Exactly. But he you were making it seem like he didn't dominate the league. When he had statistically probably a top 5 season of any player in the league in the past 15 years. And he was a freshman.
In fact, in honor of our shutting Tony down, I hereby declare we change his name to Toni... She came in with alot of hype. She dominated others... She sucked against us. GEAUX TONI!!!
Slappy...obviously the kid is good...very good. My point all along was that dominating the Belt, which is not currently a great basketball league, did not/does not equate to being a stud in the NBA...at least not any time soon. If he had done that in the ACC or even the Big 12 then maybe...but i just felt that the NBA was just too big a jump.
My humble opinion.
Saturday Night is Senior Night. We will honor four guys who given a lot to this school. We also have a chance for Win No. 17 which would be quite an accomplishment for a team with some limitations.
He is a talented player. Making him seem like less of one takes credit away from the strategy that we had against him both times. I agree we played him well. That is due to our game plan. Saying he isn't that good minimizes our accomplishment. We doubled him all night long and that clearly frustrated him.
From everything I have read he is lock for the first round of the NBA draft. Which means when you take out foreign picks he is one of the top 20 NCAA players this year and likely one of the top 5-10 NBA freshman as judged by NBA scouts.
His body and game are more suited for the NBA really than for the Sunbelt. 6'8 athletic mismatch. He will make millions of dollars playing the 3/4 in the NBA for a long time.
Mitchell has dominated everybody in the league this season other than the Cajuns and will get a lot of votes as SBC Player of Year. (I expect Middle Tennessee's LaRon Dendy to get plenty of votes as the best player on the league's best team. It's just how some of the voters operate.) What he's done is really impressive granted he didn't play last season at Missouri and couldn't work out with North Texas this year until after December.
Going into last week, Mitchell led all players in conference play in every major offensive category but assists. He's the first player with at least two 30-pt, 15-reb games since Michael Beasley in 2007-08. His 34-16 effort vs South Alabama - the best combined pt-reb total in the nation this season. He led Team USA in rebounding and blocks last summer at the FIBA Under-19 Championships.
Call him whatever you want, but NBA scouts like Mitchell enough that he'll likely become the league's next first-round pick and make a lot of money. I think he needs to come back and continue to develop his game and consistency, but the NBA cares more about upside and potential. He has both (and two Ls vs the Cajuns).
Odds are we'll play North Texas again in the quarterfinals at the tournament.
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