Louisville basketball preview: Lamarr “Fresh” Kimble

Player Spotlight: Lamarr “Fresh” Kimble

Class: Graduate

Position: Guard

Height: 6’0

Weight: 185

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

*Written before the Bellarmine exhibition.

Fresh Kimble comes to the Cards after being the first player in St. Joseph’s history to be a three-time captain, which already says a lot about him. He was a starter for two of those seasons and averaged 15.6 points and 2.8 assists per game last year. He had a really good sophomore campaign where he averaged 15.5 points and 4.5 assists per game. His junior year was cut very short as he suffered a foot injury in the season opener and ended up redshirting for the season.

His 65 assists last season are more than any of the returning players for the Cards this year. Christen Cunningham had 165, but he was not asked to score at the rate that Kimble was. Cunningham averaged 10.1 points per game and as it was mentioned earlier, Kimble averaged 15.6. So the two point guards that will likely be compared this season did not exactly have the same role last season. Kimble knows that Cunningham had a very important role on the team in just kind of running the show, and he is expected to do that and maybe score a little bit more, without having to be the main focus of the offense.

Kimble comes in to stabilize the point guard position and it appears will be battling Darius Perry for the starting job. Perry has one year of experience in the system, which is an obvious advantage. But if he plays reckless and out of control, it would clearly open the door for Kimble to take the lead. I am never one to really care who starts, so I won’t be picking sides in that battle. I just want the point guard to take care of the ball and be a distributor that can score if needed. There are a lot of offensive weapons on this team. Just get the offense going, take care of the ball, and if other guys are struggling, be able to go get a bucket.

After watching some highlights from his days at St. Joseph’s, it’s clear that he isn’t a one-trick pony. He can knock down the three, hit the mid-range shot, and has no problem going all the way to the basket. I did notice that although he is right handed, he seems to really like going to his left and pulling up for a jumper. Like I said before, I don’t see him being asked to score a lot anyway. But it’s nice to know that he can.

By all accounts, he has no problem being that point guard that gets the ball to his teammates and lets them do the scoring while he just keeps the machine rolling. Sometimes you see a point guard that you know just has to get their shots in to feel like they are contributing. It will be big for this team that he isn’t like that, but that he can score if need be. Remember, he has had two college seasons where he averaged over 15 points per game, so the guy can score. It will just be a matter of him getting other guys involved first so that defenses key on other guys, opening some lanes up for Fresh.

It may be a little weird at first to refer to someone as Fresh. But the guy says it has been his nickname for so long that it is kind of awkward when people call him “Lamarr” and I have to say, I am not ready to call anyone else that name yet either. So, Fresh it is.