Coach provides insight into what Ohio State, others see in Taison Chatman
We had a chance to catch up with Totino-Grace head coach Nick Carroll to get a feel for what Chatman will bring as a player at the college level. Here are excerpts from our interview with Coach Carroll:
Q: Did Taison play varsity for the first time last year or as he been with the varsity since his freshman year?
Carroll: “Yeah, he has started for us since his freshman year.”
Q: How have you seen him grow and develop over those three years?
Carroll: “His body has continued to develop at a really high level. He was pretty thin as a freshman. He has put on weight through the natural progression and all of that stuff. Probably the most glaring thing is just his leadership qualities on the floor.
“He has always been able to physically produce. But just having more leadership in high stress situations and day-to-day habits within our program, he has improved like you would like to see a kid who has been around a few years. He has turned into a leader during the course of his career.”
Q: To make a run and win a state championship, that seems like a really special run for your team. Was there anything he did that stood out during that run?
Carroll: “I’m a big believer that in order to win state championships in the big-school division, you need to have a couple guys who can color outside the lines. We feel very fortunate that he is a kid who can oftentimes get us better shots than we can script for ourselves.
“You get into tournament play and all of these teams have each other scouted so well. You have talented guys. Specifically, in the state finals, we had some bigger margin victories in the first couple of games. But in the state finals down the stretch of that game, he orchestrated some buckets for us on the last five possessions whether they were assisted baskets or scored by him.
“It was just empty side ball screens and reading the defense and making the appropriate read. It’s good for us to have a kid who can do those type things on his own.”
Q: It sounds like he is comfortable playing with or without the ball in his hands. As they describe it, is he a true combo guard who can play both the point and the shooting guard positions?
Carroll: “We have a really good point guard that plays with him. Even this year, we will have another good guard in addition that will play with those guys. We just look at Taison as a talented kid with the ball in his hands. We try to get the ball back into his hands as often as we can.
“For his position to be 6-4 and jump the way that he does, he rebounds his position really well. For us, it’s more about what positions you can guard. At the high school level, he can easily guard positions one through four. We just try to get the ball back into his hands as often as possible.
“If we have a bigger lineup on the floor, he plays the point. If we have a smaller lineup, he plays the two.
“Last year’s team, we had five kids with Division I offers. (Forward) Demarion Watson is a freshman now at Iowa State. (Forward)
Patrick Bath, a 6-9 kid, will be a senior for us this year. He is uncommitted right now, but has some offers as well. Taison just plays where he needs to play for us to have success.”
Q: As a rough estimate, do you know what he would have averaged last season as a junior?
Carroll: “He was a little over 15 points per game. He averaged a little over seven rebounds and a little over eight assists per game. He had a triple-double by halftime of the state semifinals.”
.
.
.
continued
Entire article:
https://247sports.com/college/ohio-...-Kansas-Jayhawks-Xavier-Musketeers-193306906/