So I watched Connor Vanover play against Montverde a few weeks ago. I watched for other reasons, but I knew Cal was recruiting Vanover, so I paid close attention to him. I see the game is on youtube ( so you can see what I saw.

First, the good. He has a nice shot. He was 1-2 from beyond the arc with a smooth stroke. His free throws also looked good. I am convinced that his shooting will be a plus. What was good, and unexpected, was that he appeared to be a good passer and he could see the floor. And his hands were good. He looked like a basketball player, not just a tall guy. Offensively, I think he is ahead of high school Kravish.

But there is one problem. It is not his weight. He is so tall that I think he will be fine at whatever weight. It is his feet. He does not move well defensively. I think he would be fine in the middle of a 2-3 zone, but I don't think he can play man. Or WJ's vaunted Louisville press.

Also, he is almost 19, so he is one year older than expected for his high school class. In terms of potential, that matters a little.

Overall, I think he is an interesting player, and a good gamble at 7'3''.

Sluggo

Sluggo - Very much agree with you that Vanover is a 2-3 zone defender who would struggle in man bodying other post players. I think it's less about footwork and more about body composition in half court offense/defense but the net result is the same. But you're right that he's not a full court or 3/4 court press guy.

Could be the next Mel Counts or the next John Wardell.

Sluggo.
I recall in past years I came to butt heads with you about something. I have no idea what it was about, perhaps we just disagreed on some basketball things.
But the past couple years, when I see you've posted, it's always sounded well founded and I have come to respect your opinion.

Thus, when I saw this scouting report on him was from you I said to myself, "oh good", and looked forward to reading.

In other words, please keep the sage observations coming.
Thanks.

I think it will be about matchups
against some matchups he can be on the floor
most of the time we will have to go zone as you say
in other matchups, we need to go with someone else

As for the issue of age, my view formed over a few decades is that tall guys often take substantially longer to grow into their bodies.

Hence, I don't share Sluggo's concern with age.

Our new guy may not even by his 4th year, at 23, be fully comfortable in his long body, but he can still provide a lot of value to our team.

He actually sounds pretty impressive and I am enthused that he will be a Bear.

concordtom said:

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Sluggo.
I recall in past years I came to butt heads with you about something. I have no idea what it was about, perhaps we just disagreed on some basketball things.
But the past couple years, when I see you've posted, it's always sounded well founded and I have come to respect your opinion.

Thus, when I saw this scouting report on him was from you I said to myself, "oh good", and looked forward to reading.

In other words, please keep the sage observations coming.
Thanks.

---

You are kind. Whatever it was, it was not personal.

Sluggo

south bender said:

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As for the issue of age, my view formed over a few decades is that tall guys often take substantially longer to grow into their bodies.

Hence, I don't share Sluggo's concern with age.

Our new guy may not even by his 4th year, at 23, be fully comfortable in his long body, but he can still provide a lot of value to our team.

He actually sounds pretty impressive and I am enthused that he will be a Bear.

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A player's developmental curve is based on age. All I mean is that he is a little farther down that curve than one might think. But I agree that it is not such a big deal.

south bender said:

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As for the issue of age, my view formed over a few decades is that tall guys often take substantially longer to grow into their bodies.

Hence, I don't share Sluggo's concern with age.

Our new guy may not even by his 4th year, at 23, be fully comfortable in his long body, but he can still provide a lot of value to our team.

He actually sounds pretty impressive and I am enthused that he will be a Bear.

---

Right! And the truth is he will likely be better at 24 and 25 than at 22 and 23, so even if he decided to redshirt, that would be just fine with me!

In other threads over the years, we've complained that byu gets to stash players for 2 years on a mission while they fill out and develop psychologically as adults, and here we are concerned about him being too old?

No, that ONLY matters if a guy is in a hurry to make the NBA. NBA scouts correctly will evaluate where they are now vs the growth curve. But we are not worried about that. So, older is better!





Source: https://venngage.com/blog/olympics/

Here's another indepth examination of peak age for soccer players:

https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-sports-analytics/jsa0021

Charts at bottom shows peak age is 25.

Sluggo is correct in that if a guy rates at an 8 out of 10 at age 19 vs age 18, that is worse because he's less likely to make it to a 9 as the upward growth curve becomes less steep as one approaches 25.