Early pre-season 2nd team AA

by **Aargh** » April 30th, 2013, 3:36 pm

ESPN has Early as one the top 10 players in the nation next year. Second team AA.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9226839/way-too-early-all-americans-2013-14-college-basketball

Called him, "one of the most dominant players on the floor in the tournament, an inside-out threat with NBA athleticism and skill".

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by **musiccitybulldog** » April 30th, 2013, 3:55 pm

Early on you could tell he was going to be good, but he really improved through the year. Will be interesting to watch him next year, his confidence has to be high based on the NCAA experience.

by **glm38** » April 30th, 2013, 4:31 pm

With Doug gone Early is easily the most talented player in the conference. But like Doug he really has a ways to go on the defensive end. Thought he cost the Shox several games with senseless reach in fouls, missed rotations, etc. He just wasn't very good on that end most of the year IMO.

But no doubt he won a lot of games for WSU with his offense. And he seemed much improved defensively during the final 4 tourney run. So maybe it was a juco adjustment thing.

With Carl gone he'll be the main man. It will be interesting to see how he responds to that.

by **jackwagon** » April 30th, 2013, 6:06 pm

Wowww. Great pub for the valley! Not sure he is one of the top ten college basketball players coming back next year but he definitely is the best the valley has to offer. He needs to be more consistent to be in the AA category for next year.

by **ShocksRbest** » April 30th, 2013, 6:35 pm

glm38 wrote:With Doug gone Early is easily the most talented player in the conference. But like Doug he really has a ways to go on the defensive end. Thought he cost the Shox several games with senseless reach in fouls, missed rotations, etc. He just wasn't very good on that end most of the year IMO.

But no doubt he won a lot of games for WSU with his offense. And he seemed much improved defensively during the final 4 tourney run. So maybe it was a juco adjustment thing.

With Carl gone he'll be the main man. It will be interesting to see how he responds to that.

His senseless fouls were really annoying. Took a good weapon away and limited his minutes. He did better in the NCAA tournament and people were able to see his potential. Next year could be quite a year for both him and the Shocks.

by **Wufan** » April 30th, 2013, 7:30 pm

Just to put a little perspective around what Early did at WSU last year, he was the two time NJCAA D-III player of the year, and as a sophomore, he was the POY for any classification. During that time he averaged 23 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He had offers from Oregon, San Diego St, and Baylor.

Coach Marshall commented after the early practices (summer session) that Early was the most improved player, but that when he arrived on campus, he was the worst player on the team. He did not start most of the games last year. He works very hard and has a level head.

He is soft and lacks the physical strength of previous All-American Shocker Forwards (X-Man, Antoine Carr, Cliff Levingston, Dave Stallworth, Cleo Littleton). If Early is to be an All-American, then his defense and shot selection need to improve as well.

by **2livewu** » April 30th, 2013, 8:34 pm

jackwagon wrote:Wowww. Great pub for the valley! Not sure he is one of the top ten college basketball players coming back next year but he definitely is the best the valley has to offer. He needs to be more consistent to be in the AA category for next year.

Cle has a lot of upside for sure, but I believe he's a very long way from this level. It's probably something you get for getting to the Final Four, but Cle has a lot to work on over the summer.

by **rlh04d** » April 30th, 2013, 9:04 pm

In the past, the transition from year one to year two for WSU's JUCO players has been pretty tremendous. I don't expect that to not continue with Early.

Early definitely has issues to work on from the regular season -- defensive lapses, senseless fouls, lack of strength, and poor shot selection. I think most of that was fixed by the postseason, which says to me a lot of it was a concentration issue as well as adjusting to the D1 game. As for his defense, it wasn't just improved upon by the postseason -- I thought his defense was excellent during that run. I'm expecting him to play around 30 minutes a game and average about 20 ppg next season. Marshall should be spending a lot of time with him to help make him his first NBA draft pick.

And regardless of WSU, this is great for the Valley as a whole to have a player in the AA discussion after Creighton's departure. As we saw with McDermott, lots of press follows that talk. The more talk there is, the easier it is to stay in the rankings as well.

by **shoxrox** » April 30th, 2013, 9:14 pm

glm38 wrote:With Doug gone Early is easily the most talented player in the conference. But like Doug he really has a ways to go on the defensive end. Thought he cost the Shox several games with senseless reach in fouls, missed rotations, etc. He just wasn't very good on that end most of the year IMO.

But no doubt he won a lot of games for WSU with his offense. And he seemed much improved defensively during the final 4 tourney run. So maybe it was a juco adjustment thing.

With Carl gone he'll be the main man. It will be interesting to see how he responds to that.

Very astute observations that I am in total agreement with. :+1:

by **Aargh** » April 30th, 2013, 10:03 pm

You can pretty much ignore anything a JuCo does in their first half season. It usually takes them that long to stop plying JuCo ball and begin to have a concept of how D1 ball really works. When Early got to WSU, Marshall said something to the effect of how surprised he was that Early was as raw as he actually was. Early made huge progress in his first year.

By the time Early hit the NCAA tourney, he was fouling less, shooting better, rebounding better - pretty much doing everything better. He got a lot of attention from national media.

Probably every college basketball fan in the world and many, many NBA fans were watching as Early popped a 24-point double-double on the #1 seed in the NCAA tourney. Along with that, Early hit 57% of his FG's, 50% of his 3's, 86% of his FT's and had a block. Oh, and 3 PF's in 37 minutes. Do that against the #1 seed in the tourney and you get some national attention. Patrick O'Bryant didn't have a game nearly that good when he became a lottery pick based off his results in the tourney.

Many good JuCo's bust out and have great Sr. seasons. Many of us saw Hall's potential as a Jr. Most of saw that realized in his Sr. year. Over the summer Early is likely to be working on strength, defense, and handles from the 3-pt. line. Early has a crossover, but he seems to lack confidence dribbling to the hoop against smaller defenders (who are closer to the floor, which gives them a steal chance against a high dribble).

Early has huge athleticism and physical coordination. If he can get the handles to drive from the perimeter, then he's a 6'8" SG who can drive from the perimeter and finish like a 6'8" PF. While in JuCo, he was said to have NBA potential as a SG.

With the departure of White, Early is likely to see significant minutes at PF, but I expect he will be used as a stretch 4.

Early's performance in the NCAA tourney is going to get him some national respect going into the season. Give him a summer to work on the identified weaknesses in his game and he could have complete game and be a legitimate AA member.