of ND or Colorado. Nothing super concrete though.
The ops got this message this morning:
Good Morning,
I do not post on NDNation but I faithfully read Rocks, Cartier, and the Pit. There is a thread on the Pit about Elijah Malone. I live 1/2 mile from Westview HS and my sons are in Westview and we go to all their games. Prairie Heights where Malone played is a big rival for Westview. Until Malone came along Westview pretty much dominated them.
All of that to say that I saw Malone play several times in HS and was not impressed at all. He was very slow and quite frankly lazy. I never dreamed he was D1 talent. Charlie Yoder a Westview kid who played D1 @ Incarnate Word was a far better player.
Having said all that I know the kid has lost a bunch of weight and looks like he's found some motivation to play a little harder. I never watched him in college and kids can transform a lot from 18 to 22. I am not a coach or anyone that has any basketball acumen other than I love watching ND and Westview basketball. Made it to 6 games at ND this year and brought my sons each time. I also never dreamed when I watched NC State break ND's heart in January they would be in the F4.
Anyway, Just wanted to offer what I saw when I watched him in HS and I am NOT saying he can't help ND just that IMO watching him in HS I never dreamed he'd be ND material. From everything I've seen and heard he's a good kid. His little brother coached my 13 year old at a camp at St Francis in Ft Wayne and my son loved Eljah's little brother for what that's worth.
We are definitely cheering for him and would love to see him help ND next year.
I wonder how Moore would fit in at ND? Prairie Heights is a BAD public school. Their kids are lucky to get into the better state schools.
a kid who played against him and a few kids who go to school at Grace. So the kid who played against him compared him to Burns from NC St and thinks that Malone can more than hold his own against ACC competition. Mentioned he is very quick for his size. I suspect that is the Burns comparison. Also said he is a really good kid. Seems like someone ND ought to go get if we can.
I hope like hell that this kid comes here and dominates, but the odds are against him. Averaged less than 25 mins a game last year.
A friend saw him play the exhibition game vs Purdue in November and said he struggled quite a bit with Purdue’s length and perimeter pressure. He hit a 3 pointer on the first possession and then did very little over the next 25+ minutes missing a lot of shots and had just a couple rebounds. One game sample etc so maybe just a poor shooting night against a top ranked team with a top 10 defense so maybe he’d do well in the ACC. Certainly can’t hurt to add the kid but Purdue won by nearly 50 and Edey scored about 20 while only playing like 15 minutes.
He is visiting some other power 5 programs too as what seems to be thought of as a backup type big role so maybe he’d be able to give 10-12 minutes a game.
Winona Lake. Was he recruited by D-1 schools out of high school? Looks solid and big. Dunks often, with ability to hit threes. Not the quickest.
material and I suspect that he still isn't D1 material. A ton of coaches watched this kid play against Connor Essegian at Central Noble and everybody passed on him.
Dennis Rodman. These guys went from NAIA to the NBA. So it’s not unheard of that a super talented player is in the NAIA ranks. I know those are rare examples but Shrewsberry and his staff have determine if Malone’s game can translate to the ACC. Like I said in another post, I don’t know if it does or not. I don’t have the background to make that call. It will be interesting to see what they decide.
edit to add: He has visits set up with ND, Indiana and Colorado.
the basket. That said, a surprising number of "big men" don't dunk that much due to lack of leaping ability, hand size and coordination levels. In the highlight reel, Malone shows leaping ability and sufficient hand size to go up in traffic for one handed dunks with both hands.
Malone looks like a classic late bloomer...in his Grace bio a coach mentions Malone was 6'8" when they recruited him...that grew into a big man while in college. Another comment on-line notes that two NAIA to D1 transfers performed very well for Wyoming and Morehead State this year. Riley Minix of Morehead State was great and Mason Walters for Wyoming was solid. With increased competition in practice, nutrition, D! level strength and conditioning, coaching and another year of maturity, Malone could be a Paul Atkinson level player for the Irish.
bucket without relying on dunking. He's not going to get those easy opportunities with that amount of frequency. It was not a very useful highlight video to try to gauge how he'd adjust to a better level of competition.
He knew he could easily dunk on the guys guarding him, so why not go for the sure thing? I'm guessing he was coached to dunk whenever he got the ball in the paint.
Obviously it won't be as easy in D1, so he'll have to incorporate the shot you want to see. The fact that he can shoot the 3 tells me it won't be a problem closer in.
skill than hitting an outside shot. I also have no idea what his 3 point percentage actually was.
That’s what Shrewsberry and his assistants get paid the big bucks for. He is 6’10. He has good footwork around the basket. He dunks when he gets near the basket. He can shoot the three. Can he do all that in the ACC? I don’t know.
Edit to add: He shot 34.1% from three. That would trail only Braden Shrewsberry (37%) for ND.
But Grace plays in the best NAIA conference. Half of that conference is low major D1 quality. He played good competition and was insanely efficient.
for us from Grace College, one of which has played there the past few years.
He clearly can play at this level.