Tracking a Transfer: Dai Dai Ames

Welcome to Part 4 and the final installment of 2024s Tracking a Transfer. Part 1, 2, and 3, on Jalen Warley, TJ Power, and Elijah Saunders can be found in those links, respectively. This piece will focus on the 6’1″ PG from Kansas St., Sophomore Dai Dai Ames.

A former top 100 recruit out of high school, Ames spent last season starting just over half of the 31 games that he played for the Wildcats (he was suspended for one due to an on-court altercation). The buzz about Ames after last season was that he started the year out adjusting but came on stronger down the stretch of the season as he closed the season as the starter. But I saw a slightly different story as he also started games early in the season and saw significant minutes in others (averaged just over 20mpg on the year) and, while he absolutely improved in some areas from the beginning of the year to the end (primarily defensively), my perception was that it was more directly related to how he was utilized.

Ames shared the backcourt with one of Kansas State’s best players last year, the 5’11” Tylor Perry, who played over 36 mpg and averaged 15.3 ppg. The Wildcats seemed conflicted; wanting to put the ball in Perry’s hands as the primary initiator much of the time, but not having a fitting role for Ames when they did. Candidly, I thought Ames’s ability to positively impact the game took a big dive when he was playing off the ball; but was an asset (although inconsistent one as you’d expect from a Freshman) who helped get others (including Perry) involved when running the offense himself. This was on display most poignantly, in my opinion, still very late in the season, in KSU’s third to last game against Texas in the Big 12 Tournament. It was a tale of two halves, with basically the only difference being that in the first half, Kansas State used Perry as the primary initiator while playing Ames primarily off of the ball and in the second half they swapped the two; letting Ames run the offense most of the time with Perry playing off the ball. Ames had 0 points at the half, the team was clearly playing better when he was off the floor, and KSU trailed by 10. In the second half, KSU outscored the Longhorns by 14, Ames had 10 points and was the key difference in the change of fortunes.

It was a microcosm for the season.

Yes, there was development and maturation in his game over the year as a true Freshman; but what helped his game the most was when Kansas St. allowed him to play to his strengths as the PG rather than forcing him out of position to accommodate their star. It took them a long time to figure that out… with about five halves of basketball left in their season and you could argue they still weren’t consistent about implementing it to close. This is going to be the lesson we need to learn, in my opinion. Ames will probably be able to play alongside Christian Bliss. I don’t think he’ll be a good fit alongside Jalen Warley (more on this to come); but if he can play with the ball in his hands most of the time he’s in the game, he should be able to be an effective part of what we do. If we’re keeping him off of the ball primarily as a spot-up shooter, though, then I’ll be less enthusiastic about getting him chunk minutes.

Offensively, Ames (who is left-handed) was not a great shooter last season. He shot just under 33% from deep and 35.3% from the floor. Not bad to the point where people would just leave him alone, but he would often hesitate when he caught the ball outside of the arc and had space to shoot; which often allowed the recovering defender to quickly close the gap on his shot due to his smaller frame. Instead, he preferred to use his shot fake, or a screen, or a tight handle to get by his man and get into the lane, either finding a teammate (he’s got good vision and is a good passer on the interior), getting to a midrange jumper, or trying to finish at the rim. The problem was that he still wasn’t a very high percentage finisher when he got those opportunities, and his range of outcomes was highly variable from acrobatic and athletic finishes to often having his smaller size keep him from getting good looks (or getting blocked). He had good athleticism and verticality, but I would say he’s more sly, quick, and strong than explosive – he wasn’t just blowing by guys, he was duping guys. All of this meant that when he wasn’t driving the offense, he was often an afterthought; camping in the corner, not often getting involved soon enough in the play, or being a great end point for opportunities created by others. Despite his skills as a ball handler and good vision, he still wasn’t great about ball security; sometimes being overly careless with the ball or getting caught in tough positions trying to make a play. His 2.0 to 1.6 assist to turnover ratio was almost 1:1; and his 5.2 ppg was an accurate representation of his scoring role in the offense; although his 8 games scoring in double-digits were split 4 and 4 from when his role was bigger early in the season and then when it picked up again late. The main questions on offense for Ames will be how much he can improve as a decision maker and play maker after having a year under his belt, and whether he can become more efficient converting his opportunities. There is definitely talent here; but it needs seasoning and sharpening.

Defensively, I liked him on the ball and thought that was actually the area he most improved independent of usage over the season (in both ways but especially off the ball). He was always capable; but earlier in the year he had some mental lapses that would occasionally lead to break downs where his man got right by him. Later in the year, he was much more locked in and did a very good job deterring players on the drive and/or getting back into good positioning when taken off of his line from ball screens, etc. Off of the ball was much more of a struggle, not helped by how Kansas State played defense; often lending to him getting shuffled under the basket as the last line of defense where he rarely offered much resistance. He defended up in size pretty well when face guarding, stopping the dribble, or closing out; but he wasn’t much help in passing lanes and gave up a lot of clean angles/didn’t do much to obstruct vision. It was another reason that he and Perry were awkward compliments to each other; although on our team I imagine he’ll be the primary ball defender even when playing alongside another PG – which will be to his benefit. What he did provide on this end, though, was a lot of toughness – chippiness at times, even – where he’d often use his body to get into offensive players on the drive, disrupting their rhythm, could have success fronting guys in the post, wasn’t afraid to commit a hard foul to keep a shot from getting up, etc. He’s the kind of guy who isn’t going to be intimidated, is unapologetic about mixing it up to play winning basketball, and will bring a welcome element of toughness to the roster.

For this piece, I’ve highlighted four games ranging over the span of the season. An early season OT victory over Providence in which he didn’t start but did play a tough 36 minutes and was part of a double ejection at the end of the game, a midseason blowout loss @Houston in which we got to see him against one of the best teams in the country (but in which he only played 17 minutes), a midseason OT win vs. Kansas in which he played 23 minutes but struggled and the team went away from him to close the game, and a narrow victory over Texas in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament in which he had a terrible first half but was the biggest difference in K-State’s second half comeback. But, before we get into the details…

First A Word About Kansas State

There were no lack of good opponents to choose from when scouting Kansas State; which had some really impressive wins and some pretty bleak losses throughout the season. It was great exposure and practice for Ames who, when he wasn’t starting, was still very much in the rotation throughout the year. I thought their offense was pretty unimaginative and mostly alternated between your standard ball screen looks involving one man or two-man screening actions with a ball handler and two men in each corner or ran some motion DHO type actions which also typically resulted in ball screens on the perimeter. They did have some offensive fire power, though, from Tylor Perry’s 15.3ppg, to 6’3″ SG/SF Cam Carter’s 14.6ppg, to the 6’7″ Arthur Kaluma’s outside-in 14.4ppg, they had a trio who could put the ball in the net – but there was often a lot of pressure on Perry to make something happen which often led to one of those three (most often Perry) jacking up some kind of high-arcing desperation shot toward the end of the shot clock. When they were in these Perry-modes, Ames was often an after-thought on offense and didn’t add much value, catching and shooting at a clip lower than you’d want to see for that role and often passing up some looks that were there. I think that the vision was that between he and Perry they would have two players who could attack off of the bounce but, practically speaking, the ball would either stick with Perry or would come to Ames late in bad situations or without rhythm. In these times, Kansas State was often just better without him on the floor; and it was clear they thought so as well through most of the middle of the season. But when Ames took over the lion’s share of PG duties, Perry could rest more and become more efficient as a scorer/secondary initiator and Kansas State played their best offensive basketball. To be clear, though, he was able to be as effective as he was in no small part to the fact that teams had to respect KSU’s three primary scoring options (as well as their bigs around the hoop). It was a pretty solid supporting cast.

