Interview Archives | Swish Theory https://theswishtheory.com/tag/interview/ Basketball Analysis & NBA Draft Guides Thu, 03 Oct 2024 16:59:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://i0.wp.com/theswishtheory.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Favicon-1.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Interview Archives | Swish Theory https://theswishtheory.com/tag/interview/ 32 32 214889137 Meet Landyn Colyer – Scouting SFA vs. Oak Ridge https://theswishtheory.com/analysis/amateur-basketball/2024/10/meet-landyn-colyer-scouting-sfa-vs-oak-ridge/ Thu, 03 Oct 2024 16:58:36 +0000 https://theswishtheory.com/?p=13344 Getting to know Landyn Colyer (SFA’s 6’6″ 4-Star Wing) and his Head Coach, Jaleel Sanders + Scouting Jalen Reece, Jamier Jones, Zay Mosley, Traevon Koch, and Landyn in Fall Ball As Orlando’s afternoon sunshower came to an end just after 7pm Wednesday night, two AAU squads prepared to face off in a Fall Ball scrimmage: ... Read more

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Getting to know Landyn Colyer (SFA’s 6’6″ 4-Star Wing) and his Head Coach, Jaleel Sanders + Scouting Jalen Reece, Jamier Jones, Zay Mosley, Traevon Koch, and Landyn in Fall Ball

As Orlando’s afternoon sunshower came to an end just after 7pm Wednesday night, two AAU squads prepared to face off in a Fall Ball scrimmage: The SFA Rams out of Dover, Florida, visiting the Oak Ridge Elite Pioneers.

For SFA, Landyn Colyer and Traevon Koch shined, along with Oak Ridge’s Jalen Reece, Jamier Jones, and Zay Mosley all standing out with electric play.

Future college basketball players going back and forth trading smooth pull-up jumpers, clean rim finishes, smartly forced turnovers, and highlight breakaway slams before Oak Ridge pulled away in the second half.


Scouting Report


Landyn Colyer

4-Star 6’6″ Wing and self-described Tall Guard Landyn Colyer (#1, SFA) showed off incredible tough shotmaking skills, knockdown 3pt range, cerebral two-way instincts and a positive team-first mentality communicating with his teammates.

Landyn opened up the game splashing a deep-range 3pt jumper off the give-and-go handoff, then followed it up by countering with drives off handoffs into a few fadeaway leaners in the midrange, converting tough shot after tough shot. The soft touch shooting at his size is impressive. Resetting with a gather dribble and spin move under the basket also showed good fundamental footwork and more clean finishing in the paint.

Colyer racked up tons of deflections, usually able to use his frame and length to contest shots and poke the ball away without fouling, leading to many turnovers and missed shots for his opponent, while showing a knack for making multiple heads up plays to save loose balls before falling out of bounds.

Keeping the ball moving, not over-dribbling, looking to score or pass when the next man is open shows good connector skills.

Sprinting to a fallen teammate to pick him up after they drew a foul, putting his arm around teammates to talk about how to improve going forward, dapping up and hyping up teammates who walked by, Landyn clearly cares about his guys and brings a positive influence as a leader.

An anonymous basketball scout raves about Landyn Colyer’s game and team-first mentality: “An elite player who can do it all. Great athlete, very smooth & nice shooting stroke and form. Good vision. Very unselfish and is all about winning as a team.”


Traveon William Koch

6’3″ Combo Guard Traevon William Koch (#0, SFA) in the Class of ’25 looked to score every chance he got, showing nice start-stop body control driving to the rack; clean finishing at the rim on reverses, layups, floaters, AND1s, and an alley-oop slam; tight hesitation handles creating space; and a smooth jumper off the dribble when finding room to pull up.

Koch flashed his hops and timing again when he got up for a big block from behind on a drive, not giving up on the play after his man got to the rim.

Traevon stayed hunting his own shot, and while usually converting, sometimes missed open teammates cutting to the rack. Staying aware of where his teammates are and which spots they’re moving to could help stack up assists and create easy shot opportunities for others when Traevon draws multiple defenders his way, like when he found the open corner 3pt shooter off a jump pass from the midrange, deciding to give up a good shot for a great one.

Traevon showed how much he cared about his team, helping teammates up who had fallen to the ground, and talking to his guys in the huddle about how to improve the next time out.


Jalen Reece

4-Star 6′ Point Guard Jalen Reece (#2, Oak Ridge) in the Class of ’25 of the FL Rebels popped out in this game with incredible two-way feel, making winning plays on both ends, forcing turnovers, converting at the rim in transition, splashing pull-up jumpers, creating advantages for himself and others, while constantly looking to set up teammates for the lob pass alley-oop.

Reece showed nice body control decelerating and finishing at the rim, attacking the rack for the bump-and-finish AND1 through contact, driving strong to the rim with a smooth up-and-under finger roll finish through contact, converting tough shots near the rim falling away from the basket, using quick first step burst and tight ball control to get into the paint anytime he wanted, or stop on a dime for a stepback jumper off the dribble.

