Player Jahlil Okafor

[deepdarkblue]

His hands are the most amazing thing about him for me. I can't recall a Duke center in this century that would have been able to catch and pass like Jahlil can, and it's kind of startling to me when I realize it. When the ball goes in the middle, I'm confident that Jah will both catch it and hang onto it. I can't even remember the last time I felt this way. I'm not used to having a big guy who doesn't fumble a pass or have the ball stripped away from him every other time he touches it.

Laettner was pretty good at catching and passing, IMO, but he didn't have Okafor's wide latitude of where the ball can be passed to for him to still catch it.

Yeah, and Laettner wasn't this century. Think about that, you have to go back over 20 years to come up with a Duke big who could hold onto a basketball.

So is Okafor just amazingly good at it, or have all Duke bigs in recent history had tiny little monkey paw hands dipped in butter?

 

[rome8180]

No, he is amazingly good at it. Even really bad passes he manages to come up with.

 

[aiw]

Elton Brand had no trouble grasping a basketball.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Boozer and Shelden were competent. I think most young bigs have terrible hand eye coordination and are still adjusting to being biological freaks.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

Casey Sanders was not good at this.

 

[rome8180]

I thought Shelden was bad at it as a freshman? I could be wrong.

 

[rhfarmer]

I remember Brand being every bit as dominant as Okafor, with a great pair of mitts.

 

[rome8180]

Granted, he was injured his freshman year. And granted his team was more balanced. But he didn't put up nearly the stats Okafor has.

 

[physicsfactor]

Brand's hands were amazing, and Boozer had good hands as well.

 

[rhfarmer]

We get it, Brand and Boozer gave you a wristy.

 

[physicsfactor]

Jealous?

 

[torontoduke]

Wow. He is so fucking tough inside. Great passing as well.

 

[DurhamSon]

I think he's better than Brand

 

[torontoduke]

Yeah. That is high praise, but likely true.

 

[rome8180]

He's also at least two inches taller.

 

[torontoduke]

Elton has those crazy long arms to compensate, though

 

[rhfarmer]

I think he's better than Brand

Yeah, he's pretty special.

 

[rome8180]

Kaminsky was so amazing against Buffalo, he is now better than Okafor again. Interesting how the Okafor section barely even mentions his play as of late...

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/ ... -back-no-1

 

[DurhamSon]

I can't take a list that has Willie Cauley-Stein at #3. That would be like giving Aaron Craft the award.


The media wants to give it to the senior white guy. I get it. So good for college basketball versus that one and done crap that is ruining the game /s

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Bizarre reasoning to put Kaminsky #1. Shows more about the respect people have for Hurley's coaching than anything about Kaminsky or Okafor. "Other great teams would have lost at home to Buffalo, but Kaminsky led Wisconsin to a 12 point win. That's why he's #1." What? Hurley is going to quickly become UCLA's top choice to replace Alford.