Defensively, they primarily played man-to-man, but were proactive about switching screens away from the ball or sometimes even when offensive players crossed each other. We’re not talking like FSU switch everything proactive, but they would pass off a lot which, especially early in the season, would lead to Ames getting cycled under the hoop as a help side defender where he was NOT well-suited. I thought that as the season progressed they did get more intentional about when they would switch and were more mindful about trying to keep defenders on certain matchups, which no doubt coincided with Ames’s improved defensive play; but there were still plenty of moments when this was not the case. K-State also mixed in a few wrinkles like using Ames to face guard certain players away from the ball with the intention of just keeping them out of the play entirely. But, in general, there wasn’t much unique or complex here, just some traditional team help man-to-man with some screen switching; attempting to err closer to positionless defense without having the length to do so.

Alright, with no further ado…

Offense

Ames primarily used the bounce to get into the lane with the goal of setting up teammates (normally off of the pick and roll), getting to his mid-range jumper, or taking the right opportunity to get all the way into the hoop. Rarely did he use it to shake his man to set up his outside shot and, in fact, he wasn’t a very enthusiastic three-point shooter in general, just attempting 2.3 of them per game compared to his 4.9 two-point attempts per contest. It’s not like he would never shoot it from deep or shot at an egregious clip from out there… but it wasn’t a strength, and he was reluctant to take the opportunities presented at times. Basically, you still wanted him to shoot when he was open; but you wouldn’t want to design an offense to put him in the position to regularly get those looks. It was an afterthought to his game, not the primary asset. So, let’s take a look at how this played out…

Shooting

This is one of the few times I saw him lose his man for the purpose of launching from deep, against Providence below. It’s a nice move that creates a lot of separation with his man retreating into the lane – but it misses pretty badly directly off of the front of the rim.

Here, below, against Texas, you see Perry (#2) absolutely shake his man, get into the lane, draw all of the defenders, and kick it out to Ames on the wing for the wide-open spot up… but he can’t take advantage of the catch and shoot opportunity.

Here, below, against Providence again, he ends up setting a pretty nice grazing screen after a DHO, freeing Perry for a midrange jumper… but notice how far his man is playing off of him as he sets that play up. That’s the 6’4″ Corey Floyd Jr. (#14) from Providence and he’s playing Ames (who is a couple of feet beyond the three-point arc) from just outside of the free throw line. His depth shows a solitary concern with limiting Ames’s drive without fearing the three-point shot, and it also allows him to get into position to cut off Perry’s drive. Despite the DHO working wonderfully from Ames to Perry, Perry has to take the jumper as opposed to getting more penetration into the lane because of this.

Here’s another look, below, at something that happened quite a bit. He starts in the corner and then cycles around until he’s the primary ball handler, takes his man off of a ball screen and kicks it out to Perry on the opposite wing. But his man, Max Abmas (#3), who is only 6’0″ and doesn’t offer the most intrusive contest, lingers in the lane to help on the Perry drive. Perry kicks out to Ames who has a clean look with space to shoot, but he hesitates and instead attempts to drive into the waiting Abmas. The drive doesn’t go anywhere with that much of a buffer, it sticks with Ames while the defense resets and he kicks the ball back out, and the play doesn’t get any momentum from there, resulting in a shot clock violation.

Those kinds of plays above were fairly common, not necessarily to the extent of forcing a shot clock violation, but with the ball getting stuck and a shot needing to be forced up. Ames prioritizing and feeling more comfortable with the drive and hesitating or passing up shots that were there definitely contributed.

And here he is, below, completely losing Dual on the step back move which works to perfection… but instead of taking the open shot, he hesitates and attempts to cross back over, carrying the ball in the process. I’m pretty sure Ames had this move planned out, intended to step back, get Dual to jump forward to contest the shot, and blow by him into the lane (he did this quite a bit). But when the first move to set up the step back worked SO well, he wasn’t prepared just to shoot the ball.

Now, I don’t mean to paint the picture that he was Jalen Warley (who only took 7 shots from deep last year), he would shoot and could certainly make it. Here is a good example in this clip below, where he still hesitates after drawing a switch on the return pass after a pick and roll. The post defender doesn’t close out on him, conceding the buffer after the switch. It takes him a moment to realize he’s open and decide to shoot, but he’s able to knock it down before his initial man closes out.

I still don’t love the over-thinking prior to shooting on that one – but I am impressed that, given that much time to consider, he’s able to knock it down. Often times when guys have too much time and overthink the outside shot, they’ll miss (which we saw on our team quite a bit last season).

He was more effective (which is nothing unique to him) when he was playing with confidence – but I saw this as when he’d wrapped his head around shooting as the play was developing, rather than asking himself to do this on the spot. For example, in this clip below against Houston he makes a good cross-court pass in transition, freeing up his teammate to shoot the corner three. As his teammates collect the offensive rebound and swing the ball, he sees the play developing from a mile away, is ready to spot up, and launches without hesitation this time on the catch. It’s a good-looking shot!

And here’s a look against Kansas, below, where he rotates up to the wing from the corner, drawing a slow switch from the Jayhawk defenders. He catches them sleeping a bit because he shoots it from pretty deep and he’s not thought of as someone who is hunting his shot like this – but you can tell he was planning/thinking about it the whole way.

Watching him throughout the season, I get a sense through clips like these (and the below as we’ll see later) that he plays more naturally and with flow when he’s playing off of the bounce and touching the paint. He gets into his jumper seemingly without thinking, and he makes quick decisions with the ball around the rim. Now, I still wouldn’t say he was overly efficient in those ways last season – but it does come naturally to him and you can tell he’s wired to attack in that way. It’s his game outside of the arc that is a more conscious one. If he has time to mentally prepare for a shot, he’s much more effective out there than if one is presented to him quickly within an offensive set or if he creates space himself. I don’t expect him to be a sniper from deep (but there is room for improvement) after one offseason, and he’s not ideal for your spacing as defenders, especially longer ones, are going to sag some; but it shouldn’t be anything extreme like Warley might draw or that Dunn drew last season. You won’t be able to just leave him alone and he should be able to punish cheating enough that it’s limited.

Driving to Dish

There are going to be three sections on Ames with the ball in his hands; driving to set up his teammates, driving to get to his jump shot, and driving to try to score around the bucket. Each will have a different focus, but in all of them you’ll see Ames’s handle, which is a strength, and his savvy at getting into the lane. He’s got some wiggle to his game and is comfortable and alert when surrounded by the big bodies on the inside. I’d say his ability to pick out a man and hit him with a well-timed pass in the lane is probably his greatest offensive strength.

