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March 30, 2011

Some Khem Birch Stuff

Filed under: Basketball,Recruiting — Chas @ 11:33 am

Take a running start from about 40 feet away from something above your head. When you get close, jump up to slap it. Now, go back and try that again with an eyepatch over one eye. See how fast you are willing to go to and how accurate you are. That’s kind of what Khem Birch was trying for Monday night’s dunk contest at the McDonald’s All-American game festivities.

Khem Birch, a 6-9 F who is originally from Canada but played his HS ball in Massachusetts and is committed to play at Pittsburgh next year, took an inadvertent shot to the eye which caused some bleeding and swelling. He was scheduled to be in the dunk contest and was thought to be a late scratch but still managed to gut it out with a bandage above his left eye.

I was surprised when the announcers failed to mention his injury, but really disappointed by the number of readers on the site who decided to pass judgment on Birch based on the dunk attempts and not the slightest bit aware of what happened to him during team practices earlier that day.

Canada seems to be taking great joy in having 3 native sons (of sorts) in the McDonald’s All-American Game. Khem Birch is the newest to the game.

Birch, 18, by his own estimation is raw, having played just five years of basketball on a six-foot-nine body.

“He’s freakishly athletic,” [Canada’s men’s basketball coach Leo] Rautins explains. “He can be right there with you and next thing his elbows are above the rim. His upside is tremendous. I don’t think he has scratched the surface of his potential as yet.” Birch has a scholarship to Pittsburgh.

Birch is also the most reserved/shy player amongst the Canadians.

Birch, who is Kabongo’s polar opposite in that he’s much more quiet and reserved, said, nevertheless, he is still having fun.

“I’m getting used to it,” Birch said of dealing with the media crush.

Birch is not from Toronto — where a lot of the best Candadian players have been emerging — but he might have the highest ceiling.

“I think his game, of all of (Canada’s long list of elite prospects), he’s not even scratching the surface yet,” Rautins said.

“As he learns to put the ball on the floor, shoot the ball away from the basket, his game is just going to expand.”

Rautins believes Birch could be a deadly small forward if he rounds out the offensive aspects of his game since he is a little under-sized to play power forward at the highest level.

“I hope he has the opportunity where they work on those aspects with him (at Pitt), because he’s more of a three (small forward) size-wise, so you’d hope to see him go in that direction.”

Rautins added that it often takes a few minutes for an observer to realize just how good Birch is right now.

“Khem’s just sneaky. It’s easy to sleep on him, then all of a sudden, his head is at the rim. He’s blocking shots, dunking.

He’s deceptively quick and jumps deceptively high.”

The 18-year-old helped Canada win a bronze medal at the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship last summer, finishing second in the tournament in blocks and fifth in rebounding and also led Canada to third place at the Nike Global Challenge, winning international MVP.

Birch, who describes himself as, “laid-back, chill,” comes from a basketball family — both his parents played the game — but was never pressured to hit the hardwood himself.

The McDonald’s game airs at 10pm on ESPN. Can we all agree in advance not to read too much into this?





There’s a term a bunch of my Pitt alum friends and I use to describe what transpired with Birch the other night, with the basketball team last week and with the football program:

“Pittdom”

Comment by steve 03.30.11 @ 12:31 pm

Will Sean Miller come home if Dixon leaves.

Comment by FRANKCAN 03.30.11 @ 12:40 pm

Good point — and by all means, let’s judge all players based on their ability to perform circus dunks. Then we can finally compete for the coveted ‘And 1’ title next year.

Comment by Ghost of Hornman 03.30.11 @ 12:42 pm

Hey Blake Griffin jumped over a car at the NBA contest…How bout them LA Clippers!! Oh wait what they are 3rd to last in the Western division?….Oh I guess dunk contests don’t matter after all

Comment by BCPITT 03.30.11 @ 1:45 pm

Dante Taylor won the skills competition the year he was in the McDonalds AA game. Nuff said…

Comment by Fred 03.30.11 @ 2:24 pm

The only dunking ability I am actually impressed with is Perry Jones of Baylor, who can reportedly get to the rim from 1/2 court (with a running start) and dunk off a single dribble. That could also come in handy if anyone needs to leap to manually adjust the overhead scoreboard midgame.

