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Braden Smith Commits to Purdue


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A junior Braden Smith put up similar numbers as a senior Kyle Guy who won Mr Basketball and almost every IU fan wanted. Smith also had the higher 3 point percentage as well. The only big difference is a couple inches in height at most. I guess IU would be to good for Kyle Guy now a days too lol

Edited by DC2345
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50 minutes ago, hoosier_exotics said:

I have personally never seen Smith play.  How does he match up against high level D1 kids when they play each other? I understand some of your frustration. 

When Nic Moore was at Warsaw,  I never saw him get outplayed. I always felt like he was the best player on the floor.  Better than Deshaun Thomas or any of the North Central kids he played against at state.. I was in the house when he dropped 50 on one of Painters kids, while Painter was present.  It blew my mind that Purdue never offered 

He had 40 in a sectional game against a team with a winning record this year. 

Edit: sorry they went. 500, but they beat a team that made it to a regional championship in 3A (Noblesville beat Connersville) Braden put 40 on Noblesville. 

Edited by btownqb
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3 hours ago, Coach Robby said:

As I've mentioned before, Michigan's starting guards this year were 5'11 and 6'1. If you can play, you can play. 

Good point.  Too many coaches, scouts, etc. get caught up in measurables.  Look at Russell Wilson, NFL teams freaked out because he’s 5’10 or whatever.  Hall of Fame and basically opened the door for Kyler Murray.  

Now it is Devonta Smith and the fact that he came in at 166 lbs.  Have they seen him play?  Probably the best route runner I’ve ever seen come out of college.  Somebody showed me some all 22  video of him and he was relentless in his route running, even if the play was away from him.  Sharp, tight cuts.  Corners are stressed dealing with him.  Smith played on specials and not returning.  There’s a toughness there.  
 
I am not saying you ignore measurables.  I’m saying you have to think deeper and see if the player has some other edge that makes up for it, or is not handicapped by somethinG.  One short guy might actually be too short.  Another might make up for it. 

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6 hours ago, hoosier_exotics said:

I have personally never seen Smith play.  How does he match up against high level D1 kids when they play each other? I understand some of your frustration. 

When Nic Moore was at Warsaw,  I never saw him get outplayed. I always felt like he was the best player on the floor.  Better than Deshaun Thomas or any of the North Central kids he played against at state.. I was in the house when he dropped 50 on one of Painters kids, while Painter was present.  It blew my mind that Purdue never offered 

I've watched him play a couple of times. Great shooter and I would say his court vision is some of the best I've seen from a HS guard and I've watched Darius Garland, Andre Curbelo and many others. The only knock I have against him is his emotions. He came and played my HS and we are defiantly not a basketball school and we beat them by a fair share. He played pretty bad that game and when they got down he got very angry and it didn't help his cause. I think he will be a great player wherever he goes he is just going need time.

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Everyone entitled to their own opinion. I understand hes a great shooter and from indiana, but id like to think with fife and rosemend’s great recruiting reputations that well start to get kids of tamar bates caliber on a more regular basis. If we get him great!! But if not i wont lose sleep about it. Kid can ball and i hope he has a great career, but im hoping iubb is starting to transition into way higher Recruting battles. (If that makes sense). If iu wants him well get him. Idk if any of this makes sense but im sort of ranting aloud. 

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7 hours ago, Andrew said:

Everyone entitled to their own opinion. I understand hes a great shooter and from indiana, but id like to think with fife and rosemend’s great recruiting reputations that well start to get kids of tamar bates caliber on a more regular basis. If we get him great!! But if not i wont lose sleep about it. Kid can ball and i hope he has a great career, but im hoping iubb is starting to transition into way higher Recruting battles. (If that makes sense). If iu wants him well get him. Idk if any of this makes sense but im sort of ranting aloud. 

I get it.. but we should have learned our lesson being burned by losing these kids over the last 20 years to realize you don't let this one get away. 

I'm tired of Kellen Dunhams not coming to Indiana. Kyle Guys not coming to Indiana. Aren't you? Idc how a kid looks in AAU. Comparing AAU to school ball is Night and day difference. 

I spoke with the director of AAU tourneys in Southern Indiana. Southeastern and central portion of the state to be specific... spoke with him yesterday, one thing he mentioned.. "I have no idea why we've started to value AAU ball over school ball, it makes no sense. Theres no scouting in AAU, there's not half the pressure." 

