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PG Amos "AJ" Harris (transfer to New Mexico State)

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MaxBuck said:
The best point guard I've ever seen in a Buckeye uniform was Mike Conley. He wasn't a legit 3-point threat, averaging 30% from downtown.

Not worried.
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yeppers. and like craft and conley before him, harris won't be asked to shoulder the scoring load. conley became that player in january, but i can see matta setting a narrower role for harris off the bat. to be sure, i don't see nearly as many minutes for harris his first season as conley and craft saw.
 
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wigmon said:
I recall that BFC was a 25+ ppg scorer in HS and shot like 40%+ from three before coming to OSU. Not saying that AJ is or will be BFC, but just providing some perspective on expectations.
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no, conley shot just below 40% from 3 as a senior. can you tell me what he shot as a junior and sophomore?

he does need to develop into a legit 3 point threat if he is going to lead an NC caliber team.
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source? and what do you define as "legit"?
 
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OSU_Buckguy said:
no, conley shot just below 40% from 3 as a senior. can you tell me what he shot as a junior and sophomore?
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Who said anything about Conley?

source? "?
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I think I just said it.

and what do you define as "legit"?
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Forcing the defense to play on you and not leave you alone or routinely go under ball screens. Craft as a soph was borderline legit as teams did not just abondon him and give him wide open shots. This year, he was not.
 
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wigmon said:
Forcing the defense to play on you and not leave you alone or routinely go under ball screens. Craft as a soph was borderline legit as teams did not just abondon him and give him wide open shots. This year, he was not.
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No doubt Harris will be a gigantic threat if he can develop a strong 3-ball. Sure, Craft was great, but he would have been so much better had he been able to shoot from outside.
 
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I think I said, "Not saying that AJ is or will be BFC". But, BFC was a highly regarded recruit (concensus top 50) and had all the ball-handling skills HArris has, was a big time scorer in HS and was bigger than Harris. Comparing Harris to Conley at this point would be absurd. That doesn't mean I think Harris will be a bust, but I do have concerns about a small PG who isn't a big scorer in HS or shown consistent shooting ability from deep as of yet. It looks like we are going to have national championship caliber talent on our team for the '15 and '16 seasons, but I think PG play is key in being able to make it all the way to a title and I think AJ needs to step up his game if he is going to be able to lead a championship team.

FWIW, 247sports just dropped AJ out of the top 100 to 129 in their ranking.
 
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MaxBuck said:
The best point guard I've ever seen in a Buckeye uniform was Mike Conley. He wasn't a legit 3-point threat, averaging 30% from downtown.

Not worried.
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Well, if you tell me we are going to have the most dominant center in college basketball and the #1 pick in the draft, then I'd be less worried. It does not appear we will have that on our team. Specifically on Conley, he started the season slowly from three, but the last two thirds of the season shot a respectable 37% from three. Teams were not just leaving him open or consistently going under screens. IF Harris shot 37% from three his second season, I'd be happy with that, but understand that he would still be far behind Conley in other areas of the game.

I don't want to come across as being down on AJ, but I am a realist and a highlight package is no way to determine expectations for what a player may do in college. He's small and as such needs to better than bigger guys at most areas of the game if he's going to compete and lead a team to a national title. Right now, given his stature, I have concerns whether his shooting and scoring ability are good enough to do that. We'll see how he improves in those areas.
 
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There are plenty of scoring weapons coming in over the next few years. Ohio State needs an unselfish point guard who can distribute the ball to those play makers and that can provide some opportunistic scoring and get Ohio State into their sets so the play makers can be successful at what they do. I think Mr. Harris can fill that role.
 
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I agree with your premise that we likely won't need to count on AJ to be a scorer, but he does need to be a legit scoring/shooting threat. Being able to score/shoot yet choosing to distribute is much different than having difficulty scoring/shooting. My concern is that he needs improvement in order to become the former at the college level and that task will be more difficult given his small stature. Kids got great heart and head for the game, but can he be a legit scoring threat to allow him to be a good facilitator? I certainly believe he could score more in HS if he wanted to because he can get by most defenders easily at that level. However, in college, the defenders are bigger and quicker and the back line is longer and more athletic and I think being a threat to score is going to be a concern.

I think we have plenty of guys that can put the ball in the basket, but I am not sure we have many play makers that we can just give the ball to and ask them to get us a bucket, so I think we need our PG to be more than just a traffic cop. Since Conley has been mentioned as a comparison as a non-offensive PG, I will use him as an example. He did more than just get OSU into the offense, he ran the offense and created for others and when things broke down or we were at the end of the shot clock, he could take the ball and make something happen. If teams had just gone under screens with Conley or left him unattended outside the 3-point line he would have had a difficult time creating offense, but because teams had to respect his scoring ability, he was a great facilitator without having to score much.
 
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Correct and some improve more than others and many even continue to grow and get bigger, faster, stronger. It appears AJ is done growing and at 5'9" max, his size provides some hurdles that other PG recruits don't have. Those hurdles can be overcome, but any holes in your game will be amplified if your physical stature is well below average. As mentioned, if he improves in a few areas, then I won't be so concerned.
 
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He's listed at 6' and is a pretty adept 3-pt shooter. They have different mentalities though. YF is a scroing guard where AJ is a facilitator. You don't need to be a big scorer to be a good facilitator, but you do need to be able to score effectively/efficently so the threat of your scoring opens up opportunities for others.
 
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wigmon said:
He's listed at 6' and is a pretty adept 3-pt shooter. They have different mentalities though. YF is a scroing guard where AJ is a facilitator. You don't need to be a big scorer to be a good facilitator, but you do need to be able to score effectively/efficently so the threat of your scoring opens up opportunities for others.
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Well, you certainly know your basketball. Muggsy Bogues.

I think you might be the only poster on this website who is worried about Harris and his shooting because he is only beginning his senior year in high school and has an entire summer to practice and Yogi runs up and down the court like a chicken with its head cut off.
 
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