Welcome to Part 2 of 2025’s Tracking A Transfer series; this one featuring Jacari White, a SG from North Dakota State. Part 1 on Sam Lewis can be found following that link. We will have several more to come and I’ll continue trying to pump these out in, give or take, two-week intervals throughout the offseason. Some enjoyable Summer content, I hope!
White was an interesting add who came in during the Final Four weekend dead period when Odom was using that time period (which is probably worth featuring in its own piece) to make above-market offers to targeted players. Doing so not only utilized our financial resources, but also created some momentum of player flow toward the program. Jacari was added right after Sam Lewis and, like Sam, we weren’t on the radar as being interested in him across national transfer recruiting reporting until he signed out of the blue. In fact, White had listed a final five schools, and we weren’t one of them prior to his abrupt signing. Jacari was clearly a player Odom was intentional about bringing in to start off his tenure at UVa. Let’s take a look at why and how he fits into what Coach does.
White is a 6’3″, 180lb SG from Orlando who played the past three seasons for North Dakota State. He has always averaged more than half a game of playing time. This past season, though, he was a full time, 30.9 mpg (second on the team) starter (after averaging 29.3 the year prior). He scored 17.1 points per game while shooting almost 40% (39.8) from three, 45.2% from the floor, and 85.2% from the free throw line (he took 122). Those shooting splits are similar for this full career (improved FT shooting this past season), with him actually shooting almost 41% (40.6) from deep on 483 attempts. It’s going to be interesting, as White is replacing one of the best pure shooters CTB’s era ever put on the floor (and a fan favorite at that) – but he is absolutely no slouch of a shooter himself. More, he’s a much bigger threat with the ball in his hands; meaning that you can’t just over-play his shot, and he is better at generating his own shot from deep himself.
Jacari is not just a shooter, though, he is a well-rounded player. He’s got a nice handle, great footwork, and solid quickness – which feels even more explosive due to the other two strengths. He can run the floor and finish around the rim, pull up from deep, or get teammates involved. He’s got really nice touch and vision on his passes. Defensively, he’s tough, does a good job of staying in front and contesting shots, and puts in good effort on the glass. He’s a good athlete and a skilled baller who, at times, can absolutely take over a game when he’s got the hot hand.
There aren’t many glaring weaknesses to his game. Sometimes, but rarely, he loses concentration on defense. He’s occasionally overpowered physically, although not commonly. Sometimes he’s a little loose with the ball and/or tries to do too much. We’ll glimpse all of those things, too, but I would call most of those the occasional soft spots as opposed to any kind of glaring weakness or fatal flaw.
What remains to be seen, and certainly the biggest question about Jacari, is how he will play against this higher level of competition. Unlike Toledo with Sam Lewis, we don’t have a ton of examples of North Dakota State playing major conference opponents last year like the Houstons or the Purdues of the world. The Bison finished 4th in the Summit League. We get to look at them vs. their league champion, Omaha (who made the tournament); but their biggest out of conference opponent was @Butler. They won and White had a great game against some quality athleticism and size; but the Bulldogs weren’t great last year. Really, even though there are some quality players in the Summit, there just weren’t a ton of opportunities for White to test his mettle against the kind of athleticism he’s going to see this year so it’s a question worth raising.
Personally, I think he has too much skill, savvy, and effort to be a low impact guy for long; but I do think there’s a chance there will be an adjustment period and there may be some games where he’s less visible than you’d hope on offense and more visible than you’d hope on defense. I will say, though, as I am writing right now, I’m stuck with the undeniable feeling that I’m being overly conservative in my optimism due to not wanting to jump the gun since there aren’t many examples of him playing great competition. If I’m being truly candid, which I strive to be here, I just think he’s flatly going to be a good player for us this year. I think his game translates quite well and he’s going to be a pea in a pod in Odom’s systems. While I’m sure he will have some highs and lows – he should be able to get us a bucket (sometimes going off), play well off of other scoring options, and defend well enough most of the time; especially if Odom plays a higher-pressure version of his defense.
Alright, so why am I so enthusiastic about Jacari White? Let’s discuss. But…
First A Word About North Dakota St.
The Bison were not a bad team last year – at 135 overall in Kenpom (if you like that kind of thing) with the 56th best offense in the country but the 296th defense. That’s a pretty extreme between sides of the ball. They really filled it up – averaging 81.1 ppg, scoring over 90 points 7 times against Division I opponents last season and scoring over 100 points twice. This despite only playing at the 301st adjusted tempo in the country. They even set a school record with 20 three-pointers made in a game @Oral Roberts where they dropped 110 without overtime!
White was the second leading scorer and second-best player on the team behind the 6’10” Jacksen Moni (who averaged 20.6ppg from the PF position). Offensively, the Bison were not shy about leaning into their talents; often playing through Moni in the post in a 4-around-1 style of offense, and at other times running 5-Out offenses with heavy ball screen actions. But, almost as often, they would lean into the hot hand of Jacari White and allow him to carry the load. White was versatile within the offense; sometimes playing as a spot-up threat, sometimes playing away from the ball, running off of screens to generate a look from deep or with momentum headed toward the hoop, and sometimes being the primary initiator playing off of ball screens or in isolation. They did look to run when the opportunity was there but weren’t fanatical about it because they had two high-quality bucket getters who were also both unselfish.
Defensively, they were almost entirely a man-to-man unit and I do think they were better than their overall efficiency indicated; primarily because they would sometimes create big margins and then let their foot off of the gas. For example, in the game against Cal-State Bakersfield that we’ll see later, they were up 66-18 at the first TV timeout of the second half and were playing absolutely suffocating defense to that point… but they lightened up significantly from there and also leaned more heavily into their bench. The same thing was true in their victory over Butler – they held them to 23 points in the first half and were up 21 at that break… but lost that same intensity and actually gave up the lead at one point before sealing the deal. When you’re putting up some high scoring numbers sometimes that will naturally inflate the amount you’re conceding. All of that’s not to say the Bison were a suffocating defensive team – but I did see sound defensive principles and good effort most of the time. They mostly attempted to keep the ball in front of them, play strategically in passing lanes, and they didn’t double the post a ton unless it was to help a disadvantaged guard. White would alternate between playing off the ball and on; typically dependent on trying to have him impact the other team’s best offensive guard. I thought that most of the time he was sticky, tough, active on the glass, and alert. In fact, of all of North Dakota State’s players, he was the only one to receive a positive defensive BPR score from Evan Miya – which wasn’t overly high but does speak to the positive impact he had within a situation that was yielding lots of points and universally didn’t have anyone else rating out positively. We’ll talk about his weaker areas in that section, later, as well; but while I think his offensive strength is obvious and intuitive, I also think there’s good potential for him to elevate his impact on the defensive end especially if put into a different situation with a different supporting cast.
