Rather than start a new thread for each college guy like I did with Weaver, I thought maybe it was better to put all comments about whoever under this thread.

Anyway.

I finally got a chance to see Beasley the Beast (BTB) play yesterday. I saw of of KSU game against OSU.

To start with OSU is not very good and this is only one game.

Some quick observations about BTB

1. Great nose for the ball, especially on the defensive boards.
2. Not as aggressive going to the offensive glass
3. Nice midrange shot which he can catch and shoot well in rhythm.
4. Plays down low a lot with his back to the basket and is real aggressive and going to the rack mostly with spin moves
5. He did not put the ball on the floor and dribble when he had the rock on the outside. This is definitely something to follow up on. More about this below
6. He has a horrible habit of dribbling once before after the catches the ball in the low post before he turns and shoots. This will kill him in the NBA as he will never get away with dribbling on a post up in the restricted area or close to it. They will steal it from him more often than not.
7. He showed some good pass anticipation on defense knocking the ball away or stealing it more than once.
8. His man to man defense is like most college freshmen; i.e., needs a lot of work to say the least, notwithstanding #7 above.
9. He made some good crisp passes to teammates, when they cut without the ball.

I clearly want to see him play more, but off of the initial game that I saw I have concern about whether he can dribble drive penetrate. Now it could have just been the OSU defenses so he took what they gave him and therefore did not dribble drive so I will have to see more of him. On the other hand since he plays mostly down low on the block he may not need to have this skill to succeed in the NBA.

He seems best suited to the #4 as far the NBA goes. He is listed at 6'9" 235 but he did not appear to me to be 6'9". Maybe 6'8 at the most.

Having said that and keeping in mind he is only a freshman, I like his game at this point more than Durant's when Durant was at Texas.

I haven't seen Gordon or Rose play yet.

Right now I would rank

1. Love (Is strong, tough and has all the fundamentals down to a tea)
2. Mayo - Will be able to take over and control a game since he handles the rock.
3. Beasley - Tough down low with a nice mid range shot.

I don't think that any team that drafts any of these guys can go wrong. However, I do also have some concern about Beasley's facial demeanor and if it will affect his desire to succeed at the next level. It just seemed kind of droopy? What does this have to do with anything. I don't know. It just struck me as a little odd and a bit of a turn off especially when he was interviewed.


More to come.