Freshman forward Donovan Williams

[Goo Punch 4275]

Tall, long, athletic, confident, and looks like he can shoot a bit. Not a bad debut performance.

 

[Catdaddyhorn 3435]

Yeah he was the biggest revelation from Tuesday. We didn't hear much offseason noise about his prospects, good or bad, so when he came out playing confidently it was a welcome surprise. I look forward to seeing what the young man can do. 

[Tylerocks 2532]

yes, he stood out to me too.

Hopefully he'll steal minutes from Hepa and Cunningham.  Hepa has been disappointing.  Cunningham looked lost.

 

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

he has some real potential. let's hope he gets a real coach on campus who can tap into it.

 

[Knoxtnhorn 5906]

Wasn't Hepa a pretty decent recruit?  Like Top 75 or somesuch?  I'm not sure I've ever seen him score.

[GotThatFire 166]

Scoring more than 0 times is really, really hard. 

[idigTexas 2257]

15 hours ago, GotThatFire said:

Scoring more than 0 times is really, really hard. 

Maybe you should check in on South Austn's mom.  That should end your dry spell.

[txhorns 2400]

This is the kind of player who has lackluster seasons his first year or two on campus and then is suddenly an All American.  Hopefully he stays here all 4 years.

[HtownHorn 14285]

I thought this thread was him announcing he going into the portal due to his lack of consistent PT, even though he plays behind 3 bricklayers.

[Goo Punch 4275]

He shouldn't be taking threes (4-21 on the season), but man this kid looks like he has the body and skill set to become a really good player. Whoever replaces Shaka will have a gem on his hands. 

[Catdaddyhorn 3435]

He's an example of a player who Shaka misuses when it comes to developing the player, his roster, and team cohesion for the long term. Shit you could probably say the same for players like James Banks, Hepa, and even Liddell. You can discipline them by being restrictive with minutes and frequently taking them out to immediately teach them when they make mistakes, but you should never go multiple games or half the season without them getting in game reps to improve. Shoot,  even Will Baker could fall into this category, but Shaka deploys him in the most ineffective, nonoptimal manner that it probably wouldn't do him much more good if he got more game reps in this ridiculously stupid system. 

Is there any doubt that Williams would turn into a Jarrett Culver level player under a coach like Beard? It's so fucking obvious that it's almost laughable that it took multiple injuries to get him extended minutes. 

Edited January 30, 2020 by Catdaddyhorn

[Goo Punch 4275]

Notice how all of his highlights are from Big XII play? It's because Shaka, as he always does, refused to play his depth during the non conference schedule despite it being the weakest non-con since we joined the Big XII. Donovan's minutes during the non-con:

17 minutes vs N Colorado and Mcneese State; 15 vs Prairie View; 10 vs Providence; and then 6, 6, 4, 3, 3, 1, and 1 minutes played in the rest of the games. He played 6.6 mpg through January 20th. But then the injury bug hit, and he played more than 17 mpg from there on out. During that time he shot 35% from the field, 40% from 2P, and 27% from 3P. My gut says he wouldn't have fared so poorly if he'd actually gotten some run against that awful non-conference lineup. I dunno what it is with Shaka and wing players, but he doesn't seem to like them very much. 

edit: didn't mean to act like it was breaking news that he didn't get any run during the non-con, just watching that video and then looking up the actual stats really drove it home. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Goo Punch