Matthew Mayer #24

11,181 Views | 68 Replies | Last: 2 yr ago by historian
TejasBexar
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That kid is only a Freshman and I was very impressed with him. He is going to be one heck of a player!!!!
Illinois Bear
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Stud in the making.
TejasBexar
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Illinois Bear said:

Stud in the making.
He absolutely is. I never paid much attention to him until I went to my first game yesterday and he impressed the hell out of me!!
longtimebear
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I know, I know.....but I remember a young Larry Bird that he reminds me of. Good ball handler, great court awareness, passes the ball with the best of them and can shoot the ball.

Can you imagine how the kid will be when the game slows down for him ?
Are we gonna be happy!!!
willyric
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saw him play 4 times in high school.

NOT ONCE did he have a game where he did what he's done past 3/4 games.

Driving and finding the open shooter. Penetrate and dish to the big man.
unreal turnaround for a 17 yr old. I agree it could be scary what this kid could look like his junior year.
EvilTroyAndAbed
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willyric said:

saw him play 4 times in high school.

NOT ONCE did he have a game where he did what he's done past 3/4 games.

Driving and finding the open shooter. Penetrate and dish to the big man.
unreal turnaround for a 17 yr old. I agree it could be scary what this kid could look like his junior year.
That means we have good coaches.
willyric
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no question, Evil.
BUCANDOIT82
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You can't coach what Mayer has, which is court vision and athleticism.
vanillabryce
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Butler and Mayer will be a special duo
BearFan33
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He reminds me a little of Taurean prince. In that he is quite athletic and plays a little out of control sometimes. Mayer > prince on ball handling and instinct as a freshman. Prince may be the better shooter. Of course prince improved every year he was at BU. If Mayer can do that his ceiling is very high.
Johnny Bear
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He's starting to play more under control and is making better decisions as he gains experience. Barring injury or something else out of left field, this kid should be really fun to watch over the next few seasons and I can see him having some future games like Mason just had where he "goes off" for 35-40 points.
boxster
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Mayer, Butler, Thamba may be the best freshman trio since Rogers, Jerrells and Dugat?

What he wants people to know about Baylor football: I want people to see that Baylor is the class of college football. Record GPAs, 26 different majors, guys challenging themselves to be the best they can be. Guys working in the community and guys working to be the best they can be in football. Want people to know Baylor is a great place as a University. -Coach Matt Rhule
contrario
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What has impressed me about Mayer since he started getting more playing time is his hustle. Yes, he gets a little out of control sometimes, but you can't coach a player to have confidence to hustle like that out there. With PJIII's talent, if he had been half has aggressive as Mayer is, he would have been amazing. I'm excited to see his growth.
GruntTuff
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He has a rare skill set. If his head is in the right place (and it looks like it is) he could be special.

He's no Luka, but some of his skills remind me a bit of Luka...he needs about 20 pounds of muscle and I bet that happens with Melton working him in the off season.

Handles and vision are hard to coach.
Johnny Bear
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contrario said:

What has impressed me about Mayer since he started getting more playing time is his hustle. Yes, he gets a little out of control sometimes, but you can't coach a player to have confidence to hustle like that out there. With PJIII's talent, if he had been half has aggressive as Mayer is, he would have been amazing. I'm excited to see his growth.
Good point on PJIII. He was so frustrating to watch much of the time as you could see the talent and athleticism, but his play often displayed a lack of passion/desire that resulted in him disappearing in way too many games and usually when he was needed the most.
willyric
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His muscle growth and development is already pretty legit.

He was noticeably smaller last spring. I was about 5 ft from him before regional quarterfinal and thought.." he has to redshirt with arms and legs like that".

But he doesn't look out of place at all on the court. Not even in the neighborhood of KD at texas.

ok in the neighborhood but all the way down the street. strictly talkin size here fellas.
don't come at me with "KD pff, willyric your smokin denver dope if you.. blah blah."

cmon somebody.
BaylorOkie
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Excellent point.

