Film Room: Connor Hellebust

<p>University of Mary picked up a commitment from Bismarck’s <strong>Connor Hellebust </strong>just over a month ago and it was a big move for brand new coach Joe Kittell’s program.  Today we dive into Connor’s video to talk about some of the things we like about his game, and what parts of his game that have him ranked so highly in the class of 2016.</p><h2>Notes</h2><ul> <li>The first thing I notice is what he does off the ball offensively.  Like his re-location on the wing to get to a spot that a recovering defender can&#39;t close out to.  Also like how he cuts hard off screens, and cuts them tightly minimizing steps for himself as well cutting off space of the defender.  His burst off a screen into open space gets him a lot of open looks.  This is something I didn&#39;t see quite as much in Grassroots as I am seeing in the junior year video from Bismarck.</li> <li>What I did see this summer was a quick burst off the face-up attack and you can see that guys are worried about his first step as they sell out nearly 100 percent to Connor&#39;s ball fakes which allows him space to shoot that quick releasing pull-up.</li> <li>It&#39;s just a highlight video so it&#39;s tough to know the percentages but I really like the one-dribble pull-up from Connor.  He looks very comfortable shooting off the one bounce and he gets the shoot off really quick with big lift. Tough to get a hand in his face because you have to match his quick steps and his bounce.  In college this shot will be tougher because there will be better athletes who are longer but then again there are still a lot of lazy defenders in college too and all Connor needs is a step into space to get an edge and once he&#39;s in the air he will square and get a clean look.</li> <li>I definitely like how he moves his feet laterally.  This is a guy that could help on defense early because he moves so well laterally to cut defenders off the angle.  He&#39;s also likely to be good moving around screens based on the video we are seeing.</li> <li>As I move through this video more I see more and more one or two dribble pull-ups and I can&#39;t help but be very impressed by that part of his game.  Also seeing some feet set triples so you know he can hit that as well. </li> <li>This summer we saw Connor catch the ball on a ball reversal and attack to destroy late rotating defenses but exploding with a dribble to the front of the rim for scores.  The athletic burst is there for him to do that but the touch we are seeing off of one-dribble is really eye catching.</li> <li>The video shows Connor hitting one dribble pull-ups going right, and going left.  He looks comfortable attacking either way, and Connor&#39;s shot looks comfortable lifting to make going in either direction.</li> <li>Connor is right handed but we&#39;ve also seen him attack the rim to finish using both hands. </li> </ul> <h2>Bottom Line</h2><p>Connor is a more versatile scoring weapon than PHD knew. This video opened our eyes to how well he sets himself up without the ball with sharp movements and more importantly the video shows off his ability to hit  pull-up jumpers in either direction with big lift.  Finally, this is a player that moves well enough laterally to be able to guard a lot of ones as well as a several twos as long as they don&#39;t have a big height advantage on him.</p>