*** The Wolverine was at Grand Rapids (Mich.) Christian Tuesday night to watch four-star Michigan shooting guard signee Kobe Bufkin in his season-opener against Greenville (Mich.) High. Here are our observations and thoughts from his performance ...
*** Bufkin finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and six assists, so let's start with his offense. He is the go-to guy on his team, primarily playing the two and three. He also has the ability to bring the ball up, with a tight handles on full display, and did so quite a bit as well. Most of Bufkin's good looks came after he'd move well without the ball, get open and find the shot he likes. He moves well off the ball and was often on the receiving end of a reverse or skip pass, have some leverage and then create for himself or his teammates. He hit a few spot-up threes, as well, and has a pretty quick release.
*** The ball doesn't stick in Bufkin's hands. He was decisive and went places with a purpose each time he touched the rock. He likes the pull-up mid-range jumper, and hit four or five of those on the night. He is slippery once he gets downhill and can weave his way through defenders. And as evidenced by his six assists, he was sharing it quite well. He should've probably had 10-plus assists on the night with some of the wide open looks he got for teammates, but such is life in high school basketball — guys are going to miss shots.
*** Transition offense is another area in which Bufkin excelled. He runs his lane really well, uses his speed to his advantage and gets to the rim at ease. As mentioned earlier, he can bring the ball up, and he loves to do just that on the fast break. He doesn't just look to score while pushing it — he made some a couple nice dish-offs after forcing the defender to commit and focus on him. He also threw an alley-oop to a teammate who had lobbed him one earlier on, returning the favor.
*** Onto the defensive end of the floor: Bufkin was much better than expected in this aspect of the game. This was also where his leadership came in, though we saw it on offense as well, pointing and telling guys where to go, to get better spacing, etc. He was in great help-side position and always in the right spot. That can be credited, in part, to the high-level coaching staff that is in place at GR Christian, but Bufkin was certainly taking that upon himself to make sure he was where he was supposed to be. He has extremely good anticipation and active hands, and that allowed him to get his hands on 10-plus balls and notch around six steals, by our count. His length allowed him to be disruptive. He will be a very good fit with the way Michigan plays defense (think sophomore wing Franz Wagner with the way Bufkin was disrupting things, albeit at the high school level against a not so great team).
*** In talking to GR Christian head coach Eric Taylor and assistant coach Jimmy Karrip, a longtime well-respected figure within basketball circles in West Michigan, after the game, we gleaned that Bufkin has been working very, very hard on the defensive end, focusing on it quite a bit throughout the offseason. While growing up, like most kids, he used his size and athleticism to his advantage. He knows it won't be that way at Michigan, and that's why he's trying to take his game on that end of the floor to the next level. It was evident he took pride in it, both on the ball and off of it. That led to some of the aforementioned transition buckets, like this one:
*** The No. 1 improvement Bufkin will have to make is in the weight room. He's quite slender at 6-4, 175, and there were a few times when he got scored over by guys he really shouldn't have. They weren't one-on-one isolation situations (sometimes he was recovering from help-side, etc.) but he still could've bodied his guy more. He's wiry and not weak for his size, but the Big Ten is a different animal. Michigan has one of the best in the business in strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson, so there's really nothing to worry about here once he gets to Ann Arbor.
*** One last thing on his offense: Bufkin picks his spots. He probably forced one shot the entire night, and it was on a drive where he got a bit off balanced through traffic and got called for traveling. He is the Eagles' go-to guy — make no mistake about it — but a lot of his looks came from just the flow of the offense. We wouldn't call it residual action, but that's what it would translate to at the college level. We remember former Michigan head coach John Beilein going to Kam Chatman at times over the more dynamic Aubrey Dawkins, who had a better shot, because Chatman kept the ball moving and allowed it to get into the hands of Michigan's best players. This is a part of Bufkin's game that may get him on the floor early for the Wolverines, in that he's not going to stop the ball from moving or force shots. We've already seen freshman guard Zeb Jackson take a couple deep looks he shouldn't have, and it's probably cost him several meaningful minutes. ... Just something to keep an eye on going forward.
