My thought on Derrick Jasper

Lwcat
Wildcats Thunder Senior Board Moderator

Certainly, Jasper started the year out exciting UK fans with his play, but as the season progressed.....Jasper not only didn't improve, but appeared to regress in his performance. His ball handling was shaky at times and his offense became virtually non existent. My thought reflects my hope that Jasper was not instructed well by Tubby and was hindered by a far too conservative offense..... and hence didn't improve.....if fact, it appeared he lost confidence as the season progressed.

Jasper is athletic, has a good attitude and I feel he has a very good upside. However, he has a lot to work on in his game. I never saw Jasper play in high school, but surely he showed much more offense than he showed in his freshman year at UK. I'm certain that a top priority of Gillispie and his staff is to work with improving Jasper's shooting from the field and also his free throw shooting which was just barely above 50%. UK simply can't afford to play 4 on 5 next year......Jasper must be an offensive threat. Jasper must also improve his ball handling.

This next year under Gillispie will reveal a great deal about Jasper and other UK players as to their potential and how much we can expect these players to contribute in their career. If I'm correct in my vote that Jasper suffered over being poorly instructed and perhaps misused at times....then a year under Gillispie should show us a more confident significantly improved Jasper.

While it has become very obvious that Tubby totally dropped the ball in recruiting......my feeling is that Tubby left a lot to be desired in other important areas as well.......players not used correctly.....poor substitution patterns.......players forced to play in offensive sets that often stifled them offensively......players not improving......and on and on.

My guess is that all the UK players are very excited about getting this new dynamic coaching staff and feel they will have a far greater opportunity to unleash all their talents under a new offensive and defensive scheme.