It’s been almost a month since the college basketball season started and the Feast Week is now beyond us.
And what a week it was, from the incredible first day games in Maui (not looking at you, Michigan State-Colorado) to massive upsets in the Bahamas, where we witnessed something that we can call the return of Louisville basketball.
Obviously, Feast Week has a lot to offer NBA draft wise, so welcome to The Note Hub, where we look at some of my draft notes from an eventful last 7 days.
Dylan Harper’s week
Rutgers guard, Dylan Harper has been the star of the week in college basketball, torching Notre Dame and Alabama with some incredible offensive explosions and even entering his name in the #1 pick conversations.
Harper’s rim pressure, ability to get inside without being overly reliant on an explosive first step and creativity in traffic are all screaming that this is a star NBA guard in the making.
Though he’s left handed, per Synergy, Harper has a tendency to drive to his right more than to his left, both in iso and P&R situations, often employing his left hand to finish. It’s common knowledge that Harper isn’t an elite athlete, but I thought he had enough vertical pop off two feet to create angles that were just enough to lay it in.
In terms of getting to the basket, Harper has almost all the tools that a guard needs. He’s crafty, he can handle the ball, he can turn the corner and accelerate to the rim, he’s creative enough to get his defenders up in the air with intelligent fakes and super strong to finish over contact. He draws fouls at a solid 44.3% rate, with that number going up even higher against top-100 opponents, per Bart Torvik.
Harper lacks a couple of things that would aid his rim game. First of all, Harper lacks a pull-up jumper, with Synergy ranking Harper in the 14th percentile in dribble jumpers. Dylan often short arms those shots, especially in step-back situations. Secondly, I caught some moments where Harper goes downhill with his head down, not looking for his teammates.
Harper’s defense has been largely under the radar to start the season. Rutgers is not looking to involve Harper in defensive actions too much and they are content sticking him onto corner shooters to relieve him from pressing the ball. It works, at least at the collegiate level – Harper is so big and strong that he’s not overmatched by opposing wings.
Jase emerges
Michigan State hasn’t had a first round NBA draft pick since 2018, when the Memphis Grizzlies used their 4th overall pick to select a future DPOY in Jaren Jackson Jr. Generally, MSU is not a spot for one-and-done players. As the new kid on the campus, you won’t necessarily see a lot of playing time, even if you’re a highly rated recruit. Just ask Xavier Booker.
However, there is one Spartan freshman that coach Tom Izzo is unable to keep off the floor this year, and that is Jase Richardson, son of the former NBA player, national title winner Jason Richardson.
Jase was probably Sparty’s best player in Maui, despite not even playing in the last game against North Carolina.
With his speed and athleticism, Jase has been simply phenomenal in transition, which has been crucial for a team that’s struggling in half court due to abysmal shooting.
As a 6’3″ off-ball guard, he will definitely pose some questions regarding his role at the next level. At MSU so far this season Jase has been excelling in an off-ball role, posting a mere 15% usage rate. But at Maui, Jase flashed his raw game reading abilities. What I like about Richardson is that he has the feel and processing to complement his incredible speed – he’s not just fast, but he’s comfortable making decisions at that speed.
One interesting note on Richardson is that he’s the only Spartan shooting the ball at any sort of an acceptable rate, making 7-13 from three this season. Jase is by no means a great shooter and this is a major area for improvement, but you don’t have to be a draft guru to tell that knocking down shots that the defense gives you is more of a good sign than not.
Auburn’s best prospect?
By all accounts, Auburn have been the best team in college basketball so far this season. They have amassed quite a non conference resume already with wins over Houston, Iowa State, North Carolina and Memphis, on their way to the most prized asset in non-con play – the Maui Invitational winners trophy.
All of this begs a question – are there any real NBA prospects on the Tigers roster? Like most top teams in college basketball, Auburn’s riding their veterans like Chad Baker-Mazara, Dylan Cardwell, or Johni Broome, who has been playing some incredible basketball.
