Agreed, he threw those numbers up against weak sisters. I have been frustrated about UH’s lack of ability to recruit enough decent post size players - since Penders was coaching [ if Penders would have had some decent size in the post he would have been a tourney team every year]. And this year’s team - is starting to look like those guard heavy Penders teams. We have had this problem for 2 decades … bad ass college game tourney run worthy guards w/out enough 4-5 position size to help them in the post … anyone remember Gee Gervin …
The only point of this post was to say - I do not think Javier is a terrible offensive player - and as a fan - all I can do is hope some of that offense shows up next year against the real competition… because waking up every day and hoping that i’ll see the saviour big man transfer announced on this board … probably is not in reality at this point.
I do remember Gee Gervin…the year after he left Drexler recruited Alton Ford & George Williams which was a strong Front court but then the back court was not good at all…
George Williams has always been an under-rated UH player … I really liked him - he was a big time recruit at the time and lived up to the hype. Not enough help around him.
True, the only postseason play Williams got to see was on McCallum’s team when they made fhe NIT back in 2002…I was one of the few students in the stands during those years
At one point he looked like a player too good to keep off the court. Then the 2nd half of the season started.
To me that is what a learning curve can be and we chose to not force feed him.
I think Francis just needs to stay in the game. It seemed to me that once conference play started, the refs really tightened up their calls against Francis. Some of the calls against him based on his footwork seemed ticky tack to me. However he did have a habit of swiping at the ball when going for blocks that needs to be corrected.
From my perspective that while JF is long, has a ridiculous wingspan, and can jump out of the gym, he doesn’t have the body mass, strength, or ability to establish leverage when guarding stronger, more experienced players. Someone already addressed footwork above.
I think this has caused him to foul a lot and struggle against good competition. Hopefully another offseason of conditioning and strength training will get him to where he needs to be in this phase. Improved strength will improve every aspect of his game.
Watching some games from the 2021-2022 season and I could see how Javier has gotten even stronger and more body control compared to his freshman year. Hopefully he makes another jump and I think J’wan will be better next year too.
Ja’vier is going to be a defensive/rebounding monster next season…
He doesn’t even need to be the offensive threat that Carlton was his last year here… He just has to be respected by the other team as a post scorer, get offensive rebounds and be able to play the monster without giving up open slips to the basket.
2 players who didn’t get better from yr 1 to yr 2:
*Kiyron Powell
*Ramon Walker Jr
Powells 2nd yr was a redshirt, which was very unusual. And Ramons half a season, shooting, ball handling, defense all regressed in my opinion…and no known injury was made public