That's fantastic that some guys look so good in AAU and regularly dunks. Cool that they impressed one scout sometime, awesome. So tired of looking at rankings. 

I absolutely love CJ Gunn. Kid wins, and he wins in the MIC. You take him, Smith, Washington.. then add in one of those "highly rated 5s"... with already having Duncomb and Bates. Now we've got something. 

I probably need to step away from this thread. 

Edited by btownqb
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There is probably a lot of truth that Luke Brown and Braden Smith aren't that far away as players from Kyle Guy.  Without knowing wing span and combine type numbers all we have to go on is stats and eyeballs.  It looks to me like these kids can play and are wizards with the ball.  

Painter isn't afraid of one little guy getting beat because he has multiple 7 footers.  The question remains, can that style win a championship in this day and age?  Probably if you put a complete team together.  Problem that IU is facing today or at least the last few years is an immediate upgrade in start now B1G material need.  

 

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16 minutes ago, btownqb said:

I get it.. but we should have learned our lesson being burned by losing these kids over the last 20 years to realize you don't let this one get away. 

I'm tired of Kellen Dunhams not coming to Indiana. Kyle Guys not coming to Indiana. Aren't you? Idc how a kid looks in AAU. Comparing AAU to school ball is Night and day difference. 

I spoke with the director of AAU tourneys in Southern Indiana. Southeastern and central portion of the state to be specific... spoke with him yesterday, one thing he mentioned.. "I have no idea why we've started to value AAU ball over school ball, it makes no sense. Theres no scouting in AAU, there's not half the pressure." 

That's fantastic that some guys look so good in AAU and regularly dunks. Cool that they impressed one scout sometime, awesome. So tired of looking at rankings. 

I absolutely love CJ Gunn. Kid wins, and he wins in the MIC. You take him, Smith, Washington.. then add in one of those "highly rated 5s"... with already having Duncomb and Bates. Now we've got something. 

I probably need to step away from this thread. 

Damian Lillard was so sought after coming out of HS that he settled on the college basketball powerhouse of Weber St. to play.  FWIW, he was a 2-Star.  

The "experts" got that one right.  LOL

 

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I believe the rankings just rank as potential and athleticism, not total basketball skill. I would take Smith over Hanner Perea everyday of the week. There was not 1 video showing him catch a ball or shoot. A 60 inch vertical would do you no good if you can't catch a ball. We as fans get caught up on it and I think coaches do to.

It has to be a mix,  you can't have 10 guys like Smith on your roster but I can tell you he would make Indiana better. He is not the 13th guy. I would take him over all guards on the roster except Johnson and Bates right now

Edited by Billingsley99
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Does anyone know, or can offer an opinion if you've seen him play, about Braden's wingspan?  He seems to have pretty long arms, and I believe it's been reported he can dunk pretty easily.   If that is the case, who cares if he is 6'1" or 6'3".  The kid can shoot,  pass, and lead.  If he has enough athleticism and length to play solid defense, go get him.

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37 minutes ago, Billingsley99 said:

I believe the rankings just rank as potential and athleticism, not total basketball skill. I would take Smith over Hanner Perea everyday of the week. There was not 1 video showing him catch a ball or shoot. A 60 inch would do you no good if you can't catch a ball. We as fans get caught up on it and I think coaches do to.

It has to be a mix,  you can't have 10 guys like Smith on your roster but I can tell you he would make Indiana better. He is not the 13th guy. I would take him over all guards on the roster except Johnson and Bates right now

Lander?

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22 hours ago, hoosier_exotics said:

I have personally never seen Smith play.  How does he match up against high level D1 kids when they play each other? I understand some of your frustration. 

When Nic Moore was at Warsaw,  I never saw him get outplayed. I always felt like he was the best player on the floor.  Better than Deshaun Thomas or any of the North Central kids he played against at state.. I was in the house when he dropped 50 on one of Painters kids, while Painter was present.  It blew my mind that Purdue never offered 

Especially since Painter is pretty tight with Nic’s HS coach. 

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3 minutes ago, Billingsley99 said:

They got a very good one. This kid and Washington were the 2 I wanted most. I will gladly eat my crow if he doesn't become a very very good player and I will be shocked if he does not light the Hoosiers up. I trust our staff but this was a big miss 

He jumped on that offer fast!  He is either a Purdue fan or knew that's the best he was going to get.

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