Okay – let’s jump into the…
Offense
Outside Shooting
I mentioned previously that White’s three-point shot could be rounded to 40% last season and 41% from his career. I just did a piece on Sam Lewis, noting his excellent catch and shoot ability – but that he wasn’t comfortable getting to his three-point shot off the bounce. White is ostensibly inheriting the position vacated by Isaac McKneely; a better deep ball shooter by 2% last year (albeit against more rigorous contests, probably). McKneely was great at the catch and shoot, but he was also great at shooting on the move, coming off of screens. He could pull up off of the dribble effectively from range (worked on it in the midrange but was never great at that); but wasn’t great at creating his own shot off of the bounce.
White is comfortable and formidable shooting it from out there in all of the ways. Much of that is because one of his greatest skills, in my opinion, and we’ll see where it helps him in other sections as well, is his balance and body control. He has an uncanny ability to get his shoulders squared to the hoop and to elevate with balance, really no matter what has transpired beforehand. It makes him consistent and comfortable with his shot no matter how he gets into it – and, honestly, makes you feel like he’s going to make it most of the time (rare are bad misses). He also, very clearly (check it out in these Cuts), doesn’t begin his shot until he’s reached the apex of his jump. He’s not starting his shot as he’s elevating (which many shooters do, but it can be tricky to effectively gauge their power depending on what force the put into their jump). He jumps, kind of calibrates himself, and then fires. So, the fact that he’s adept at this helps him with his consistency regardless of what lead him into the shot. It also throws some contests from the opposition out of rhythm and makes his shot harder to block because of the timing and the high release point.
Here’s a look at his pure stationary spot-up, which was not actually how he’d get most of his looks. Notice he kind of fakes a back door cut and gets his man a little disoriented prior to receiving the pass.
You get a good look at the form/technique there in that clip above. Once he stops rising is when he launches.
Here, below, we get some bonus footage of him navigating a pick and pop and getting a good pass over – but the long rebound creates an opportunity for him to spot up and get a clean look.
It’s worth noting here that the closeout coming from Butler is from the 6’7″ Jahmyl Telfort (who we’ll see covering White and being covered by him several times in this piece). Notice that he gets pretty close up into White’s body and has a considerable reach, but White’s elevation on the shot keeps him from having to be worried about getting it blocked. It allows him to confidently get the shot off over longer players.
Here he is, below, finding a nifty little relocation wrap-around after touching the paint. It’s often smart to fill the vacant space from where a drive originates. He does just that and is ready to fire away on the catch over another contest:
But he wasn’t just ready to fire away while stationary. He was also very effective at coming off of screens and quickly getting into his shot.
Here’s an easy pin down vs. Butler but still having to turn and fire while initially moving away from the hoop:
And, below, we also get a couple of looks at him curling off of screens and getting quickly into his shooting motion while moving laterally. Here:
And here:
You can really start to see the body control, along with the quick and high release coming into play here. Those are very hard looks to chase/contest and he drills them with great accuracy.
But the thing that really excites me about this element of his game is how effective he as at getting into his shot off of the bounce. He doesn’t just resort to it at the end of a shot clock; he actively seeks it out and looks to create it. Here’s a great example, below. He’s looking to attack the paint after a ball screen but sees his man has given too much depth; cheating deep to cut off the drive. That’s the 6’6″ Ty Pence from Illinois St. Pence is likely taking such a deep recovery angle because he’s conceding quickness to White; but White recognizes this, fakes the drive and hits the cross-over step back to easily shoot over the long contest.
It’s really nice that he’s got that in his game because he’s not settling for the midrange jumper here; he’s got the range and ability to back out and make sure he gets that extra point.
White will just pull up off of the bounce if given too much space, like if his man goes under a ball screen:
But it’s not always just him taking what the defense gives him like in those past two situations. He can also just straight-up hunt it. Check out this look, below, where he takes the kick out from the lane with the lengthy Telfort closing out on him again. This time he doesn’t think he has enough space, but he’s feeling it, so he gives a pump fake, dribbles up the sideline, and shoots an actual fadeaway three over the contest of a 6’7″ player with 21 seconds left on the shot clock…
… and makes it look so easy and smooth!
That last clip fires me up, to be honest. But he’s also enough of a threat that he can draw fouls out there from over-eager contests. Here, for example, that’s a very quick cross-over and step back and, even though he misses, you can tell it was a quality look for him, had a good chance of going in, and drew him three free throws anyway (at which he shot 85%).
That’s just a really clean stop on a dime off of the drive and good control to get into that shot. The distance he creates from his defender (6’4″ Jordan Davis, #5) is considerable, which creates panic and the foul.
Here’s the pinnacle look at how crazy it can be. This is North Dakota State’s final shot before the half against Butler. They design a clear-out two-man game for White and Moni (#4), easily their two best offensive players. Butler sniffs this out and is desperate to get the ball out of White’s hands because he was absolutely destroying them this game, so they send the 6’4″ Tajavis Miller (#21) to run a proactive double team at him with 6 seconds left in the shot clock. White smartly runs away from the double team, forcing Miller to chase, and still runs his original man, Landon Moore (#14) off of the Moni ball screen. He then keeps space and shoots another three while fading away from the hoop over the contest of Telfort once again and drills a complete dagger.
Flatly demoralizing for Butler as they saw it coming, tried to do something to stop it, and he still just individually beat the defensive wrinkle.
This is the kind of shooting that I don’t think is going to dry up at the ACC level. Maybe he’ll get held a little more. Teams will try to rough him up a bit… but he’s got the step back, the pull up, he’s got the quick release off of ball screens, and he’s comfortably taking fadeaways over 6’7″ guys trying their best to fly at him. He’s shot almost 41% on nearly 500 attempts at the DI collegiate level and many of them are difficult shots like these.
I’m pretty darn confident this element of Jacari White’s game is going to translate.
Off The Bounce (Self-Creation)
The other element of Jacari White’s offensive game that I really like is his ability to create for himself (he can for others too, as we’ll see). He’s got good quickness and ball handling in general, but it’s his body control and his excellent footwork that does a lot of work here and puts even more pressure on his defender than his raw ability does. His balance and ability to finish are quality, but he creates so much space and misdirection with his footwork that it makes him feel even quicker than he is.
