Hi BBN,
I'm a Bucknell Alum that watches most, if not all the Bucknell games and wanted to give you some background on Sestina's game. I also watch a decent amount of Kentucky games, so thought I could give some perspective for you gus.
As many of you know Nate is kind of a clone bodywise to Reid Travis. 6'9 245, and it's legit size. He's a strong guy. He's a guy that has some post moves but is a better shooter than a post player. Travis was more of a post guy, but wasn't much of a shooter. So Sestina will add that shooting element.
His 3 point shooting and free throw shooting was very good. You look at his shooting numbers last year and like them....well those numbers are worse than they appear. For most of the season he was a +40% free 3 point shooter and a 85% free throw shooter. He ended up in a weird slump at the end of the year, and I think it was because he was banged up. I believe at the end he went 1 for 16 in one stretch that dragged his his 3 pt average down during that stretch. He also missed a bunch of free throws that dragged that percentage down. So in reality his shooting numbers are better than that...he's a very good shooter.
He's a strong rebounder and can body up most bigs. Last year Roy Williams called him "a house" when Bucknell played UNC. His one thing that drove me crazy was his terrible habit of getting into foul trouble. A lot of the times, the fouls were unnecessary. I figure Cal will really stress that with him. Other than that there isn't a lot to complain about with him.
He's a humble guy, so I wouldn't say he's looking to be the focal point. In fact at Bucknell he wasn't our "go-to" scorer. He was our second best scorer and he seemed perfectly comfortable with that. I'll definitely be following Kentucky more next season, but wanted to let you guys know what kind of player he is. Feel free to reach out with questions.
Thanks for that. Can you tell us anything about his defense? Especially in the pick and roll? Cal gives playing time first based on the ability to get stops.