Oak Hill on ESPN2

[Stallion]

I think a lot of people are overestimating the ability of a Tooth-Pick to play college basketball. Bambi would get destroyed on the inside until he gains significant weight and strength. He will not help us next year.

[PK]

Considering some of the posted comments that basically say the team Fall plays for could probably take on some college teams, he is probably already playing at a more compeitive level than most high school players. So, other than working more on his offensive skills and beefing up some, I'm not sure a redshirt year is quite as important for Fall as it might be for some other freshmen. That's not to say it wouldn't be great to give him that opportunity...just not sure we will have that luxury.

[Stallion]

the difference is that he is playing-at least in practice-against athletic boys while in college he will be playing against athletic men. I think this will become quite obvious about 5 minutes into his college career. Check back with me in November

[Hoop Fan]

whats up with the personal insults Stallion, thats not like you. Bambi? I don't know if Fall will help us next year, but he would have helped us last night. Its never ideal to have to play a freshman, especially one who is skinny and hasn't played basketball in this country for very long. He is going to get moved around some and have some adjustments to make. But Derrick Caracter is a man-child and Fall did pretty well against him. Granted the style of high school ball is different, but compare Fall's current defensive skills to our current lineup. Nobody is going to flip shots over Fall like they do on Castro on the block. And its not like Simpson is muscling people around. Just being 7'1 with good feet is going to give SMU a defensive option and presence it has not had, his agility is the key. Now what you need to complement Fall with is a bruising 6'8 guy who can do the banging and soften them up a little for Fall to swat shots. Brian Morris I think would do just fine if we can somehow wrestle him away from Georgetown in the late signing period. The key to Fall I think is going to be putting the right type guys with him up front, and then you might have an impact player.

[The XtC]

[quote="Stallion"]I think a lot of people are overestimating the ability of a Tooth-Pick to play college basketball. Bambi would get destroyed on the inside until he gains significant weight and strength. He will not help us next year.[/quote]

Bambi????????

This is a kid who has committed to compete for our university, and represent us in the very public forum of Division 1 athletics. Why is it you feel compelled to make this kind of personal insult towards one of our own, and pile derision on a kid who hasnt even arrived yet? Particularly when you couldnt make even a tiny effort to watch him play when you had the opportunity?

By your own admission in this same thread, you didnt pay much attention to the game, and even when you were watching you werent sure which player Bamba was. How in the world can you make this kind of assessment, when you didnt actually watch him? This is almost as laughable as your comments a few months ago that Bamba was playing all his games against players a foot shorter than him. Actually its worse, that was just ignorance. Now you had a chance to actually watch the kid and make real evaluation, and you wouldnt make the effort to do something that simple. Even if you were busy at the time, it doesnt take anything to tape a game and watch it later.

I'll put this in perspective of your own field of endeavor. If you were trying a criminal case, and a witness testified that he wasnt actually paying attention during the crime, but then he tried to describe the suspects actions to the jury, would he have any credibility? Thats the equivalent of what you are trying to do, here.

Physical strength is one of the areas where Bamba has the most room for improvement. Adding 20-30 pounds will help him, tremendously. But, he's not exactly getting "destroyed" now, and he's played several games against post players bigger and stronger than anyone currently on SMU's roster, including Derrick Caracter at St. Patricks. Several of those "athletic boys" are NBA prospects. As skinny as he is, he doesnt look like he's afraid of contact or mixing it up inside, and he never backed down from Caracter. He's not timid, and he's certainly not Bambi. Thats low, and should be beneath you.