Here’s the first of a few examples, below. This comes against Charlottesville’s own, and UVa’s former, Malachi Poindexter (#1). Watch how intentional White is with his footwork on the catch. He takes the DHO from Moni with Poindexter working to get over the screen. All of his momentum moving toward the bottom of the screen, White stops on a dime, establishes his left foot as his pivot, and rips the ball through, over the head of Poindexter while pivoting back to his left toward the direction from which he was running. Malachi, initially chasing, fully runs by White. If you pause at 4 seconds into the clip, you’ll see he has to back up/give depth as he attempts to recover into a better defensive position. White then rips the ball through toward his right again, creating a chasm of a driving lane, uses good quickness/speed to take advantage of it with his dribble, maintains control through body contact at 6 seconds into the clip, and finishes the layup while drawing the foul as well.
That is an absolute thing of beauty and most of the work that went into creating the opening came before he even put the ball on the deck because his footwork was so quick, smart, and smooth.
He’s got a nice cross-over that you saw a little in the earlier section but can see here as well. This time he uses that good footwork again to set up the switch on the ball screen and now, with a big on him, he pivots like he’s going to retreat, crosses twice to get into the lane, has a little bobble but has a really nice fadeaway jumper in the lane to exploit the access.
Here’s another look at that nice cross-over, below, working his way into the lane with a quick handle and getting to that midrange jumper:
But he also has a nice first step where he can get by his man and also has the explosion/confidence/aggressiveness to draw a foul when trying to finish in traffic:
Here’s one where he doesn’t even really need the faintest brush of a screen, which acts more like a slip, and you can also see a nice little runner/floater that he has in his game when faced with the prospect of a shot blocker:
This next clip, below, I think is an example of pretty good spatial awareness. He has the feel to know that his man isn’t close behind him after the screen away from the ball. It’s another example of nice footwork, as he gives a little hesitation with his back foot before the catch which appears as though he isn’t going to cut as hard as he does toward the rim. There’s very little wasted motion; he’s downhill immediately on the catch and attacking at almost full speed. Lastly, it’s an example of how quickly he takes advantage of the opening along with very comfortable finishing over the help defender (in no small part because he got on him so quickly – but also good elevation and keeping the ball extended on the finish).
And, one more, putting some of these together; here he uses that cross-over and first step a couple of times, doing a good job of maintaining his dribble, and setting up his man to get into that floater (I also like how quickly he fires toward the hoop after the shot in case he misses, he fully beats his defender to rebounding position after his contest).
There are just a lot of ways he can take it and he’s got the skill to do so. Can get it all the way into the lane, can hit you with a pull up or fadeaway midrange jumper, has a good floater/runner, and can get you thinking about all of those things and then step back and drain that three on you.
He’s even got a little…
Post Up Game
Not a huge section on this because it wasn’t a huge part of his game, but he was certainly comfortable and capable when he had the opportunity and was feeling the game flow. Here he is figuratively pounding the air out of the rock on poor Malachi, getting depth near the basket, and then catching Poindexter off guard with the timing of his layup attempt.
Frankly, just kind of had it how he wanted it there.
But this was really nifty, against Telfort again, though. White makes a nice read off of a denied DHO, curls off of Moni and has Telfort well-behind him running clean toward the hoop. By the time he’s able to collect the pass, though, Telfort recovers, behind him in good defensive position. Remember, Telfort runs 6’7″, 225lbs – so a full 4 inches taller and 45 pounds heavier than White. You would expect that White would either pass the ball back out here or back up and attempt to isolate off of the bounce with more space. Nope! Instead, you get this insane turnaround, fadeaway, baseline jumper out of the post after attempting to back Telfort down and having him swipe at the dribble a couple of times. White uses Telfort’s reaching to create the momentum to get a clean, but very difficult look.
I show those two clips not to suggest that Jacari White is going to be a huge post-up presence for us next year out of the guard position, but rather to illustrate all of the different weapons he has in his bag. To show his toughness and determination, as well as his comfort in being able to put the ball through the hoop in different ways. Despite his size, he holds up very well in some of these situations against stronger players.
Off The Bounce (Creation For Others)
I’m surprised Jacari White didn’t have a higher assist rate – but he didn’t. He averaged 2.7 per game against 2.0 turnovers per game. That’s not an amazing assist to turnover ratio – not even 1.5-1. Most of the time, the turnovers came from getting sped up and just trying to do a little too much as one of the two big heavy offensive lifters on the team. You could probably consider that the biggest weakness of his offensive game – but it wasn’t a skill issue, it was mostly a trying to do too much issue.
Here are a couple of good examples; the first of him just trying to be a little too aggressive with a pass off of a pick and roll.
Just a little too sped up there and good, active, hands from the Omaha defender.
And here’s a look at him again being just a little over-aggressive – trying to jam his drive into too tight of a window and then getting the kick-out pass deflected/stolen:
But, all-in-all, I thought he was a smart player, didn’t seem careless with the ball and was an unselfish player. He is a skilled passer with good touch, and sometimes the correct play doesn’t always show up in the box score.
For example, here’s a really nice pocket pass threading the needle out of the pick and roll. Moni doesn’t shoot here, but the help has to come as a result of the pressure this pass puts on the defense. Moni then makes the correct pass to the corner for the made three.
This is Moni’s assist, but the most challenging part of this play (and what got everything headed in the right direction) is White’s really nice pass.
Here’s another opportunity he wouldn’t get credit for but, firstly, check out how quickly he explodes through that back door cut at the beginning of the clip. The Illinois St. big sags and keeps a pass from coming, but that’s a hot cut! You then get to see the ball come back to him as he takes a DHO, comes back the other way off of the ball screen, forces the sag, and finds his big for the open look. It’s not converted, but you can see the quality that White is bringing to the offense – first forcing the defense to adjust to cover his cut and then creating a wide open shot for his teammate.
In a similar concept, below, you get another back door cut (less separation) into a DHO, this time from Moni. You can see White’s footwork come into play as he looks like he’s going to run off of the Moni screen, stops quickly, reverse pivots to get Poindexter scrambling, then crosses back over to utilize the Moni screen, get into the lane, draw the defense, and kick back out to the popping Moni.
The shot doesn’t go down but Moni is a 40% shooter from out there – this is a great look.
