Make no mistake: Kon Knueppel can shoot, but he’s not a shooter.
Knueppel arrived at Duke with the reputation as one of the top three-point threats in the freshman class, and he lived up to it as a freshman. Only four players in the ACC made more threes, and Knuppel led the league in accuracy at the free throw line.
But shooters are soft, spotting up outside and waiting for someone to get them the ball, or get them open with a screen.
That’s not Kon Knueppel.
“I’d love to coach Knueppel,” said Kelvin Sampson, whose Houston team is the farthest thing from soft in college hoops. “He plays hard, tough, smart.”
Duke coach Jon Scheyer struggled to think of anyone who’d hit the floor diving for more loose balls than Knueppel.
“He’s up there for sure,” he said. “The cool part, I was talking to Kon about it earlier this season, and he was talking about growing up, his dad would never talk to him about scoring points, wouldn’t talk about making shots. It would be about rebounding and taking charges. Obviously that lends itself to putting your body on the line, and he’s got a knack for it. Just you feel when there’s a scrum, you feel confident that Knueppel is going to come up with the ball. It’s fun to coach guys like that.”
He also is more than willing to drive to the rim, often against a defense expecting him to stay put, like … well … a shooter.
“I remember hearing about Kon earlier in high school, and then I got to see him in person,” said Scheyer. “I just saw his ability to create shots for himself, and then I saw his ability to really guard. Most importantly, I saw what a competitor he was. I left and I just said, all right, I don’t care, man, he belongs at Duke. Our staff from that point on, it was just all-out to do whatever to get him to come to Duke.”
