最新杏吧原创

Laczkowski is a senior at St. Mark鈥檚 School of Texas in Dallas and averaged 21.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.6 steals last season. He鈥檚 scored more than 1,500 points in his prep career and is a two-time all-state selection and two-time all-conference pick.

Laczkowski already has a 最新杏吧原创 connection: His parents both played at Washington University. His father, Tim, was on the basketball team, and his mother, Amy, played volleyball and was a three-time first-team All-American and a two-time Division III national player of the year, in 1993 and 1994.

鈥淭he obvious things that stand out about Luke are his elite shooting ability

and plus positional size as a 6-8 guard,鈥� SLU coach Josh Schertz said in a statement. 鈥淏ut what most stands out to me is his ability to process the game. Luke鈥檚 instincts on both ends of the floor will allow him to have a high level of defensive versatility. Just as important is how good of a teammate he is. Luke is the kind of young man you want in the program at all costs because he elevates everyone around him.鈥�

SLU gets busy on 3s against Avila

SLU set a team record for 3-point attempts in a game on Sunday, putting the ball up from beyond the line 41 times against Avila. The previous record was 39, in an NCAA Tournament game against Wake Forest in 1995, when Charlie Spoonhour was coach.

It was almost exactly what Schertz had predicted to his staff.

鈥淚 never go into a game with an amount of 3s we want to take,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檒l go back and watch the film, but I would say, out of those 41 I would bet 95% of them are ones I would take every day of the week because of the way they defended us. When we got the ball in the paint, they were flooding the paint with, a lot of times, four or five bodies, and they were trying to take away the rim, and so when they flood the paint like that, take away the rim, the right play is to get off the ball and then you鈥檙e getting those second-side opportunities.

鈥淣ow, we may have missed some cutting opportunities on those penetration and on those paints, but those kick-out 3s that we鈥檙e shooting, I want them shooting that. I want that. There鈥檒l be nights where they don鈥檛 go in. I mean, we didn鈥檛 shoot it great. We were 14 for 41, so that鈥檚 OK. That鈥檚 not anything to write home about. But like, out of those 41 3s, those are the shots like I would have predicted.

鈥淚 think I told the staff, we鈥檒l probably shoot 40 3s, not because I wanted to shoot 40 3s but because I thought that they would collapse on drives and allow us to spray out. And then you have to shoot those shots. And we got to shoot them with confidence.鈥�

The 14 3s SLU made was three off the record of 17 3s it made against Tulane in 2019.

Schertz said that more than half of its shots from beyond the arc will not necessarily be a constant for the team.

鈥淭eams will play you different,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ome teams, when you drive it, they fan out, and they make you finish. And we鈥檒l shoot way less 3s. We played Southern Illinois when I was at Indiana State. We never shot 20 3s in a game against them because when Bryan Mullins was (the coach) there, if you beat them off the dribble, they鈥檙e going to make you finish that one on one. And you鈥檝e got to be ready to do that. You got to get the ball to the rim, and then the defense tells you what to do. The defense tells you if you鈥檙e going to shoot 40 3s or 15 3s or 20.

鈥淲ere there times we missed gaps in the shell to cut and get dunks because it鈥檚 not how many 3s. We want to start with layups and dunks and then the 3s. But the quality of threes was very high.鈥�

Gibson Jimerson took 11 3s, Isaiah Swope took nine and Larry Hughes II took eight.

Notes

One item of concern for SLU from the Avila game: too many fouls. In the second half, Avila went into the bonus with 12:09 to go and the double-bonus with 8:24 to go.

鈥淭his is a few games now where we鈥檝e fouled a lot,鈥� Jimerson said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 be a good defensive team and be in the double bonus with 10 minutes left, so working on not being as handsy fouling and keeping our physicality up.鈥�

• Walk-ons Jaden Schertz and Isaac Holmes came in with 5:25 to go against Avila, and Holmes pulled off a tough one. He was fouled on a drive to the basket with 34 seconds to go, but after the officials went to the monitor, he was assessed with a flagrant foul for throwing an elbow. Holmes made both of his free throw, while Avila鈥檚 Jordan Majeed made only one of his two, so SLU came out ahead on the play.

Tom Timmermann @tomtimm on X (formerly Twitter) ttimmermann@post-dispatch.com