convert those opportunities into points or fouls. Too frequently he passed out of drives that should’ve been layups because he almost looked afraid of getting blocked by a recovering/help defender. The only time Shelstad’s lack of size reared its ugly head was when he drove. The ball never stuck with him, he read the floor effortlessly, and he showed some dynamic ball-handling. Shelstad is very much in the mold of a pure point guard. It didn’t take long for him to break a sweat, and he clearly cared about getting better. During drills, he was one of the hardest workers. Shelstad was consistently one of the most effective and influential players on both ends of the floor. He may lack great height, but he constantly played bigger than he’s listed and immediately made you forget about his size. That height alone may turn a lot of people off, but Shelstad was one of the most impressive players all week.
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