He averaged 12.7 but that is a bit misleading because he played very sparingly in several blowout games early in the season.
Which I think is very important
tourney run last year (8-33) or vs. Iona in their best non conference game (1-7). This year I guess you'd count Rutgers, Duquesne and the two Yale games as the best competition and he played well statistically in three of four games. So not sure if that's conclusive one way or the other and it totally ignores the defensive end of the court. I'd be interested in what his defensive scouting report is.
I try to temper expectations on freshmen, but Certa projects to be an elite outside shooter for ND as his career progresses. If he can acclimate quickly to the college game, then ND will have a stable of dangerous outside shooters with Allocco, Shrewsberry and hopefully Burton (assuming that he returns and improves his outside shot).
Now we need to add a big man with enough scoring ability to draw some attention away from the shooters.
It sounds like we were interested back when he was coming out.
Along with his father, Matt’s also been motivated by head coach Brett Norris at Hilliard Bradley and his uncle Frank Allocco, a legendary high school coach in California who is now at San Francisco University. Frank spent 18 years at De La Salle High School where he won 17 league championships and two state championships
“I’ve spent a lot of time around those guys and just kind of took after them,” Matt said. “I model my game around how they coach because I want to be the best coach on the floor that I can be.”
Being a coach on the floor has worked quite well for him because many colleges are lining up to recruit him. Miami (OH), Akron, Kent State, Toledo and Stony Brook have all offered scholarships in what has been a very humbling process according to him. Purdue, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Davidson, Dayton, Oakland, George Mason and a couple of Ivy League schools have all expressed interest.
As you can see in the video, he's comfortable taking the ball to the basket. ACC bigs will challenge him at the rim better than Ivy League bigs, but a drop to 47% for two point shots would still be excellent.
His shooting form was borderline ugly in high school. It was like a two handed shot from his waist, likely a result of shooting from too far away as a young kid before he was strong enough to do so. He got it off quickly and it went in most of the time, but it still likely scared off some schools when he was coming out of high school.
Regardless, 50/40/90 shooting splits at any level are no joke. And he's always been a dog and a winner. Never bad to have a tourney-tested 23 year old to help mentor Burton and take big shots. I really like this signing.
Move the basket down to 9 feet thru 7th grade, maybe 8th grade.
Use smaller ball an extra 1-2 years at least.
Any basket made beyond 3-point line should be worth 1-point until HS.
He was the 3rd tallest player on his team. 7th graders are plenty capable of shooting properly at a 10’ hoop with a full sized ball.
I do agree with no 3 pointers until high school, I think they distort the percentages in a way that probably hampers development, although there were some oretty frames good 3 point shooters in my kids’ league.
It does basically nothing to demonstrate that seventh graders as a class, who average about a foot shorter than your kid, are able to do so. Though I have no complaint about using a full-size ball as a seventh grader that was probably just shy of 5 feet, I also recognize that my experience and skill level was different than most.
CYO played a men's ball in 7th grade. And in my experience, coaching prevented kids from shooting 3s that shouldn't. I can think of only one kid growing up whose coach didn't keep him from chucking up 3s that he had no business taking. (That said, this past year, I've seen multiple games in second grade ball where coaches were not disciplining kids for chucking threes.)
When I transferred to public school in the 8th grade, I actually had to go back down to a 28.5 after being accustomed to a men's ball. That took some getting used to, and it likely was harmful not just sticking with the men's ball. I'd probably support using a men's ball in the 8th grade to have a year of experience prior to high school. I'd be fine continuing to use a 28.5 in the 7th grade for the main reason to permit players to start to be able to make decisions about outside shots.
However, I also played on 10 foot rims starting in 3rd grade because the gyms weren't equipped to change rim height.
I definitely support the lower hoops that made 2nd grade basketball possible. I'd be fine keeping them lower through fourth grade, but I'm pretty ambivalent.
I'd consider maybe through sixth grade, but I would guess that by that time, 10 feet would be fine. But it's been awhile since I've seen that level play much.
little Johnny who are so proud that his jump forward like I'm a missile/two hand push shot allows him to reach the basket from deep and on the rare occasion, hopefully while the camera phone is filming so they can send it to everyone they know, gets one to drop?
men’s ball up to a 10 hoop. And if you put a kid on a court with a three point line, he immediately starts heaving shots from behind the line without even warming up. It’s horrible for the player’s development.
far into the process. Good for him.
when his arms go forward. He's 41% percent from three for his career and looking at his game by game doesn't seem to be too streaky so while I prefer to see a fluid shooting form I guess it's not a problem.