5 seconds isn’t bad for a casual pace, but that’s probably at his max speed. There are times when you need to get up and down the court in 3-4 seconds and a 0.5-1.0 second difference is huge on a basketball court. Can he get there in 4 seconds? If not his man will beat him down the court every time. I agree with you on lateral quickness needing improvement, but I don’t think his vertical quickness is where it needs to be either.
At 7'8", how skilled does he need to be? Can he simply catch a ball, turn around and jump six inches?
Or not even jump at all The one thing I hope he improves along with his food speed and agility is hand-eye coordination. The ball often falls into his hands on the offensive boards but he fumbles it. Needs to secure it quickly and go up with authority. If he keeps the ball high (doesn’t bring it down) no one is blocking that
His highlights look mostly like a bunch of other guys flying around him and dunking all over the place while going out of their way to not give him the ball. For some reason, I’m not sure he really fits in with his team.
Yeah great team and facilities, coaches etc but looks like a team of mercenaries out there. All trying to get highlight reel dunks. They’re so much better than most of their competition that they don’t need to play team ball. When Rioux gets in there he must have one of the highest offensive rebounding rates in the country. Blocks per minute too. All he needs to learn is how to set proper screens and post up, he’d be a load. Basically model his game after Edey’s. Let’s see what he can do in the next 2 years.
Yep. We all know he needs a lot of work but I think he's got real potential. It will be bad for him if we load him up with too many expectations from the start.
He’s as fast up and down the court as that big guy from Denver who wins the MVP every year. However, the rest of his game is not quite as good.
He’s a PWO, so we have almost all reward potential and no risk. If he doesn’t work out no biggie, if he does, great. Either way, he’s gonna bring us press from around the world which never hurts.
‘The World’s Tallest Teenager’: 7-foot-7 Rioux Ready to Head to UF - ESPN 98.1 FM - 850 AM WRUF‘The World’s Tallest Teenager’: 7-foot-7 Rioux Ready to Head to UF
Really good article about the young man. Also, interesting comments from IMG about UF's training and science being so much better than what they can offer.
I notice that they don’t mention in the article any stats in high school. I’m guessing it is cuz he rarely plays meaningful minutes even for his high school team. Every story about every high school football or basket recruit always mentions some stats. I am expecting nothing from him year 1 and hope by year 2 he can play some and develop by year 3. We shall see.
Agree - Without experience, I imagine he will redshirt, get on a UF nutrition plan, be put on an exercise and weight training regimen and see if he can develop skills in scrimmages. Not costing UF anything and worth giving him a shot.
This might be good but has he learned to stop? The people sitting under the baskets in the O'Dome might not like him very much.
He’s tall, but at 300lbs not a bean pole. Not real quick, but not a spaz either. The first thing I would work on is his hands. They are not great. He fumbles everything especially rebounds. If he works only on catching the ball, at 7’7” and 300 lbs he will be something teams will have to contend with.