Here’s a good first look against Providence, guarded by 6’5″ Freshman PG Garwey Dual (#3). Much more on this matchup throughout the piece, as this is the player who punched Ames at the end of this game, but he’s a long and athletic player who posed a significant size mismatch for Dai Dai in an early game of the season. But this is a pretty play that requires savvy and awareness you’d normally see from a more experienced player. Dual attempts to pressure his dribble far away from the hoop, but Ames keeps his handle while setting up and running Dual off of a ball screen. The screen creates good separation, which requires a switch from Providence’s Josh Oduro (#13), a 6’9″ forward who averaged almost a block and a half per game. Ames drives the ball into Oduro’s body and gets warded off down the baseline but, Nashesque, he keeps his dribble while going under the hoop. By this point Dual is recovering from the screen and working to get back into the play. After completing his drive to the opposite side of the lane, Ames realizes he’s got Dual rejoining the helping Oduro, pivots back toward the hoop, and finds his man wide-open under the hoop for the easy dunk.

Aside from the nice ball screen, that play was all Ames. He had the wherewithal to attack, keep his dribble throughout to force the recovery and keep the pressure on, and then made the vision/pass back to the basket look very easy. That’s heady and exciting PG play!

Here’s another nice play from the same game where he gets a ball screen and threads a really nice pocket pass through two defenders to his rolling teammate, the 6’11” Will McNair Jr. (#13). McNair stops his momentum upon catching the ball (I thought he should have kept going and finished with the left hand), pivots back to the middle and eventually gets stalled/passes it out; but the play was made beautifully on Ames’s part, getting the ball to him in a really nice position.

This next look, below, is a thing of beauty against Kansas. He cycles around to the point, gets a ball screen, and methodically works his way into the lane until he can slip an absolute squeaker of a pass through two men to McNair for the open dunk.

There’s so much going on there that requires such good knowledge of how to set up a play like this: pacing, court awareness…. Ames actually draws three defenders on this one, first using the ball screen to get his man behind him, forcing Hunter Dickinson (#1 on Kansas) to stay with him, but being strong enough to get over his cutoff angle so that he can still drive parallel to the lane. The pacing is so nice; he doesn’t rush with a full head of steam, he basically gallops a couple of times, making sure his man is always trailing the play, keeping Dickinson engaged, but now also K.J. Adams (#24) who has dropped off of his man from the corner to play help side has a tough decision to make between staying to protect the paint, helping to shut off the Ames drive, or recovering to his man in the corner. He ultimately decides to move in the general direction of Ames with his hands high while trying to get his momentum going to get to the corner, but Ames uses that window of opportunity to slip a pass between Dickinson and Adams (who had been previously cutting off the passing angle) to McNair who was rolling this whole time. That whole sequence was just really, really, nice court control and awareness.

Okay, I like this next look below against Texas because it shows composure and playing with strength/control. He gets some space around the three-point line and sells that a shot is coming before attempting a blowby dribble past his man… but he slips as he goes. Rather than falling or quickly passing the ball away, though, he maintains control of his dribble by staying low and increasing his bounce frequency, all the while using his off hand to (hook, really) keep his man beside him from getting back ahead. He keeps control of the ball through another defender helping down from his man on that strongside wing, and splits both players prior to running into another help defender in on the block. From there he regains control, pivots back toward the land and immediately picks out his man curling toward the hoop. The play only results in a foul, but the lead up to that was impressive by Ames to maintain composure, keep from turning the ball over, and to know where the best pass was virtually as soon as he collected himself.

Here’s another look, below, at a very nice pocket pass to a teammate off of a pick and roll that leads directly to a layup:

This next one, below, is very similar thematically to the initial baseline play I illustrated, but this time it’s more about remaining calm and still having that great court awareness. He draws the post defender on the pick and roll and takes him deep into the paint, but he’s not going to be able to get a shot up and doesn’t have clean line of sight to his teammate on the roll. Instead of panicking or passing the ball out right away, he reverse pivots twice so that he opens back up to the lane, and is able to just shovel a nice little pass to his teammate who draws the shooting foul.

If we’re seeing a theme on these, I believe it’s just really good feel of the game, control of the ball with his handle, but also of how to find cracks in the defense, not allowing himself to get sped up at the first obstacle, and then very good spatial awareness.

Let’s punctuate the more attention-grabbing plays in this section with this beautiful pass off of the pick and roll, holding the defense and then quickly transitioning to the left hand for a perfectly placed pass behind the 6’9″ Dylan Disu (#1) but above the trailing Abmas.

Chef’s kiss.

Before we get into some other elements of this, the other thing I liked about this part of his game that isn’t obvious is how, even when he stalled or didn’t make much headway on a drive, he often looked first for the interior pass that kept the pressure on the defense rather than simply kicking the ball back outside to reset the offense.

Here he drives into the lane, stalls out when faced with Hunter Dickinson from Kansas, and his man gets back into defensive position. He’s at a standstill in the center of the lane, and many players would just look to kick this back to the perimeter and reset the offense. Instead, he stays patient and throws a quick pass to McNair on the block, allowing him to get into a post move. The post move doesn’t work… and it’s a subtle thing; but this was very much Ames’s style. In football terms, his check downs were a few more yards farther downfield and I liked that mindset from him.

Now, the flip side of this is that despite the overall impressive headiness, Ames still made some pretty careless mistakes with the ball that seemed to normally stem from lapses in concentration. Here he is, below, against Providence, just misreading Perry’s defender’s ability to close on the ball:

Here he is getting himself stuck in the lane (as I mentioned above), but misreading his pass back out of trouble (and a little immaturity in showing the miscommunication with his body language prior to hustling back on defense before he sees Providence came up with it):

And here he is dribbling off of a ball screen against Houston but not properly assessing their length/athleticism on the return pass to the screener. In general, this one is just making up his mind on what he wanted to do without reading what the defense was actually doing (he had a man open under the hoop).

But this is an element of Ames’s game where I think CTB will really benefit him. Valuing the ball is essential for our PGs and, unlike some of these other areas (like his shot and others we’ll discuss) where I think it’s pretty unclear how much he can and will improve (certainly possible but not ideal if he doesn’t), this is an area I feel pretty confident he’ll tighten up with more experience and guidance. It’s hard to teach/learn the feel for the game he showed earlier in this section, and if he’s already got that then I expect the rest will come along with it.

Driving for The Midrange

Midrange pull-up jumpers are undeniably a big part of Dai Dai Ames’s offensive repertoire. He’s comfortable getting to that shot and he looks for it.

This first look, below, was probably the best example of a use for it that I like as efficient offense within his game. He takes a ball screen and drives, but the frontcourt defender plays drop coverage and sags off of him to deter the drive or pass. He dribbles the ball to the elbow and, in motion without the defense recovering, elevates and knocks down the jumper; punishing the sag.

This next look, below, deserves a bit of a garbage time caveat as it’s at the end of the Houston game and the score is out of hand/there’s no pressure to take any specific type of shot. It’s still a nice to have, though, as he gives that nice left-to-right cross-over and then pivots back away from the defender to hit the tough fadeaway over the contest.

