Jacob Hammond

[MandRHusker]

I was encouraged to see Jacob Hammond in the game last night. Especially during a crucial period. He held his own, looked comfortable for the most part, was not dynamic but also was not a liability. I have been hopeful he would progress enough to earn meaningful minutes.

My question, was last night a fluke driven by foul trouble or is young Mr Hammond making enough progress to earn more playing time?

[bball23]

I can almost guarantee you that if Hammond earns PT, he will play.  Gives Walt, Moses and Rivers a chance to catch their breath. Not only that, in case some of our guys do get into foul trouble again he will be ready.

 

Miles in the pre-game show said that Hammond has slowly come around and is looking better in practice.  Obviously strength is his biggest issue. 

[Timmy]

Foul trouble I'm afraid.

 

It was telling that both Walt and Moses picked up their 4th pretty early in the Second half and Miles decided to roll with those two guys the remainder of the way and take the risk.  

[Section_316]

I thought I remember Hammond playing again in the 2nd half?? Cause he was really close to blocking a shot? I know he played 4 minutes in the first half and had the nice pass to petteway for the dunk.

 

Either way, his PT was foul trouble related... However, I also hope he can see more minutes, especially in some of these non conference games that hopefully we can comfortably control!!

[HB]

I thought I remember Hammond playing again in the 2nd half?? Cause he was really close to blocking a shot? I know he played 4 minutes in the first half and had the nice pass to petteway for the dunk.

 

Either way, his PT was foul trouble related... However, I also hope he can see more minutes, especially in some of these non conference games that hopefully we can comfortably control!!

Pretty sure the play you are referring to was in the first half.  But I did like the play.  I remember thinking "wow, that guy plays long" on that near block.    Encouraging. 

[49r]

He was serviceable.  Which is an improvement.  He'll probably be legitimately ready to compete for playing time by next season.

[MandRHusker]

I can almost guarantee you that if Hammond earns PT, he will play.  Gives Walt, Moses and Rivers a chance to catch their breath. Not only that, in case some of our guys do get into foul trouble again he will be ready.

 

Miles in the pre-game show said that Hammond has slowly come around and is looking better in practice.  Obviously strength is his biggest issue. 

I missed the pregame so this is news to me. Happy to hear he is progressing!

[Silverbacked1]

Liked his vision at the top of the key and the pass was nice, almost late but good for the dunk.

[Norm Peterson]

He looks like a kid who will be able to make it and contribute at this level.  Definitely appears to be a better prospect than his predecessor, Sergej.  Seems clear it's his lack of body mass and strength that is impeding him at this point, which makes it a shame that numbers and depth didn't allow him to redshirt this year.

 

I predict that, at the end of Jake's senior year, we will be lamenting the fact we don't get to have him around for another year.

[TheKamdyMan]

He looks like a kid who will be able to make it and contribute at this level.  Definitely appears to be a better prospect than his predecessor, Sergej.  Seems clear it's his lack of body mass and strength that is impeding him at this point, which makes it a shame that numbers and depth didn't allow him to redshirt this year.

 

I predict that, at the end of Jake's senior year, we will be lamenting the fact we don't get to have him around for another year.

 

I will go on record now saying we wont.  I will also say that we missed the boat with Kingsley Okoroh.  I watched their game Sunday against Fresno and think he will be a better version of Moses at both ends of the floor by next year.

[FredsSlacks]

 

He looks like a kid who will be able to make it and contribute at this level.  Definitely appears to be a better prospect than his predecessor, Sergej.  Seems clear it's his lack of body mass and strength that is impeding him at this point, which makes it a shame that numbers and depth didn't allow him to redshirt this year.

 

I predict that, at the end of Jake's senior year, we will be lamenting the fact we don't get to have him around for another year.

 

I will go on record now saying we wont.  I will also say that we missed the boat with Kingsley Okoroh.  I watched their game Sunday against Fresno and think he will be a better version of Moses at both ends of the floor by next year.

 

He needs to get ALOT bigger. those FSU 7 footers made him look like a little kid.

