10 Super Duper Early St. John’s Season Takeaways
By Joe Nardone
JaKarr Sampson Angers Me
This one is more about me than it is about St. John’s, but there is an underlying issue here. What is that issue? Well, I am thrilled you asked.
As mentioned in previous articles, JarKarr Sampson can sometimes play basketball like he is having epileptic seizures.
Why has that made him my back-to-back-to-back-to-back-for-life “Infuriating Player to Watch” award winner? Because he has so much talent. No, let me rephrase that. He has so much ridiculous, tuned and other-worldly talent, but he doesn’t use it to his advantage.
Sampson struggles while dribbling, has an iffy-at-best jumper and his shot selection is about as smart as asking a professional streetwalker for life advice. Which makes his favorite offensive moves all that much more frustrating. Sampson thoroughly enjoys taking long-range jumpers (which is a combo of the bad shot selection and iffy jumper) and really enjoys going hard to the rim with his eyes staring at the ground as if it slept with a family member.
He can be doing this to help his draft stock or because he thinks he is better than he actually is, but either way it doesn’t do any good for the Red Storm.
Sampson has the right idea by attacking the basket (when he does), but he needs to do so in a much more controlled way. Not only would it be a more effective way for him to score buckets, but a way to get him to the charity stripe more often. Heading there five times a game is not horrible, although, it’s not great either.
There is really good news with Sampson, however. Whatever reasons he infuriates me are not due to him not trying. Sampson works hard on both ends of the floor and even makes attempts at grabbing rebounds (which he legitimately needs to get better at). Lavin just needs to reel him in and let him know he isn’t the reincarnation of any human who can shoot from beyond 15 feet.
Get in the post, JaKarr. Use that athleticism to make buckets. Shoot as many bombs are you want in practice, but for the love of everything Louie C. sweater related, please stop shooting jumpers.