We know he will score some points. I love his passing. I've also watched him in the zone a little and I feel like he'll do a pretty good job on the wing with his length. Defense isn't natural for him, but I can tell a little that he's learning.
Ashley Hodge
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Staff
a legit 6-9

c'mon somebody!!!

inside joke between willyric and myself

Coach AD had some great insights on him and others in the program on the Sicem365 podcast that was released yesterday.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sicem365-podcast/id1174507192?mt=2
rudylaw
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Heard a story from one of the announcers that the team gave him a lot of good-natured ribbing about never seeing a shot he didn't like. Since then, he's been almost pass first and has dropped a bunch of dimes resulting in easy buckets. Kid has all the tools no question.
setshot
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Mayer has a precocious level of talent, and an abundance of self confidence, and that is a potent combination for a player as young as he is. It also means that immaturity is going to be a problem for awhile because that is a natural part of the equation. I believed after watching him in October that he had the potential to be an all-time Baylor great, but that was down the road a bit and dependent on his willingness to learn in order to grow into the player that is waiting for him to become.

My quickest comparison goes back earlier than most of the posters here, but it is Rick Barry, who as a Warrior fan I watched come and go, then come back again to lead the Warriors to a championship over forty years ago.
Barry, 6'8" tall and slender, led the NCAA in scoring, the NBA in scoring, and the ABA in scoring, the only man to accomplish that. He was one of the great passing forwards to ever play the game, an all-time great at the free throw line, and unstoppable offensively.

When I compare Mayer to Barry it is a compliment of the highest order, but whether he progresses as a player to merit that largely is up to him. Barry was one of the smartest players I have ever seen, supremely self confident, but temperamental and not very likeable. He had one of the greatest years any forward has ever had but was denied the MVP largely because he was so disliked...humility was neither in his vocabulary nor in his demeanor.

A singular moment in that October practice stood out to me and I still vividly recall it. Mayer was in a shooting drill and dribbled down the right side of the court, out away from the basket, whirled in the air and put up a shot that barely rimmed out, then walked away as though it was a normal move for him. It was an extraordinary exhibition of body control and skill, all in one highly creative move, and would have done credit to any of the greatest NBA players, and the fact that it was not a successful shot did nothing to diminish the impact of that moment on me, then or now. It both impressed and worried me. I wondered if he had a penchant for the spectacular play above the fundamentally sound one and at his stage of development that was not where he should be.

Creativity flourishes once the mastery of the craft has been accomplished, and builds upon fundamentally sound principles. Great pianists continue to practice their scales until they stop playing entirely, and great athletes must do the same. Shortcuts cannot be productive of the desired results. One learns when they know that they need to be taught, that there are those who can teach them, and when they acquire the confidence that they can learn. Clearly, young Mr. Mayer is in possession of the latter two elements in his time at Baylor, and we can only hope that the first element is in play long enough for this young man to achieve the goals that he so obviously envisions for himself.

RegentCoverup
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vanillabryce said:

Butler and Mayer will be a special duo
if those two cats can learn to play together they can dominate, no doubt.
RegentCoverup
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setshot said:


My quickest comparison goes back earlier than most of the posters here, but it is Rick Barry, who as a Warrior fan I watched come and go, then come back again to lead the Warriors to a championship over forty years ago.
Barry, 6'8" tall and slender, led the NCAA in scoring, the NBA in scoring, and the ABA in scoring, the only man to accomplish that. He was one of the great passing forwards to ever play the game, an all-time great at the free throw line, and unstoppable offensively.
And here's the thing, Barry used his length and ball movement skills to create shots that were:

1) high percentage
2) hard to defend.

So he'd work for a position on the floor just away from the basket and he'd end up elevating over and around defenders to take a shot that he just wasn't going to miss consistently.

That, right there is how you go from a few points a game to 20+ a night. He was almost every time taking his teams best shot down the floor. Mayer just needs to learn how to keep separation from his defender and move to good spots. It's very dificult to block his shot.


