Nothing against Eight Legger, I just feel that every year we pump up the incoming freshmen as being stars that can help lead us and it very rarely happens. Even as good as Burton was as a freshman, he still was not ready to give us consistent points each night. Dji hasn’t shown me anything because he hardly played. I don’t think Wilson has an outside shot. Big men are a mess. Wouldn’t you take Bucknor, Sulla, and Steenberge over this group?
I think I’ve told this story before on this board, but I will forever have a ton of respect for Bucknor...
Orientation my freshman year, playing ball at the gym, and 5 varsity players call next game. I get matched up with Bucknor. I was a 6’4” guard, played in high school/AAU, and thought I was hot shit. I get the ball on the wing, drive inside on Bucknor, and before I know it he’s going the other way with the ball and dunking.
He came back down as we’re bringing the ball up, nice as could be, and says genuinely “that was a good move, but you’ve got to tuck the ball in front of you when you drive and not leave it out wide.” I grumbled something and kept playing.
A couple plays later, same thing happened... I got the ball on the wing, jabbed baseline, drove middle, and all of a sudden Bucknor was going the other way for an off the backboard ally oop to Courtney Watson...
The rest of the game (that we definitely lost), I only passed... but I’ll never forget how cool it was that the team came to play pick up with us and how genuinely nice (and good) they were. Made me an instant fan and changed my perspective of just how good d-1 bball players are.
