10 Super Duper Early St. John’s Season Takeaways
By Joe Nardone
Orlando Sanchez is as Advertised
There is no ceiling for Orlando Sanchez. Maybe I should rephrase this one. Sanchez has already hit his ceiling as a player. Believe me, though, it’s not a bad thing.
Unlike Jordan, Sanchez is living up to his billing as being as versatile as a Swiss Army Knife. This is really good news for the Red Storm if they start playing better basketball as a team. That’s mostly because Sanchez could be the best “glue guy” (you know, that thing CBB media members talk about all the time) in the country. If you need more than that out of him, though….no.
It won’t work if Lavin needs Sanchez to be the third scoring threat or even a dynamic player on both ends of the floor. What Sanchez is — which is actually his greatest characteristic as a player — is that he is very slightly above average at everything. Not great in one area, but not bad in any either. He’s just really, slightly above average at every single thing a basketball player could do.
Not only does that mean Sanchez can play four positions (which opens up so many other options), but it frees up the ball on offense for guys like Harrison, Sampson, Jordan (if he ever gets there) and others to hurl it towards the hoop at will.
Still, don’t expect him to get an iota better than he currently is. Really, when you’re 76 when you enter college basketball (okay, he’s only 24) it’s unrealistic to expect that much more development.