From Gidal Kaiser of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, MSU has received its second verbal committment of the fall, as guard Stephan Holm has given his verbal. He chose MSU over UC-Riverside (and also had offers from UC-Davis and Idaho State). Gidal has some nice interviews at the link.
Holm is a 6'3'' guard out of Riverton, Utah. He is a good shooter who is unique in that he is a lefty. He may be best known for his buzzer beater to win a state playoff game in double OT (video below). According to Gidal, he averaged 14 points per game last year, and like the "college town atmosphere" of Bozeman.
It's interesting to note that his game is similar to the Bobcats' first recruit, Vance Wentz, in that they are both excellent shooters that will need to work on expanding their game. You can never have enough good shooters, and that appears to be Brad Huse's philosophy for next year's class.
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OK, I have take a little exception to something you posted here and on Twitter concerning Holms and Wentz. They are not the same player. Here is what they have in common. Both are white guard who come from non-urban maybe even slightly rural regions of the country. Here is how they differ. The most obvious is that Wentz is between 6-4 & 6-5 and plays the SG & SF spots. Holm’s is a 6-1ish (maybe 6-2) combo guard who can play the point but is considered more of a shooting guard. There games, while still developing are quite different.
ReplyDeleteWentz is and always has been a pure shooter from deep three point range. Wentz also has (at least at the high school level) a very strong post-up game. He is very comfortable taking the ball inside and posting up guards his size or smaller. Wentz is very solidly built and physically strong. The main knock on Wentz has been his mid-range game, being able to use a fake drive and pull up for that 12-14 foot shot.
The main knock on Holms coming into last year was his perimeter shooting where he was described as being “only an adequate shooter” out to three point range. Holms strength has always been to his ability to get to the rim. Holm’s is slight of build but much more athletic/explosive than Wentz but not as physical in the paint.
Now I have heard Holm’s has really improved his range since last year and Wentz has been developing a mid-range game over the summer so it will be interesting to see where they are both at come next fall.
The Bobcats were looking to replenish their guard corps after Stewart, Moon and Johnson-Blount graduate. They signed two guards who happen both to be white, but they are not the same player.
Thanks for the post mslacat, you know I always appreciate your insight, and you definitely know more about these guys and have seen more of them than I do.
ReplyDeleteI did say their games seemed to be very similar, and let me tell you why I thought so. For one, you say Holm is 6'1'' or 6'2'', I was going off Gidal's post which said 6'3'', where Wentz was described as 6'4''. A bit different than the 6'5'' to 6'1'' difference.
Holm's scouting report on ESPN said this - Holm is a left-handed shooting specialist but must develop his passing because teams can too easily take away his shot.
I will admit I have never watched him play (other than the highlight video) and was going off reports like that. Elsewhere in that report it said he had range to 22 feet as a freshman, a bit different than being described as an adequate shooter. The knock on Wentz I had heard was that he was a shooter, but there was question how complete his game was beyond that.
From those two things, I got the idea that they had very similar games - shooters who needed to develop a more complete game. Hopefully that makes a little more sense why I would have thought that based on what I read.