[Norm Peterson]

 

He looks like a kid who will be able to make it and contribute at this level.  Definitely appears to be a better prospect than his predecessor, Sergej.  Seems clear it's his lack of body mass and strength that is impeding him at this point, which makes it a shame that numbers and depth didn't allow him to redshirt this year.

 

I predict that, at the end of Jake's senior year, we will be lamenting the fact we don't get to have him around for another year.

 

I will go on record now saying we wont.  I will also say that we missed the boat with Kingsley Okoroh.  I watched their game Sunday against Fresno and think he will be a better version of Moses at both ends of the floor by next year.

 

That might well be.  Okoroh isn't filling up the stat sheet, but he's putting more numbers there than Jacob.  Still, we didn't get Kingsley; we got Jacob.  And I'm saying Jacob will develop enough that, by the time he's a senior, we'll wish we'd still have another year of him. 

[49r]

I dunno, how do you compare Jacob as a freshman to Ubel as a freshman?  Hard to say because of lack of playing time for Jacob, but seems to me it would be a pretty fair comparison.

[TheKamdyMan]

That might well be.  Okoroh isn't filling up the stat sheet, but he's putting more numbers there than Jacob. 

 

 

 

Watching a couple Cal games now its similar to Moses and his state with NU.  They arent anything that stands out on paper but when hes out there the team has better defensive statistics.  Similar to the one they mentioned during the game last night where NU is a 1/2 point better per defensive possession when Moses is on the court than when he is not.  I would assume the same is true with Okoroh.  The two are very similar imo.  I completely understand we have Hammond but we all enjoy revisionist history.  Things can obviously change, we all saw the Petteway thread when we got him and what he is now, but I just don't see us truly regretting a redshirt year in 2018.

[Swan88]

I dunno, how do you compare Jacob as a freshman to Ubel as a freshman?  Hard to say because of lack of playing time for Jacob, but seems to me it would be a pretty fair comparison.

According to Huskers.com [hope I've got this right], Brandon Ubel averaged 15.8 minutes per game as a freshman (2009-10) with 4.4 points and 2 rebounds per game--but he also had for the season 3 assists to 41 turnovers. Other bigs on the team who played that year were Freshmen Jorge Brian Diaz, Christian Standhardinger and Quincy Hankins-Cole, along with Senior Ben Nelson. Not sure they had that year anyone with either the athleticism or maturity of what Hammond is facing today in Junior Walter Pitchford and Senior Moses Abraham.

[Norm Peterson]

I dunno, how do you compare Jacob as a freshman to Ubel as a freshman?  Hard to say because of lack of playing time for Jacob, but seems to me it would be a pretty fair comparison.

It is hard to say b/c we haven't seen nearly as much of Hammond as we did of Ubel.  Even though Ubel wasn't starting right off the bat as a freshman, we still got to see all kinds of situations with him in practice to get an idea of what he was good at and maybe what he wasn't so good at.

 

I am a believer that you don't need to see a ton from a guy to get a pretty good sense of where he stands.  Hammond, well, we need more than what we've seen to be real sure, but I feel reasonably good about what I have seen and think there are some comparisons that can be made.

 

First, Brandon came in a lot more stout than Jacob.  In that sense, I think he was ready to go earlier in his career.  In terms of beefiness and ability to hold his position in the post, I'd give a big advantage to Ubel.  In terms of agility, I think I'd give a little nod of the head to Hammond, actually.  He seems just a bit quicker and I think he might have overall better length than Ubel.

 

The area where I think Hammond most excels against Ubel is his mid-range shooting.  I think Brandon had a very slow wind-up and release and, over time, wasn't very accurate, either.  He was good as a senior driving to the basket against an opposing big and he was able to do some damage that way.  But his mid-range to distant shooting wasn't good.  I think Hammond appears to have a much better shot than Brandon.  Have to see more of him over time, but I'm encouraged by not looking at him at this point, frankly, and thinking he sucks.

[Norm Peterson]

 

I dunno, how do you compare Jacob as a freshman to Ubel as a freshman?  Hard to say because of lack of playing time for Jacob, but seems to me it would be a pretty fair comparison.

