Josh Smith leads Kentwood to WA state championship win
by GoSolar on Mar 7, 2010 7:23 PM PST
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PrintBumped. GO BRUINS. -N
UCLA bound, 6'9" Josh Smith, rated the #1 graduating HS center in the country had 12 points on 6 of 8 shooting in the first half and finished with 22 Points (10 of 12 FG), 16 Rebounds, 5 Assists , 1 block. He only made 1 of 5 (maybe 1 of 7) Free throws, though. Kentwood won 67-58.
Watch the highlights from KOMO:
Smith showed excellent floor sense with great passing, blocked shots but SLOW on defense. The announcers did say that he was only at about 70% following the knee injury that made him miss 6 weeks earlier in the season, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
He definitely needs to lose some weight, and will need more than his size to be dominant in D1 play. Josh was the #1 rebounder in the tournament and ended up the tourney averaging 23.2 PPG and 15 rebounds. During the post game interview, he conducted himself like a future Bruin: with class. He credited his team, mentioning how they'd stepped up when he was out even though he will undoubtedly be the MVP.
Kentwood HS won the 4A state for the first time since 2004, when they had . Robert Stuckey playing there. (We all wish Robert Stuckey the best after he collapsed on the bench during the Piston's game.)
It will be nice to have more inside presence next year. With his floor vision and BB sense, I can't wait to see him in a blue and gold jersey.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Congrats to Josh
But he still looked pretty overweight. He looked around 320-330. Again he needs to get it down to 270 range by Fall. Good luck to him.
Saw a little of the game of FSNW
JS will lose some of the weight, but what I saw from him doesn’t change my mind about him – he will really struggle, like Kevin Love did, with some of the demands CBH expects from his post players. Offensively, he needs to develop a jump hook over either shoulder or he will have the majority of his shots sent back. His knee injury undoubtedly affected his conditioning and contributed to the weight gain. Hope he and Lamb adhere to KL’s program over the summer.
Life is what happens when you're busy making plans.
Glad to see he had 5 assists.
The field goal % and rebounds are no surprise for a guy that size in high school. Won’t be that easy in the Pac 10. Free throws 1-5. Wow.
Rodney,
not Robert. Thanks for the info.
by LavinRuinedCollege on Mar 7, 2010 2:01 PM PST reply actions
Like everyone else has said...
He is far too heavy right now. I’m guessing he gets to about 300lbs by the time he comes to Westwood, but hopefully a strict regimen can get him in better shape by the beginning of next season and he can slim down even more after several games. I just don’t see him contributing right away next season. Even KL had a lot of trouble until he lost considerable weight.
But it does seem like if he can slim down he can become dominant. The best part of that clip is his interview at the end. He sounds very intelligent and well-composed. That probably explains his mature comment a few months ago where he looks to get a full college education first and look to the NBA second.
Poor free throw shooting?
He’ll fit in perfectly.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
My prediction on FT % next season
We ared now at 62%, and if we subtract 75% average from MR and ND, we are shooting about 50%. Now with JS’s 20% average, that means our average will break the NCAA record with 45%. Please don’t check my math. It is only estimate.
Pros and Cons
He’ll set big screens and he’ll provide needed rebounding but opposition post men will run him off the court. I doubt he is aggresive enough on defense to do much. He waits for the ball to come to him. He’s a project that CBH must develope quickly. Overall a plus for the program however.
CBH has many projects next year
Developing JS is one project, teaching the kids to shoot free throws is another. Also, who is going to shoot 3 points? No one is capable at this point. I can only see inside game with TH, JS and RN banging inside, period.
Lee, Honeycutt primary outside threats but Lane, Lamb and Moser have potential and don’t forget Stover inside.
No outside shooting
Unless the Bruins recruit a definitive spot up guy to fill the role of MR, teams will pack in a tight zone and watch ML, JA, TH clank away. I’ve not seen Jones play live, but watched a little of his highlights via the web – he’s a good penetrator that has the body to finish, he’s really strong and has a great handle, he is not a great shooter. I’ve seen Lamb play since he was a freshman at Colony HS and he’s not a consistent shooter outside the arc. Lamb gets the majority of his points in transistion or off iso’s where he can take guys. Between Lamb and TH the Bruins will have two great playmakers off the ball, both guys have length too. Hope CBH and his staff can get a shooter, because this team will need one.
Life is what happens when you're busy making plans.
you know what...
I’ll take a solid inside game over jacking up 3-pointers with the ‘amazing shooters’ we had this year any day of the week.
Establish a dominant inside game, then open threes will occur. Somebody will step up to shoot those. At worst, we’ll get a ‘shooter’ like Drago who thinks he’s a god among mortals when it comes to the three-point line.
CBH needs the right staff
so he is not individually responsible for teaching everything.
How about an assistant coach to take responsibility for FT’s?
Or a big man to coach our embryonic big men?
sjh
I like this kid too
Classy, well-spoken young man.
EGO TROIORUM MALLEUS SUM
Comparisons to other great FAT ballers
I’ve seen a lot of footage of Josh Smith from rivals.com, and I can best say this about his game: At his best, he’s got shades of great fat guys from college bball past such as Oliver Miller (Ark), Damitri “Da Meat Hook,” Hill (Flor.) Robert “Tractor,” Traylor (Mich.) Like the fatsos before him, Smith has long arms, great touch, is very physical… and hungry (no pun intended).