If Broome keeps up his NPOY-level play, he will surely get drafted in the second round. The way that he has expanded his offensive game is noteworthy, but I don’t buy him as an NBA player. He’s strong and very skilled, but at 6’10″, he’d be at a size disadvantage against a lot of NBA centers, and he doesn’t have a huge wingspan or great foot speed to come to his aid. Broome is the heart and soul of the Auburn offense, sitting at 30% usage rate, which means that he would be a 23 year old center without great defensive tools, having to significantly scale down his game at the NBA level.
Baker-Mazara and Cardwell are 30 years old (or something like that), so there’s a case for freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford to be considered as the most intriguing long term NBA prospect on the Tigers roster.
Pettiford is contributing in a more of a complementary bench role, playing less than 50% of all minutes. He doesn’t have great positional size (6’1″, 175 lbs, per ESPN), but Pettiford is a sharp reader of the game and a quick, reliable decision maker, which is backed by his very solid assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3:0.7).
Pettiford’s game reading skills are complemented by his range, which, in some cases, extends way beyond the college 3 point line, and shifty dribbling ability. As Matt Powers from Swish Theory noted last week, Pettiford has been posting some impressive self creation numbers per 100 possessions.
He may need an additional season in college to polish and scale up his game, but Pettiford is an interesting player to monitor.
DeVries shot (at the NBA)
After a tumultuous season in 2023-24, West Virginia basketball is back, led by a two headed dragon from the DeVries family: father Darian, who moved on from Drake to coach the Mountaineers, and his son Tucker, whom he took alongside himself.
West Virginia had a good week in Bahamas – despite losing to Louisville in the Battle 4 Atlantis semifinal, WVU took home two hugely impressive quad 1 wins against Gonzaga and Arizona.
Tucker DeVries was great at Drake, but now he’s in Big 12, a significant step up in competition. DeVries also has had to adapt to a lowest usage rate (21%) in his career, with Javon Small taking over the lead guard role.
And boy did DeVries adapt, looking every part like a senior who could play himself into the first round of the NBA draft.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call DeVries a player with the strongest gravity in the entire D1. He absolutely torched Arizona with off-ball movement and catch-and-shoot threes from way beyond the line. Gonzaga did everything to prevent DeVries from shooting, but they consistently struggled with DeVries coming off down screens and threatening to shoot movement threes, with multiple players scrambling to closeouts, only for DeVries to make quick reads and pass the ball to open teammates.
The amount of stress DeVries was putting on the Zags defense with his off ball movement and shooting was eye opening. Sure, Gonzaga’s defensive communication wasn’t perfect, but DeVries really pushes your team defense to communicate and plug the gaps at a higher level that they would normally need.
Defense is DeVries major concern, but the flashes of improvement at that end of the floor have also been there. His task at the next level would be not to get played off the floor; DeVries has great positional length to help him out and has also flashed some help defense improvements.
Rocco’s enigma
A lot was expected from Rocco Zikarsky, the 18 year old, 7’3″ Aussie with tremendous defensive potential.
It’s fair to say that Zikarsky hasn’t lived up to those expectations yet. His stats have barely gone up from last year and his blocks – the thing that Rocco is most known for – have gone down.
Statistically, he’s been on a bit of a bounce back. He did have a bit of an opportunity playing for Australia in FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, scoring 11 points in 14 minutes against Thailand, admittedly, against opposition that is a far cry from what Zikarsky could eventually face in the NBA.
His on/off stats have been encouraging, but overall Zikarsky still feels very raw, and some of his contributions came in garbage time. He’s pretty clumsy with the ball, struggles guarding on the perimeter and sometimes drops too deep in p&r coverage.
But 7’3 centers with defensive potential are such a valuable commodity in today’s NBA that I’d comfortably take a first round, maybe top-20 swing on Zikarsky, even if his NBL struggles stretch out this entire season. His hips are fluid and he’s very light on his feet for a 7’3″ center, he defends well from disadvantages and can recover impressive distances.
The Center Hub 
Leave a comment