You don’t want to live off of that kind of shot but it’s good to see the one-on-one capability at the end of a shot clock.

And this is similar, but in a much more competitive moment against Texas, below. It’s from that elbow area again but this time it’s a spin move into a much less extreme fadeaway at the elbow. Fluid and in rhythm off the bounce creating for himself (contrasted with his shots from deep).

But, at this point we all know that the contested midrange jumper is not a very efficient shot nor one that you’d like to make a feature of an offense. It’s one of the many complaints with Sides; that the offense generates too many midrange jumpers. Good for Ames individually if we run it, but a big reason he shot just 35.3% from the field. My concern isn’t with the shot situationally – it’s a great tool to have when you just need to make a play in isolation and other options haven’t yielded a good look. My concern is with either needing to settle for these looks because of challenges finishing on the interior against length, or with prioritizing these looks because he’s more comfortable shooting it.

For example, in this clip below against Providence, a ball screen on the perimeter works to perfection, actually putting Dual on the ground, and frees Ames wide open. Providence’s 6’11” Rafael Castro (#30) completely cheats off of the play; neglecting to even hedge, staying camped in the middle of the lane. When the screen takes place, Ames is well beyond the three-point line, running up to it, and Castro has one foot extended forward on the free throw line, with the rest of his body well-below; retreating. Now, Ames probably isn’t realistically going to get a running start and score at the rim against an almost 7-footer who has all of the space in the world to work with, but what you’d like to see him do here is slow up and either just shoot the three or represent the three, forcing Castro to close out, and THEN attempt to drive by him. Instead, Ames jets right to the elbow and pulls up for the missed jumper.

There are many ways to talk about “inefficiency” within a basketball game – but that was a great example. He likes the elbow jumper, but he’s not automatic from there and, because of his comfort-level/game, he passes up an opportunity for an extra point on his shot attempt for a similarly percentage shot. If he can integrate that three ball into his game more, teams wouldn’t be able to play him like this and, if they did, he would have options in this situation.

In these next two clips, below, against Houston, we see him taking similar shots fading away as both of the impressive makes above. The first on a pivot at the elbow and more extreme fade on his shot…

The second trying to elevate into a slight fade off of the pull up off of the drive…

This next one is a nice little lean and rip through on the ball on the pass back out to him from the paint. He gets Abmas leaning one direction and creates a lot of space going the other – but it feels like he lets the defender off of the hook by settling for the pull up on the opposite elbow here, and he actually lets Abmas get back into the play enough on the contest that you can see the slightest hitch in his jumper.

Watching these, we’re reminded of the difficulty level on some of these attempts (like the ones against Houston and how intrusive and impactful slightly better contests can be on the output. Just to reiterate, good to have in the bag, but not great to lean on as ideal or efficient team offense. But we’re also reminded, in the clip against Texas, that it’s still not the most reliable way to punish a defensive break down or capitalize on a quality move.

Because even when the shot makes sense strategically and is executed well, like with this (pretty sick) stop on a dime in the lane with the attempt at getting a 2-for-1 at the end of a half; he secures himself the easiest look of any of those in this section and it’s still not a gimme.

I’ll take that look from as close as it was with as much space as it was all day, don’t get me wrong, but it does highlight the general problematic nature of relying on the midrange shot as well as the fact that he didn’t necessarily have this skill polished.

Driving to Score

I’d consider Ames to be an athletic finisher capable of doing some majestic things around the rim, which we’ll see momentarily, but his size still keeps this from being a consistent area of strength. I like this level of attack and these looks much better than the midrange, though, as he could draw fouls off of it and was more likely to make something positive happen. Even when he was shut down or ran into a dead end, he could then pivot into his interior passing as we saw earlier. Ames is crafty around the rim and has good elevation when he gets a head of steam. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

This first one, below, seems like a really good place to start against Houston. It’s that misdirection where he fakes left and brings the ball between his legs moving forward to the right again, but this time the handle gets disrupted, caroming off of some legs on the way forward. Undeterred, he re-collects the ball without breaking his momentum, and then finishes with an acrobatic, hanging, reverse layup on the other side of the rim. Really impressive body control and ball control after a flashy move.

This next one, below, might be the most impressive offensive clip, for me, and made me audibly say “wow” on first watch. The way the rotation happens, the Red Sea does part for him to drive right down the center of the lane, but that’s the 7’2″ Hunter Dickinson (#2) coming over for rim protection and Ames is able to ward him away from the ball with his body and still finish the layup over him. That’s a foot and an inch difference in size that he took on directly and found away to convert over.

This next clip, below, against Texas is just a really smooth little up and under in traffic where he shows the shot on the drive to draw the shot blocker, hangs, brings the ball down, and goes back up with it for a clean finish.

It’s a nice little adjustment that shows comfort and feel around the rim along with the quick enough first step to get by his initial man.

Here he is, below, taking Abmas to the hoop after a DHO at the point. The stop on a dime move with that cross over is nice and he actually staggers Abmas, but my actual favorite part of this and why I showed it is how far extended he gets the ball in his left hand on the shot, keeping it out of the reach of the helping shot blocker and drawing the shooting foul in the process.

Wait, how is this not a clear-cut strength, you say? Well, for one, those are really high effort and often acrobatic maneuvers. Just as, if not more, often he’d have to alter his shot in traffic to avoid a contest would cause him to miss… or the shot blockers would get home – even bigger guards who he’d initially beaten but were able to get back into the play.

This one, below, is from the Providence game and, Ames gets a clear path into the lane after his man sets a ball screen on Dual. He has a very clear advantage, but has to slow down heading into the rim to assess the shot blocker, ends up taking a bit of a runner going toward the hoop, which the 6’5″ Dual tracks down from behind and swats.

Not having eyes on the shot blocker, Ames just over-estimated the amount of time he had before Dual could recover and get back into the play.

Here’s a different look from the same game, and this time he just bites off way more than he can chew; taking the ball into two defenders and, again, under-estimating Dual’s reach from behind. This shot is inhaled and not even close to being able to get up on the rim.

And here he is, against Texas below, with that nice misdirection dribble between his legs again to secure a clean path to the rim but, hey, it’s our guy Shedrick to send it the other way…

The main issue wasn’t just that he could get his shot blocked among the trees, it was that the concern of the block or the adjustments he’d need to make around the rim often caused misses that he either could have/should converted or acrobatic attempts that were tall asks.

Like here…

And here…

Or here…

I DO like the gumption to try to dunk this one, below, in traffic, though… even if it didn’t work out, he’s not lacking in confidence:

In general, I think this element to his game is always going to be a work in progress; but he has the ability to do some spectacular things. I would much rather he play aggressively with the opportunity to draw a foul, like below:

Than to settle for a difficult midrange jumper or to throw up something a little wild while trying to avoid contact, like here:

Drive and dish, take your opportunities to finish at the rim aggressively and live with the mistakes there, work on that three-point shot, and limit the midrange outside of hero-ball-type moments or other rare but necessary situations. There is a lot to like on the offensive side in the primary or back up PG position if he spends the offseason working hard on those things and I think that the completed offensive product of Dai Dai Ames is an impactful one.

Okay, a few miscellaneous things to discuss.

