Day 2 of the fifth annual Nike Elite Youth Basketball League continued in Sacramento, Calif. Going into this club season, the Oakland Soldiers are considered to be one of the top travelling teams as they feature two of the top overall players from the 2015 class in Ivan Rabb and Stephen Zimmerman. Yet, the Soldiers played sluggishly and inconsistently in splitting their two games to open league play.
The Soldiers got poor perimeter shooting in their 60-54 loss to the Kansas-based MOKAN Elite team while the second game saw some improvements as the Soldiers defeated Team CP3 from North Carolina 55-45. Rabb was the leading scorer and rebounder for his team in both games and was even called upon to bring the ball up the court to help break the press and start the offense.
The current roster has played together in only one tournament prior to EYBL play and it showed. In the first game, the Soldiers had only 9 assists to go with 23 turnovers attributable to poor guard play. While Rabb is clearly the team's best player, they struggled to get him the ball. The Soldiers will need to bring a more consistent and higher level of play on Sunday as they face off with Mac Irvin Fire and California Supreme, both of whom won their opening two games.
Coach Jules Milstead said that the club would add a few players later in the season as the roster is only eight currently and the league rules still permit roster changes.
Here is some analysis of the current roster:
Max Hazzard 6-foot-1 G Loyola (Oakland Soldiers 17U) 2015: Hazzard is a competitor and plays hard. He attacks the basket and led the Soldiers with 12 free throw attempts combined for the two games. Perhaps it was the unfamiliarity of playing with new teammates but Hazzard, who played the point guard position, did not do a great job of setting up his teammates, particularly the bigs, in the half court. His older brother, Jacob, is on the Arizona Wildcats roster as a guard while his late grandfather, Walt, was the former basketball head coach at UCLA.
Bernard Ward 6-foot-0 G Salesian (Oakland Soldiers 17U) 2015: Ward played very few minutes and when he did see the floor, he was out of sorts and only exacerbated the poor play from the backcourt.
Tyrell Alcorn 6-foot-2 G El Cerrito (Oakland Soldiers 17U) 2015: Alcorn has slowly moved his way through the various levels of the Soldiers program. However, he missed point blank layups, had difficulty bringing the ball up court under pressure and appeared intimidated and dispirited by the level of play.
Rex Pflueger 6-foot-6 SG Mater Dei (Oakland Soldiers 17U) 2015: The lone bright spot in the back court for the Soldiers in game one, Pflueger has good size and basketball IQ at the guard position as he anticipated well in making a few open court steals and transition points. Normally a perimeter threat, his shooting was off on both days.
Oscar Frayer 6-foot-6 SF Moreau Catholic (Oakland Soldiers 17U) 2016: The only sophomore on the Soldiers roster, Frayer has good length, versatile skills, and athleticism, however he didn't get many opportunities to show it in the first game.
Chimezie Metu 6-foot-10 F Lawndale (Oakland Soldiers 17U) 2015: Probably the least recognized of the three post prospects on the roster, Metu is long and athletic and should benefit from practicing against and playing aside Rabb and Zimmerman.
Stephen Zimmerman 7-foot-0 Post Bishop Gorman (Oakland Soldiers 17U) 2015: Zimmerman is moving from Dream Vision to the Soldiers. The post prospect played tentatively on the offensive side in the first game but bounced back in the second. Defensively, Zimmerman's presence and athleticism for his size will alter many shots and makes him a high level prospect but he needs to improve his toughness, seal better in the block and be more offensively assertive to increase his recruiting stock.
Ivan Rabb 6-foot-11 Post Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland Soldiers 17U) 2015: Rabb validated his potential as he had 28 points on 10-for-12 shooting in the two games with 14 rebounds. Currently, he is a face up four who is very skilled. He needs to get stronger and be more physical in the post as he is too easily uprooted from his established position in the block forcing him to receive the ball further from the basket. Being the longest standing member of the Soldiers 17U team, Rabb is taking over the leadership reins from Aaron Gordon and Stanley Johnson from the past two years.
Other Notes:
Over 120 assistant and head coaches were in attendance in the two Soldiers games. Notable coaches included Roy Williams, John Calipiri, Mike Brey, Dana Altman,
Mike Krzyzewski, Sean Miller, Cuonzo Martin Phil Martelli, John Calipiri, Lorenzo Romar, among others.
Former Oakland Soldiers Leon Powe was with the team.
The EYBL roster has nine freshmen (2017) prospects listed on the 40 rosters. The rosters are not yet finalized and this number could change.
The tallest player listed is 7-foot-5 Elhadji Fall from Florida based E1T1 17U. Fall is not a starter as the E1T1 team has a strong frontcourt.
No comments:
Post a Comment