So, being effective at creating for others doesn’t always net that assist – but let’s take a few looks at times that it did. Here he is using that pick and roll action again, but this time getting deeper into the lane, drawing opposite side help, and picking out his teammate in the corner.
Here, below, he’s able to capitalize on CSU Bakersfield being overly worried about shutting him down by offering big help on the other side of the screen represented by Moni. Instead, Moni slips and White finds him with a slick and quick pass for the and-1.
It doesn’t always have to be the flashiest plays or slick passes, either, though. White is a savvy player who does the little things that make a big difference on the offensive end because he’s got a good feel of game flow. Check out this clip, below, where he sees his teammate get trapped in the short corner. He comes running down from the point all the way into the corner to provide a clean passing angle and good lines of visibility to his teammate. He stabilizes the ball, drives the lane, collapses the defense on him at the FT line, and dishes a quick one-handed push to the wing for his teammate’s three.
There’s nothing gaudy there at all, but White’s understanding of where his teammate needed help and then ability to quickly turn that into a good look is very valuable. It’s knowing the game.
As is this next one. In this look below, the 6’10” Moni gets a switch and is being covered by the 5’11”, 165 lb. Johnny Kinzinger (#11). White doesn’t do anything fancy here but he does recognize the mismatch, makes sure to take his time when the ball gets to him to throw an easy pass over the top to Moni, signals for the clear out, and then shifts up to pull his man away. This puts Dalton Banks (#3) in the unenviable position of either diving in to try to double team (and leaving White open on the arc), or staying within recovering distance. He chooses the latter and Moni gets two of the easiest points of his season.
Jacari is clearly a Shooting Guard in how he plays and he’s most effective looking for his own offense. That being said, I do think there’s some floor general in him. He has the handle for it, has skill as a passer, he’s got a good sense of the game, and he’s aware of how to lean on an advantage against a defense.
Will we ever see him playing PG this year if Dallin Hall and/or Chance Mallory are both on the bench? I’d imagine not a ton – but I do think it’s possible we’ll see it some and it could be effective. North Dakota State often turned to him as the facilitator or offensive spark with the ball in his hand, as we’ve just seen, and looked for him to push the ball up the floor as well.
Speaking of…
Transition Game
If you go back and look at these pieces from past seasons, this was a much more muted section. That’s both because it wasn’t a huge element to most of our guys games (Rohde and Harris both had a little going for them); and because we knew it wasn’t going to be a big point of emphasis in our system under CTB. Under Coach Odom, that’s all changed. Seeing how a player handles themselves in the open floor is one of the most important factors of an offensive scout.
With the guards, you’re looking for guys who will take a rebound and push (as Odom wants most of his non-Center players to be able to push it themselves). You’re looking for open floor speed, you’re looking for the ability to see the floor and pass well, to finish at the rim AND to pull up from deep when the opportunity creates itself. You’re also looking for secondary break elements; taking advantage of the defense when it’s back but not fully set. White has all of these elements to his game – so let’s take a gander.
This first one is my favorite look of the group both because it’s a very skilled pass, and because it fits so well into what we’ll likely try to do with many big men who run the floor well. When NDST’s Center grabs the board, White presents for the outlet and immediately starts to push with his eyes up the floor… and rewards Jeremiah Burke (who played less than 10 mins per game) for running the floor with an absolute laser of a chest pass from the far side of the logo all the way to the free throw line.
There’s plenty of zip on that pass but there’s also so much accuracy! He hits Burke right in stride despite the ball travelling almost half of the length of the floor in the air. Often when I’m thinking of Odom’s fast break offenses, you think of these long, probing outlet passes that put a ton of strain on the defense to get back. That play was kind of that on steroids.
Alright, here’s another look at what I think shows really good feel and pacing in the open floor again. White takes the quick outlet again and pushes, this time with a teammate running alongside of him. His hustle and run out creates numbers in a three-on-two, and I like how he starts to lull the man trying to pick him up by opening his body and slowing his pacing just a little. It allows his teammate running with him to fill the running lane right down the center of the floor without that defender being able to have a good angle on him. White then uses that delay to flip the pass to his teammate for a run at the hoop.
Now, his teammate kind of hop-skips on the catch and doesn’t have great vertical athleticism – and ends up getting swatted… but it doesn’t take away from the quality set up from Jacari. I think many players would have kept the ball longer there and forced the defender to pick up but also allowed the other two defenders more time to get back into the play/set up on defense. The way White ran this was really nice, even if the finish didn’t work out.
Okay, now let’s take a look at him doing it himself. This one’s nice because it’s the kind of opportunity you just get through hustle. Jacari grabs the weak side defensive board and just pushes it up the floor, pressuring the defense to matchup and settle in. There’s no one from Omaha behind him as he’s running – he’s just driving the action forcing them to get in position, etc. The full defense gets back; but having them on their heels causes them to defend Moni’s ball screen (which he doesn’t actually set) poorly. With the defenders becoming confused, one switching and the other staying home on Moni, White takes advantage of this space and gets into the lane, hitting that runner over the help defender.
Once again, this has Odom basketball written all over it and illustrates the value in pushing the ball. The Bison never had numbers but the pace at which they attacked created an opportunity that wouldn’t have otherwise been there (at least as easily).
A very similar thing, below, except this time he just draws the shooting foul rather than making the basket – still a positive outcome! First, that’s a pretty nice (and wild) vertical on the shot contest at the beginning of the play, but it’s the same style of run out, just at the top of the floor, still using that pick and roll with the back end of the hoop cleared out.
We’re getting to see his quickness and first step like we did in the creation section, but on the back of his urgency pushing after a miss.
Let’s examine two secondary break situations as well. Here, he gets the rebound and runs out ahead, but Omaha has good defensive balance and there are three defenders back with White really out front for the Bison. Seeing this, White gets to his spot on the wing and actually waits for his teammates to catch back up and for more defenders to get back into the play. This decision forces them to match up rather than three guys having their eyes on him before their mark gets into the action. White pounds the ball for a bit and then represents like he’s going to dribble toward the ball screen before rejecting it, hitting that quick cross-over, and exploding to the rim for the layup.
I’m not sure everyone would recognize how smart of a play this was and how much understanding it shows at how to manipulate a full team defense. If he drives early there, multiple players could collapse on him and force him to reset the offense or make a timid pass out while his teammates get established. By holding the play up and forcing the defense to pick up, he can use their distraction to ensure there isn’t help defense at the rim AND he can lull his own defender into thinking he’d stopped his break opportunity to reset the offense.
