Welcome to Senior Send-Off! This is a series where we highlight the seniors that we covered or watched extensively throughout their senior season. Check out our Instagram to see the graphics and phone backgrounds made for each player. Previous Senior Send-Off pieces are here.
What does he bring?
Deuce Turner has a very high level of offensive skill and an even higher IQ. He became the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Inter-Ac League with 2,452 points. Even as a freshman, he put up an average of 19.1 points per game. His ball-handling ability is second to none. Since he’s such a deadly force on offense he attracts every defender in the vicinity which allows him to distribute in a big way. Even in the midst of double-teams or the defense collapsing on him as he drives into the lane, he’s able to both find the open man and finish in traffic. In his final season at Malvern Prep, he was voted as the PA Class 5A Player of the Year and led his team to the Independent School’s State Tournament championship game.
What can we expect from Bucknell?
Bucknell took a bit of a step back from what they became accustomed to in the Patriot League. More often than not, they’ve been at the top of the conference standings, but last season they came in at seventh with an 8-10 conference record and a 14-20 record overall. A few of their brightest spots were their shot-blocking ability, three-point shooting, and steals. They ranked third, second, and second respectively in the Patriot League in those categories. Where they came up short was overall scoring, rebounding, and ball movement. Avi Toomer, one of their two leading guards beside Jimmy Sotos, is graduating with Andrew Funk ready to step up and take his place. While these three are solid players in their own right, not one of the three averaged more than 12 points nor 4 assists per game. The rest of the team is quite young, and there will surely be minutes up for grabs.
Prediction
Deuce Turner will have more than a good chance to compete for big minutes. As the team is still in a “rebuilding” phase, Turner will have plenty of opportunities this coming season. Since scoring and distributing are two of the biggest needs for this team, that only means great things for Turner. By the end of the season, Turner will have either become a starter or receive the starter type of minutes.
