Lester Wilson going into his Junior Year
I think that Lester Wilson is on the road to big things his Junior and Senior year. One reason is the similarity of career arcs to former ETSU great Mike Smith
Their freshman seasons make an interesting comparison:
Lester FR.: 13.0 ppg, .366 from 3 (75 made), 5.3 rpg, in 31.9 min.
Mike S FR.: 11.0 ppg, .378 from 3 (48 made), 3.7 rpg, in 25.7 min.
Both had pretty excellent freshmen years.
What is also interesting is that both suffered a bit of a sophomore slump.
Lester SO: 10.1 ppg, .333 from 3 (63 made), .816 free throws, 3.5 rpg in 21.8 minutes (and these numbers were much worse the first 60% of the season).
Mike S SO: 7.0 ppg, .364 from 3 (16 made), .720 free throws, 4.7 rpg in 23.6 minutes
Part of it was clearly that scoring opportunities for Mike went down with the arrival of Kevin Tiggs. With Lester, the arrival of Jalen Riley and A.J. Merriweather, and the improvement of KGG, took away some minutes.
We tend to remember Mike from his stellar Junior and Senior seasons.
Mike Jr.: 15.3 ppg, .361 from 3 (47 made); 7.7 rpg; 34.9 minutes; 72 assists, 63 t.o.; 46 steals
Mike Sr.: 17.9 ppg, .367 from 3 (44 made); 6.8 rpg; 34.1 minutes; 66 assists (2.0 pg), 81 t.o. (2.3 pg); 29 steals
Lester could still make the kind of step forward that Mike did as a Junior and Senior.
In fact, in the last dozen or so games of last season, Lester Wilson went on a radical tear that brought him into the range of Mike’s upper class years, and hopefully prefigures what he can do this year. Starting with the second Jacksonville game, and going through the Lipscomb tournament game (a 12 game stretch), Lester Wilson was a changed man:
Lester late SO: 15.2 ppg .470 from the field .410 from 3 (34 made), 22-24 for .916 from the line, 4.8 rpg in last 15 games, in 25.7 minutes
That is a pretty fine stretch.
In the last 3 games (FGCU, Chattanooga and Towson) Lester was clearly trying for too much, and tailed off a bit. But there is every reason to hope that Lester can give us those Mike Smith numbers and leadership going into his Junior year.
Lester is especially effective when he looks for his midrange jumper – 15 feet and in. When he elevates from there, with his springs, he is almost always open. Knocking that shot down regularly also helps his overall confidence from the field. Relying more on that midrange shot was also a key to Mike Smith’s development. More reliable defense and better passing from Lester are also important. Mike was not a strong individual defender, but he learned to be an effective position defender. And work on better inside moves. Lester is a powerful jumper – but he is not a quick jumper. Unlike, say, A.J. Merriweather who can spring up in a microsecond, Lester takes a second to gather himself for a leap. That gives defenders time to collapse on him. He needs to learn to finish at the rim more like the similarly sized 6’4” Kevin Tiggs could do. Mike also made progress in his ability to get open off the dribble in both his Junior and Senior years.
Finally, Lester strikes me as a thinker, a guy who analyzes things and broods a bit about them. That is another similarity between him and Mike. They both always had thoughtful responses to interviewers. But sometimes it’s better to have a short memory and forget about the last shot. More like a Jalen Riley.
I really look forward to big things from Lester this year.
(This post was last modified: 08-18-2014 01:28 AM by swvabucsfan.)
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Lester Wilson going into his Junior Year
