When Alajiki signed I was very impressed with his highlight video. Good size, great athleticism, decent looking shot. I thought he would outperform his modest rating. Today I decided to look for more recent video. I found a Christmas tournament from December. The video was, um, rough. He still looked athletic. The form on his shot looked okay (shoots on the way down), but it mostly did not go in. His energy was low. He fancies himself as a ball handler. For his size he is okay, but he does not know how to beat people. His feel for the game is very low.

I know with covid he might have been out of practice or out of shape or both. But big-time athletics is cruel. Either you can or you can't. Maybe he can eventually, but the video evidence is that he will be a multi year project. I am rooting for him. Roberson is going to need to play a lot. I hope he has improved.

If you want to see for yourself he is #2 on maroon.

thanks for posting
as you said, the video was poor and I only watched part of it

from what I could tell, he is very athletic, and a solid ball handler. He correctly handles a trap

but you're observations are also true. For such an athletic player who was the biggest/strongest on the court, I didn't see him rebound well, and the one shot I saw was badly front iron with no arc

He also didn't look to be a dog defensively, although you'd expect he could be with his length and athletism

from this cursory look, I'd say he could help us by his second year, but didn't look college ready to me (of course that's what coaching is about)

HoopDreams said:

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thanks for posting
as you said, the video was poor and I only watched part of it

from what I could tell, he is very athletic, and a solid ball handler. He correctly handles a trap

but you're observations are also true. For such an athletic player who was the biggest/strongest on the court, I didn't see him rebound well, and the one shot I saw was badly front iron with no arc

He also didn't look to be a dog defensively, although you'd expect he could be with his length and athletism

from this cursory look, I'd say he could help us by his second year, but didn't look college ready to me (of course that's what coaching is about)

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Something must have been wrong that day. His energy was very low. But even if he was not feeling great, I don't understand why he was consistently out of position defensively and going for rebounds. It was striking. It was like he had never played before. It does not get better if you watch more.

Fox's recruits in general have good athleticism and low skill. I suspect he could have recruited less athletic but higher skill players. His strategy is smart if he can coach them up. Last offseason was a mulligan because of covid. But the players should be vaccinated soon, so hopefully they will get a chance for a real offseason, and we will see what he can do.

sluggo said:

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HoopDreams said:

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thanks for posting
as you said, the video was poor and I only watched part of it

from what I could tell, he is very athletic, and a solid ball handler. He correctly handles a trap

but you're observations are also true. For such an athletic player who was the biggest/strongest on the court, I didn't see him rebound well, and the one shot I saw was badly front iron with no arc

He also didn't look to be a dog defensively, although you'd expect he could be with his length and athletism

from this cursory look, I'd say he could help us by his second year, but didn't look college ready to me (of course that's what coaching is about)

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Something must have been wrong that day. His energy was very low. But even if he was not feeling great, I don't understand why he was consistently out of position defensively and going for rebounds. It was striking. It was like he had never played before. It does not get better if you watch more.

Fox's recruits in general have good athleticism and low skill. I suspect he could have recruited less athletic but higher skill players. His strategy is smart if he can coach them up. Last offseason was a mulligan because of covid. But the players should be vaccinated soon, so hopefully they will get a chance for a real offseason, and we will see what he can do.

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Monty generally went for smart, skilled players (sometimes just 3 pt shooting) with limited athleticism. He would sometimes take better athletes with low skill as projects, but then he would not play them and they would just ride pine for 4 years. Of course, if he got a skilled good athlete he would play them and they would star, but they tended to frustrate him and he would yell at them the most. He then used smart coaching to put players in position to utilize their skills. Monty's approach is better for an academic school like Stanford (especially as it was when he first got there). Fox's is better for an average SEC team. Monty's had upside which Fox's does not.

sluggo said:

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Fox's recruits in general have good athleticism and low skill.

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I'd say that of Kuany and Bowser, though I haven't seen enough of Bowser to have a solid opinion on his skill. Thiemann and Klonaras don't seem particularly athletic (or skilled). Celestine could have both, late this season he looked pretty good for a freshie. I know nothing about Fox's Georgia or Nevada recruits.

stu said:

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sluggo said:

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Fox's recruits in general have good athleticism and low skill.

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I'd say that of Kuany and Bowser, though I haven't seen enough of Bowser to have a solid opinion on his skill. Thiemann and Klonaras don't seem particularly athletic (or skilled). Celestine could have both, late this season he looked pretty good for a freshie. I know nothing about Fox's Georgia or Nevada recruits.

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Bowser is pretty skilled. Just slight of build so far.