A-10 Preseason Top 25 Player Countdown: #14 Lamarr Kimble

Welcome to A10 Talk’s Preseason Top 25 Player Countdown for the 2018-19 season. Each day, we’ll be publishing a new article counting down our best 25 players for the coming season, as voted on by our staff of writers. Today, we feature #14 Lamarr Kimble of Saint Joseph’s.

What He’s Done

It feels like Lamarr Kimble has been in Hawk Hill forever, and he still has 2 seasons of eligibility remaining. Kimble went down with his second-straight season-ending injury last year during the 1st contest of the season and would sit as a redshirt after undoing surgery. Back and ready for action, Kimble may have been at SJU for awhile, but he hasn’t seen a lot of court time these past 2 seasons. Back during his sophomore campaign, Kimble scored 15.3 points and dealt out 4.5 assists per contest. He was easily the Hawks’ best passer before injuring his left foot, and he’ll look to be that and more in his junior year.

Kimble has proven to have an incredible IQ on the basketball court; he plays defense without fouling, only committing 1.7 per 40 minutes his sophomore year. Kimble also had the 9th best assist rate in the conference before his season ended on February 11th back in 2017. Kimble’s also proven himself as an efficient shooter his freshman year (he knocked down 41.9% of his threes in conference play), but his numbers from the outside certainly took a hit with increased shooting attempts his sophomore year.

What He’ll Do

Expectations may be all over the place for Lamarr Kimble. It’s crazy to think that the redshirt junior has only played one basketball game since February 11th, 2017. It may take SJU’s point guard some time to get back into the groove of things. The Hawks should be a competitive team in this year’s Atlantic 10 race, and Kimble’s contributions will certainly tell how high the Hawks will finish in the league standings. There is no Shavar Newkirk in the lineup this season, so more weight will be placed on Kimble’s shoulders. However, Kimble has freshman point guard Jared Bynum coming into the mix, and he should be a star in the making.

We could see Kimble or Bynum flip flop between the 1 and the 2 depending on who’s more comfortable in each role as the season progresses. Kimble’s excellent court vision will be enhanced by scorers he hasn’t had extensive time playing with yet — notably, sharpshooter Taylor Funk will undoubtedly be on the receiving end of some Lamarr Kimble dimes in 2018-19. Charlie Brown will be back in the mix as well, meaning Kimble can ease back into things if need be — that is, assuming Brown doesn’t have any setbacks from his season-ending injury last year. All in all, it’s going to be a fun season for the Hawks as long as they stay healthy, and unfortunately, that has been an issue these past few years. However, this team certainly has the talent to make significant noise in an up-in-the-air Atlantic 10 conference.

Previously: #15 Eric Williams Jr.