Top conference players shine against peers at Lebron James Skills Academy

by Doug Ferguson

Williams Continues to Be a Conundrum

The talent has always been there. With a perfectly chiseled basketball body and ability to play several positions, Louisville’s Terrance Williams has always had us thirsty for more with his polarizing play. He was one of five top Big East players showing off their skills the past few days at the LeBron James Skills Academy.

In the morning drills, he was impressive early. As usual, he was one of the more versatile players on the floor. He showed the ability to defend, distribute, and handle the ball better than any other player on the floor his size. He was also one of the more vocal players on the floor, challenging his teammates to “score so we can get back on D” in a drill that gave a team 1 point for a bucket on offense and 2 points for a defensive stop.

Onlookers became puzzled again by him though during the evening scrimmages, which were basically an unorganized version of a college All-Star Games. Williams reverted back to his old nemesis, poor shot-selection. It seemed whenever he was called on by his team to bring the ball up the floor, not a single teammate touched the ball unless they snatched up a long rebound of one of his ill-advised threes.

His shining moment though, came in the most exciting and unexpected moment of the camp. In a move not scheduled, a LeBron James/Chris Paul lead team took the floor and gave the NBA hopefuls a chance to see exactly what they’d be up against once the hit the pros.

Williams continued to take his obligatory bad shots, however it was on the defensive end where he caught everyone’s eye. Williams proved if anything that he has a future in the NBA as a defensive stopper as he came about as close to shutting down as a lot of current NBA players. He did an outstanding job of forcing LeBron to the baseline and keeping him out of the paint where he is most affective. He even blocked a few shots.

Williams again reinforced the common perception of him. He has the potential to be special, but he holds the keys to his own future. It is to be seen if the keys fit the ignition of a Cadillac, or a Honda.

Other Big East Performers at the Academy

Sam Young

Young struggled making shots in drills but was outstanding in the night scrimmages. When the Pittsburgh power forward is making his mid-range jumper, he is virtually unstoppable. He has patented a move that is unique to him and only him where he pump fakes with in centimeters of traveling which gets defenders well off their feet and they are completely unable to recover. It really works when he is hitting his jump shot though. He also proved he could defend players who are 5 to 6 inches taller than he. His superior strength keeps them away from the basket out the range where they are comfortable scoring.

Hasheem Thabeet

Thabeet was very, very impressive in the night scrimmages. The Connecticut center had 5 or 6 dunks that may have caused a small earthquake. As usual, he was the best shot-blocker on the floor. It was made more impressive though considering the fact that human eraser Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State also attended the camp. In drills he showed ability to make a jump shot from 8-10 feet with a hand in his face. He also showed ability to run the floor and once reaped the benefits of his hustle by following a missed layup in transition with a very athletic dunk. He was probably the most impressive Big East player at the camp.

DaJuan Summers

Summers did not have his best performance this week at the academy. He was frequently matched up against Terrence Williams and the Georgetown forward came out on the short end a good percentage of the time. He was the only person who couldn’t keep Williams on the perimeter as he let him in for layups on a number of occasions. Summers just didn’t stand out. I almost forgot he was there.

Johnny Flynn

Flynn really surprised everyone with his athleticism. The rest of his game looked so-so though. I can’t remember him hitting a three the whole day, but he missed plenty. The Syracuse point guard had more turnovers than you’d like to see. Also, he had a little too much of a scorer’s mentality. He may need that at Syracuse this season, but as a point guard in this setting with a lot of talent around him, he could have stood to get others involved a lot more. He definitely had his ‘wow’ moments when many were watching, showing he can definitely take it to another level.

For a Top 10 ranking of the college players at the Lebron James Skills Academy, visit the College Basketball Blog Report (back from a brief hiatus) and see the story from Doug Ferguson on the Top 10 College Players at the LJSA.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Connecticut News, Georgetown News, Louisville News, Pittsburgh News, Syracuse News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.