Demetrious Johnson All-Star Game Summary

[aj_arete]

The St Louis Area stars defeated the National All-Stars, with Blake Ahearn starring with over 30 points (?). Ahearn's jumper was working most of the game, and he surprisingly showed decent ballhandling skills too. I was also impressed with Brett Ledbetter from Warrenton High. 3-Star, what's the report on him? I thought he'd at least be good enough to play at UMSL. Though w/ his good size, 6'4, good shot, and ballhandling skills, I think he'd be a pretty good Div I player.

As for the SLU recruits, Darren Clarke was shorter than I thought. He's the same height as Ahearn. He seemed to have decent athleticism, but he couldn't get anything to fall tonight. Can't we really say much about Husak other than he's a legit 6'11. Looked soft and slow, but a decent project for Brad. Ahearn definitely got the better of Clarke tonight, but Clarke did make a couple of good passes in transition.

As for Mizzou's recruit, Thomas Gardner, he's an impressive, looking athlete. Very strong build and he played well tonight. I think he'll fit in nicely for the Tigers next year.

[Nate Latsch]

Warrenton grad Brett Ledbetter is going to Southwestern Illinois in Belleville.

I see his "career" there going very much like Troy Slaten's did. Ledbetter is a good scorer. He shoots the ball well and knows how to draw contact and get to the charity stripe.

After a year Ledbetter should have a couple decent Division I scholarship offers. He'll be able to play somewhere, but he'll have to prove himself like Slaten, who ended up signing with Arkansas State (I think).

- Nate

[thetorch]

Not surprised that Husak did not do much. I would expect his strongpoints right now to be blocking shots and post game, and you will see neither of those in a HS all star game.

From observations it appears Clarke will be able to help us athletically and with his passing ability. Shooting poorly at this thing does not concern me. He will have to be real good to play over 10 minutes a game this year though.

I have seen Blake play dozens of times in HS games and have actually played ball with and against him. He can shoot, but other than that I don't see what he brings besides a fiery attitude. Against Mo Valley defenses he will be hard pressed to be any kind of ballhandler. I could be wrong but he just never impressed me.

[Nate Latsch]

Torch,

I've played against Blake as well. I wonder if we've ever met each other.

Blake was on last night. He has good shooting nights and bad shooting nights and, admittedly, last night was a good night.

Ahearn's fourth-quarter performance was pretty impressive. His shot stopped falling from the outside, and instead of forcing it like he has at times in the past, he tried to draw contact and get to the foul line. He's money from there.

- Nate

[kshoe]

While I agree that slow 7-footers aren't expected to do much in all star games his performance was extremely weak. There would be loose balls less then a foot away from him that he barely even tried to grab. His feet looked like they were in quick sand.

The few rebounds he got were all uncontested and whenever somebody battled him for a rebound he typically lost. The worst play happened when a 6'6 or so power forward posted him up, gave him a very slight bump and easily layed the ball in over him. I believe the player is either going low D1 or some sort of D2.

After last night, I just don't see how Husak will ever be a contributor for us. I hope I am wrong.

[3star_recruit]

"His feet looked like they were in quick sand."

I don't think he's finished growing yet. Did you see the size of those puppies? Had to be size 20s. It takes a big man to fill those shoes and hopefully Husak will grow into one.

[tseugnekillib]

I got in the gym about 6:30pm and left at half-time. In the first half (24 minutes) Husak started and played only the first six minutes. I'm not sure how much he played in the second half.

Without question, the seven-foot Husak will be an interesting developmental project for Coach Soderberg. Personally, I think with 13 scholarships you can afford to gamble on at least one player, maybe two. If you gamble and succeed with a seven footer, hopefully the results will be greater.

My recall is that Coach Soderberg watched Husak workout for about 45 minutes or so, in Iowa, prior to offering him a scholarship. Driving home I was wondering what does a coach look for in a seven footer.

This morning I revisited SLU's press release on Bryce Husak's signing. Here are Coach Soderberg's quotes. "We are excited that we were able to lure a player of Bryce's size and ability." "He will be a kid that we will love to work with and develop into the player that we want him to be."

"What attracted me to Bryce were his hands, his ability to run the floor, his size and the fact that he just turned 18, which means that he still may not be done growing. He can handle himself on the court and is a coordinated seven-footer. I don't want people to get the impression that he will come in and be a 30-minute per game player, but few big men his age are. Because we were in a position to sign five players this year, it was a great time to take on a player that will work hard and become a valuable post player in our conference."

To me, some key words were....."a kid that we will love to work with"....."develop into the player we want"...."just turned 18"....."is a coordinated seven-footer".

While I expect very few Billiken fans to have patience with Husak, I'm going to trust Coach Soderberg's judgement and see want the finish product is in three or four years.

As previously stated, it's not easy being a Billiken fan!

[Quality Is Job 1]

Bryce Husak played about half of the second half, maybe a little less. He scored two putback baskets and grabbed several rebounds.

He and Brad Soderberg wil have to put in a lot of work for him to develop into a contributor. It will help that from now on he'll be COACHED, which was most likely not the case last night.

Still, at this point, all I can foresee is his riding the bench for two years (2004-05 and 2005-06, after he redshirts this year), playing sparingly as a junior, and maybe being an adequate backup center as a senior. Anything more than that, and I'll be sold on Soderberg's being a miracle-worker.

Husak is not agile or quick, and I don't yet see evidence of coordination, though I hope what Soderberg said about him on that point is on point. To be successful, Husak's going to have to be less like Marcus Camby and more like Bryant Reeves.