My NCAA Sophomore Crush: Antonio Blakeney
By Andrew Ford
As a five-star high school recruit, Antonio Blakeney would have been the biggest prize of most signing classes. However, Blakeney was overshadowed in his first season at LSU by precocious superstar Ben Simmons.
The offense projected to be electric and provide an incredible one-two punch on the backs of Blakeney and Simmons, but instead the offense sputtered and proved to be vanilla for a large portion of the season.
Now that Simmons has left the college game behind him, Blakeney has an opportunity to step up and become the team’s offensive leader. He’s hyper-athletic with long strides, both of which enable him to excel in transition where he converted 84.2 percent of his shots at the rim.
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While Blakeney primarily starred on the break as a freshman, his half-court ability should not be discounted. The mechanics on his perimeter jumper are nice, but he needs to become more consistent. He shot a meager 33.5 percent from beyond the arc, which is not nearly good enough to make NBA teams believe in him as a viable shooting guard. In fairness to Blakeney, LSU’s offense created very few clean looks for shooters, but his improvement from deep this year is paramount for his NBA stock.
Even as a mediocre three-point shooter, defenders respect Blakeney’s shooting ability enough based on reputation that they already aggressively closeout with regularity, presenting Blakeney with ample opportunity to put the ball on the floor. An explosive first step coupled with the ability to finish above the rim make him incredibly dangerous once he beats his man off the bounce.
With a year of college experience under his belt, it’s time for Blakeney to break out and become the all-around scorer that he was in high school. He should have the ball in his hands considerably more with both Simmons and Tim Quarterman departed. While his counter moves on drives need development, he possesses enough weapons in his ball-handling arsenal to shake free of his defender and get off a solid jumper.
Blakeney’s explosiveness forces defenders to respect him by getting into his body and trying to play him as tight as possible, but Blakeney is often able to exploit that aggressiveness. He can lull his man to sleep before executing a killer crossover to create space, and he’s equally capable of taking two bounces before stopping on a dime and rising up for a shot while his defender is still recovering.
If Blakeney’s high school play is any indication, we haven’t seen his ability to create on full display since he began donning the purple and gold. He’s an underrated passer with decent court vision that was rarely on display last season. Additionally, he’s crafty enough to knock down all kinds of off-balance shots.
It’s impossible to say what Blakeney is capable of on the defensive end of the floor. He possesses the quickness and length necessary to be good defensively, but he’s too thin to regularly hold his own on that end in the NBA.
Assuming Blakeney shows up with added muscle next season, he could be just as explosive with the added benefit of being much more strong for his sophomore campaign. If Blakeney is able to put his complete package on display as he did in high school, he should quickly fly up draft boards.