He ate up Valpo’s poor defense, which wasn’t saying much, but it was impressive to see hoow quick and athletic he was. He could be a decent player one day and if we unload kirk, we could use this type of player.

Pros: I think his offense is actually underrated. For the first half of his career, Crean put the ball in Dominic James’ hands full-time and almost got him drafted after his freshman year. Over time, people started to realize that James wasn’t all that efficient, and McNeal took over towards the latter half of his junior year. In what I consider to be his most impressive offensive performance, McNeal put up 30 against the Lopez Twins and Stanford in a game that was lost thanks to a last second shot by Brook. Jerel can get to the rack, hit the midrange shot, and recently added a good amount of 3pt range to his shot as well.

His defensive play is pretty impressive as well, though it seems to have fallen off a bit with his focus on offense. Still, he is the definition of a “pesky” defender. Marquette was best when it was running the floor, and that was often the result of someone not being careful enough with the ball in front of McSteal.

Cons: His size is going to deter NBA teams. He is a shooting guard at 6’2", and much like the late, great BG, he often gets overlooked because of this. From what I read, it sounded like he was trying to push himself as a point guard during draft camp, and I just don’t think that’s going to work out. Which leads me to the last con:

His decision making kinda sucks. When Buzz Williams came in as coach this year, Marquette looked great, and a major contributing factor that was the new playing style of Dominic James. Buzz turned him from a shot-happy ballhog (thanks Crean) into a true point guard in one off-season. McNeal clearly profited from having a real point guard next to him, and put up the best numbers of his career. However, when James got injured, things went downhill for McNeal too. He had the ball in his hands a lot more often, and didn’t always have the best ideas. Possibly the most glaring example is Marquette’s game against Providence in the Big East tournament. Marquette has the ball, up by 1, full shot clock (35 seconds in college), 40 seconds on the game clock. Run the clock down, try to get a good shot off, maybe get the rebound. Worst case scenario: Providence has 5 seconds to run the floor and get a basket, right? Wrong. Jerel drove right into the defense with about 15 seconds left in the game, left a layup short, and Providence got the rebound. They run the floor, miss a layup, but Jerel is paying any attention, and his guy gets a wide open putback to win the game. It was heartbreaker, and the type of mental mistake(s) that you can’t make as an NBA point guard.