From the Boston Herald on Tyler Nelson. I would like to hear how good Tyler Nelson's ballhandling is. Maybe the scout crew can check in?
One player who doesn't lack for experience is All-Scholastic guard Tyler Nelson. Playing with his left hand heavily wrapped due to an injury suffered in a fall league game, the Fairfield-bound shooting guard lived up to the hype, scoring a game-high 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field. He scored 15 in the fird quarter as the Raiders built up a 19-13 lead and extended it to 23-13 early in the second before the 2-2-1 press employed by St. Anthony's helped turn the game around. "Tyler is still not 100 percent, but he played great," Nault said. "We need to get other guys to help him out."
Thumbs up for sure on Tyler! Surely seems erroneous that previous reports had him being a "one trick pony" who could only shoot off a pass but do hardly anything else. Just the opposite was true in this game. He was brilliant in the first quarter by getting his shots off in a variety of ways with a lightning quick release from all over the court, all the while being hounded by one or more of the tremendously physical and quick players that coach Hurley employs at St. Anthony's. The truth is as the game went further along and the opposition turned up the press, the sophomore laden backcourt of Central Catholic struggled just to get the ball upcourt, thereby forcing Nelson to have to take over a lot of the ballhandling and passing duties which in turn lessened his scoring chances by a great deal. And while he was guilty of some of the turnovers that occured, he also made many tough to complete passes that were well disquised and subtle in nature. So in effect, against a press that would put a lot of college teams to shame, he more than held his own. I see him as another player who certainly has the ability to make his teamates better. Based on this game as a small sample, he's a future asset IMO!
Nash, Do you see him as a player that can possibly play PG in addition to being a 2G?? It seems he is very good as a shooter, and if he has to play some PG in HS, then that will only improve him as a player in College.
Nash, Do you see him as a player that can possibly play PG in addition to being a 2G?? It seems he is very good as a shooter, and if he has to play some PG in HS, then that will only improve him as a player in College.
He's a very lean 6'2, but he move so well without the ball. He's a kid that really understands spacing on the court. Furthermore, he doesn't fold under pressure, despite his thin frame. He is lights out when he's open, but he doesn't force it and facilitates for the other guys on the court. I'd be surprised if Central Catholic doesn't win another district title in the north, with this kid in their backcourt. It'd be even more impressive than last year considering they are starting a freshman opposite him.
Looking into the future, this team is going to have a couple of "interesting" roster situations.
First, with the four incoming freshmen + the current scholarship players, the team will have 14 scholarship players on next year's roster. Obviously something will have to give since you are only allowed to have 13. Will one of the incoming frosh go to a prep school? Will someone transfer out?
Second, assuming the 14 gets down to 13, if nothing else changes, we will have 0 scholarships to give out next year, since the current roster has no juniors who will graduate in 2015. Not sure I have ever seen a situation where a team has no scholarships available.
This won't help explain anything but I was on verbal commits looking for something else when I saw that we apparently are still offering scholarships to high school seniors ----?
Looking into the future, this team is going to have a couple of "interesting" roster situations.
First, with the four incoming freshmen + the current scholarship players, the team will have 14 scholarship players on next year's roster. Obviously something will have to give since you are only allowed to have 13. Will one of the incoming frosh go to a prep school? Will someone transfer out?
Second, assuming the 14 gets down to 13, if nothing else changes, we will have 0 scholarships to give out next year, since the current roster has no juniors who will graduate in 2015. Not sure I have ever seen a situation where a team has no scholarships available.
This won't help explain anything but I was on verbal commits looking for something else when I saw that we apparently are still offering scholarships to high school seniors ----?
Obviously something has to give and the commitments that we already have force one to conclude that 1) one of our commits is headed to prep school or 2) someone is not going to return next season. While I suspect that the former is the more likely scenario, if there was someone who wouldn't be returning, you would think that would be based on a player not getting the playing time they desired. There are not a lot of candidates that fall into that category in my mind, since most everyone is getting some minutesm and freshman probably don't have an expectation of playing 20 minutes a game. So there is only really one player jumping off the page as a trasnfer candidate unless there is a Bernie Ceplicki type situation where a player is doing well but just wants to leave the program after the season for purely personal reasons.
Andover played Box-and-1 on Tyler Nelson. and was able to stop him.
Andover's box-and-one defense shut Central's Tyler Nelson for long chunks of the game. The Fairfield-bound Nelson was held to four points in the first half and 11 for the game. “When you rely so much of your offense on Tyler Nelson and the team is doing a good job of shutting him down you have to do different things,” Central coach Rick Nault said.
Haven't seen much about Lakoju, but here is a picture. Compared to the other players, he sure looks tall. I had been wondering if he was a bit overweight, but from this picture he looks well-proportioned. Let's hope he has some skills to go with his size.
Anyone going to have a chance to see him play and give us some info? There isn't much out there about him.
Haven't seen much about Lakoju, but here is a picture. Compared to the other players, he sure looks tall. I had been wondering if he was a bit overweight, but from this picture he looks well-proportioned. Let's hope he has some skills to go with his size.
Anyone going to have a chance to see him play and give us some info? There isn't much out there about him.
I have seen him play Va. To be honest, he is nowhere near the level of player right now that the other two northeast recruits are at (Degnan and Nelson). However even though I guess the proper term for him would be called a "project," he does indeed have a college ready body to build his game around. And the truth is sometimes big men come into school (college) with a game that makes people wonder why they were ever recruited in the first place, but then by their junior and senior years they become difference makers. So I hope this becomes the case with Ami. But I would not expect him to step right in initially and take minutes away from Malcolm, Amadou and Colemen, so his dividends probably would not show up immediately. BTW the word on him is he is a great kid who takes coaching really well, so that is encouraging.
Post by nashvillestag on Jan 6, 2014 13:51:54 GMT -5
For what it's worth, NERR has come out with their latest rankings, and Tyler Nelson is listed as #10 in Massachusetts and #26 in New England. BTW, this includes EVERYONE who plays scholastic ball (public, private, and the famous bssketball centric prep schools). Interesting fact (if I read this correctly). Of the top 50 players who are listed in NE (seniors only), only 4 do not play for one of the prestigious preps. Tyler is one of course, and two of the others are Pascal Chukwu of Prep (#5), and Issac Vann of Bunnell (who plays for Pat Yerina) who is listed as #46. The forth kid (#49) I don't know anything about.
Post by nashvillestag on Jan 8, 2014 9:34:12 GMT -5
Nice honor for Kevin and Tyler. Both have have picked as nominees for the prestigious McDonald's All-American game which will take place in April. Obviously being nominated is a lot different than being picked to play (they won't), but just to be on this list is certainly something they should be proud of!