Paulus Impresses at Kingwood
Duke Class of 2005 recruit Greg Paulus was in action tonight (Friday, April 23) at the Kingwood Classic
in Houston, Texas, as his SRap team took on the Illinois Fire in the opening round of pool play. Led by Paulus' 25 point effort,
SRap pulled out the win by a 64-62 margin in a triple overtime thriller. Paulus was aided in the win by 6-9 Andray Blatche
of Henninger High School in Syracuse, who tallied 20 points for SRap. Illinois Fire was led by 6-0 PG Tony Freeman.
With SRap trailing by two points with 11 seconds remaining in regulation, Paulus was fouled on a
three-point attempt. He proceeded to sink 2 of the 3 free throws, which eventually sent the game into the first overtime.
However, Paulus fouled out early in the first overtime & Blatche took over during the last two overtimes to lead
SRap to the win.
For the game, Paulus was 4-9 from beyond the arc & he made 6 of his 10 free throw attempts.
Following are Al Butterworth's impressions of Paulus in tonight's game:
1) Very good perimeter shooter
2) Reminds him an awful lot of former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley
3) Excellent north-south speed
4) Is able to get by quick defenders with dribble drive moves
5) Excellent passer in traffic
6) Lateral speed was difficult to judge because SRap played mostly zone defense
7) Plays with a tremendous amount of intensity & competitive fire
Addtional notes from Al:
Really impressed by Paulus' teammate Andray Blatche. Blatche is 6-9 & very wiry. He is ranked
#15 in the Class of 2005 by Rivals. Blatche is very athletic, is an excellent leaper, & is an excellent ball-handler for
his size. However, he has a suspect perimeter jumper.
(4/24/04)
Clint Albright
Al Butterworth
