Mitch Lightfoot Wraps Up Visits With Arizona, Eyeing Decision
Mitch Lightfoot, a 6-foot-7, 200-pound 2016 forward from
Mitch Lightfoot, a 6-foot-7, 200-pound 2016 forward from
Kentucky has three point guards heading into this season, but only one of them can have the ball in his hands at a time.
Sophomore Tyler Ulis is expected to be the main lead guard, but freshmen Isaiah Briscoe and Jamal Murray are also accustomed to playing the point — and both have had tremendous success doing so.
Yet the 6-foot-4 Murray — the projected No. 6 pick in the NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com — says he’s fine playing off the ball at times this year.
“I’ll play fine,” the Canadian told Andy Katz during ESPNU’s coverage of Kentucky’s Pro day. “I trust Tyler and Isaiah with the ball so let them do their thing and I’ll just complement them.”
Jalen Johnson, a 6-foot-6 small forward from
All 30 NBA teams were in attendance Sunday night for Kentucky’s Pro day, which was televised on ESPNU.
According to DraftExpress.com, Kentucky features players projected to go No. 1 (Skal Labissiere), No. 6 (Jamal Murray), No. 18 (Isaiah Briscoe), No. 28 (Marcus Lee) and No. 58 (Alex Poythress) in the 2016 NBA Draft.
The 6-foot-11 Labissiere has not yet been cleared by the NCAA because of an amateurism issue, not an academic one, ESPN’s Andy Katz confirmed on air, presumably because of what has previously been reported about his guardian, Gerald Hamilton.
DraftExpress.com also has sophomore point guard Tyler Ulis at No. 38 in the 2017 draft, though many think he may come out after this season.
Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland believes Mario Kegler is a future pro and Kegler likes the school’s proximity to home.
“[Howland] feels he is a pro, one and out,” Omhar Carter, Kegler’s guardian, told SNY.tv following Kegler’s official visit to campus for Maroon Madness. “He thinks that his size and skill would be a matchup nightmare for opponents.”
Kegler is a Mississippi native who transferred to Oak Hill (VA) Academy before his senior season. His former high school teammate at Callaway (MS), Malik Newman, is now a freshman at Mississippi State.
“Seeing everyone happy and all the fans there was cool,” Kegler told the Clarion-Ledger. “The fans went crazy, especially if you’re from Mississippi. [Newman is] from Mississippi, I’m from Mississippi, you know, that could be me.”
Every year Iona College churns out at least one player with NBA potential.
For four years running from 2012-15, the up-tempo Gaels placed a player in the prestigious Portsmouth Invitational: Mike Glover (2012), Lamont “Momo” Jones (2013), Sean Armand (2014) and David Laury (2015). Temple is the only other college team in the nation that can match that four-year run.
None of those players are currently on an NBA roster. Neither is Scott Machado, a former star point guard at Iona who attended the Chicago Pre-Draft Combine but not Portsmouth, and is currently playing in Germany.
Next up for the Gaels is A.J. English, a 6-foot-4 senior point guard who averaged 20.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists for a team that lost to Manhattan in the MAAC Championship game and then fell to Rhode Island in the first round of the NIT.
Armed with a healthy Isaiah Whitehead, an improving Angelo Delgado and several key new additions like Braeden Anderson and Veer Singh, Seton Hall Kevin Willard says it’s a “realistic goal” for his team to make the NCAA Tournament in 2016 and the ultimate goal is to “do some damage” once there.
“I think it’s very important, I think it’s a realistic goal for this team now,” Willard said Friday on The 4 Quarters Podcast. “Last year, I didn’t think it was a realistic goal just because of how young we were; we were very inexperienced.
“I think even though we’re still kind of young, we have much greater experience this year, so I think this team, it’s goal is not only to get to the [NCAA] Tournament but do some damage in there.”
