Yeah, his numbers from last year are certainly underwhelming. But I think it's important to keep in mind three things:Jason94 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 9:32 am I would assume Stute over Frank at this moment, unless there is something I am missing with Frank, who played sparingly outside of 4 games and rebounded the ball like Scottie Pippen (not the NBA HOF'er, like a PG). Stute has to develop the ability to score inside the arc, but his three point shooting should get better, and played consistent minutes last season.
First, as your post pointed out, he really only played in four games last year. It's pretty hard to judge a player based on four games in their freshman year. He did average 20 min in those games, but only produced 5 pts on 40% shooting, with 2 reb per game. Not so good. But he also shot 40% from 3pt range on 2.5 shots per game. That's not bad for a guy who's listed as 6'8" 235 lbs. And those four games were agains Iowa State, #13 Texas, Kansas State, and #10 West Virginia. So... we've had worse freshman-year performances from great players in the past.
Second, he was infected with Covid-19 last year. That obviously has a range of effects on different people, from negligible to life-altering to fatal. But remember that it took Jayson Tatum almost the entire season this year before he was able to play at 100%. He wasn't badly affected by it. But it's most common effects are respiratory and cardio-vascular, and Tatum said the main problem was that he was very easily fatigued--for something like six months. If Frank was similarly affected, then the fact that played 20 mpg against four good Big-12 teams and could contribute at all is pretty good.
Third, since four games is very little to go on, maybe we should consider how he did in high school. I don't have much in the way of stats for him (oddly, a lot of recruiting sites don't allow you to access them from overseas ). Note that he could've come to Vanderbilt last year. Stack obviously liked what he saw of Terren in HS. And he wasn't alone: In addition to Vanderbilt and TCU, he had offers from some very good schools, including USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon State, Colorado, San Diego State, and Western Kentucky. That's a pretty good list. ESPN had him ranked as a four-star recruit, 82nd ranked for the year--and that's when he was a 6'7", 190 lb. wing! Terren's obviously bigger and stronger now, but he still shot well from outside last year.
So... If he's fully healthy now, has adjusted to his size increase (and hopefully learned some things about rebounding and interior defense), and has a real desire to prove his detractors wrong, I think he could turn out to be very good. Or let's put it another way: What if he hadn't played at all last year, instead of playing while fighting off a deadly infection? Wouldn't you be pretty jazzed about getting a muscular, 6'8", four-star/Top-100 forward, who can shoot well from outside and already has two years' experience playing alongside Scottie Pippen Jr.?