Jeremy Lamb's Up and Down U-19 Tournament
The rising UConn sophomore's highs were as high as any and his lows were evenly proportional the past two weeks at the U-19 World Championships in Latvia. The US, led by Lamb, were the favorites, right up until the point where they were knocked around by Lithuania's squad two exhibition games in a row by a combined 62 points with Jeremy Lamb going 7-for-20 in these two. But Lamb bounced back, scoring a tournament-high 35 points against Lithuania in the second round.
Let's examine Lamb's stock:
Lamb is one of the top players at his position next season in college basketball and if he can build on his 2011 postseason play, Lamb could be a lottery pick in 2012. Lamb has good size at 6'5" and excellent length sporting a 7'1" wingspan, which aid in his biggest strengths in shooting off the dribble and lifting up over the defense and by getting in the passing lanes on defense. But Lamb is not without his flaws like he showed in Latvia; Lamb rarely distributes the ball- totaling 18 total assists in nine U-19 games, racking up more than half of those assists in two US blowouts. Lamb needs to add muscle and strength to his lanky frame and until then, he must rely on floaters in the lane and low-percentage shots- shooting just 42.1 percent in the Tournament. With added strength and aggressiveness, Lamb could take the ball stronger to the rim and can improve upon his 1.4 free throws per game as a freshman.
For the Tournament, Lamb averaged 16.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals per game. He had a tournament-high 35 points against Lithuania with five 3s, 25 points against Croatia, 21 in the loss to Russia and just four in the tournament finale against Australia on 2-of-14 shooting.
By President Corey Ruff - 7-10-11
