Fantastic freshman garner most the attention for NBA scouts, and deservedly so. 4 of our top 5 ranked players are playing on January 26th, and several other notable NBA prospects played on this Monday in the matchups between Duke vs Louisville and Arizona vs BYU. And yes those top 5 are all freshmen.
Part 1, written on January 26: AJ Dybantsa, Cam Boozer, Koa Peat, and Mikel Brown Jr. all play today (and yesterday as I wrote part of this while watching live). Being able to see all of those stars play in back to back games is a treat. Not to mention #1 Ranked Arizona starts talented PG Jaden Bradley and highly recruited Brayden Burries. BYU also has Richie Saunders and Robert Wright III who are on NBA scouts minds as well.
I was only able to watch part of the Louisville and Duke game but a few things were clear. Mikel Brown Jr. struggled a lot. I dont know if he isnt 100% healed from injury or if the logical thing happened and he was playing a loaded Duke team in a hostile atmosphere. His teammate, Ryan Conwell is much farther down out rankings at #84 but had another high scoring game with 18. Cameron Boozer had a pretty typical double double and maintains his spot as our 3rd ranked player. Mikel Brown Jr. wont be too heavily penalized on one dud of a game but he may fall out of our platinum level status if he doesn’t bounce back strong. Louisville is good but they got blown out by a more talented team behind Isaiah Evans and Cam Boozer playing really well.
Ryan Conwell pulled his weight as Louisville’s leading scorer but was targeted on defense. He showed resilience even though his team struggled in the 2nd half.
Part 2:
Dybantsa exploded for 43 last game against Utah, further strengthening his case for #1 prospect. As of today, we have him just behind Darryn Peterson for reasons we’ll go into in another post later but that can change as Dybantsa has been 100% worth the hype and our list is not static. Dont expect AJ to be denied but he’s going up against an undefeated Arizona who has a lot of big bodies and interior defense to throw at him. It will likely be his biggest test yet. Jaden Bradley wont be matched up against him personally but he is one of the best defensive guards in the country. Arizona’s Coach Tommy Lloyd (longtime Gonzaga assistant under Mark Few) has certainly had this game circled on his schedule.
At halftime, Bradley and Burries have 36 of Arizona’s 44. Dybantsa has 15 of BYU’s 31. Brayden Burries had a great 19 points in the first half. Arizona’s depth is clearly the factor for Arizona on the road so far. Koa Peat hasnt had as big an impact offensively yet. Brayden Burries looks really good today and Jaden Bradley is growing into more of a two way player, improving his offensive play on top of his already established reputation as a defender.
Richie Saunders impressed with 24 and 9. He my be a fringe NBA prospect and ancient as a college player but he’s quick and can really score the rock.
Arizona’s top rated star Koa Peat didnt have big game in the box score but he hit a very impressive deep 2 late in the game over a double team that was not a shot you would recommend as a coach but he it was quite a shot and showed off some range. He contributed to making life difficult for Dybantsa being one of the big bodies AJ had to face in lane.
Jaden Bradley is our surprise of the day with 26 points, making 66.7% of his field goals. He’s becoming more of an offense threat but that is twice his season average. AJ Dybantsa was all over the court but did not shoot well only converting 25% of his field goals against Arizona’s stalwart defense. He did hit a very impressive 3 early in the game showing that he’s working on one of the few “weaknesses” in his game.
Brayden Burries earns our star of the game with 29 points, 4 assists and 5 assist and last second block to stop BYU from a completing a late comeback. Both Burries and Bradley will get a decent bump in our next rankings update.