Transition

There wasn’t a ton of Dai Dai in transition and we typically run even less, but I generally like that element to his game. He’s able to break his man down off of the bounce, use his finishing with less worry about shot blockers, and he’s still good at drawing defenders and finding open guys.

Here’s a look against Texas where he gets a bounce out ahead of the pack with only Abmas back. He’s got the speed to not get caught and the body control to finish over/around Abmas before Shedrick can chase the play down.

Here’s one against Providence, below, that’s more of a secondary break because the defense is back, but not fully set, and he sticks a very nice cross-over to get into the lane. He can’t finish this one but does well to keep the ball extended away from the contest and draws the foul.

And this one’s nothing overly special, below against Kansas, but I liked how he was able to push the ball up the floor, collapse the defense into the lane to stop his drive, and then quickly locate/kick the pass out to Perry for the trailing triple.

At his heart, I do believe that he’s still a pass-first player, which will marry well with what we likely want him to do in helming the offense.

There were also the occasional times where he tried to do way too much in this area; like this ill-fated attempt to go 1-on-3 that resulted in one of the rare times he just lost his handle…

But that was more of a decision-making issue, not a physical one; and I’ve no doubt he’ll clean this up for us (or else he won’t be playing much under CTB).

Free Throws

This is an area of weakness that IS a little concerning regarding how much improvement he’s likely to show with his jumper. He shot just 69.8% as a guard this past season… but here he is with two free throws in OT against Providence, icing the game away by going 2-2 from the line.

I have a feeling we will be frustrated by his FTs this coming year… but I do think he’ll be a mentally tough guy that you won’t mind having up there to shoot big shots. I say this not just from these, but also generally in how he carries himself, especially in bigger moments. He’s the kind of guy who won’t shy away from having his number called.

Alright, safe to say that’s a pretty robust look at his offensive game last season and what he has to build off of for this coming. Let’s now take a look at his defensive game.

Defense

I’m probably going to sound like a broken record on this, especially considering my thoughts on his offensive game, but I quite like him as a primary on-ball defender and really don’t like him primarily off of the ball. Unlike the offensive side of the ball, though, I don’t imagine there will be many times on our roster where he’s in the game and not covering the opposing team’s PG so there’s less of a situational opportunity for this to be a pitfall. At Kansas State, the Wildcats had to balance Ames’s defense while also playing the even smaller Perry. On our squad this coming season, there will be no such issue. Potentially you might play someone else on a big PG and run Ames on a different player; but I expect those times will be rare and not normally necessary.

On Ball

Ames is a strong player, for his size especially, but also in general. This allows him to defend bigger and longer players at times on the perimeter, but he also uses his strength practically to subtly control his assignments, get back into plays, etc. The times (and there were a few) where he got beaten off of the dribble most commonly were attributed to lapses in concentration (just like many of his turnovers and his free throws; so we’re seeing a bit of a trend there).

Let’s go ahead and jump right in. Here’s a look at him, below, against Providence’s 6’4″ Corey Floyd Jr. (#14). Providence was a long team at the guard position and most matchups reflected that, but Ames has no trouble here. He mirrors Floyd’s movements with the initial pivot toward the baseline, prior to pulling back and then driving. Notice how Ames uses his left hand to maintain control/positioning, and also how well he absorbs the contact when Floyd backs into him. He ends up steering Floyd in a more extreme angle toward the baseline, and forcing a pass across the court that required a lucky save/scramble not to be a turnover.

Here he is against the 6’5″ Dual, who attempts to cross Ames over, but there’s no bite whatsoever and nowhere for Dual to go. He quickly thinks better of it and pulls the ball out before getting called for a moving screen in the process. When you watch this clip, notice how Ames doesn’t just cut off openings of potential driving lanes, he’s readjusting to get closer to Dual as he’s making his moves and using that right hand to probe the dribble/make it uncomfortable.

An even more extreme version of that concept, Ames gets called for a foul on the below which I’ll talk about in a second, but look at him harass Dual as he brings the ball up the floor. It’s quick feet and hands, constantly readjusting positioning and making Dual work with his handle; but it’s also strength and physicality, bumping him and not giving ground on body contact. The foul was a foul, and it wasn’t necessary, but see if you can catch it. It was a cheeky little arm grab where he quickly pins Dual’s left arm to his body and holds while he attempts to use that to pull toward him so that he can swipe at the dribble with his left hand.

That’s absolutely a foul… but it’s also one that’s not going to be caught or called quite often, and it accentuates Ames’s physicality on the perimeter and what an imposing presence he can be. The number of times Dual used his off hand on that drive to attempt to push Ames off or hold him back (and was largely unsuccessful) underscores the battle there. Tough defense like this will go a long way in CTB’s book. And, just to be clear, he didn’t need to grab there… but it sets the tone and if it’s being called, he can just stop.

This next one is a nice look at him against Houston guarding three different players and switching onto two different ball handlers. First he proactively switches men onto the 6’3″ Emmanuel Sharp (#21). Sharp attempts to see if he can back Ames down, but there’s not much give there, and instead attempts to run him off of a ball screen. Ames does a really nice job staying attached with his right arm and fighting over the screen; retaining positioning to react to Sharp’s next drive to the right. Ames slides and cuts off the driving angle and then stays put, switching onto the 6’5″ Damien Dunn (#11) who gets the ball from Sharp on the dribble exchange (with Sharp screening his man). Ames again shuts off the drive, stays very close on the spin move at the elbow, and gets a nice contest on the turnaround jumper; forcing the miss.

I really like that one because it’s a look at Ames as the primary ball defender throughout the entirety of a possession against multiple players. His ability to contest shots on longer players is nice; but I really like watching all of his subtle body adjustments throughout a defensive possession. There’s a nice give/take where he’s always adjusting his forward/backward motion to stay in the pocket of his man, keeping attached with his defensive hand and sliding well. It’s really nice body control and it’s what allows him to be physical with his cover/create pressure on the ball.

This next one was really cool against Houston’s Jamal Shead (#1, just drafted by the Raptors). Shead (who was one of if not the most impactful defenders in college basketball and averaged almost 12.9ppg last year, catches the ball with a full head of steam moving toward the hoop in transition. Ames is defending from a standstill and actually takes a bad initial move toward Shead as he picks him up, having to change his momentum entirely as Shead crosses-over and attempts to blow by him. But Ames’s reaction to the drive here might actually be the most impressive thing he put on tape in this piece. He reacts to stay with the drive, uses his left arm to subtly jam Shead a little and break his forward momentum, and then elevates up to alter the shot at the rim!

I checked the box score and he didn’t get credit for a block on that play; but he was certainly there and impacted it missing so badly. Either way, a talented player like Shead moving at him at that speed when he’s actually taken a bad first step – and being able to get back into the play as he did was incredibly impressive. He’s quite athletic in that way.

Okay, here’s one more, below, against Texas’s 6’5″ Ithiel Horton (#9). Texas sets a DHO screen for Horton on Ames, attempting to spring him toward the baseline. Ames gets caught on it and is fully trailing the play at first, with his left hand extended, barely touching Horton. He’s been effectively put at a disadvantage here… but watch how quickly he uses that off-hand to kind of slow Horton’s drive and then pop right back in front of him in great defensive position. Then he rides Horton as he pivots and dribbles back up to the free throw line, prior to resetting entirely and Texas settling for a poor outside shot.