I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THESE FAT GUYS AS NBA PROS, because they pretty much ate their way out of the league. But these blimps dominated college, and that’s really all that matters to me when it cums to Josh Smith.
You don’t have to be shredded to play college ball… whether he’s got the matching skills is up for debate. NOT SAYING that Josh Smith could be better than any of those great college guys I mentioned immediately, BUT, I believe he has the potential to be as good as them, regardless of losing the weight.
Keep eating Josh… it’s not like we’re gonna be running Calipari’s “dribble drive offense,” or Ark.’s old “40 min. of hell,” def.
Interesting points...
though I’m not sure they’re relevant if indeed CBH wants to go back to man-to-man next year – no way Smith can handle that right now.
Do you remember what CBH's man-to-man defense is like
Guys use an incredible amount of energy and have to be quick. When a quick PG come off a screen, he’ll have to move quickly to hedge or the whole defense is in trouble. When Alex Stephenson is posting up RN or BL, he’ll have to get over quickly on the big to big double. How about him trying to stay in front of his man or get across to take a charge from eight feet away?
CBH’s defense asks a lot of the players. KL struggled mightily early in the year and was so out of shape that he was not even on the floor late in games sometimes because of his defense. KL was in better shape than Smith so what does that mean for Smith. It means that Smith better lose weight. Some of the players you listed were exposed in the NCAA Tournament for not being able to keep up and others were hidden in a zone. If CBH goes back to his trademark defense, Smith will have to lose weight. There’s no way around it. Of CBH stick with the zone, Smith will still have to lose weight because the game has gotten more athletic on recent years and requires more of a flexible and extended zone.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 8, 2010 10:31 AM PST via mobile up reply actions
+1
He does look like a project. Hope he’ll have more quickness after recovery from knee injury and some lost weight.
I'm very high on Smith
and think he will be very good for us. Everything I’ve heard indicates that he’s smart and a hard worker so I think he’ll get in shape and be a real player for us. To pretend that he can be effective without losing weight and getting in shape is ridiculous. The game has changed so not even TE’s examples could have played zone in today’s game, let alone man-to-man or CBH’s man-to-man.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 8, 2010 1:42 PM PST up reply actions
Agreed.
We need to have reasonable expectations.
Freshmen will not come in and “save” our program.
This kid will be great if we bring him along properly — which means, if he is not going to red shirt to get in shape, getting him minutes.
As we get better players, our practices will be tougher to the benefit of all.
sjh
Freshman CAN deliver to the program AND WILL
Kentucky has John Wall. And Demarcus Cousins. And Erik Bledsoe. We had Kevin Love. ON THE SAME LEVEL OF GREATNESS, AND GOT THEIR TEAMS TO GREATNESS. You get my point. Jrue Holiday. SHOULD HAVE BEEN on the same level, but failed.
Freshman can and will “Add,” a great part to this next team. You shouldn’t forget that our best player IS A FRESHMAN (Tyler Honeycutt, if you don’t remember). There are special guys out there that exceed the “freshman,” stereotypes. And we have the potential cumming in next year to have that kind of impact.
Cousins plays a little pudgy at 270-280 lbs… I think if Josh Smith gets down to 280 he has Cousins-like potential. If he stays over 300, he still has Cousins-like potential but with a couple spare tires on him.
Smith will EAT UP Man to man, zone, etc., eat your words before he eats yours!
Oliver Miller DID win a championship as a fattie in “40 min. of Hell,” style Ark. def., and made another NCAA final (vs. US of course) and lost. You bring up a point that some of the blimps I mentioned were exposed in the NCAA tourney… but YOU CLEARLY MISS THE POINT. Those guys MADE THE TOURNAMENT. Where are we? NOT IN THE TOURNAMENT (unless Howland’s deal with SATAN gets us through the P10 tourney this weekend). At this point, if Smith gets us back to the tourney, IT’S A START. Sure, some team may expose that we can only go so far with Fat Albert at center, but if it’s the big dance, I’LL TAKE IT. Kevin Love had some baby fat, and lost 20 lbs. before he started in the NBA. I don’t think it was THAT MUCH of a struggle for KLove, as he had natural athletic ability (which is what Smith has). Love came out of the game because we had a GREAT backup in Mata-Real. I’m sure Howland would have kept Love in the game if his backup was DohDoh Morgan.
**And no… I DON’T remember what Howland’s Def. looks like. We haven’t played it in over a year. And who knows, it’s not a guarantee to magically reappear next season. I’m sure Howland is going to take a long look over the offseason and figure out what schemes can work for “this team.” And although stubborn, he may have to make adjustments.
We have solid pieces cumming back to the team and EXPERIENCE to build on. Smith represents an above average recruiting class that will could possibly be even stronger when May rolls around.
To clarify about Man to Man Def:
We haven’t played REAL “Howland-style,” Man to Man Def. this year. I don’t think our “defense,” this year qualifies as anything resembling a traditional UCLA Def.
how the other guys?
There were four guards in that clip that looked better than JA right now.
Oh and please JS lose the Ragovich arm sleeve! It loks terrible and it reminds me of, well, Ragovich!
by RealisticBruinFan on Mar 8, 2010 1:52 PM PST reply actions
I was thinking the same thing when I watched that tape.
But part of what made the look good was that they were not going inside against players of the size they will see in college.
sjh
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