I was a little short with the information on Arthur Casimiro this afternoon. I was on the way back home from vacation and posted what I could with my I-phone.
I had a chance to catch up with Casimiro and his new junior college coach at San Bernardino Valley Quincy Brewer and have a little better perspective on UNT’s latest commitment to pass along now.
Brewer compared Casimiro’s game to Pau Gasol’s. Don’t get me wrong. He’s not Pau Gasol, but he’s left-handed, has a good hook shot and can shoot the short jumper.
Casimiro spent a short time at Southern Idaho before transferring to San Bernardino, his second JC.
It’s true, Casimiro has yet to show a lot on the college level or the national stage, but let’s remember two very important facts — the guy’s 6-10 and he’s played for the Brazilian national team. That same U-19 team had Raul Neto, who NBA Draft Express projects as a second round pick in 2013 and several other good international players.
UNT doesn’t need Casimiro to be the next Tony Mitchell. If he can be anything close to what George Odufuwa was or Keith Wooden was, that would be plenty.
What will be interesting to see is how Casimiro develops since he has just about nothing in the way of a track record to look at outside of his performance in a small role with the Brazilian national team.
Niko Stojiljkovic will be a senior at UNT this fall and has played quite a bit with the French national team over the years. For a while there, I thought he would develop into a solid contributor last season, but he never progressed the way I thought he might.
The question is whether Casimiro will play a larger role at UNT.
To me, it all goes back to potential and that 6-10 frame. UNT is building a big physical frontcourt for its first season in C-USA. Casimiro has the size to be a physical post defender and rebounder.
That’s an asset any way one looks at it.
The question is how he will develop between now and when he will be able to put that size to use for UNT.
Be sure to pick up tomorrow’s paper for the full story.