Scouting Syracuse Commit Kamari Lands
Syracuse basketball picked up a big commitment in class of 2022 wing Kamari Lands recently. We spoke to SI All-American's Jason Jordan to find out exactly how big.
"I think it's huge," Jordan said. "I've liked Kamari all year over at Prolific. It's just kind of the way the game is going. 6-8, covers a lot of ground, especially in that zone. He's going to cover a lot of space in that zone. He's just a great defender anyway. I've seen him cover all five positions this year, and effectively. He's a guy who's going to be really key, specifically in that matchup zone covering that backline for sure. On the offensive end, multi-talented. I think he's an underrated shooter. If they watch the numbers, I think he was around low 40s on the three point efficiency this year. That's obviously really good. Obviously he's on a really talented team. He knows how to play with talent, plays well with talent. I think he plays better with talent.
"He's going to be a guy who can impact the lineup in a lot of different ways. He can run different positions. He can sometimes slide over and play the two. Very athletic, finishes efficiently in the lane. I think he's an underrated playmaker. One of the biggest knocks on him was his ball handling ability. That's grown substantially this year. I'm pretty high on Kamari as a playmaker and as a scorer. Obviously he's super athletic. His wingspan is around 6-11. That kind of player in Jim Boeheim's system should flourish and I think he will because he's one of the most talented two-way players in the top half of that class, for sure."
How can Lands improve?
"It would certainly be consistency," Jordan said. "He's improved this year. He's had bad shooting games this year and I think people saw him in games where he didn't shoot the ball that well. If you kind of looked at stuff over the course of the season, he's improved from last year. I like to look at that stuff, year over year, see how things have improved. And he's up. He shot well this year. The other thing is, I said his ball handling is better, but he could get better there. Where he's going to make his name is athleticism, slashing, he's good in the mid-range as well.
"Defensively, that initially is probably going to keep him on the floor a lot from day one because he covers a lot of ground. The wingspan, I think it's 6-10, 6-11, and in that zone that is just vital. That's not something you can coach and he has a knack for playing passing lanes. He really gets after it, love his motor. But those would be the things he could potentially improve on this spring and summer."