Horton didn’t have a fully clear path to the hoop and was surely evaluating how quickly the K-Stat front court could rotate and close on the shot, but that time period between 29:41 and 29:43 in the clip where Ames goes from trailing Horton to sling-shotting into perfect defensive position was impressive.

But, despite that, there were definitely some moments of lapses. This next one, against Dual on Providence, below, is kind of the inverse of the previous look. Here he doesn’t take a big rub on the screen, but gets behind the play trying to navigate the hedge/recovery with his teammate. He just doesn’t ever pull himself even and seems to both miscalculate his angle and under-estimate Dual’s ability to get him on his hip. There’s a moment at about 57:47 where he hesitates like he thinks Dual is going to pull the ball back out, and that’s enough to get too far out of position. Dual’s size and speed keep Ames behind him from there.

Here’s a look in the same game, below, with the same matchup, in OT. It’s a very similar play where Dual just gets a slight advantage on the angle from the ball screen and uses his body to shield Ames off on the straight-line drive to the hoop from there.

In the Providence came I wrote in my notes, “this is happening far too often” as there were other plays as well that lead to assists or didn’t actually punish Kansas State, but where Ames just kind of lost contain and then wasn’t able to do much about it once he did. To his credit, he got much better about fighting to get back in plays after screens later in the season, as many of the clips above illustrated, and that’s a big reason that I say his defense is what actually improved the most over the year. But it still cropped up from time to time all season and sometimes it just seemed like he got caught off guard.

Like here, in this clip below, against Houston’s Mylik Wilson (#8). At 6’2″, Wilson only had an inch on Ames, but here he just puts him on his him, methodically drives him deeper and deeper into the lane, and elevates for the jump shot over him.

That wasn’t a blistering blowby or anything; it was just methodical with too little resistance to get as much depth as he did. It read more like Ames didn’t anticipate that he’d actually try to drive to score there without running some offense.

One last concern, which is a bigger deal off the ball but is still relevant on; Ames isn’t very imposing to pass around. He can normally stay in front of his man and keep them away from the hoop, sometimes he harasses his man and pressures the ball as we’ve seen, but he’s not blocking too many sight lines or making his cover have to struggle too much when looking for teammates.

Here’s one example against Kansas’s 6’2″ Dajuan Harris who gets a little advantage on the drive with Ames chasing on his hip. Ames is successful in running him to the baseline so he doesn’t have an angle to the hoop, but he’s behind the play and not bothering Harris at all on his pass to the corner for the three.

Now, this bucket isn’t Ames’s fault as the help side defender got too out of position on the drive and didn’t recover well on the pass; but there’s no burden being put on Harris to kind of coast around and pick out a teammate. Ames’s defense here isn’t bad but it’s not intrusive and is one element toward this play coming relatively easily for the Jayhawks.

Here’s one more look, this time against Providence, below. Initially, Ames does a very nice job harassing Dual when he has the ball but, as the play progresses, he gets hung on a screen on the wing and has to recover back to the man while his big is flat hedging into the lane. Here Ames kind of timidly slides back into the play, taking a flat angle and not obstructing the passing lane back to the outside shooter. By the time he gets back, his teammate has way too far to recover and Ames can’t do anything to make that pass back out difficult.

Again, these aren’t things you’d necessarily call bad defense (although maybe CTB would!). It’s kind of a confused communication/timid recovery after the ball screen, and it’s not being mindful of where the open man is with your path back/hands, and it’s not having a ton of length to begin with to bother that. But consider the clip from earlier when Ames turned the ball over against Houston off of their ball screen hedge. His man was recovering aggressively to him, in the middle of the passing lane, with his hands high, creating pressure, messing with sight lanes, and deflecting the ball. For Ames, this is a bit of a physical issue – he’s just not going to take up that much space (which is a bigger issue off of the ball) – but some of it is a conceptual team defense thing and how his role isn’t just to keep his man from scoring.

Off Ball

Now this is an area where Kansas State’s defensive scheme and roster did Ames no favors; at the beginning of the season especially. Candidly, his talents are not as impressive when removed from the ball because he doesn’t have the reach or size to deter passing lanes or secure the glass; and this is exacerbated when he’s near the hoop, as he often was early in the season. There were also some glimpses that came later in the year at ways in which he can be more effective. There were even some times that we’ll see where he was excellent, despite it all. But I would say this mostly was a weakness that combined the lack of size with awareness, and a wavering belief that he could make an impact down there. To be clear, for us, if he’s playing help defense, that’s probably going to mean the opposition doesn’t have the ball in the hands of their best initiator off the bounce – which could be a very good thing. So, both strategically with the Pack Line, and matchup-wise with our roster comp, I anticipate this being far less of an issue for Ames at UVa this year than it was at K-State.

But let’s first take a look at what I mean in the clip, below, against Providence. Ames is still guarding Dual here but he’s not acting as the PG on this play, rather stationed in the corner, leaving Ames to sag off of him low and in the paint if/when action materializes on the opposite side of the floor. Dual switches places with a teammate, heading up to the wing while the 6’7″ Bryce Hopkins (#23) moves to the corner. Kansas State proactively switches this action, with Ames staying in the corner and 6’9″ David N’Guessan (#1) staying home in the lane, now on Dual. Kansas State absolutely shouldn’t switch this action and leave Ames on either Hopkins or under the hoop – and they figured this out and changed strategy much later in the season, but not here. So, as Providence threatens a drive from te point, N’Guessan has to respond and get out on Dual on the perimeter, leaving Ames to have to rotate on the back end to try to get into the play as the pass from the pick and roll goes back to the 6’9″ Josh Oduro, open under the hoop. All Ames can do is give a token swipe at the ball and to stay back; basically a non-factor entirely as Oduro draws the shooting foul from the recovering defender.

Now, of course, if K-State hadn’t unnecessarily switched the Providence players crossing each other (not even screening), Ames would have been in position to recover to Dual and N’Guessan would have been a much better threat to help around the rim; but this isn’t a blog focused on offering constructive criticism for Kim English… it’s more just to illustrate that Ames has next to no impact as a help defender around the rim against bigs.

Here he is in a little more practical application against a Sides-like look. He defends a pin down screen onto the wing and his man passes the ball into the post and then cuts through the lane. As Bryce Hopkins (#23) on the Friars faces up and then takes his man to the rim, Ames happens to be in defensive position to help but instead of attacking the ball on the way up (or before), he kind of steps away from the play, gives a token reach in the direction of the player, and then gets washed under the hoop, out of bounds.

Ironically, his mere presence there might have played a role in causing Hopkins to miss the layup, but it was and open look that he should have made and Ames had an opportunity to make the play much harder. This is just more awareness and confidence that he can make a play in this way. I’d love to have seen him identify this drive sooner and launch at the dribble, trying to get a steal before Hopkins could even get into a shooting motion – or at least to hold his ground and jump vertically with his arms in the air to try to make things more difficult. He has, as we’ve seen, a nice vertical!