Heady stuff.
And, yes, we’ll also take a look at him getting a quality three-point shot in the secondary break. I don’t think it’s hard to see why Odom chose to prioritize landing White during the dead period when you think of his fit in the system. Odom loves to get a shot, especially a three, up within the first seven seconds of the shot clock if a quality look is there. This shot comes right at that seven second mark and it comes after an innocuous pin down screen that probably isn’t nearly effective if it doesn’t come so early in the possession. When defenders are still settling into position, it’s harder to know where the threat of the play is coming from and you’re just not quite as alert as to where you need to fight over a screen. Jacari not only capitalizes on the lapse, but he gets an opportunity at a four-point play as well.
The last of these I’ll show is kind of a non-entity, but you can learn a lot about a player from a play like this. There are under six minutes in the game left and the Bison are up almost 40 points. Jacari comes in from the corner to grab the rebound and wastes no motion breaking out again. You can see his speed, despite the fact that he’s potentially going one-on-three, there’s both flair AND purpose in that behind-the-back dribble near mid-court that’s so smooth. When he realizes he’s surrounded, though, he pulls the ball out, flips it to a teammate running at full speed, relocates for the pass back, and could have fired away a quality look there. Earlier in the game, he would have. Instead, he holds the ball to take some time off of the clock.
Now, in reality, it doesn’t matter if Jacari shoots or holds this ball here. his team is up 37 with 5:36 left to play. A missed shot here is no big deal either way. Still, he declines the opportunity at stat-stuffing to make the better play even if the outcome was never in doubt. This tells me that he’s disciplined and that he’s inclined to do the right thing regardless – and I’m happy to have a guy who displays such fluidity with his handle in the open floor AND game awareness/discipline.
Offensive Rebounding
The final thing I’ll touch on the offensive side of the ball is a brief discussion on his offensive rebounding. What I really liked about Jacari, especially in contrast with having just watched the much bigger and longer Sam Lewis rarely pressure the offensive glass, is that he was almost always efforting in that way. He wasn’t a big or long player at 6’3″, but he tried hard to get most rebounds. As a result, you’d get plus effort plays like this one below, where he absolutely loses Malachi trying to face-guard him on the rebound, soars for the board, and draws the non-shooting foul in the process.
I mean, that’s just all Jacari being pretty hard to box out for a guy his own size, but being determined to try to make a play on the ball. His team goes from having to get back on defense to picking up another foul, keeping possession, and he actually hit a three on that possession.
And then this is just really great effort against Butler, splitting two bigger defenders and hustling to get to the ball and retain possession:
I’m not sitting here typing to you that Jacari White is going to set the world on fire as an offensive rebounder at UVa – but I do think he’s going to give you a ton of effort in trying to do so and we’ll be pleasantly surprised by how often he is able to create a spark by retaining possession. These were two of the better examples, but I’m not kidding when I say he would fly at the ball and on most possessions he forced his man to really work to help secure the board.
Alright, so that’s all I really wanted to highlight from the offensive side of the ball. His strengths far outnumber his weaknesses on that end, and I’m expecting his full skillset/style of play to compliment the cast around him and coaching style incredibly well. When he’s on, it should be fireworks, but when he’s not (or if he does run into the occasional matchup struggle with a plus defender), I think he does the little things and has the intangibles to still make a positive impact for the team on that side of the ball.
Defense
Jacari White is a much more impactful offensive player than a defensive one. That being said, he was the best defensive player on his team, and there were elements of that side of his game that I really liked as well. Specifically, his body control that we discussed earlier on the offensive side helped him on the defensive side to recover and establish good positioning from awkward angles.
There are things we’ll point to as potential weaknesses – specifically, always keeping his concentration and the potential to get beaten by strength and length. All of that said, I’m still expecting him to be a solid defender at this level, though. Let’s start off with…
On Ball
I’ve called out his body control along with his footwork and quickness throughout this piece. I think this is a great look at it on the defensive side. He’s getting back on defense in transition and his man has a head of steam moving toward the hoop. That’s the 6’2″ Dalton Banks (#3) for the Red Birds and at about 1-2 seconds into the clip he makes the decision that he’s going to try to blow by Jacari by using his speed while making him have to change direction. I feel like I’m evaluating a DB here because White’s hips are fluid and he opens them quickly to face his man while very quickly being able to concede ground backpedaling. He gets depth enough to force Banks to break off his momentum and spin the other way, then he does a nice job of shadowing his pivots, initiating body contact to throw off Banks’s rhythm (and control the momentum) and then gets a good contest on the shot without fouling to force the miss. He even opens quickly after the shot and helps to fight for the rebound to make sure his team gets it.
It is SO easy to foul in these situations. White’s ability to gain depth on this play while moving backward from almost a standstill was like that of a hockey defenseman.
Notice, the Bison are using Jacari to guard the Illinois St. primary ball handler, as their best defender, below, and playing their own PG off of the ball. That’s not always how he was utilized, but he often picked up half court when he wasn’t in foul trouble and they needed stops on the primary ball handler. Here, he makes a couple of quick dives under ball screens to cut off the driving angles, and then does a really nice job of absorbing contact on the drive and holding tough without getting knocked off balance. This allows him to be quick with the contest on the fadeaway, forcing a miss.
I will say, Jacari settled for going under ball screens too much; and we’ll see where it could occasionally catch up with him later. He was good at quickly ducking under and anticipating driving angles; but hungry shooters could make him pay for that.
He didn’t always, though. I like this clip, below, because White starts off on Poindexter (#1) but then when Malachi flips the ball back to the PG Kinzinger (#11), NDST proactively switches, and sends Jacari out to pick up the ball – keeping him active in the play. He’s just too much for Kinzinger here, cutting off and shutting down his initial drive, slipping over a (weak, granted) screen attempt and quickly shutting down Kinzinger’s dribble on the other side as well.
Kinziger had 20 points in this game (White was primarily guarding Banks who had 8 on 3-10 shooting). Perhaps the Bison should have done this more often and proactively switched. Either way, being able to get into position to body up the dribble so early to discourage continuation twice in a single possession is nice.
But, yeah, he was really solid at stonewalling drives and forcing a reset, like here:
And here he did it twice after switching – forcing a turnover as his man attempted a quick pass away from his ball pressure.
In this one, below, his positioning isn’t great when his man catches the ball. He’s a little up the floor of where you’d want to be, leaving the right-handed drive too uncontested. As his man tries to exploit it, though, Jacari is quick enough to react and shut that driving angle down; and you can see how he uses his body and can be physical defensively, eventually cutting off that baseline drive and forcing the reset.
