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How Good Is Noah Robotham?


UAZip0510

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I was a bit surprised by the lack of discussion about Noah Robotham when the Zips landed him. Nevada Gatorade Player of the Year and coming from a very successful high school program, I expected a bit more excitement.

His numbers through five games, which included four "Power Five" opponents:

13.2 PPG, 2,2 APG, 3.0 RPG, 1.0 SPG, 2.0 TPG, .447 FG%, .500 3PT%, .824 FT%

The 3PT percentage will obviously drop (although that is over 20 attempts - impressive) but the rest of the stats are comparable to what Quincy Diggs provided Akron last season. Of course, Diggs was a 23 year old senior, while Robotham is a true freshman who just turned 18 in June.

Robotham carries himself and leads the team like a veteran player. He plays calm, cool, and collected and usually makes the intelligent basketball decision. He is the best freshman player we've had since Zeke Marshall...the question is, how good is he now and how good can he be?

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I've stated already that I'm comfortable saying he will be the MAC freshman of the year, and that is without knowing what other freshman talent is in the conference. He is a great get. It's rare to see freshman of any caliber come in and play this well/efficient right away.

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I was a little hesitant to get excited about Noah because, whether it's accurate or not, I have the impression that most highly coveted recruits sign during the early signing period. So I was a little skeptical. (Also, a number of years ago we signed a rather highly touted recruit from out west - Colorado's all-time leading scorer if I remember correctly. Brian something? He ended up just simply not being able to play at this level. So that also tempered my enthusiasm.)

Anyway, now that I see Noah's game I cannot believe we signed him. He is absolutely legit. I can't believe Power 5 conference teams weren't climbing all over each other trying to sign him.

I mentioned in another thread: best freshman I've seen play for the Zips since Jimmal Ball. Jeremiah Wood was awfully good too. Okay... one of the three best freshmen I've seen play for Akron.

His court presence is like having a 5th-year senior out there. Just unbelievable.

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He has the confidence needed to be an effective floor general, and plenty of skill to back it up. But he's still a freshman and still will make mistakes, and can still get worn down if the defense focuses on him.

I went and looked up DJ Cooper's freshman stats. Cooper averaged 13.5 ppg to Noah's 13.2. Very similar, but Noah has been much more accurate from the field. But Cooper averaged 5.4 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, to Noah's 3 rpg and 2.2 apg.

I used Cooper as a comparison, because he's the ultimate example of a freshman superstar point guard that we've all seen and can relate to. I like Noah's game a lot, but his assist numbers are lacking. Part of that is on the team. Nobody on the roster has shown to be any good at getting assists. Maybe that's a product of Dambrot's offense.

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So far, pretty darn good. It is really rare at this level to see a freshman come in at PG and look as poised, confident, and in-control of his team as he has. Add to that playing for Dambrot, a guy who has a history of having something of a short leash with freshman, and it is even more impressive. Really makes you wonder what might have been if we had him (or someone close to his caliber) manning the point last year.

If I have one criticism so far, there are times when he does over-dribble a little bit. I'd like to see him pass the ball a little more, but that will come with time.

Outside of that, my only concern is in how well he is going to be able to hold up to carrying heavy minutes over the course of the season. Freshmen who are asked to play big minutes have a tendency to wear down as the season goes on. We'll see how well Noah can handle it.

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In comparing a true freshman Robotham to my two other all-time favorite PG's Dru Joyce & Jimmal Ball, I say Robotham is even better than both of those guys.

Dru Joyce could launch a 3 from 8-feet behind the arc. Robotham (presently) doesn't have the insane range Joyce did, but he's really got a great 3-point shot which defenders have to respect. But unlike Joyce, Robotham is a much more dangerous threat to put the ball on the floor & drive to the hoop - something Dru never did a lot of.

Jimmal Ball is one of the handful of most explosive players I've ever seen play (LeBron, Antonio Daniels & Bonzi Wells). I believe Jimmal was an Honorable Mention All-MAC as a true freshman. I was expecting Jimmal to be 1st-Team All-MAC for the next 3 seasons, but Jimmal never made First Team all-conference. After his first season through the conference, defenders learned to just take a step back off of Jimmal to take away the dribble-drive and make him shoot the ball & Jimmal's outside shot was always pretty inconsistent. Can't take a step back off of Noah or he'll light you up.

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