For the down and out.
There is a Wayne Blackshear in the wings. He’ll be in a University of Louisville uniform soon, mending, practicing, he’s on his way. A natural, a player who can create his own shots, a three-point shooter, a mid-range shooter, a rim-rattling dunker, the complete package. Averaged 14 rebounds per game as a senior in high school.
He’ll take pressure off of Kyle Kuric, allowing Kyle to do what he does best from the corner, ease the load on Russ and Chris Smith, permitting them to become role players (if that’s possible with Russ). Peyton Siva will have a go-to guy for a change, making his decision making easier. He will motivate Kevin Ware as well, speeding his acclimation process.
And he was recruited by Rick Pitino.
- Averaged 32.6 points, 14.6 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 3.7 steals as a senior to lead Morgan Park to a 20-7 record and the 3-A sectional finals, beating defending 3A state champions Hillcrest in the semifinals.
- 2011 McDonald’s and Parade Magazine All-America selection.
- Named the 2011 Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year and was a two-time all-area selection.
- Ranked No. 16 nationally by Scout.com, No. 26 in the ESPN 100, 36th by Rivals.com, No. 29 by USA Today recruiting analyst Rob Harrington, and third among shooting guards nationally by Scout.com.
- Top scoring effort as a senior was 56 points against Chicago Ellison, adding 21 rebounds, nine blocked shots and seven steals.
And did we mention that Pitino recruited him?
So what.
Rick Pitino presumably recruited all the other spares on this team.
The proof lies in what they do in collegiate competition, not in what they accomplished in high school.
A crystal ball would be nice but we haven’t had an arrangement with World Wide West for a couple of decades. Denny apparently had problems with WWW’s approach.
…. And now Rak is out with another torn ACL…..Wayne, please give us hope
I read where Pitino recently mentioned that Dieng and Kuric were having solid seasons. He gave them a grade of B. He went on to say that “nobody else was having a very good year”. Yes he recruited Blackshear… and the other 80% of the team that is “not having a very good year”
If Wayne gets up to speed quickly, he will make everybody else play better. This injury bug has been around long enough, time to move on a few miles to the east.