When Warren High played in a boys basketball tournament last weekend in Champaign, two veteran viewers of the sport had vastly different opinions of how Blue Devil senior star Brandon Paul will fit in at the collegiate level (he's committed to the University of Illinois).
One thought he was the best player on the court on a day when prep stars were all over the court. The other thought he would never fit in at the next level.
The truth? Obviously, time will tell.
The good news for Brandon is that he has a true position -- "2" guard. The better news is he can shoot the rock from 3-point distance and he can also beat a defender on the dribble/drive to the bucket.
What remains to be seen is whether he can guard any "2" guards at the Big Ten level. His high school coach -- Chuck Ramsey -- is a defensive-minded coach and it will be interesting to see if Brandon becomes the basketball version of a "lock-down corner" in football. That is, the guy he's guarding -- a Ben Brust from Mundelein, for example,-- can't get open to get any shots off.
In other words, it won't be the points Brandon's scoring this winter that will be worth paying attention to. It will be the number of points scored by the guy he's guarding. Because at the Big Ten level, he's going to have to guard the best if he expects to play.
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