So, having established that he’s good at reacting and shutting down driving lanes; we’ll see here how that can lead to some very active possessions. In this clip below, he starts off establishing physicality out of the gate, then recovers to shut down a drive, and attempts to flash in a passing lane, before his man gives up the ball. At about the 22 second mark in the clip, White gets a little out of position peeking down on a man with the ball in the lane as it kicks back out to his man. Jacari slides over to close out with his body open, conceding the left-handed drive. Despite this, he recovers such that he can absorb body contact on the drive yet again and, even though he’s thrown off balance, it’s crazy how quickly he catches himself, gets directly in front of his man, and goes straight up; deflecting the ball out of bounds on a hapless pass attempt at the end (with only two seconds on the shot clock remaining).
I know I’m a broken record re: body control – but I’m really struggling to think of a recent comp with so much… we’ll call it malleability? Yes, on offense it’s his ability to contort on the drive or to get square to the basket in wild circumstances… but on defense it’s his ability to somehow course correct into good defensive position from poor angles, or despite getting physically dislodged at times like in that clip above.
One more look like this, this time against Omaha. He switches onto 6’4″ Lance Waddles (#7). At first, you see him aggressively close out on the catch, doing a nice job of discouraging any shot attempt, but putting himself in a bad position by over-extending his right arm and having to flip his hips to open a left-handed driving lane as he tries to recover. Waddles attempts to take advantage, but White is quick and clingy and fights his way back into position to shut the drive down. Waddles makes to pull the ball back out, but attempts to fake into a quick cross-over to drive at the hoop… but White is quick to react again and does a nice job of leaning on Waddles with that left arm bar low, and with the right hand extended up to contest any potential shot hijinks.
Waddles really tried something there and you can almost see a slightly demoralized body language as he decides it’s better to pass the ball back out.
There’s a lot of this in his tape – White being able to course correct for slight defensive mistakes at times (sometimes too much so and fouling) – but being excellent in recovery and, in general, being disruptive as a quick-footed and physical defender. I’ll say here, that the little mistakes are more likely to be punished at a higher rate at this level – so that element (along with what I discuss later against CS Bakersfield’s Jemel Jones) could be a point of concern.
Speaking of physicality, he had no issues sticking his nose in and drawing a charge in transition, either. Even though he has a slighter frame – he was a contact-driven player!
Now, I do want to highlight a specific matchup that I thought was interesting as it showed White’s capability as a defender, especially on a skilled and bigger player, but also showcased his biggest potential vulnerability. It came against Cal State Bakersfield’s 6’4″ Jemel Jones. Now Jones isn’t some world beater. He was listed 295 in Evan Miya’s portal rankings and ended up transferring to New Mexico State. But he did average 19 points per game (rounded up by a tenth) which was good for 45th in the country, went for 45 points in one game against Cal State Northridge, used his frame and length well, and was a tough cover. It was probably one of the best mixes of individual offensive talent + team usage share that Jacari had the opportunity to cover.
All-in-all, I thought White did a good job – especially early in the game before the NDST lead got out of control (and many of Jones’s 28 points came with White off of the floor once the lead ballooned – but not all). Here’s a look at the matchup – and you see Jacari doing his thing, shutting down the drive, absorbing contact, and offering a quality straight-up contest at the end, forcing an awkward fadeaway shot that misses.
And here’s a look at him holding down the fort on the secondary break. He actually gets turned completely around on Jones’s move, but recovers from that quickly, shuts off the position, and gives a good, invasive contest on the jumper before securing the board:
But, once the game started to get out of hand on the scoreboard, and Jones gave himself the green light to be more aggressive, you started to see where White can be vulnerable.
Here’s another look – and this is really good defense by Jacari, it’s just better offense by Jones. But you also see how his length and size along with his confident shot give him a little room to operate. He ends up having to take a difficult fadeaway but is able to make it because of the depth he created and the space he achieved on the fall back where White couldn’t get into any realistic position to bother the shot.
Here’s another – and, don’t get me wrong, these are difficult shots Jones is making. On this one, Jacari gets caught on the ball screen but gets away with holding and scrapping to work his way back into the play. He does a nice job of being intrusive as he recovers, and then jumping himself back into defensive position in front of Jones. The problem is that those motions that he normally uses so effectively to put himself into good defensive positioning keep him on his back foot and unable to deliver much of a contest on Jones’s fadeaway.
Again, this is good defense and a difficult shot; but you’re starting to see how when the talent-level and size are both present (unsurprisingly), it can be harder for White to be disruptive.
One last look where you really can’t fault White at all – he’s playing really good defense and staying attached to Jones’s hip – but good offense beats good defense especially when you’re facing a little bit of a size disparity.
So, you’re probably looking at those past three clips and thinking, “those aren’t really White’s fault,” and I agree. It’s good shot-making. I bring it up as a potential vulnerability not to say that it’s a specific weakness, but just to highlight that, while White is a very good technical defender and should do well in a lot of matchups, he also probably doesn’t have the physical traits to be a truly elite shut down defender like we’ve seen with the Reece Beekmans of the world previously.
He’s going to hold his own; but high-quality scorers are probably going to get theirs vs. him as well. I do think he’ll be a considerably better perimeter defender than any healthy guard we had on our roster last year, and the more high-octane or pressure-based Odom leans this season, the better off I think he’ll be when he can rely on his quickness, physicality, and attack.
Not to sidetrack us too much here, but this is also why I think there could be a considerably bigger role for Elijah Gertrude on this year’s roster than some may expect, and not just because Odom plays a deeper bench. We have many guys who I think can play good defense, but if you want an athlete to really harass and bother our most athletic competition, and someone with the upside to actually play more of a true “stopper” kind of role – I think Elijah has the best chance at being that guy for us – and that will probably come from him stepping into Jacari’s spot when he does.
Alright – the most glaringly “bad” parts of White’s defensive tape did not come up too often but I did see it occasionally. It showed up in the form of an occasional lapse in concentration.
Directly on-ball, there were rare, but notable, uncharacteristic moments where he just wasn’t competitive in the play. This is the first bucket of the game against Illinois St. and it just felt like he wasn’t ready to play yet (his coach thought so, too, sitting him early before reinserting him and having him play much better).
