Sophomore year all over again

While my primary focus is always the college game, I'm admittedly excited to see what Kentavious Caldwell-Pope does in his sophomore campaign in the NBA.  Sounds like his coach is too:

And Van Gundy watched all of that and was duly impressed, with an asterisk.

“"He'’s playing with great confidence and he’s doing great things,” Van Gundy said. "“You can count on the guy bringing tremendous energy. He made shots."”

 That asterisk mentioned above?  His defense:

"“My only disappointment was his defense and he'’s been having it in practices, too. He'’s struggling to guard people off the dribble without fouling. We’'re going to have to get that figured out because he certainly can move his feet and he certainly plays hard enough. But we had a scrimmage the other day and Jodie (Meeks) shot 10 free throws against him. Like most players, he doesn'’t think any of them are fouls but they clearly are.”"

KCP, at times, looked like an elite defender in college, so I don't doubt that he'll get it figured out.

Aside from wanting our Dawgs to do well at the next level, why does it matter?  Don't underestimate the power of a top 10 pick playing like a top 10 pick.  If Caldwell-Pope starts turning heads in the next month or two, you better believe Fox will be turning on SportsCenter in front of recruits and saying, "I put him there, and I'll put you there too."

h/t nba.com