BURN THE HORSE
We
think freshman guard John Gillon will be successful at UALR.
It’s
not because we’ve got a crystal ball. It’s because he fits the profile.
He’s
an undersized point guard with a good three-point shot who has a high
basketball IQ and enough quickness to penetrate into the lane to score.
Sounds
a lot like Solomon Bozeman. Or maybe even D’Andre Williams. Both were first
team all-Sun Belt Conference players during their senior seasons. And while
there’s no way to know whether or not Gillon can achieve those accolades, his
game gives him a shot.
Gillon
is the third Trojan profiled in our Burn The Horse summer series on incoming
UALR players.
He’s
a 5-11 guard (we’ve also seen him listed anywhere from 5-8 to 6-0) from Houston
Strake Jesuit in Texas who helped his team to a 26-4 record last season. And he
might be best known for being the teammate of Duke signee Rasheed Sulaimon. But
if you watched Strake Jesuit closely last season, there were times when Gillon
took over those games.
For
what it’s worth, Gillon was named the District 19-5A offensive player of the
year.
ESPN
graded him a 75 and called him “an undersized point guard. He has range out to
23 feet and has a good release point to get his shot off over bigger defenders.
Gillon has a good basketball IQ and feel for the game.”
“John
is someone who is very difficult to keep in front of you as a defender. He’s
very quick and can get the ball from one end of the floor to the other
extremely fast,” UALR Coach Steve Shields said. “He’s a very versatile player
with his ability to get it to the paint and stretch it to the three-point line.
He is very explosive from that standpoint.”
UALR
also has another freshman point guard on campus in Josh Hagins. You’d think
there might be some animosity between the two. Instead, it appears the opposite
has happened. Both visited UALR the same weekend, committed to UALR the same
week and are roommates this summer.
Shields
said Gillon and Hagins are “two guys that we can play together and really
solidify the point for us in the future.”
Both
figure to plenty of opportunity to play. The only other point guard on campus
right now is redshirt freshman walk-on Casey Wilmath.
Upside:
Gillon is a streaky scorer who can light it up when he gets hot. We’ve seen a
lot of film on him and it looks like he plays really hard. That can only help
him transition to Division I.
Downside:
Gillon is another small guard, the type that UALR used to have a fleet of.
Outlook:
Gillon’s a different type of point guard than Josh Hagins. And that would seem
to work in his favor. He’s definitely going to get an extended look throughout
the fall. And his ability to score the ball might create some situations where
he and Hagins play together (a la D’Andre and Solomon in ’11).