And here’s a look against Bakersfield where he seems caught off guard by Jones’s first step and then fouls him trying to get back into the play:
In that last look, though White just doesn’t offer enough resistance, you can also see how Jones uses his body to shield once he gets that first step advantage and there’s just not a lot Jacari is going to be able to do there.
More of a common issue than the blatant on-ball lapses, though (which I do want to stress were rare – but it’s worth calling out that they happened), was him playing under screens. In this clip, below, he gets himself caught too far out of position by taking an awkward angle trying to get under a screen away from the ball that creates too much distance on his recovery and kicks off the ability of his man to drive the close out.
White doesn’t concede the bucket here, but does commit the foul – and it’s worth noting how even though J.J. White (#1) from Omaha is just 6’2″, he’s able to press the advantage he gains here with a physical, strong spin move back toward the basket (after the initial advantage).
Just reinforcing some themes here.
One more look because Jacari is fluid getting around screens, as I showed earlier, but here he ducks under one and is punished by a quality outside shooter (JJ White shot 44% last year from deep).
I don’t think the broader mental lapses (and we’ll see a couple in the next section as well) are likely to carry over to this level. It’s not like the Sam Lewis tape where it showed up on so many possessions. Jacari gave all of his effort the vast majority of the time and I think it’ll be easy to coach that urgency up in him in his first Power 5 season.
I do think he’s going to need to break some habits navigating screens, though. This is especially true in being disciplined enough to fight over them and comfortable enough to rely on his rim protectors behind him (who we know will almost certainly be playing drop coverage under Odom).
Off Ball
I won’t spend quite as much time on this section as the last because it’s full of similar themes. White is a solid positional off-ball defender who gives very good effort (and maintains good positioning on rebounding which we’ll touch on in the next section). He doesn’t get a ton of steals (0.7 per game), which speaks to the fact that he’s more solid and reliable than he is a game-changer on that side of the ball. NDST’s system seemed more focused on denying passing lanes to their direct defensive responsibility, and then sagging off to shut down driving lanes. It didn’t send many double teams or do anything proactive to create much disruption outside of individual man-to-man effort. There also wasn’t a ton of confidence in the back-end defense to merit risk-taking from guards.
I say all of that, and yet the first clip I’m going to show is, I think, a pretty eye-popping play that illustrated the potential he could have in a more aggressive, bigger risk-taking defensive environment. I just love this play. Firstly, I do like how he and his teammate proactively communicate and switch assignments while off ball around the six second mark of the clip. That could be easy to miss. White starts off guarding Banks (#3) and switches onto Poindexter (#1). Both are guards – but the proactive switch keeps Jacari higher on the floor in the play and less near the hoop – which puts him into position to make the play he does later. At 8 seconds into the clip, with his teammate sagging under the hoop, Jacari opens himself to the ball with a deeper angle, hoping to read the eyes of the passer and be able to jump either the pass to Banks in the corner or Poindexter on the wing. At 10 seconds into the clip, Jacari is pretty sagged off – near the elbow – while his cover, Poindexter is several feet beyond the arc on that wing extended. There’s a lot of space there, but the next sequence is beautiful. Jacari reads and jumps the pass out to Malachi, lunging at the ball with his right hand, fully open to the passing lane. His reaction and stretch there are really, really nice. After he deflects the ball though, you see that body control again! He pulls his body back to avoid Poindexter from jamming him with his arm, and then outsprints Malachi to the ball after starting fully behind him. As for the finish, he gives a slick Euro step, hangs, and hits the nice layup.
That play is just so good. From the positioning off ball, to the hand-eye quickness, to the body control avoiding the defender, to the speed, to the comfort and ease/craftiness of the finish… you want that guy making plays for your team.
It mostly wasn’t so flashy, though. We’re not looking at Beekman being good for a pick-six every game or two; but this next play you can see as the logical extension of the play above. He’s in the same help position off ball as the play develops on the other side of the floor. As the corner defender sags to help, he drops down to be able to rotate to either the corner or wing again. He reacts to and reads the passer well; almost getting the steal to the corner but being in good position to give a quality contest on the shot despite missing the ball.
He was adept at navigating around contact and impacting the play. Here you see him getting switched onto the Omaha big after a pick and roll. He’s able to front the post pretty quickly but, most impressively, you see the Omaha big just pushing and almost grabbing/manhandling him to attempt to seal him off of the drive. We’re back to that malleability again. Watch how White gets off of the big, gets over and around him, and is able to run in front of/take a swipe at the ball handler, contributing to the miss.
You’d rather him not fly by the player there, but the mere fact that he was able to hold up to the seal and be disruptive was good. Think about how many times our guys at UVa fell victim to that low post seal last year.
This next one is kind of most symbolic of Jacari’s strengths off of the ball. He really is just such a smart player with a great feel for the game most of the time. Bakersfield is trying to set up an elevator screen on White after his man runs baseline and then pops back out to the same side. Watch how quickly Jacari recognizes it and then sprints to get over it, beating his man to the angle and forcing the pass to come late, all the way out to the wing after he’s gotten into good defensive position. That’s all just reading and assessing what the opponent was trying to do before they did it. He also keeps good depth to shade the opposition’s post move and recovers well to the kick out later on.
The mental aspect of his game supports the physical; especially when he’s locked in.
Once again, though, when he does struggle in this area, it’s like he just relaxes mentally for a moment. Like here, it’s just like he doesn’t really believe that his man is a threat out there – and he takes an awkward angle trying to get through the screen again.
Just a little slow/lax reacting.
Here he played good defense most of this possession, but then it just seems like he forgets momentarily that he’s responsible for the corner – eyes too locked in on the driver and not enough depth/reaction.
And here, he just has to clean up his awareness, a bit. It’s like he doesn’t anticipate that his man could get the ball here – but then he reacts after the fact and also identifies and closes out on the corner pretty quickly… but that initial concentration was off.
I did a whole long section on this for Sam Lewis and marked it a chief area of concern so you can see, comparatively, I’m not really worried about this that much. It crops up a couple of times a game for White as it does for most players. It’s hard to be on all of the time when you’re playing 31mpg. I do expect he’ll play less than that here and also that the way we play defense will keep him more constantly engaged/challenged. That being said – it is a notable area he could become more consistent.
Rebounding
I won’t show a ton of these since there have actually been examples in the previous sections, but I think White is a good defensive rebounder from the SG position. He’s got good awareness of where the ball is going to come off, quick reactions toward it, and boxes out very well for his size.