Space53
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The thing about Mayer is he's not scared to take the big shot, or any shot. But lately his passing has been great.
RegentCoverup
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Space53 said:

The thing about Mayer is he's not scared to take the big shot, or any shot. But lately his passing has been great.
that kinda passing is a dying thing in basketball.
willyric
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Ashley Hodge said:

a legit 6-9

c'mon somebody!!!

inside joke between willyric and myself

Coach AD had some great insights on him and others in the program on the Sicem365 podcast that was released yesterday.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sicem365-podcast/id1174507192?mt=2
he's lookin more like 6'9 today than he was in the spring.

ill give you that jive talk.
haha
DanaDane
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I'm looking forward to seeing his continued improvement over the next couple of years, particularly significant improvement in his shooting %. Watching Flo, Butler and him is gonna be really fun!
FormerFlash
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TellMeYouLoveMe said:

Space53 said:

The thing about Mayer is he's not scared to take the big shot, or any shot. But lately his passing has been great.
that kinda passing is a dying thing in basketball.
No, it isn't.
Sic Everyone.
JohnProctor
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Maybe this is just me and I am not bagging on the kid. I am thankful we have him.

But right now it makes me nervous when he has the ball on the perimeter early in the shot clock. He wants to be a small slashing guard but he just isn't (at least right now). He is just a freshman so that will work itself out I am sure (its already better). He would be better off getting the ball to Mason, Bandoo or Butler and then move for an open shot.

Outside of that he is a hustler and gives the other team fits on defense and on the boards. He reminds me of Christian Laetner - just a pain for the other team with a bit of an attitude that I like.
BaylorOkie
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I think what you are saying is very valid, and I certainly feel a little bit of nervousness myself, and I'm sure many others do. That's part of the process with a player like this. But I certainly have noticed a lot of improvement and maturing in his game as the season goes on. It certainly is encouraging that his teammates have been holding him accountable, and it shows.
bear2be2
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I said this at the beginning of the season and I still feel this way now: Matthew Mayer has the best and most complete offensive skill set of any Baylor player since Vinnie Johnson. He doesn't have as high a floor as some of Baylor's other top talents in recent years, but he has a highest ceiling of the Drew era IMO. If he reaches his full potential, he'll not only make an NBA roster, he'll be a star.

6-9 guys who move as fluidly as he does and can handle, pass and shoot the ball the way he can are in short supply. And while his insane self-confidence may frustrate people now, it will be a massive asset in the near future. This guy will be an assassin who knows he's an assassin -- and there will be nothing defenses can do to stop him from scoring.
JohnProctor
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bear2be2 said:

I said this at the beginning of the season and I still feel this way now: Matthew Mayer has the best and most complete offensive skill set of any Baylor player since Vinnie Johnson. He doesn't have as high a floor as some of Baylor's other top talents in recent years, but he has a highest ceiling of the Drew era IMO. If he reaches his full potential, he'll not only make an NBA roster, he'll be a star.

6-9 guys who move as fluidly as he does and can handle, pass and shoot the ball the way he can are in short supply. And while his insane self-confidence may frustrate people now, it will be a massive asset in the near future. This guy will be an assassin who knows he's an assassin -- and there will be nothing defenses can do to stop him from scoring.
.

Boy I was at the game tonight and the kid was a disaster. A clear liability tonight (it's just one game). I still like him but you might want to tap the brakes on highest ceiling of Drew Era talk. I'm not sure if he is not even in the Freshman top 10 of the Drew era and he is going to have to get a lot better before he sniffs the NBA.
CTbruin
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Disagree
contrario
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Does Mayer remind anyone of a young Taurean Prince? All the confidence in the world with some good athleticism, but just a little out of control at times?
toughbear
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Mayer's box score last night was impressive in spite of 3 turnovers : 10 points and 3 rebounds in 14 minutes
possible12
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So, Bird, Barry, Laettner, and Vinnie....wow
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