Comment by Ghost of Hornman 03.30.11 @ 2:31 pm

Well Pitt does have that #1 ranking of the Greatest College Dunks of all time that they need to hang on to so I for one am glad we landed such an accomplished dunker.
link to rivals.yahoo.com

Comment by milo bllom 03.30.11 @ 2:49 pm

This is a glorified pick up game…don’t read into anything!

Comment by Pauly P 03.30.11 @ 3:18 pm

The curse of Pitt Basketball is upon Khem

Comment by Dan 72 03.30.11 @ 3:40 pm

Send it home Jerome!

Comment by Ghost of Hornman 03.30.11 @ 4:07 pm

Yes, We Pitt fans have already seen the greatest dunk ever. So any other dunks are only competing for runner-up status. About the program, I happy with it as it is, but it would terrific to add about 6 more wins after the Big East Tournament

Comment by Justinian 03.30.11 @ 6:03 pm

link to postgazette.com

Jaylen Bond is going to prep school next year.

This is good news, ONLY IF YOUR NAME IS JJ Richardson. They were overloaded at the PF spot next year. Don’t blame the kid. Kind of stinks to loose talent though. Would rather have seen JJ move on to where he belongs, mid major or D2.

Comment by boubacar aw 03.30.11 @ 9:16 pm

Khem Birch looked good around the basket had a nice block did some nice things but is raw i think he will be at pitt for 2 or 3 years not ready for NBA but you can see he will be very good for pitt and will end up a pro but not for years needs work but talent is there needs lots of work on his D but dixon will fix that at half time i think he had 5 points 2 rb and 1 block

Comment by FRANKCAN 03.30.11 @ 11:28 pm

definitely not NBA ready…had more than one block that I saw…looked very smooth on foulshots which is a HUGE plus….very athletic…will get stronger at Pitt
miserable game to even try to judge kids on, the guards play so selfish that the 5 minutes I watched were unbearable…it would be awful to be a big man in that game, especially on Austin Rivers team.

Comment by OntarioLett'sGoPitt 03.31.11 @ 12:35 am

Ontario, I noticed that as well. They shouldn’t have invited any big men. The only way they got the ball was alley-oops or rebounds. Birch looked good on defense and seems to be a good shot-blocker. His free-throw shooting was quite shocking for a big man. I’m hoping he lives up to the hype.

Comment by Pitt Rob 03.31.11 @ 1:26 am

Agree with Ontario that it’s hard to tell anything from a game like that, and I always reserve judgment for when these HS phenoms start playing with the big boys. He is still raw and needs to add some muscle. But, Birch was impressive nonetheless.

His stat line: 15 pts. 10 rebounds and 6 blocks. The two most impressive things there were that 9 of his 10 rebounds were on offense and the block total tied for 2nd all-time. He was also only one of two players with a double-double. The other was one of the co-MVPs, Gilchrist.

He has outstanding athleticism and a good motor. The kid was all over the floor and especially around the glass. Thanks Pat Skerry! I think we got us a good one in the making.

Agree on Rivers too. Looked like he was trying to live up to all the ESPN hype and ended up looking more like a ball hog who cost his team the game.

Comment by TampaT 03.31.11 @ 8:24 am

Impressed with Birch. Far from a finished product, I think we’ll get two years out of him.

Very quick leaper
Great fleet feet
Can run up and down the court
Natural shot blocker
decent looking free throw shooter
Very long arms, bothers a lot of shots

Didn’t see much in terms of offensive ability, other than dunking. Looked like a bean pole. Not sure how he will handle some of the MEN in the big east paint.

He looks like he has the ability to play defense on the perimeter. Something that Pitt hasn’t had in a center in a long, long time. He has the mobility to play the high ball screen. He is quick enough and long enough to bother the big guys who like to step up and hit jumpers.

Dante better hit the weights and work on his game. I can see Khem giving him a real run for his money at center. Birch is twice the athlete. I hope Jamie gives him some time at forward too.

Comment by boubacar aw 03.31.11 @ 9:05 am

I think it is funny that one of his old coaches says he would be a deadly Small Forward, but many are projecting him as a center. Dante will continue to develop…If Jamie Dixon + Co have proved one thing it is that they can develop the crap out of big men (Aaron Gray + Gary McGee both complete messes when they came to Pitt). Jamie loves to use undersized kids at PF (Nas Robinson + Sam Young before his senior year) so I can’t imagine him putting a 6’8/6’9 kid as SF, it will be interesting to see how the minutes get dolled out next year

Comment by BCPITT 03.31.11 @ 9:41 am

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