*** Bufkin finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and six assists, so let's start with his offense. He is the go-to guy on his team, primarily playing the two and three. He also has the ability to bring the ball up, with a tight handles on full display, and did so quite a bit as well. Most of Bufkin's good looks came after he'd move well without the ball, get open and find the shot he likes. He moves well off the ball and was often on the receiving end of a reverse or skip pass, have some leverage and then create for himself or his teammates. He hit a few spot-up threes, as well, and has a pretty quick release.
*** The ball doesn't stick in Bufkin's hands. He was decisive and went places with a purpose each time he touched the rock. He likes the pull-up mid-range jumper, and hit four or five of those on the night. He is slippery once he gets downhill and can weave his way through defenders. And as evidenced by his six assists, he was sharing it quite well. He should've probably had 10-plus assists on the night with some of the wide open looks he got for teammates, but such is life in high school basketball — guys are going to miss shots.
*** Transition offense is another area in which Bufkin excelled. He runs his lane really well, uses his speed to his advantage and gets to the rim at ease. As mentioned earlier, he can bring the ball up, and he loves to do just that on the fast break. He doesn't just look to score while pushing it — he made some a couple nice dish-offs after forcing the defender to commit and focus on him. He also threw an alley-oop to a teammate who had lobbed him one earlier on, returning the favor.
*** Onto the defensive end of the floor: Bufkin was much better than expected in this aspect of the game. This was also where his leadership came in, though we saw it on offense as well, pointing and telling guys where to go, to get better spacing, etc. He was in great help-side position and always in the right spot. That can be credited, in part, to the high-level coaching staff that is in place at GR Christian, but Bufkin was certainly taking that upon himself to make sure he was where he was supposed to be. He has extremely good anticipation and active hands, and that allowed him to get his hands on 10-plus balls and notch around six steals, by our count. His length allowed him to be disruptive. He will be a very good fit with the way Michigan plays defense (think sophomore wing Franz Wagner with the way Bufkin was disrupting things, albeit at the high school level against a not so great team).
*** In talking to GR Christian head coach Eric Taylor and assistant coach Jimmy Karrip, a longtime well-respected figure within basketball circles in West Michigan, after the game, we gleaned that Bufkin has been working very, very hard on the defensive end, focusing on it quite a bit throughout the offseason. While growing up, like most kids, he used his size and athleticism to his advantage. He knows it won't be that way at Michigan, and that's why he's trying to take his game on that end of the floor to the next level. It was evident he took pride in it, both on the ball and off of it. That led to some of the aforementioned transition buckets, like this one:
*** The No. 1 improvement Bufkin will have to make is in the weight room. He's quite slender at 6-4, 175, and there were a few times when he got scored over by guys he really shouldn't have. They weren't one-on-one isolation situations (sometimes he was recovering from help-side, etc.) but he still could've bodied his guy more. He's wiry and not weak for his size, but the Big Ten is a different animal. Michigan has one of the best in the business in strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson, so there's really nothing to worry about here once he gets to Ann Arbor.
*** One last thing on his offense: Bufkin picks his spots. He probably forced one shot the entire night, and it was on a drive where he got a bit off balanced through traffic and got called for traveling. He is the Eagles' go-to guy — make no mistake about it — but a lot of his looks came from just the flow of the offense. We wouldn't call it residual action, but that's what it would translate to at the college level. We remember former Michigan head coach John Beilein going to Kam Chatman at times over the more dynamic Aubrey Dawkins, who had a better shot, because Chatman kept the ball moving and allowed it to get into the hands of Michigan's best players. This is a part of Bufkin's game that may get him on the floor early for the Wolverines, in that he's not going to stop the ball from moving or force shots. We've already seen freshman guard Zeb Jackson take a couple deep looks he shouldn't have, and it's probably cost him several meaningful minutes. ... Just something to keep an eye on going forward.