Jalen flashed nasty handles, masterful control of his body and the ball, digging deep into his bag to weave through multiple defenders with hesitations, spins, behind the back, any dribble move you can name, while using incredible vision and decision-making awareness to stay looking for teammates for alley-oops and drop off no-look dimes, especially in transition.

Forcing too many turnovers to count, Reece racked up deflections throughout the game, with multiple steals as point-of-attack defender at the top of the key, one leading to a 2-on-1 alley-oop to Zay Mosley, and trapping a defender alongside Jamier Jones for the forced turnover.

Reece drilled jumpers from everywhere: the catch-and-shoot 3ball, the stepback middy pull-up, the contested deep jump shot off the dribble, with a clean finishing package in the paint.


Jamier Jones

4-Star 6’6″ Small Forward Jamier Jones (#1, Oak Ridge) was your explosive high-flyer of the night, folks.

Whether he started with the ball on the perimeter or ran the floor on fast break outlets, it did not matter; Jamier stayed ready to throw it down on somebody’s head. Breakaway slams, speedy quick burst first step, dynamic athleticism led to strong takes to the rack, where Jones was too strong and too twitch-quick for anyone in his path.

Good timing and ball instincts led to rebounds, good post-up positioning and boulder shoulder moves led to backdown buckets, and constant rim-rolling led to dunk after dunk.

Watch out for this wrecking ball of energy if you’re standing in his way; you might just get posterized.

Zay Mosley

6’7″ Forward Zay Mosley (#4, Oak Ridge) crashed the glass with reckless abandon; there was no keeping him away from any rebound he wanted.

Bullyball down low on the boards resulted in possessions where Mosley could rack up multiple offensive rebounds in the same possession until the rock had no choice but to go through the net.

Smart two-way feel using his height and length to contest opponents, keeping his hands straight up without fouling, grab-and-go mentality after forcing the turnover, looking up for the open teammate leaking out on the break, will translate to every level.

Showing strong hop step spinning footwork fundamentals on the block, Mosley could become a powerful play-finisher whose engine never turns off.

Interview with 4-Star 6’6″ Wing Landyn Colyer and SFA Head Coach Jaleel Sanders

Landyn Colyer

Did any current or former players inspire your game?

I have a couple NBA players that I look after: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Devin Booker, Jayson Tatum, people like that I just try to model my game after them.

Are there any certain skills you try to pick up individually from them watching film?

I really like SGA’s pace, so I really try to work on my pace like that; and Devin Booker has a really crisp midrange jump shot, so I try to get my one-dribble pull-ups like him.

What sort of moves do you spend the most time on during practice?

I’d say consistently shooting, being able to catch-and-shoot, shoot one or two dribbles, especially getting to the rack, getting to the basket.

Are there any skills that you’re hoping to develop over the next few years that you might not possess today?

Ball-handling in general, honestly. Being able to be a confident point guard at my size, being a bigger guard (6’6”), is really vital at the next level to be able to play multiple positions

How would you describe your approach, your mindset, preparing for the game? What mentality are you bringing?

Kill mode. Kill everything in front of me. Just dominate. Try to be the best on the court at all times. Compete at everything you do. Try as hard as I can to win the game to help my team.

What interests you outside of basketball?

I’m really big on family. I hang out with my family a lot when I’m outside of basketball, things like that. I also like to take moments by myself and just rest, take the time to myself in my free time. But occasionally I like to hang out with some of my friends, I play a little bit of video games. (His favorite game these days? NBA 2K)

Head Coach Jaleel Sanders

What is your goal as the coach of these young players during a vital time in their development?

Just to make sure they’re getting the best out of these guys. The ultimate goal is to put them through college, give them an experience to prepare them for school and help them grow as young men, not just athletes, we want them to be really good citizens in the community. So those are some of the biggest things for their development, as far as mentally, physically, emotionally getting these guys prepared for that next level of life.

What sort of player development do you like to focus on most during practice?

We focus on all the simple things, simple things help you win, basketball’s a simple game. So we work on fundamentals, so strictly fundamentals: shooting, passing, playing defense, backdoor cuts, also just communicating. Working on communicating, working on defense, is putting our guys in the best position to win the game and actually learn the game of basketball.

What mentality do you see in Landyn, what do you really notice that he brings to the game?

He has this willingness to always want to listen and learn; he always wants to learn; he always wants to get better. He has this drive about him that’s different from a lot of other kids. He wants to play at the highest level that there is, that’s with most kids, but he’s not just talking about it, he’s trying to do it. He’s putting the time in, he’s putting the work in, he’s also big on his development. He’s being a great teammate, talking to guys, letting them know, ‘hey, we need to do this better’’. His communication is good with his guys, his teammates, he’s a pretty good leader.

How would you describe Landyn as a person off the court?

Silly. Goofy. He’s one of those guys who’s always trying to figure out how to uplift guys. Joking around with his teammates. He’s very laid back but also outgoing as well in his own way. So he loves to joke around with his guys, respectfully. He’s uplifting them, joking with them, keeping guys laughing, keeping them on their toes.

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