The four-star transfer committed to Northwestern earlier this week.
Chris Collins made his first major move of the offseason on Monday, landing four-star transfer guard Jalen Leach on Monday. Leach is a grad student who played his previous four seasons of basketball at Fairfield in the MAAC.
The savvy guard averaged 16.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists on 48.8% shooting from the field and 35.4% from three point land. Leach gives Collins dynamic three-level scoring and yet another lengthy, twitchy wing to add to the cupboard.
Let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the highly coveted transfer:
Scoring at the rim
Arguably Leach’s biggest asset is his athleticism and speed in transition. Leach loves to leak out on the break. In the clip below, Leach gets in front of the ball in transition and then catches and attacks before the defense is set. His greatest strength is his first step explosiveness — any time he’s in the open floor he can wreak havoc on the opponent.
Watch this one. Leach gets ahead of number 13 on Iona around half court. Nobody else is there to slow him down and Leach sees that and gets downhill. The other two defenders attempt to build a wall to shut down the drive, but they are backpedaling and do a poor job of cutting off Leach. A feeble contest ensues and an and-one follows.
Leach is talented enough in transition to give Chris Collins a new dimension to his offense. Collins likes to slow the game down to a snail’s pace. Northwestern averaged 67.3 possessions per game last season, good for 328th out of 362 Division I teams. Pairing Leach with Barnhizer gives Collins two dynamic weapons in the open floor who can push the pace and get easy buckets at the rim. Whether Collins chooses to use his personnel in that way remains to be seen, but Leach certainly allows Collins the possibility to speed up his offense.
Leach has way more to his game than just the fast break. In the half court, he can be used in a plethora of ways. Let’s take a look at each of the ways that Leach scores his sixteen points a contest.
First, Leach loves to get into the lane. He finishes above 60% at the cup and possesses both the strength and finesse to carry that number over to the Big Ten despite the size and length differences. Fairfield used Leach in a lot of secondary and backside actions, where the ball would start on one side of the floor and then swing across to Leach. Sometimes Leach would then get into a ball screen, like the clip below, to get a mismatch. Other times he would attack off the catch before the help defense could get reset off the initial action.
Here, Leach starts the play in the weak side corner before jumping up to the catch. He then gets a quick ball screen to force the big to switch onto him. From there, he uses his explosiveness and a hesitation dribble to beat the man with ease.
Now watch this second clip — another possession where he starts in the corner. This time, there is no initial action, just a few passes around the perimeter. However, Leach recognizes that his defender is lackadaisical and is moving before the ball is even in his hands. He attacks baseline where there is no help and is able to get to the rim for an easy layup.
Collins will be able to utilize Leach in a number of different actions off the ball to get him easy looks on the backside. Leach is hard to guard in rotation because his explosiveness creates issues for defenders who aren’t set. If Collins can find spots for Leach to attack, he will be very successful getting to the rim.
Leach also loves the floater. Fans won’t mistake it for a Boo Buie floater but when Leach gets going, especially driving to his left, he is able to pull up and elevate over defenders for shots anywhere from four to 12 feet out. Watch these two plays. One is in transition and the other one in the half court, but watch the body control Leach displays. He is moving pretty far right to left on both plays, with most of his momentum moving away from the hoop, but he is able to gather himself and lift the ball just over the front rim and in. Leach also showcases his ability to take contact and still finish. Look at the bump he gets on both:
Shooting
When he can’t get into the paint, Leach likes to isolate and walk into a pull-up jumper. Leach struggles at times with beating guys off the dribble unless it is with that lightning-quick first step. If he gets into his ball-handling package, the result is often a pull-up jumper. Leach will occasionally force the action inside to his detriment, but when he is able to find the space for the jumper, it tends to be pure.
First, take a look at Leach trying to do too much. He tries to force the ball inside without any leverage and gets swallowed up by Saint Peter’s Corey Washington.
Then, compare that with these next two clips. In each circumstance, Leach recognizes the defender is sagging off of him to defend against the drive and gets into the pull-up game. His jump shot is a smooth, repeatable stroke that comes at the apex of his jump. He tends to get into that jumper going to his left, much like the floater. He loves the right to left crossovers or two hard dribbles down the left lane before a pull up from 15 feet.
The final important tool in Leach’s scoring bag is the three-point shot. Leach shot a tad over 35% from beyond the arc this season which marked a career high. His shot is fundamentally sound and with good shot selection and another year of development, it would not be a surprise to see that number jump a few percentage points. Most of his threes came off of spot-up opportunities like this one below:
However, he was used in some actions to get looks, like this dribble handoff:
If Leach takes a step forward shooting the three, Collins may roll over many of the same concepts and sets that worked so well to get Berry and Langborg open shots last year. It is difficult to guard multiple snipers at the same time, especially with a very good scorer like Barnhizer having the ball in his hands. If Leach can become an elite shooter, it would give Collins a chance to make this offense truly fearsome despite Buie’s absence.
Passing
As a passer, Leach has his ups and downs. He can get slightly out of control at times, causing him to make careless turnovers. When he is composed, Leach is an exceptional passer, especially on the move. Watch him fire this one-hand hook pass as soon as he feels the help defense coming.
And here, Leach is calm and collected, conducting offense against the 2-3 zone. Watch as he directs traffic and finds a teammate wide open for an easy jumper:
While Leach doesn’t figure to be the starting point guard, there is certainly a path to minutes manning the helm if he can limit turnovers and improve upon his passing. Last year, we saw the growth that Ryan Langborg made as a facilitator from the beginning of the season to the end. Leach is in prime position to make a similar leap.
Defense
On the defensive end, Leach brings some flashiness with 1.8 steals a game. In the clip below, he guards all the way to half court and then uses his strength and athleticism to get around the box out, intercept the wayward pass and get the easy steal and slam.
However, Leach does have some questions with his ability to sit down and play team defense. While he averaged nearly two steals per game with twitchy hands and by jumping passing lanes, he struggled at times to stay in front of guys and challenge opponents. In this play from the MAAC championship game, Leach gets lazy while guarding in the corner. As the action comes his way, he is late in reacting. He slides too far and doesn’t locate the screener. By the time he is set, his man has already taken the handoff and driven by him on the baseline side, where he has no help. Leach is forced to pick up his second foul and has to sit for the final 13 minutes of the frame.
Then, watch this play from early in the second half of the same game. Granted, Leach has two fouls here, but there isn’t a ton of resistance being provided on the post-up. Leach allows Washington to catch the pass with no difficulty and Washington drives middle without much pressure being applied by Leach. Leach is knocked backwards as Washington rises and cans the easy jumper.
In Leach, Collins has a dynamic scoring guard to use in a number of different ways. Collins will likely be best suited using Leach off the ball as someone who can make a play if the initial set doesn’t work. Leach will also shine coming off pin-down screens, which we’ve seen Coach Collins go to often. He will have the freedom to shoot, drive or pull up for a jumper and the defense will be hard-pressed to properly rotate to defend him. With how creative Collins’ offense got last year and his ability to use guys where they are strongest, there is no doubt that Leach will be a high level offensive player for the ‘Cats. The athleticism will play at the Big Ten level and if the jump shot can take a step forward, Leach will be even more dangerous. There are question marks on the defensive end but his length and athleticism remain plus traits that should allow him to step in and be an impact player from day one.
Film courtesy of College Basketball Scouting and The Draftmatic on YouTube