The first part of the July live period is coming to a close, with little in the way of new information on St. John's recruiting targets' desire to come to the Queens campus.
And that's quite okay. The Nike EYBL Peach Jam is coming to a close, with semifinal games today and the finals tonight, broadcast by ESPN. Neither of the Red Storm's main recruiting targets will be playing in the finals. Ricardo Gathers' Louisiana Select team ended this round of pool play at 2 wins and 3 losses, not enough to get them into the quarterfinal rounds.
Still: Ricardo Gathers was a beast.
Gathers averaged 18.4 points and 12.2 rebounds per contest, with 2 blocked shots per game thrown in. Fun fact: the Lousiana Select squad blocked 15 shots in the five games they played in North Augusta; Gathers blocked 10 of those. The Louisiana Select team also made the other squads work to score, holding opponents to 40.4% field goal shooting defensively (third in the Peach Jam) and grabbed 38.8 rebounds per game (fifth in the tourney).
Since Ricardo's first day at Peach Jam, Gathers' field goal percentages suffered on days two and three of the Peach Jam' he finished shooting 42.5% from the field, and chucked up a trio of three-pointers in the last three games. One wonders if fatigue played a factor. Or perhaps it's that his team didn't seem to offer him much help in the scoring or ballhandling column (from accounts at the game via Twitter). Not making excuses, but from most accounts, Ricardo Gathers played well.
From Brian Bosworth, writing for NBE basketball:
Gathers is one of the strongest players in this field. Listed at 6’8" 235 pounds, he could easily be 15 pounds heavier than that and you’d be hard pressed to find an ounce of fat on him. This superior strength advantage makes him quite a chore to deal with down low and to Gathers’ credit he doesn’t waste time floating on the perimeter. When he collects a defensive rebound (9 in this game) Gathers immediately takes off with the ball down the floor. He showed improved handle from when I last saw him in June leading the break and really pushing the pace of the game. As such a huge young man who is always attacking Gathers spends a lot of time at the free throw line. He needs significant work on his stroke going 2-9 in this game and missing badly on some of those attempts.
Gathers, working on his handle, too? Didn't have many turnovers on the stat sheet, considering the number of possessions he used.
Basic stats from Gathers' five games at the 2011 Nike Peach Jam - these are all averages:
| Gathers | FG | FGA | FG% | 3FG | 3FGA | FT | FTA | OF | DE | TOT | PF | TP | A | TO | BLK | S | MIN |
| 7.4 | 17.4 | 42.5% | 0.0 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 7.4 | 3.6 | 8.6 | 12.2 | 2.8 | 18.4 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 28.6 |
Tempo neutral stats (explanations of terms), Peach Jam, with the highlights in bold and green, the lowlights in red and italics:
|
min%
|
2p
|
FTR
|
ft%
|
sh%
|
poss
|
apg
|
to%
|
stl%
|
or%
|
dr%
|
blk%
|
ppp
|
|
84.2%
|
42.5%
|
42.5%
|
48.6%
|
37.7%
|
29.4%
|
3.5%
|
12.2%
|
1.8%
|
11.3%
|
26.1%
|
4.4%
|
.933
|
Gathers also gave an interview to Adam Zagoria, and mentions that he's considering St. John's and Texas (Rick Barnes was at Peach Jam watching him play) along with Arizona, LSU... and Syracuse.
The money quote is , when asked what he'll bring to a college program, Gathers responded with "hard work. That's what I base most of my game on, hard work."
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