This next clip is, again, pretty poor strategy, but it’s also indicative of effort and being continuous, as CTB would say. Providence shows token pressure after a made basket, putting Ames on a big on the back end. Horrifyingly, they never make a concerted effort to switch back and just run their defense from there, with Ames eventually getting switched onto the 6’11” Rafael Castro (#30). Now, that’s a losing proposition in and of itself, but Ames really makes very little effort to keep Castro away from the hoop. He just kind of stands casually when the shot goes up at the other side of the rim, makes no attempt to box out, and when the shot gets blocked, it deflects right to Castro who draws a shooting foul (and should have made the layup). While you can’t really fault Ames for not being effective against someone this much bigger on the block, you can fault the effort; he just kind of gives up not thinking he’ll be able to do anything about this.

It’s similar in this clip, below, against Houston. It’s not the same kind of size mismatch, but Ames is covering the 6’4″ Ramon Walker Jr. who is hanging out on the weak side corner. Ames, because of his defensive assignment, is basically camping the possession under the hoop… but he both loses track of his man twice, once early in the possession, and once late, and he can’t really offer much resistance down there anyway. When the drive comes down the lane, he steps up to help stop it, but has zero awareness of his man cutting on the baseline and, when the pass goes to him, he can’t do anything to stop it other than to make a token swipe.

Yes, I do blame scheme and, if it were us, that would probably be someone more like McKneely taking that assignment and Ames would be on the ball – but sometimes the opposition does take the ball out of their PG’s hands and camp them away from the play. I’m sure we can all remember some times over the past few seasons where some of our smaller guards ended up playing help side under the hoop – so it’s not like this will never happen for Ames. He’ll need to dramatically improve his awareness but also his belief/effort that he can help on these plays. Awareness away from the ball is something we’ll revisit in just a little bit.

Here’s one more against Houston, below, that illustrates his general lack of impact off of the ball, especially around the rim. He’s again stationed under the hoop with his man in the weak side corner. This time he recognizes the drive and does step up, but he’s hesitant in doing so and looks unsure. He neither gets in position to take a charge nor attacks the dribble, more pulling up at a point where the driving Jamal Shead (#1) can easily see him, survey the floor, and flick an unbothered pass cross-court to Ames’s original man for the WIDE-open three.

This is one of those things that I often talk about where there are hidden leaks within the game. Looking at this play, it’s not entirely Ames’s fault. Shead beats his man off of the bounce so Ames has to help. He gets into fine enough position to keep Shead from getting an easy layup – bad luck that the pass gets to his man who makes the shot and that no one else rotates…. All of that is true. But Ames not really feeling comfortable stepping up from that spot, not really knowing what to do with himself defensively, and having very little impact on sight lines or reach to disrupt passing lanes into the opposite corner all make that play considerably easier on Jamal Shead. It’s certainly not bolstering your defense or making it better, even if it’s not an outright breakdown.

Okay, let’s return to the lack of awareness in other areas of the floor. Here’s a look against Texas where Ames is weak side for the majority of the play. He doesn’t switch when Texas players cross, but he turns his back to the play to stay with his man, heading to the corner. This makes him slow to get his head around or to get in position when Abmas from Texas drives the lane through to his side. He can’t help on the drive and Abmas gets a clean layup.

If he got a little lower and opened his body up to the play, he should be able to keep an eye on both his man and the ball and react accordingly. That momentary lapse in vision kept him from being able to help.

This was later in the game and was something different entirely that seems like it would have to have been by design. Ames is just completely face guarding Texas’s Tyrese Hunter (#4) in the corner with his back entirely to the play. Unlike the last play where Ames was primarily trying to keep an eye on both, here it’s clearly intentional that he’s playing him almost like a trailing CB in football – eyes on the man, not exactly sure where the ball is. Now, it’s almost comical in this one because the ball actually hits Ames squarely in the back and K-State can’t maintain possession because he’s literally completely not looking…

but there is something intriguing about using Ames as a ball-denial type shadow to try to take one specific guard out of a game. I’d say, this wasn’t executed that well, but there’s something there worth putting in the memory bank.

In fact – briefly (pause from areas of improvement) – here’s a look of him doing it much better at a different point of the game, but jumping the switch onto Abmas and keeping him out of the play from there. He’s still got his back to the play – but there’s definitely an idea here as it’s a solid idea to keep someone like Abmas out of an offensive possession if you can, which he does very well on this one:

Ok, back to one more look against Texas while focusing on the lack of awareness/room for improvement. In this clip, below, he initially gets switched onto a post player diving to the hoop after a ball screen. Unlike earlier in the season against Providence, though, you see Ames actively fighting to try to front Shedrick. Again, unlike earlier in the season, he identifies a switch away from the post and hands it back off to a teammate; but this still puts him on the challenging cover of the 6’8″ Dillon Mitchell (#23). And this is where it gets confusing because Mitchell slips a ball screen and dives, and Ames stays with him, but doesn’t really go to the same depth. Instead, he gets caught in no man’s land hanging around the Big 12 logo in the paint, back entirely to Mitchell. He’s guarding no one, practically speaking, and so when the drive comes into the lane he’s there, but Mitchell has also been able to effortlessly cut behind him for the easy alley oop.

It’s hard to know what to say about that one other than he just got lost.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Most of the issues that we saw above, with just a couple of exceptions, were Ames being asked to defend around the rim and really being too small to do so reliably/losing concentration and/or confidence when having to play prolonged defense down there. But here’s a look, below, against Providence where he does get switched onto a big after a pick and roll but does a good job fighting to front him and then passes him back off to a teammate. In so doing, he correctly identifies his responsibility to close out all the way at the opposite wing, and does so very well, forcing a miss.

He wasn’t good about it most of the time around bigger players around the rim; but I did really like Ames’s contests on jump shots. I thought he closed ground quickly and with that movement was able to use his leaping ability to be more intrusive than the shooter would often expect; like above.

Here’s a smaller scale example of that against Houston, below, where he’s helping strong side and helps to shut down Shead’s drive by showing from the wing. He gets pushed back/run off the play a little bit by his own teammate who was also on full retreat, but he’s able to change direction quickly and get a very good contest on his man who gets the kick out and three-point attempt.

Here’s another good contest, this time on Kansas’s (and new Indiana Pacer) 6’8″ Johnny Furphy (#10) in the corner. That’s quite the bothersome challenge on a guy 7 inches taller with a much higher release point.

Here he is, below, in the familiar position of needing to play off of a man, this time again off of Furphy in the corner. This time, though, he doesn’t get buried as far under the hoop and stays a little closer to his man. When the lob pass comes to the opposite block for Hunter Dickinson, Ames reacts to dive down, but quickly identifies the next pass and rotates up to obstruct K.J. Adams (#24) taking the pass in the high post and diving down the lane. Ames’s presence causes Adams to hesitate and travel in the process.

This is much more purposeful rotationally than we saw in earlier games. It’s quick to pick out the diving big man and, better, quicker to have the confidence to get to a spot that can positively impact the play.

