Tuesday night was the first opportunity for me to watch Chase Budinger, the highly publicized recruit out of the San Diego area, play in person.

In the opening minutes of the game, he made several medium-difficulty skip passes look effortless.  At 6-7, he can see over the defense and appeared to have good vision on the whereabouts of his teammates, but this was from a stationary position.  He didn?t make any noteworthy passes when required to think quickly.

Midway through the first half, Budinger had no idea how to stop the dribbler on a one-on-one fast break and attempted to take a matador charge from about 10 feet out which was glaringly awkward.

He did demonstrate impressive hang time on a lob, triggered by eye contact with the passer.  When it comes to north-south movement, he was probably the most agile athlete on the floor, as was the case on this place, but he struggles with the east-west directions.

Budinger made his two three-point field goals in the first half, both from nearly the identical position on the right side of the floor.  His shooting stroke is above average, but he is fairly impeccable whenever he has the ball for a player of his age so that should be of no surprise.  

He has now made 52 out of his 88 field goals in his college career, which is superb.  He appears to have had no trouble transitioning his offensive game to the college level.  That offensive game includes a good sense of place in relation to the basket when roving the baseline, demonstrated by a fluid, one-motion turnaround jumper from about 8 feet off a pass.

In the second half, while guarding the ball in transition, Budinger took a lazy route, allowing the dribbler to continue unimpeded to the rim when he could have cut him off.

This was another example of how he appears apathetic, or to be fairer, perhaps pacing himself (played 36 minutes) unless he feels he has a chance to score.

He can also be beat off the dribble with relative ease and his efforts on the glass are sloppy.

He played the wing in the 1-3-1 on a few possessions when Arizona wasn?t in man, which is perfect for a player with defensive deficiencies and/or apathy.  Olsen eventually substituted him out in the final seconds for defensive purposes while the Wildcats held on for a 72-65 win.

NBADraft.net projects him as the 5th pick in the 2008 Draft, while DraftExpress has him as the 3rd selection in the same Draft.  Taking these assessments as recommendations would be good advice for Budinger to follow.  

The extra year will allow him to add muscle to his slight frame and will be able to improve defensively while a ridiculously strong draft class moves on ahead of him.  He's undoubtedly a highly gifted player and is very enjoyable to watch, as moves with the ball in a way that is as pure and smooth as anyone.