In this Cut, below, you get a good look at him shadowing and staying attached to Jones away from the ball. He does a good job gaining nice depth and distance throughout, and being in position to discourage a driving lane at one point. He punctuates it, though, with a really nice box out that keeps Jones, who is aggressively pursuing the board, on his back.
And this next one is pretty simple, but I like showing it because he doesn’t fall asleep on the free throw box out and holds off Fidelis Okereke (#23), a man 80 lbs. heavier than he is, from getting to the long rebound.
Now, despite that laudable effort above when he was in good position and held his ground, he’s not going to fare well generally when switched onto a true big. Most guards aren’t – but he just doesn’t have the strength or size to keep these kinds of players off the glass when they’re around the hoop:
I do like that he keeps boxing and fighting hard in that one and simply concedes the foul rather than the easy put back, though.
But here he just gets flat out shoved out of the way (and still almost gets back to the ball, but was dislodged pretty easily up front):
Nothing concerning here because you don’t want him as the last line of defense against these kinds of guys anyway – but definitely worth noting that, even though he’s a scrapper, you don’t want to be switching him onto many bigs around the hoop if you can at all avoid it. It shouldn’t be an intentional switching strategy.
Grit
With all of the different skillsets I’ve highlighted for Jacari White in this piece, both physically and mentally, I don’t think you can fully understand him as a player until you realize that he plays with a little bit of an edge. Yes, he’s smart, and yes, he plays a savvy game most of the time… but he also doesn’t give an inch.
Not to draw a direct comparison, but in my last piece I showed a few clips of Sam Lewis loafing back in transition defense. Jacari White is the kind of player who is going to give you this…
Chasing down the breakout man against the press and absolutely refusing to concede the easy dunk… AND getting right back up after taking a tumble into the padded hoop.
I absolutely love that hustle and toughness. Just the mentality around all of it. He could have let the dunk happen and moved to inbound quickly – instead he sacrificed his body to make the points come just a little bit harder.
And then this, also, at about 4 seconds into the clip:
It’s definitely a low blow on the man trying to set a screen on him. Was it intentional? I strongly doubt it. It looks like he’s probably moving quickly trying to get around the stagger screen and there’s some incidental contact. The player, for what it’s worth, didn’t act like he thought it was intentional afterward. But, either way, White is playing with enough reckless abandon trying to get where he’s trying to go that it became… uncomfortable for the player trying to keep him from where he was going.
In our most recent seasons, I think we’ve become used to and element of… politeness in our players, at times. We’re not getting that here. We’re getting a hungry and tough player who isn’t going to flinch whether he runs full speed into the basketball hoop or accidentally hits an opponent in the groin trying to get over a screen.
In Conclusion
I’m excited about Jacari White; more so than probably any player in the free movement portal era that we’ve acquired in that way*. I think he will specifically benefit from playing for Coach Odom – within his system – more than any other player on the roster, other than arguably Chance Mallory. It’s a perfect stylistic fit. Dare I say it’s a situation where all of the things he does best – aggressively shooting the three off of the move and off of the bounce, isolation and pick and roll basketball, rebounding his position well and pushing the ball up the floor, playing with the ball in his hands or off of it, picking up most guards interchangeably on defense, toughness and the ability to impose your will on the other team… align directly with the things Odom values most in his guards and how he designs his systems.
For that reason, and because of his undeniable skill and understanding of the game, I have very few concerns about his ability to translate up to this level of play. I expect him to be the game one starter at the SG position and to play heavy minutes (at least for an Odom distribution). I think what you’ve seen in these clips is roughly what you’re still going to get – but he’s going to look even better playing in the style that we will and with the players we’ll put around him. Most poignantly, if our dual Centers offer the rim protection that they should, he should be able to be even more aggressive on that side of the ball; ideally leading to more impact plays.
There are going to be games where he just absolutely takes over on the offensive end. On the other hand, I expect that there will be some where he’s more than comfortable just letting the game come to him and setting up the guys on this team who might be filling up the bucket on any given night. I don’t think he’ll feel the need to press (offensively – we’ll press defensively), which should help with that assist to turnover ratio. Specifically, and we’ll talk about him in a later Tracking A Transfer, I think White is going to benefit from having a guard like Malik Thomas to play beside. In so doing, White will rarely draw the opposition’s best perimeter defender as he always did at NDST (although the opposition’s second-best perimeter defender will likely be as good or better as what he faced most of the time in the Summit).
I think he’ll play good defense and it will actually be a positive element to his game, just not simply a “do no harm” kind of situation. If there is something that starts to keep him out of the mix, though, or has Odom looking for alternative lineup compositions, at times, I expect it will be on the defensive side. When we’re protecting a lead, need a big stop, or when there’s a problematic scorer on the other team who we haven’t been able to slow down. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some Elijah Gertrude in those instances and if it’s White who he’s spelling. If that’s happening, though, I expect that means we’ll be in a favorable position in most of those games.
Outside of xs and os, it’s going to be interesting to see how fans respond to Jacari considering he will be directly replacing Isaac McKneely from last year’s team. McKneely was beloved as a three-year CTB favorite, and the perceived gem of the 2022 recruiting class. I also think that iMac is going to have a great season in that shooting role for Louisville, surrounded by a ton of talent there as well, so there will naturally be even more hand-wringing about losing him when that happens; especially if all isn’t going as planned for us. That being said, I don’t think iMac was as good of a fit for this system. Sure, it loves its shooters, and iMac is one of the best to do it… but Jacari is no slouch, as we’ve seen, and the system also wants all of its guards to thrive with the ball in their hands, too. It wants players wired to run and gun. Doing that after three years of such conservative basketball is a tall ask. It wants more well-rounded players on both ends – and White is the kind of player who last year would have been getting under iMac and giving him fits (helping our offensive flow to stall) and who would have been taxing him on the defensive end. It might be one of those things that is impossible to prove (and I know many won’t be open to it), but I do think the fact that Odom didn’t make iMac an offer he couldn’t refuse to return, but did make White one, means that Odom is thinking about this similarly. It’s very possible, and likely, in my opinion, that both things are true: we got a player who works better with what we’ll do and need this coming season and that Louisville got the perfect fit for what they’re looking for.
All-in-all, I think Jacari White is going to be a fun and easy player to root for this season who will be a great showcase to fans for how Ryan Odom wants to play. I’m looking forward to it!
Okay, that was a fun one. My next piece will be on Devin Tillis, PF from NIT runners up, the UC Irvine Anteaters. See you then!
*Until I write another review or two later this offseason!
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