The USA Athletes in Action team was defeated by Jordan 93-91 (OT) in the Jones Cup final on Friday. Jordan gave Athletes in Action both of their losses in the tournament and won their second straight Cup. I think it might be safe to say Jordan has a Jones Cup dynasty brewing. Chris Wang from Tawain Hoops has posted lots of Jones Cup video and continues to post more here (LLP is #7 on AIA).
It is really hard to determine what all these games really mean. The positives for Laval are that he gets to travel the world and play competitive basketball for the first time since December of last year. For comparison Zack Gibson averaged 6 points and 4 rebounds in last years Jones Cup including a 12 point/9 rebound game against Kazakhstan. Lucas-Perry averaged around 10 points per game but had a 22 point outburst against Taiwan.
Here are Lucas-Perry’s final combined stats through the first 8 games. He averaged 9.78 ppg on 40% (26% 3pt) shooting with 3.33 rebounds, .67 assists, 1.22 steals, and 1.44 turnover.. The obvious issues are the assists, shooting percentages and turn over numbers but given the circumstances of the tournament and the fact that the AIA team was basically just thrown together some of this can be expected.
Overall, this trip was a good way for Laval to knock some rust off. I really don’t think this trip can tell us whether LLP has what it takes to be that consistent third scorer that we need him to be or not. At the very least it gives us a shot to see him on some video and look at some numbers.
Other Notes: Darius Morris is playing in the Reebok Championships next week in Las Vegas. Add Florida Gulf Coast to this years schedule. Reed Baker returns to Crisler Arena! 7 footer transfers to OSU from UAB.
