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My fam is from Franklin County and while home for XMas break I got to watch Van Leer play a full game on a local access TV replay, not just highlights. It was against Union, MO so indeed the competition level was not very high.But I do like him.

= I watched Van Leer play against Union, who isn't very good. Despite the bad competition Leer was still impressive.

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The Union defense was double teaming him *everywhere* when he crossed halfcourt - they were doing box and one on him all the way out to the halfcourt line. Still, his athleticism, court awareness and shooting all looked D1-like to me. He had a very nice athletic breakaway dunk - some others like that have floated around youtube - and his speed in transition was faster than those around him despite being much taller than most opponents. He was consistently finding an open man out of all the double teams that was leading to nice secondary breaks for his squad.

= He was double teamed all game, but his superior athleticism was no match for the Union defenders.

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People have tried to criticize his shooting percentage in high school to suggest he's really not that great a shooter, but again I don't know if people understand this kid is getting double teamed all the way out to the halfcourt line by opposing defenses. It follows that his shooting percentage may not be as good as it would be under normal circumstances. He hit most of his shots from midrange and longrange in the game I saw. Now, he does not get much height on his jump shot and he hunches over such that it might be pretty easy to block by D1 sized defenders. But that was true of sharp shooter specialists like Steve Kerr too so its not a deal killer.

= He gets knocked for his shooting, but people should consider the fact he's getting double teamed. He might not have the ideal jump shot, but his style works, as it has for greats like Steve Kerr.

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Most importantly, again albeit against lower level competition, Van Leer's team dominated the game. He was doing the right things out of the double teams to get his team an easy victory. Not all high school players will do that

= blank (forum posts don't need a conclusion paragraph summarizing the post).

Edit

*Have empathy for your fellow man, the reader.

Make the thoughts in your head as easy to consume and digest as possible.

This post was edited on 1/4/15 at 3:10 pm