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| Aaron and Andrew Harrison courtesy of USA Today Sports |
With Big Blue Madness now done with and the season getting underway next week with the Blue/White scrimmage on Tuesday, Oct. 29th and an exhibition against Transylvania Friday, Nov. 1st what better time to do a preview of the players who will be wearing the blue and white this year. This will be a four-part segment with the Guards on this team being split up into two different segments. After the jump is the first part.
#1 James Young 6-6 215 FR Rochester Hills, Mich. (Rochester): It's not too often that a player ranked #11 by Rivals gets overlooked but that is the case with James Young but you can't really blame people with the amount of exciting players on this team. Somebody is going to get overlooked. Young though is already starting to make a name for himself though without even playing a minute by having an impressive offseason so far. What makes Young so intriguing is his ability to not only be a lights out 3-point shooter at 6-6 but also has the aggressiveness and willingness to drive to the basketball and use his height and athleticism. The only concern will be a lack of strength, which could limit him both defensively and rebounding but I don't see this being much of a problem. Expect Young to be one of the best 6th man's in the nation and take over games where other Kentucky players are struggling.
#2 Aaron Harrison 6-6 218 FR Richmond, Texas (Travis): While Aaron is considered to be the less talented of the twins he is still the top Shooting Guard prospect coming out of high school and expected to be a high pick in next years NBA Draft. Harrison's strength to this team will be his ability to shoot the three either moving or with his feet set as he can go through stretches where he will just simply not miss. Not the best of ball handlers but still good enough to combine it with his strength and craftiness to get to the basket almost whenever he wants. Only real weakness is just youth and lack of experience at the D1 level. Most of his weaknesses will be fixed as he gains that experience and learns the game.
#3 Jarrod Polson 6-2 182 SR Nicholasville, Ky. (West Jessamine): Jarrod is the local kid who chose to walk-on to the team instead of taking a scholarship to play at Liberty University. He is now a scholarship player at UK and while his playing time will be almost non-exsistent due to the talent ahead of him this is a senior who has been here for the high's (National Title) and lows (NIT loss) and will be able to help these talented freshman learn what it takes to win at this level and mental side to the game. Can be counted on for depth if injuries or fouls or just freshmen mistakes creep into a game. Player you can count on.
#4 Jon Hood 6-7 215 RS-SR Madisonville, Ky. (North Hopkins): Another local kid who was highly recruited coming out of high school as the #40th ranked recruit by Rivals and chose in-state Kentucky over Ole Miss, Tennessee and Georgia. Due to competing for playing time with NBA talent players hasn't had the opportunity to play the minutes he probably thought he would but has toughened it out and will provide a lot of leadership to this young team and a player who you can rely on if the situation rises up. Reliable three point shooter with size.
#5 Andrew Harrison 6-6 215 FR Richmond, Texas (Travis): Andrew is the more hyped of the two twins being that he is a 6-6 PG. You don't see point guards that big in college or even in the NBA that often. Andrew was listed as the #5 player in the nation and the #1 PG by Rivals. He is big and strong and takes advantage of his size to muscle his way past smaller guards into the lane to get easy buckets for both himself and his teammates. Andrew is exactly what your looking for in a point guard as his best ability is he is able to make everybody else around him better. This team will go as Andrew takes them. Point guard play was a problem for UK last year but this year expect Andrew to lead this team and be the leader even as a freshman.
Keep posted for the next part of this series tomorrow where I will tackle the rest of the guards on this UK Basketball team.
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