Jojo Anderson

[Dane Pound]

Good story in the Gazette about Jojo Anderson coming to Albany - https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/05/09/healthier-and-stronger-anderson-joins-ualbany-men-s-basketball

[Patch]

Earlier this week Coach Pelletier tweeted about how the character of the players helps recruiting, this article supports that premise.

[Clickclack]

For all the flak Clark catches on these boards, the man sat down and help recruit a kid at his exact position. No question he's a good kid, I really really hope he puts up a heck of a senior year. Good dude. 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Clickclack

[Dane96]

Absolutely agreed.  I don't know these kids from a hole in the wall, however I've heard the kids LOVE Clark.  Now I know why.  Great kid, same with Healy...and all of our kids.  Character means something.

On the hoops perspective, if Clark ups his game...we can have depth like we've never seen before at guard.

[godanesgo99]

I don't think Clark needs to up his game. Kid can ball. He just needs to play within his game, trust his teammates, and not try to do too much. Anderson should help with that.

Imagine what Clark's numbers would have looked like if the bigs had the hands to handle half of the passes he dished down low. Clark probably had 2-3 assists per game go through people's fingers. That's not putting the bigs down either. Some of those passes were lasers. As freshman they were growing and learning. Hopefully they can handle more after summer workouts.

I started a thread on Clark near the beginning of last season. Go back and watch the video in that thread. That shows his character and why I have rooted for him so hard and defended him on the board.

Edited May 10, 2019 by godanesgo99

[Dane96]

I don't disagree with some of what you say.  But come on now, as a former guard...I have issue with him dribbling into triples, not picking his head up, chucking ill advised threes, etc.  Does he have talent: YES SIR!  Has he harnessed it yet: No Sir.

Also, it's not a knock...he basically was a frosh in some ways as well...seeing only limited minutes the year before. 

I agree, with some ball handling taken away from him...I think he will be VERY GOOD.  I also think Healy will be scary...because he did a lot of dribbling last year.   With less ball control duties, Healy can do what he does best: SNIPE!!!!

I, for one, love this group of four guards. 

[godanesgo99]

Your comments don't disagree with mine. The dribbling into triples and similar bad choices were, in my opinion, him trying to do too much. Staying within his game would fix much of that.

[Dane Pound]

Clark hardly played his first year, then started, then went to coming off the bench. I'm on the outside, but as far as I can tell he's handled all that pretty well and I have to respect that. I don't think it's always easy for young guys to deal with those ups and downs and he's done it well. 

Couldn't help reading about Anderson's health problems at Nevada and thinking about Travis Charles. Both Anderson and Travis seemed to learn lessons at young age that most of us don't learn until we're older - things can go away quickly so appreciate them while you have them.

I don't know how Nevada got  a guy Anderson to walk-on to their program but I'm glad he's headed here. This should be a group that's hungry to win. Anderson was a good player on a NAU team that struggled in the Mountain West and our young guys took their lumps last year.

[Dane96]

24 minutes ago, Dane Pound said:

Clark hardly played his first year, then started, then went to coming off the bench. I'm on the outside, but as far as I can tell he's handled all that pretty well and I have to respect that. I don't think it's always easy for young guys to deal with those ups and downs and he's done it well. 

Couldn't help reading about Anderson's health problems at Nevada and thinking about Travis Charles. Both Anderson and Travis seemed to learn lessons at young age that most of us don't learn until we're older - things can go away quickly so appreciate them while you have them.

I don't know how Nevada got  a guy Anderson to walk-on to their program but I'm glad he's headed here. This should be a group that's hungry to win. Anderson was a good player on a NAU team that struggled in the Mountain West and our young guys took their lumps last year.

I also thought of Brian Connelly.  I forgot what type of diabetes he was diagnosed with but I vividly remember Brian chugging Gatorade during games to keep his energy up.   

Young kids learning life lessons in coping.