by Blers » December 4th, 2016, 4:44 pm
Matt Chastain looked like a real gem 2 and a half games in before his ACL injury. He was as explosive a player as i've ever seen off the dribble and had a nice 3pt shot. Really hoping he can recover; even if he doesn't retain all his jumping ability he clearly had rock solid fundamentals and can still be a nice player.
In his place Cam Satterwhite has stepped up and has really begun to look comfortable. He's averaging 4 points and 2 boards and just under one steal and one assist in 14 minutes a game. The stats don't really tell it all though; the game doesn't look to big for him and he gets better every game; he was clearly gonna be brought along slower before the Chastain injury occured but since then he's contributed great minutes against Washington State (6pts, 6 boards, 2 steals), and came away with the dagger steal last night against SDS. He's not a FOY contender but by conference he potentially could take a jump and contend for the all freshmen team.
Our other Freshmen from Croatia Bruno Skokna is putting up 4.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 17 minutes. I think he's going through some of what McCloud is going through at least offensively. He's only shooting 35% from the field, but based on what I've seen in open practices and even shoot arounds i believe he'll come around and score more by seasons end. He stepped up big time yesterday and got 6 boards in Ingrams absence; and makes one or two plays a game that show you why schools like Gonzaga pursued him. He runs the offense well at backup PG and like Cam is quickly adjusting to D1 defenses (1 TO in the last 3 games after 13 in the first 6 games). If he can get his shot to fall more consistently he's gonna be a weapon
I think Chastain had a shot to sneak into the FOY conversation, with him out though I think LU still has two rock solid players who may not amaze on a nightly basis as of now, but will make the right plays in the now and could be big time pieces as early as next year.