According to Huskers.com [hope I've got this right], Brandon Ubel averaged 15.8 minutes per game as a freshman (2009-10) with 4.4 points and 2 rebounds per game--but he also had for the season 3 assists to 41 turnovers. Other bigs on the team who played that year were Freshmen Jorge Brian Diaz, Christian Standhardinger and Quincy Hankins-Cole, along with Senior Ben Nelson. Not sure they had that year anyone with either the athleticism or maturity of what Hammond is facing today in Junior Walter Pitchford and Senior Moses Abraham.

 

Not to mention David Rivers.  Quincy sat in Doc's doghouse for the one season he was here.  Christian wasn't immediately eligible and had to sit out half a year.  Ben was a walk-on.  Brandon kind of played by default as a freshman.  But he was at least serviceable, which is something I would NOT have said about Sergej in either of the last two years.  If Hammond added the weight and muscle bulk that Brandon had when he arrived, I suspect he could give us the kind of minutes and productivity that we saw from Ubel.  But I think Hammond might have a higher ceiling.  Granted, that's just from the very small glimpse of what Hammond can do.  Need more data but with Miles playing short rotations, and no public practices, we might not get a lot of data.

[hhcmatt]

According to Huskers.com [hope I've got this right], Brandon Ubel averaged 15.8 minutes per game as a freshman (2009-10) with 4.4 points and 2 rebounds per game--but he also had for the season 3 assists to 41 turnovers. 

 

Just remembered he shot 52% from 3 pt range in a small sample size and then hit less than 25% the rest of his career. The last two years I'd cringe every time he wound up for his 1-2 bombs per game.

 

If you're looking at guys with similar height/weight since the end of the Aleks Maric era, we're talking Shang Ping, Jorge Brian Diaz, Walt, Ubes, and Kye. I think Ubel makes the most sense for comparison as Jake in terms of style of play. 

[Fullbacksympathy]

Hammond has a motor.  We shouldn't take that for granted.  He's also pretty skilled and coordinated.  He's had some good coaching.  His only flaw is strength, but he seems pretty tough.  I'd like to see him log more minutes.  He could be another hustle/spark guy of the Benny/Rivers mold if he settles in.  I think he'll be a pain for post defenders because of his ability to run.

 

Down the road, I think he's going to be the best post player we've had in a while.  If he has Ubel's work ethic, he'll end up a lot better than Ubel.  Ubel willed his way to being serviceably athletic (an awesome accomplishment).  Hammond has that gift already.  

[Huskerpapa]

 

I dunno, how do you compare Jacob as a freshman to Ubel as a freshman?  Hard to say because of lack of playing time for Jacob, but seems to me it would be a pretty fair comparison.

It is hard to say b/c we haven't seen nearly as much of Hammond as we did of Ubel.  Even though Ubel wasn't starting right off the bat as a freshman, we still got to see all kinds of situations with him in practice to get an idea of what he was good at and maybe what he wasn't so good at.

 

I am a believer that you don't need to see a ton from a guy to get a pretty good sense of where he stands.  Hammond, well, we need more than what we've seen to be real sure, but I feel reasonably good about what I have seen and think there are some comparisons that can be made.

 

First, Brandon came in a lot more stout than Jacob.  In that sense, I think he was ready to go earlier in his career.  In terms of beefiness and ability to hold his position in the post, I'd give a big advantage to Ubel.  In terms of agility, I think I'd give a little nod of the head to Hammond, actually.  He seems just a bit quicker and I think he might have overall better length than Ubel.

 

The area where I think Hammond most excels against Ubel is his mid-range shooting.  I think Brandon had a very slow wind-up and release and, over time, wasn't very accurate, either.  He was good as a senior driving to the basket against an opposing big and he was able to do some damage that way.  But his mid-range to distant shooting wasn't good.  I think Hammond appears to have a much better shot than Brandon.  Have to see more of him over time, but I'm encouraged by not looking at him at this point, frankly, and thinking he sucks.

 

 

Norm, I believe you are remembering Brandon after he had been on campus for a year and put on about 20 lbs of muscle.  That first year, we was still pretty lean. 

 

13 Ubel, Brandon F 6-10 220 1 Fr. Overland Park, Kan. (Blue Valley West)

 

24 Hammond, Jake F 6-10 230 1 Fr. Comanche, Okla. (Comanche)