Austin Reaves injury

[mumdaddy316]

Good news.... Best backcourt ever?? From what perspective

[Aargh]

Good news.... Best backcourt ever?? From what perspective

From the perspective of rabid WSU fans. That's where it's from. Do you need more perspectives than that?

[bighouse]

Good news.... Best backcourt ever?? From what perspective

He said best back court in America, not ever. Big difference.

[ShockerPhi]

Best backcourt ever still has to go to Fred and Ron for what it's worth.

[mumdaddy316]

Lol nope I got ya, here is too the hope they can back that up in conference and the tourney

[Shocker1976]

Good news.... Best backcourt ever?? From what perspective

Potential to be the best Shocker back court ever?

IMO HC3G is bringing better athletes to Koch Arena, whether these athletes will play for four years will be a determining factor into how long some Shocker fans think FVV and RB were the best back court ever.

[WSUwatcher]

If the combination of Reaves and Shamet is healthy and able to play together long enough to cause anyone here even to quibble over whether they've matched or exceeded Fred and Ron, the future is very bright indeed.

[BOBB]

I may be misremembering, but I definitely think I remember him getting trapped a couple of times when a more experienced player probably would not have. Either way, I don't know that I'd call his handles the best part of his game.

I think I'd call the lightening quick shot from anywhere on the court that always seems to just hit net the best part of his game.

You remember correctly. He has a skilled, but loose handle and Freshman decision-making. The handle and decision-making will improve. Release is A++.

[im4wsu]

You remember correctly. He has a skilled, but loose handle and Freshman decision-making. The handle and decision-making will improve. Release is A++.

I don't think I'd classify his handle as loose by looking at turnovers per 100 possessions:

Brett Barney	0
Conner Frankamp	1.6
Zach Bush	2.1
Landry Shamet	2.3
John Robert Simon	2.5
Austin Reaves	2.7
Zach Brown	2.9
Markis McDuffie	3.1
Rauno Nurger	3.3
Rashard Kelly	3.5
Kaelen Malone	3.5
Eric Hamilton	3.7
Shaquille Morris	3.8
Daishon Smith	4.2
Darral Willis Jr.	5.3
C.J. Keyser	7.2

[1972Shocker]

I'd think any suggestion of his taking a redshirt to gain strength and have some extra time to heal are gone with Shamet's injury.

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college...166905862.html

I wouldn't say the possibility of redshirting Austin is totally gone because of Landry's injury. Significantly diminished? Yes (assuming it is something that was being considered in the 1st place). This will depend on how both Landry and Austin progress with their rehab and recovery. The other factor would be how well does Samajae pick up the system and is he capable of fillling in at the point competently?

All that said, if I had to bet one way or the other I would probably bet that Austin will play this season but that opinion is based on woefully incomplete information.

[1972Shocker]

He doesn't need a lot of durability this year. I'd expect him to be in the 10-15 minute range. Maybe 15-20 early while Shamet gets back up to speed. (I don't think that's going to take a long time.)

I think the big question mark with Austin is will he ever be "durable" as far as his shoulders are concerned or will we always be holding our breath with every hard bump, fall or yank that Austin endures. I think the latter may be in store for Shocker fans.

Let me just say I hope he can play relatively injury free for the remainder of his career because I love his game.

[Good News]

You remember correctly. He has a skilled, but loose handle and Freshman decision-making. The handle and decision-making will improve. Release is A++.

I've been reading your posts for years and agree with 99.9 percent of them, but this has to be the 1 in 1000. Just trust me, if you saw the drills I saw him doing pregame in Montreal you wouldn't describe that handle as "loose". Plus, I honestly don't remember any mistakes against pressure in regard to handle. Did he get trapped or otherwise get himself into a bad situation because of inexperience? Yes, several times. But I didn't see a single instance of him not being able to handle the pressure - no pun intended - handle or otherwise.

(Note - I wanted to describe the dribbling drill I saw, but I just can't recall the exact details. I think it was a 3 ball drill where Austin was fast hard dribbling a ball with each hand, about 20 feet away from a wall. Every X seconds, he would throw alternating balls against the wall while the coach threw another ball to him and he had to get it back. Then he would catch the ball off the wall and go back to the both hand power dribble. Seriously - I know and played against several D1 guys and even a few pros, and if you gave me an even money bet on whether 10 percent of D1 guards and 50 percent of NBA guards could do that drill for the amount of time I saw him do it... I'd take the "NO" side. The ambidexterity involved just to throw one-handed bullet passes 20 feet to the wall so they come back catchable was ridiculous. Not that it proves a tight handle, which is a different thing... but he does have next level hand-eye coordination in my uninformed opinion.)

Maybe someone else out there with more access has witnessed the same drill and can elaborate. Although I'm not sure I could see anybody besides Fred or Landry being able to do it.

And to a previous post - I didn't say best backcourt EVER. I said best backcourt in America if Landry and Austin are healthy. Bookend combo guards both capable of running the point, excellent court vision, students of the game, basketball IQ, and bulletproof 3 point threats so you can't leave them. With 6-4/6-5 height (although the only time I saw Austin in person he looked a little bit taller than 6-5; Landry looked 6-4). Very tough to game plan when 90% of point guards are 6-1 or smaller and you're giving away that size/vision advantage to at least one great point guard on the other team.

[ShoxMTXE]

Does anyone have an idea when Austin will be healthy enough to do the more important basketball exercises like biceps and triceps? I just want a healthy and healed Reaves this season. We’re going to need him healed up in order to compete for a national championship.

[ShockTalk]

Does anyone have an idea when Austin will be healthy enough to do the more important basketball exercises like biceps and triceps? I just want a healthy and healed Reaves this season. We’re going to need him healed up in order to compete for a national championship.

Check out this post by Aargh.

[shockmonster]

Austin will not redshirt. We will see if it was a good decision soon. If his shoulders continue their fragile history, and he continues his sporadic health and availability for play, our continued recruiting improvement will move him down in the rotation. If not, our guard depth should be good. He is a good player and we need him.