Jadyn Parker is a player ECU will face in the next game when they play ETSU. What makes him interesting is that he is from Shallotte, NC and West Brunswick HS. He is one of the 6 dozen or so player in the transfer portal I identified early as a potential target last spring. The new coach at ETSU released Callum Richard from his LOI when he was hired and signed Parker instead with that scholarship. ECU signed Richard after.
Parker's numbers don't jump off the page, but he has been efficient through out his career. He one of the highest block rates in the nation the last 3 seasons at North Florida and now ETSU. He has played some better strength of schedules than you'd expect as well while at N. Florida. They operated more like a MEAC team going on the road often for buy games. Parker preformed very well vs P6, A10, and top 50 NET teams. He shot 55% in 13 games vs Tier A teams in his career on Kenpom.
Here is a list of those OOC games.
He's an older player, but he had some of these games as a freshmen or an underclassmen. Can you imagine some of ECU's current bench big men dropping 13 points on the #1 team in Gonzaga or one of the best defenses in Texas Tech on 70% shooting? How about a 12 and 9 game on Florida? 10 points on 83% shooting vs Kentucky? 8 points on 75% shooting 3 rebound and 2 blocks vs UCLA? All these were highly ranked big time programs on the road he showed up pretty well for.
He's a guy that at 6-10 has a lot of potential and 2 season's remaining. With a top 50 block rate last season in the nation, he didn't need to develop really to be effective and fill a need like freshmen. With his athletic ability he could have played well in big lineups with Ausar and Johnson similar to Ludgy, perhaps even as a roamer in the lane with his mobility and shot blocking.
Does any of this mean he will light ECU up, certainly not. He scored 4 points, 3 rebounds and a block in 13 minutes the last time he was in Minges as a freshman. However he was the kind of lowhanging fruit transfer ECU could have used IMO. He's found a 30 minute a game starting role now in the recent D1 games, so ECU likely will see a lot of him.
As for ETSU they aren't good, but he is anchoring a defense that is 58th currently in the raw defensive rating numbers so he making some impact.
To be clear, he wouldn't have been in my first 10 targets. The reason I bring him up is he was one of the lowest hanging fruits that ECU should at bare minimum have been able to have competed for being from NC and the guy ETSU cut Richard to get. This team rostering Pinedo and these freshmen they don't even play is better than a guy that scored double digits on teams like he has or that is one of the top shotblockers in the nation. The ETSU coach had it right when he cut Richard loose for him. Parker could still have helped ECU a lot more than anything ECU is doing. Pettiford has played better, but he still makes no sense on a team with no shooting and that rarely shoots three's. He's a terrible fit and bad on defense for a team that wants that as the identity. Walker wasn't the problem, his last 10 games was one of the few positives. You could have added a smaller shooter beside of him. They broke what was working to add a worse fit.
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