Olivier Hanlan quietly announced his return to BC. That's the best news of Jim Christian's short tenure. Who knows what sort of feedback Hanlan received from the NBA or what his true motivations are for returning, but I think this can be one of those cases where everyone's interests line up perfectly for one season.
Hanlan is a great talent. He's got an inside and outside game and can score at will. He's shown he's capable of taking over games -- much like he did in the ACC Tournament last year. In basketball -- especially at the college level -- one great player can carry a team. However, that didn't happen this past year. The schedule the offense, the chemistry, and the coaching all muted Hanlan's ability to take over. If Jim Christian is smart, he won't let that happen this year. He should just let Hanlan take go crazy every night and let the other guys fill in around him.
While letting one guy score at will is never a great way to build chemistry, I think it can work for one year. Olivier can have the type of season the NBA wants, BC can get to .500 and Christian can generate some excitement with fans and recruits.
It would have been nice to have Anderson around for the Olivier show, but what we probably need is a 5th year who is immediately available and can just bang and rebound. Hanlan's return also points to Rahon leaving. But if Hanlan is the ball handler next year there wasn't much room for Rahon to be the "true point."
For BC to be great again, we will need a lot more than Hanlan. But he does give hope for being good again and that's good enough for Year 1 under Christian.
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9 comments:
Hanlan's return is a big plus. The three most talented players on last years team were one Hanlan, two Clifford and three Heckman. Add in Owens, Hicks, Odio and Magarity and you have a solid nucleus. Hope Christian can recruit a power forward and a point guard to augment what is already there. Next year could be very interesting.
Glad to hear Hanlan will be back.
Hope he feels more comfortable with his role, as determined between him and coach J. Christian. No more passing up scoring opportunities would work for the BC W-L percentage.
I'm glad he's back particularly for his sake. I'm sure he found out he had no shot at the NBA. If he shows allot of improvement next year then maybe, but I doubt it then also. I disagree w/ building everything around him. The game is at it's best when everyone is involved. If you play that way it also benefits the individual as well. think Troy Bell.
I am really surprised.
Not surprised at all by this- he was a fringe NBA prospect at best. He needed to have another season like he did in his first season to have any chance at the 1st round. I suspect he will test the waters again next year but unless he has a great season will be back for year 4.
Also, maybe this had something to do with Rahon leaving- maybe he knew Hanlan was probably going to return
Ned
How about Jeremy Miller? He's still in the fold?
Yes but he's not coming till fall of 2015
So Donahue's big recruit he lauded as progress in NE wisely committed to the school instead of the coach.
He desperately needs two more years of seasoning if he wants any chance at the NBA. And even then his odds for a sustained NBA career are very low compared to the likelihood of playing in Europe, Israel or Turkey.
Claver10
Thanks, that's too bad. If O has any shot @ the NBA he needs to learn how to play pick and roll. He and Anderson never figured out how, and w/ no legit 4 next year he won't learn this season either. Maybe Christian can find somebody late, if not I agree w/ Nappy, O will be here as a senior.
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