I know March Madness can define a team/players season. So here are my thoughts, feel free to add yours:
Kingston Flemings, this season you could certainly put it up there with Jamal Shead, Rob Gray, Marcus Sasser, as one of the best under Sampson. For your freshman to be your best playmaker, what a season. Hes a great kid too. Very humble & coachable. The early expectations most had for Kingston, he completely blew those away. Great season
Emanuel Sharp, owned the task of being our best on ball defender & a top 2 scorer. A big step up in responsibility from last yr. Where we could put Cryer or Mylik on a teams best guard. Overall Eman had a lot of big moments. Got banged up Ă—2 in the Arizona game in Fertita Center. That might be contributing to late season shooting slump. But overall, 1st Team All Big12. Very good season for Eman
Jojo Tugler, had the offseason foot surgery. We worried it would affect his development. It did early in the season. Consistently got in foul trouble. But late in the season, hes starting to surge. Staying out of foul trouble & being a scorer for us in the post. Tugler trending up as season concludes
Milos Uzan, is an unselfish player. He allowed Kingston to be the leader for this team. Kudos to him on that. Some expected an All American type jump for Milos this yr. We didnt see it. But he continued to battle. In conference play he shot 40+% from 3pt. Had a huge game at Cincinnati to start conf play. Aggressive Milos is the best version of Milos. Hopefully we see that in the tournament
Chris Cenac, had an up & down season. After the Tech loss, a flip switched for him to be more aggressive on the glass. He had some tremendous rebounding performances. Chris would be that perfect 3rd big off the bench for us. As a starter, he had alot on his plate. Guard on the perimeter, rebound, protect the rim. And also try & score 8-10pts per game. Cenac had some flashes of brilliance & then some games where he was a non factor with fouls. Overall solid season for Cenac. He has a good attitude, work ethic to succeed at the next level
understand where you are coming from, but Milos grade is low shooting %40 from 3 in conference and leading the team when Kingston is on the bench deserves more
I love Kingston and said early on before he got here he had a great chance to start as a freshman and caught some flack for saying it.
He is such a smart kid and he plays hard, but nothing can compare to the experience Shead, Sasser, LJ, etc had at the end of their college careers.
Flemmings plays hard on defense, but he is not in the same category as Shead or Sasser…yet.
Therefore I would rate Kingston just a plain ol’ A knowing that he is going to get much better going forward.
Cenac has gotten better as the season progresses…He got more aggressive as the season went along but there were still times he acted reluctant to shoot the ball. I would give him a B minus, but who knows after this upcoming title run it could end up being an A.
Sharp has been hampered with injuries but I am still giving him an A for his leadership and hard play on the court. So many times early in the year Sharp coached on the floor with our younger guys.
Tugler is Tugler, a real dog on the defensive end but not so much on the other end. However towards the end of the season I thought he began getting a little more relaxed at attacking the basket. He has a nice outside shot but has never shot from afar except token shots in blowout games a few times.
I would love to see him develop a jumper inside the arc. He has improven his free throw shots this year and I would like him take the next step with touch around the basket and some outside game.
Milos had the roughest road to hoe this year. He decided to return to help his NBA stock and then loses his point guard duties to a freshmen.
But I have utmost respect for Uzan for accepting his new role and playing hard the entire season. He is a veteran, a team guy, and I would not be surprised to see him break out down the stretch.
And I can’t stop here without a salute to Mercy Miller, a guy I think many of us had totally given up on after last year. But the kid has worked his tail off and now brings so much to the table off the bench. Heck, now instead of expecting him to transfer I think about where he will fit best as a starter next year…
