The second night of the 2011-2012 season took us to New Castle. There weren’t many games on the schedule for the night plus it was a chance to see New Castle’s Steven Bennett and Blue River’s Kyle Gross.
New Castle jumped on Blue River early with an 11-2 run to start the game. New Castle was scoring lay-ups off of simple “UCLA cuts” and other simple cuts. Kyle Gross struggled on the offensive end for Blue River. He knew he needed to score in a big way for his team to have a chance and he forced it. It was 24-8 in New Castle’s favor after one period.
It looked like Blue River might get back into the game in the second quarter behind Kevin Koutz. He was able to hit a couple of 3’s and then an “and 1” play. Blue River cut the deficit to 31-18, but they couldn’t get defensive stops when they needed them. New Castle led 41-24 at the half.
New Castle set the tone right away in the second half that there was not going to be a big comeback. They were the more aggressive team and also hit open 3’s when they were left open. New Castle cruised to the 88-52 win.
Steven Bennett led New Castle with 18 points on 6-15 shooting. Fellow junior Korey Ryan had 17 points including 5-6 from 3. Kyle Gross had just 6 points for Blue River on 2-13 shooting.
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New Castle
Steven Bennett 6’4” SF 2013 Bennett is one of the best shooters in the state for the 2013 class. He has a quick release and is good at getting set-up after coming off of screens. He isn’t explosive off the dribble. He won’t be able to get to the basket off the dribble at the next level. Bennett does have a high basketball IQ and would likely be able to get some easy looks off of cuts and shot fakes. Laterally, he is slightly better than I had in my mind. He will struggle at the next level, but his length might allow him to guard mid-major/low-major small forwards. He is a lot like Spencer Turner (freshman at Belmont), but Bennett is 2 inches taller.
Jordan Richardson 6’1” PG 2012 Scoring point guard with decent size and quickness. He is a pretty good outside shooter. He could be a good fit for a lot of NAIA/D3 programs.
Jason Woolums 6’5” PF 2012 An action scorer, got some buckets off of cuts and offensive rebounds. He is likely not quite skilled enough for most NAIA/D3 programs, but this was my first look at him.
Korey Ryan 6’2” SG 2013 Ryan shot the ball incredibly well from the outside. He has unorthodox hitch at the top of his release, but he was 5-6 from 3. I didn’t see him do much other than catch and shoot. First impression is that he is likely a NAIA/D3 prospect.
Kyle Goolsby 6’6” C 2013 Goolsby had a pretty good game because Blue River was very small. All of his production came from his size which will be negated against average sized teams. NAIA/D3 prospect.
Blue River
Kyle Gross 6’3” SG 2012 Gross had an awful night. He forced things and got frustrated when things were going poorly. I had hoped to see him and Bennett matched-up against each other but they never were. I still like Gross as a D2/NAIA prospect. He is a good shooter and pretty good athlete. He isn’t a one on one player though and that is what he had to do a lot of tonight. He is good coming off of screens and moving without the ball.
Michael Froedse 6’0” CG 2014 Combo guard that has great range and is pretty quick. He needs to become more of a point guard to be a college prospect…tighten up the ball handling. He has a chance to be a nice player though.
Kevin Koutz 5’7” PG 2012 Koutz was the only bright spot for Blue River in the first half. He can shoot it from the outside and has the quickness to get to the basket. He could be good with the right fit at the NAIA/D3 level.
Devon Brown 6’1” SG 2014 Brown showed a couple of flashes in the second half. Played hard and hit a couple of outside shots. We will keep an eye on him to see how he develops.{/iACL}