IMHO, he’s better than Lawson Lovering. He looks like the perfect player to start along side Branden Carlson, who has a more perimeter-based game. Bring Lovering and Ben Carlson off the bench
Keba’s athleticism jumps off the screen. He can get to rebounds before others do. His offensive game is underdeveloped, but his FT form is solid, so he should be able to develop some more moves, since he’s only been playing BB for a few years.
If somehow 5% of Gabe’s game got transferred to Keita, he’d be a lotto pick.
BrCarlson and Keita are a poor man’s version of Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajawon. The taller player is the natural 4 and the more athletic player is the natural 5.
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If I were making the decision, and we should all be glad I’m not for many reasons, I keep him coming in off the bench because he changes the matchups when needed. Last night he really shown as a low block guy but still needs to develop some range. If he could hit reliable 10 ft shots, I’m not sure what anyone could do to stop him. He was, what, 11 for 12 or 10 of 11 last night and the only miss was when he got a pass a little too far away from the basket. It was a low post clinic.
As an aside, I wonder when/if we get Exacte back. Putting Wil and Keba on the floor together would be an interesting jump in athleticism to throw new looks at opponents.
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I was thinking about that as I drove home from the game last night. I think he is better than Lovering, but I also believe he adds something to the 2nd unit that Lovering does not. I think I would bring him in at the 15 minute mark and have him play with Brandon for 2 or 3 minutes and then bring Ben in for Brandon and have Ben and Keba play together until the 7 or 8 minute mark, bring in Lovering for 5 minutes and then finish with Keba and Brandon.
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The twin towers experiment needs to be scrapped. Lawson is miles away from a starting center in this conference. Ben has been playing great. Offensively and defensively at the 4. Brandon has struggled at both … in comparison to playing the 5 last year. He has a way bigger advantage over most 5’s we will play. Keita is great in his roll. Keep him there, let him dominate. Lawson should be foul trouble help only at this point. The way he was dominated by SUU bigs was an embarrassment to pac 12 bigs everywhere.
ps I know some of this has been out of the coaching staffs hands BUT having two scholarships not being used is soooooo frustrating. Not having a backup PG bring the ball up the court (hunter ± is crazy bad) and a back up PF/SF that can shoot is insane to me.
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I agree but it seems like they can’t get anyone to commit, at least HS recruits. I can’t remember a worse three-year stretch for HS recruiting. It is embarrassingly bad.
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Guess that’s changed in the last few weeks
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