What I Like About Jalen Jenkins

[gmutom]

...play Copes til he fouls out (7 minutes)...

This made me laugh. I know times are rough around here, but sometimes humor is all we have.

 

[NoCliche87]

Jalen reminds me of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist when he was at Kentucky... Unbelievable motor and gets the job done...

 

[smccart5]

In 10 years there will be a 30 for 30 made about "JJ" (Jalen and Julian) who together uplifted an entire program, school, and administration and paved the way for GMU hoops to be a perennial powerhouse.

They will then go on to have respectable euro careers, both will have a couple short stints in the NBA but quit after riding the bench. Jalen will then go on to be a successful business man and Julian will lead his former alma mater to the tourney an astonishing 22 out of 25 years of his college coaching career.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

^^^^ I like this ^^^^^

And I'll also add to the JJ love. He is the best player on this team as a freshman. His rebounding, particularly offensive rebounding has allowed us many 2nd chance opportunities. Rebounding, Handles, Scoring, Assists, Steals, Defense. Only thing missing is a decent 15 foot jumper.

I know this WAY too early but is there any chance of JJ sniffing the NBA. Thoughts?

 

[gmubrian]

I have very high hopes for Jalen, but I am going to do him the favor of not saying much more about him. The last several guys I have expressed too much love for have had very Gray periods in their careers after I did so.

 

[mason2k1]

Glad we landed JJ
Glad he's getting playing time
Glad he's getting due recognition

 

[Petey Buckets]

I know this WAY too early but is there any chance of JJ sniffing the NBA. Thoughts?

Ooh ooh I love this game. Here we go:

At 6'7" 238 Jalen won't be able to play power forward in the NBA. Even the smallest PFs are a little bit taller and/or heavier than he is (think Paul Millsap, Kenneth Faried, Thad Young, etc). At age 18 0r 19 (couldn't find his birthday) I think it's safe to say he's done growing and he'll be too small to play the 4 at the next level.

He'll have a much better chance as a bigger small forward. MKG is about the same size at 6'7" 232, and I think it's an excellent style-of-play comparison as well. Jalen gets about 21 mpg right now, and MKG got about 31 as a freshman. Here are MKG's freshman year stats:

PPG: 11.9
FG%: 49%
APG: 1.9
RPG: 7.4
BPG: 0.9
SPG: 1.0

Now if we take Jalen's stats and add 50% per game (to equalize the difference in minutes) he compares favorably in a few areas:

PPG: 10.6
FG%: 52%
APG: 1.1
RPG: 9.7
BPG: 1.65
SPG: 1.2

Biggest differences are in rebounding and blocks, which are two areas that translate very well to the NBA. In fact, his RSB40 (rebounds, steals and blocks per 40 minutes) is much better than MKG's:

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist RSB40: 11.96
Jalen Jenkins RSB40: 15.92

There are a couple huge caveats here: obviously, Jalen isn't about to play for a Kentucky team that's going to win the title this year. Also, MKG played SF and Jalen plays PF, so you could argue that hurt his rebound and block numbers. Another caveat is that he hasn't been as good in the pros as a lot of people hoped, but he's still young and has a lot of time to develop.

Of course Jalen isn't anywhere near the prospect that MKG was, but it's definitely not crazy to think he could play in the NBA someday. At this point scouts will want to see if he's able to defend out to the perimeter and add a jump-shot to his repertoire since he's too small to play down low.

 

[psyclone]

Ooh ooh I love this game. Here we go:

At 6'7" 238 Jalen won't be able to play power forward in the NBA. Even the smallest PFs are a little bit taller and/or heavier than he is (think Paul Millsap, Kenneth Faried, Thad Young, etc). At age 18 0r 19 (couldn't find his birthday) I think it's safe to say he's done growing and he'll be too small to play the 4 at the next level.

