Makai Ashton-Langford
- Thread starter tcf_15
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Makai is a big time talent and will be much needed for depth and playmaking ability!!
Kid is hungry which is always a great thing!
Kid is hungry which is always a great thing!
No more Taliek Brown FT shooting please. Can't have a guy handling the Ball end of games who shoots like that. Taliek got away with it because they put ball in Ben Gordon's hands and Ben could shoot FTs
Thanks TCF for the additional highlights. His scoring seems to come from alot of slashing which scare me a little. HS/Prep/AAU slashing doesn't often transfer well into
big time D-1 ball where teams will shut that right down. Hope he has more to his game than that because he'll need to make a big adjustment in college. And need to spend hours on his shot, work on a pull-up game, etc. like Kemba did. And I don't think he looks as smooth off the dribble as an early KW, but he has more length and hops (from other tape I've seen). But there's alot you can't see in highlights... IQ, composure, hustle, chasing down rebounds, etc. so there' still a lot of unknowns. With Rique, Jalen and Vital back ( and inj. free) he'll be able to grow into his role at a slower pace. Should be interesting to see how he makes the transition to the next step up.
big time D-1 ball where teams will shut that right down. Hope he has more to his game than that because he'll need to make a big adjustment in college. And need to spend hours on his shot, work on a pull-up game, etc. like Kemba did. And I don't think he looks as smooth off the dribble as an early KW, but he has more length and hops (from other tape I've seen). But there's alot you can't see in highlights... IQ, composure, hustle, chasing down rebounds, etc. so there' still a lot of unknowns. With Rique, Jalen and Vital back ( and inj. free) he'll be able to grow into his role at a slower pace. Should be interesting to see how he makes the transition to the next step up.
The lean guys who are slashers in high school do find out that in college ball teams clog the lane with much bigger, stronger and faster bodies and those lanes to the hole close up very quickly. The same penetrations that were executed on the tape result in offensive fouls and turnovers in traffic. I remember two other guys who were similar in the 1990s- Covington Cormier and Monquencio Hartnett, both were very quick slashing guards and neither amounted to anything. Neither could shoot, and in the case of Hartnett his body was faster than his handle was tight, so he was a bit sloppy with the ball.
MAL is going to be forced to develop his shooting and that will determine how good he will become. The other two guys I mentioned couldn't shoot a lick.
MAL is going to be forced to develop his shooting and that will determine how good he will become. The other two guys I mentioned couldn't shoot a lick.
You nailed it KSTW...and I think both of those guys were either a little bigger and/or more athletic than MAL.
edit: just checked my old yearbooks Q was 6-4 ......Cup 6-2 but if I remember right he was a highlight dunker.
edit: just checked my old yearbooks Q was 6-4 ......Cup 6-2 but if I remember right he was a highlight dunker.
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Cormier and Hartnett were both superior athletes with no shooting ability. Both were JUCO All Americans or second team All Americans. Highly touted guys, especially Cormier, who was a complete zero at UConn, much like Darius Smith. Hartnett was something more of a contributor but not much and was used sparingly in big games.
Kemble Walker was the only pure slasher UConn had that turned into a star. All the other guys could shoot. But guys like Kemba are exceedingly rare. I still say Kemba's 2010-11 season is the best I have ever seen by a UConn player and we may never see such a season again.
Kemble Walker was the only pure slasher UConn had that turned into a star. All the other guys could shoot. But guys like Kemba are exceedingly rare. I still say Kemba's 2010-11 season is the best I have ever seen by a UConn player and we may never see such a season again.
Yeah, the only other guy I can think of who was an effective slasher/push guard and bad shooter was the above mentioned Taliek. But he had a lot of talent around him, was a tough defender, good distributor and like you said had Ben to slide over if FT's became an issue. (also forgot to add KO when we speak about no outside shot, but neither were "stars")
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Good Jacobs article on MAL, the recruiting process, quotes from his Dad and Eric Cobb/ Sidney Wilson info too:
Makai Ashton-Langford Likely To Have Bright Future With UConn
Makai Ashton-Langford Likely To Have Bright Future With UConn
that's a good looking stroke. He'll be fine as a shooter here. Plays fast, but not in a hurry. The anti Rodney Purvis? 
Taliek was a truly awful shooter. Of the starting guards UConn has had in the last 35 years I don't remember anyone who was worse. They won a championship with him because he played with two sensational 3 ballers, Ben Gordon and Rashad Anderson, whose brilliance shooting the rock more than offset Taliek's inability to do so.
Taliek Brown was a McDonald's All American, which I could never understand after watching how he shot the ball, and the truth is he did not have a good year until he was a senior and had become very functional with his assist to turnover ratio, but he also had brilliant players alongside him in Gordon, Anderson, and of course Emeka, Boone, Hilton and Charlie in the paint to snag boards. I think Taliek was a pretty good rebounder and defender, but offensively he had no value until his senior year.
Totally agree Khalid. He and Purvis were two that were misdiagnosed out of HS, probably because they overwhelmed players at that level with size and athleticism and didn't evolve or expand their games in college.
That being sad, We've had a lot more sleepers turn into first round draft picks, however, than guys that didn't fulfill their potential.
That being sad, We've had a lot more sleepers turn into first round draft picks, however, than guys that didn't fulfill their potential.
I think the only one who came close to him on bad outside/3pt shooting was KO himself.... they were classic poor shooting/ pass first push guards. I just checked them out.
KO was 16-61 on 3pt'ers ( 26.2%) for his career, while TB was 17-75 (22.7%) and most of them he made in his first 2 years. Where KO blew away TB was on the FT line @ 75.6% to 57.8%. AIso remember Tate wasn't a great outside shooter but he was still 37-115 on 3's for (32.2%)...... and even Ricky Moore who was never known as a great shooter made 75-220 (34.1%)
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