And this last clip, against Kansas below, was one of the more impressive ones in this piece. He starts off by switching onto Hunter Dickinson (#1) on an inbound play. K-State is playing two of their guards on that side of the court with no bigs to start on Dickinson – no idea what they’re doing – but Ames does really well to front Dickinson (again, giving up over a foot against him) in the post to keep the ball from getting into him and then, after the ball whips into the opposite corner, he again picks out K.J. Adams diving from the high post, rotates, gets in front of him, and bothers the shot.

That’s phenomenal… and shows what he’s capable of when the motor is on and he’s alert down there. If you just watched the Kansas game, especially in contrast to the Providence game, you’d have thought he figured all of this out… but it wasn’t that linear for him and he did struggle more later in the season, like at times against Texas.

Rebounding

I thought Ames was a pretty bad rebounder, even for his position. He averaged 1.1 per game for the season. It’s like he just wasn’t used to it or didn’t view it with the same ownership as some other parts of the game.

Here’s an example as Providence takes a three in transition where he’s jogging back down the court and then slow to react – ultimately getting beaten to the long rebound by the shooter himself; which cost them an easy put back:

Here, below, against Houston, he just doesn’t make any effort to box out at all, once again losing track of his man entirely, giving up the board from his man crashing in from the corner and then fouling him:

And here’s one more look against Kansas, again, where he’s right there but doesn’t box out Furphy and give up the offensive board:

There are other elements to Dai Dai’s game that will make a more positive impact because of his position; like his outside shot or working to pick up our defense quickly, but I would say that his rebounding is the skill he’s actually worst at. He needs to become a little more invested, proactive, and to go put a body on a guy.

Toughness/Chippiness

It’s hard to remember when the last time we had a guy like Ames in this way. Not only will he not back down or be intimidated on the floor, we’ve had guys like that – but he’s also proactive about imposing his will on the opposition and doing what he can to get an edge/win the mental battle. Three quick looks at this with escalating intensity:

The first is against Texas where he gets caught in the post against Dylan Disu (#1) but fights through Disu’s attempt to seal him, actually drawing an offensive foul call on Disu (his third of the game, sending him to the bench). We see Ames giving up quite a bit of size here, but he basically fights through/grabs and pulls Disu’s arm out of the way so that he can get by; but picks up the call on Disu himself.

The next one comes against Houston where he gives a very hard foul on the 6’7″ Joseph Tugler (#25) who would have otherwise been running clean at the hoop. Ames (although he gets up high) doesn’t have much hope to block this shot and is clearly sending a message through a hard foul that buckets won’t come easily. He goes right into the huddle with his team afterward, too, doesn’t help Tugler up or apologize.

I don’t know if that will fly here or not, and I’m sure there are a range of opinions on a play like that and whether or not it should have been a flagrant (it wasn’t ruled as such) or is something that should be in the game… but it’s been a while that we’ve had a guy willing to send a message; which is certainly a different element to the team. It’s more of an “old school” mantra but it can absolutely be contagious within a team.

And then there’s this… the end of the game against Providence, which is unfortunately what Ames was likely most known for nationally last season. This clip shows it in real time at first and then again close up and in slow motion afterward. Pressing late with the game out of hand, Dual gives Ames a little push which Ames embellishes to try to sell a foul. What happens next can be debated, some say he’s pushing off, but it looks to me like Ames intentionally uses his hand to make contact with Dual’s face while cutting toward the ball… and the rest is history as Dual hauls off and sucker punches him as he’s walking back down the court. Teams intervene and both players are ejected and suspended for their next game.

While Dual was easily the most malicious offender here with the viciousness of his punch, I’m not willing to say that Ames wasn’t also at fault, nor that he wasn’t intentionally trying to get under Dual’s skin. The two had been going hard at each other all game, as many of the clips above show.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time opining about the severity or morality of fighting in games here. Of these three clips, I think you’re happy to have the first two, and you don’t want the third for a variety of reasons (sportsmanship, the penalty, the character and reputation of the program, etc.)… but I also think you’re happy to have the guy who is willing to do the third; he’s just matured and learned enough not to. The reformed guy who’s still got that deep within him? You’ll take some of that on your squad. Because, realistically, if that was something CTB was still worried about, knowing how much value he places on the character of the program, there’s no chance we sign Dai Dai. For a program that spent A LOT of time talking about mental toughness in post-game press conferences last year, especially on the road, a player like this helps toward that a great deal.

In Conclusion

Dai Dai Ames may have been the last transfer to put ink to paper, but I’ve no doubt he’s going to be one we’re thinking about a lot this season. He’s got so many traits that CTB values dearly in his guards: great ball handling, both mental and physical toughness, good on-ball defense the majority of the time, and good feel for the game. And many of the things he has room to improve on are things that CTB coaches so well: being continuous and mentally sharp on defense, valuing the ball and cleaning up sloppy play, prioritizing hitting the defensive glass from all positions.

I expect that we’re going to see a great deal of Dai Dai Ames next season. And, to be honest, I think he has a high ceiling. If he improves his consistency with his shot, especially his three-ball, he’s got the potential to be a fantastic pilot of our offense at all three levels. A pass first player who can get his own look from anywhere on the floor (in this theoretical world), who is a physically imposing and bothersome on ball defender. This may be an ideal world scenario but it’s not unrealistic in the range of possible outcomes for him; especially considering he could have three years here if he stays.

The concern, which you’ll probably see coming if you’ve been reading my stuff over the past few seasons or have read the Jalen Warley piece, is that there’s the very real likelihood and temptation that CTB will use Ames more than will be ideal, and also out of position. In the Warley piece I wrote about how much of an asset he can be at the PG position but is not a good fit off the ball. In this piece, I wrote about how Ames has the potential to be a really good asset at the PG position but really struggles off the ball. Well, if CTB views these as two of our better players, which there’s a good chance he will, there’s a good chance he’ll try to play both at the same time. That would once again be a small PG who struggles with his shot playing alongside a strong guard defender who also (REALLY) struggles with his shot; with both being much better on ball defenders than off (although Warley is much better off than Ames, he’s pretty fantastic on ball). It’s not a pairing well-suited for any of our three core offenses last year and, I’d hold, will not be a good pairing this year unless there are some drastic changes to offensive system and pace of play (which, if those things happen they’ll be the headliners anyway).

So, I’m nervous about Ames and the role he’ll play this year. If he and Warley end up with a pretty even split/time share at PG (maybe 23-17 Warley, or something like that depending on who is having more impact), then I’m optimistic and like what both bring to the table. I can envision a lot of offensive looks with one Center setting ball screens for either, flanked by three shooters. But if we’re insistent on playing both significant minutes together, we’re going to need the best-case scenario version of Ames’s offensive game right away… and I have a feeling that’s a journey that’s going to take longer than one offseason to complete. But, yes, in a vacuum I like what Ames brings as a prospect and think he has a lot of room to grow/am looking forward to seeing if and how quickly that happens.

Okay! That puts a final wrap on my Tracking a Transfer pieces for 2024! If you’ve read them or even some of them, or even parts of some of them, thank you for your support and engagement. Cuts From The Corner will be looking forward to a few more summer weeks before looking into some preview content including some speculative hopes for PT and rotational strategies in the coming year. Until then!