He'll have a much better chance as a bigger small forward. MKG is about the same size at 6'7" 232, and I think it's an excellent style-of-play comparison as well. Jalen gets about 21 mpg right now, and MKG got about 31 as a freshman. Here are MKG's freshman year stats:

PPG: 11.9
FG%: 49%
APG: 1.9
RPG: 7.4
BPG: 0.9
SPG: 1.0

Now if we take Jalen's stats and add 50% per game (to equalize the difference in minutes) he compares favorably in a few areas:

PPG: 10.6
FG%: 52%
APG: 1.1
RPG: 9.7
BPG: 1.65
SPG: 1.2

Biggest differences are in rebounding and blocks, which are two areas that translate very well to the NBA. In fact, his RSB40 (rebounds, steals and blocks per 40 minutes) is much better than MKG's:

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist RSB40: 11.96
Jalen Jenkins RSB40: 15.92

There are a couple huge caveats here: obviously, Jalen isn't about to play for a Kentucky team that's going to win the title this year. Also, MKG played SF and Jalen plays PF, so you could argue that hurt his rebound and block numbers. Another caveat is that he hasn't been as good in the pros as a lot of people hoped, but he's still young and has a lot of time to develop.

Of course Jalen isn't anywhere near the prospect that MKG was, but it's definitely not crazy to think he could play in the NBA someday. At this point scouts will want to see if he's able to defend out to the perimeter and add a jump-shot to his repertoire since he's too small to play down low.

I'm beginning to regret posting the comparisons to George Evans and Will Thomas Keep in mind that the # of A-10 games we've played is still a small sample size. While some of us are desperate to focus on some positives this year, we should be prepared for some backsliding to occur.

Opponents are likely to game plan for him--we saw a bit of that against GW in the second half when Armwood said they wanted to get Jalen into foul trouble in the second half. Went more to the hoop when JJ was guarding him. He is still a bit foul prone--needs to start getting some star treatment from the refs!

 

[Pablo]

Your A10 "Dream Team" - see
http://www.basketballforum.com/atlantic-10-conference/542633-your-10-dream-team.html.

 

[Masonman]

Jalen Jenkins is the best thing to happen to basketball since the invention of the tennis shoe.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Jalen Jenkins is the best thing to happen to basketball since the invention of the letter B.

 

[TweederGMU]

Jalen Jenkins is the best thing to happen to basketball since Larry Bird's short shorts

 

[Patriotsince81]

Love Jalen but today he showed he is a Freshman.

 

[GMU84fanman]

Jalen played against one of the better senior forwards in the league in Evans and switched off from time to time against a 7'0". While this wasn't his best game, he still had 8pts and 8 boards and held Evans to 12. Not a bad off game for a frosh.

 

[psyclone]

Jalen played against one of the better senior forwards in the league in Evans and switched off from time to time against a 7'0". While this wasn't his best game, he still had 8pts and 8 boards and held Evans to 12. Not a bad off game for a frosh.

Agreed......what hurt was the 3-9 from the field , the 5 turnovers, and a couple of attempted steals that led to easy buckets. Not likely to get a 4th ROW this week, but still a big positive for the future.

 

[GMU84fanman]

Agreed......what hurt was the 3-9 from the field , the 5 turnovers, and a couple of attempted steals that led to easy buckets

Agreed Psyclone--I still love his game and even his attempt to go after the steals was one of effort and hustle. I think the discretion will come in time. In the meantime, I still love this kid.

 

[mkaufman1]

Last night: 5-6 from the field, 6 of 7 from the line including 2 huge ones, 8 rebounds, 16 points. Beast.

 

[MasonFanatic]

Second time this year he's made FTs in the final 5 seconds of a 1-possession game (at Rhode Island as well)

 

[mkaufman1]

9 rebounds, 7 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks in 33 minutes vs Richmond

Good stuff!

 

[Petey Buckets]

9 rebounds, 7 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks in 33 minutes vs Richmond

Good stuff!

Not to mention more ballhandling responsibility than anyone was comfortable with. He was huge in breaking the press last night.

He also made a couple gorgeous passes out of the high post to hit Erik for layups (I believe one was our first basket of the game). He's got a little baby-giraffe to him when he gets the ball above the foul line, but you have to love his development so far.