[Heavystarch]

Originally Posted by Bernini

I don't know how his basement could be Brian Butch. Butch had great range and skills for a big man. He also played with passion. His drawbacks were his poor footwork and strength. Anderson has the same below average footwork that Butch had. He has strength, but if you don't have passion, it doesn't amount to being useable. He only did average six rebounds per game in high school, so obviously he's not fully utilizing his strength/size. He doesn't have an understanding of how to play in the post on offense, as evidenced by his 8 point per game output. I played with a kid in 8th grade (R.I.P., died of an overdose in his early 20's) who was just so much bigger than all of his opponents, probably 6'7" or so, but he'd get blocked by kids over half a foot shorter because his arsenal comprised solely of a telegraphed right-handed hook with little lift. Size can only get you so far. If Evan Anderson has no offensive game right now, nor can he rebound, who is to say he'll ever gain those skills? Shot blocking? Didn't he only average around 2 per game? And that doesn't project to near as high of a total in college when he isn't playing relative dwarfs and when he doesn't have the lateral quickness to get in position. I think Berggren blocked around 7 shots per game at 6'10" this season.

Anyways, here's a couple older pictures and an article about Evan from 8th grade, if anyone's interested:

I seen Butch play a ton in high school, and his numbers were truly a product of his size. He was obviously good, but he had horrible feet and had a lot of traveling calls. While I have not seen Anderson in person, here is what the professional evaluators say:

"Evan does know how to establish deep position and has a nice baby hook going either direction,"

"He clogs the lane, blocks shots and alters even more, plays with the ball above his shoulders and scores at the rim."

"Anderson went six straight defensive possessions where he either blocked a shot or deflected a pass and that streak stopped because he needed a break. Opposing posts found it impossible to shoot over Anderson's arms."

His knocks include speed and stamina. While sitting down and watching him play a game will cement these ideas in my mind, I wouldn't knock him on stats alone. His high school has the "three towers" as they call it, so he isn't necessarily going to get a touch every possession. His AAU games seem far more impressive and are against better competition. Right now I like what I'm hearing

I'm stoked he's a Badger