Haanif

Obviously one of the few downers about the summer tour was Haanif not being able to play. The result, of course, is that none of us (except maybe a select few) have had the opportunity to see him play since he arrived at MU.

After watching the other four frosh play on the trip, my view of this team's potential definitely increased; all four appeared to be more talented, more skilled, and more mature than I had anticipated.

Based on a few comments Wojo made about Haanif, I can not help wondering if he, too, might be more advanced in terms of his development than what we have generally seen from the overwhelming majority of freshmen in the past eight years, even those with solid reps coming in like Christopherson, Erik, Jamail, Vander, Juan, Todd, Steve, Jr., JJ, Sandy, among others. (I did not include Junior or Mbakwe as both were injured and hardly played until the end of the season.)

So, what if Haanif is as good - or even almost as good - as Traci.....or what if he is as good, or possibly even better, than Sacar? I mean it is certainly possible.

For that matter, what if it turns out that Haanif earns/deserves as many mpg, or even more mpg, than JJ....or even Sandy?

Granted, my thoughts about the other players are based on pre-season games against suspect competition. Basically everyone on the roster other than Luke and Duane still have to show they can produce against high-major opponents. Still, it's hard to ignore the impressions the players made in Italy and Switzerland, and I can't avoid pondering whether or not Haanif would have been equally impressive had he been able to play.

Kind of brings a smile to my face.

I think Haanif was slated to start at the PG spot on the trip. He was on a team with the other four starters on the trip during the open scrimmage (though that team got whooped by the reserves that day). Carter's play on that trip probably earned him the starting PG spot to start the season, but I expect Cheatham to be one of the first guys off the bench and play significant minutes.

A guy on scoop who seems to be an insider of sorts had some nice things to say about Cheatham in a thread he started yesterday.

He was Wojo's second priority behind Henry. I think there is a reason for that because Wojo loves his skill set. I would not be shocked to see him start or at least earn starter's minutes off the bench. I also think he is going to be part scorer and part glue guy who will make the team better. I can't wait to see what he can do.

I would love to see Haanif earn a spot in the starting line up along with Carter, Wilson, Henry, and Luke.

That is nothing against Sandy, or JJ for that matter. It's more a matter of if Haanif does, indeed, earn more mpg than Sandy or JJ, then we are, overall, even deeper and more talented we looked on the trip.

Besides, it would be kind of neat to start three frosh - a la the Amigos in '05-'06 (until WM's injury).

Hope everybody will have realistic expectations for Haanif and all the Freshmen. I attended a scrimmage prior to the team leaving for Italy and can tell you that Haanif was absolutely dominated by Andrew Rowsey. Now it was only one practice but AR gave him fits on defense and was able to get his shot off at will on offense. I guess I hope that AR is that good! :p