Eddie Ludwig Evaluation (Long)

First off let me say I am a huge Trent Johnson fan. I have met him on a couple of occasions and I think he is just the coach we need. Very disciplined coach and I have talked to him about how important it is for LSU to lock down the state, and keep the best players in Louisiana at LSU. With that being said I am very disappointed in him for offering Eddie Ludwig.

Ludwig is about 6'6-6'7. He is a little lean right now but has a frame where he could easily put on another 10-15 pounds of muscle. Country Day runs a motion offense so while he is in the post a lot he rotates in and out. On the positive note he has a pretty good stroke. Nothing that will blow you away but has a nice arc on his shot and has a very soft touch. Pretty good dribbling the ball with both hands. Also has pretty good vision where he would get doubled in the post and find the open cutter going to the basket. Now on to the negatives.

Unfortunately there are quite a few. And I am evaluating him on his ability to be a SEC basketball player, not a high school player. He is a very good high school player but I have no clue how he will ever be a contributer in the SEC.

First off the kid is not very athletic. No explosiveness off the dribble, and for his size he does not have very good hops. Put it this way I saw him play against St. Pauls, who does not have a player over 6ft and he was constantly getting out jumped on rebounds. St. Pauls is a bad team this year and he should have dominated the game. He was surprisingly very soft and kept getting pushed out of the lane by kids he was way bigger then.

One thing I feel that Trent Johnson teams will bring is intensity and hard work. I saw neither of these traits in Ludwig. I will give him the benefit of the doubt because from the beginning there was really no way St. Pauls would win the game. Its one thing to kind of take a game off, but it is another thing when 5'10 guys are getting rebounds from you multiple times.

Now as far as what position he plays at LSU I have no idea. There is no way he can be a 2. Way too slow. He will get killed off the dribble his entire career and not a good enough shooter or athletic enough. Not tall or tough/strong enough to be a 4. I guess he will have to play a 3 but at the same time he is not a great athlete. One thing that distinguishes players in the SEC compared to players at Tulane in many cases is just pure athleticism. I hate to say it but he just doesn't have it.

I'm sure he is a great kid but he should be the 7th or 8th man at Tulane, not at LSU. I really hope I am wrong but I highly doubt it on this one. He did leave the game with a sprained ankle mid way through the 3rd but by that point you could see if he had "it" or not. I guess the best way I can describe him is a very poor man's Alex Farrar.