Ellender’s Talbot will be a hidden gem for La. Tech

I love to be right.

Heck, what warm-blooded American male doesn’t?

But when I’m wrong, I am the first person to stand up and shout to the world that I am a dummy – a true dunce of epic proportions.

Sure, I might grit my teeth while I’m doing the yelling. Heck, I probably will even bad-mouth the person (behind their back, of course) after I leave the scene for proving my decision making to be utterly inept.

But I always do take my medicine and chew on a hearty dose of crow when I am wrong.

Right now is one of those moments.

Ellender High School center Gibby Talbot fooled me. Not just a little bit, either. Talbot bluffed me big-time.

So with that in mind, it is my purpose to dedicate this column to saying what I wouldn’t have said two years ago: Talbot is an absolute steal in the 2012 recruiting class and Louisiana Tech is getting a guy who could be a difference maker at the college level if given the proper grooming and coaching.

When I first arrived back in this area out of college in Dec. 2009, the basketball season was just revving up.

I went to an Ellender game a few weeks later and it was easy to see that they had the biggest kid on the floor – Talbot.

But this big kid was not exactly dominating the block, nor having the success one would expect a close to 7-foot prospect to have.

Talbot was not remarkably coordinated early in his prep basketball career. He simply didn’t know the game as well as more experienced players around him did and, as a result, he couldn’t quite make the most of his size and strength.

These are not just the observations of an overly critical columnist. He’s the first person to admit that my scouting report is more than true.

“When I first started playing, honestly, I could barely dribble a basketball,” Talbot said. “I didn’t have a lot of the natural skills that I needed, except for the size.”

Talbot was just a sophomore at the time, and I’ve seen first-hand the progression individual players can make with just a little bit of seasoning.

But Talbot needed too much polish (in my eyes) to become a legitimate threat.

So for those reasons, I wrote the prospect off and didn’t ever expect to see him blossom into an elite, top-tier player.

This is where I was wrong, and the story takes its turn.

In Talbot’s junior season, things got better and he really started to progress more as a player.

As a result, the Patriots started to feature him a bit more in the offense and he was slowly garnering a reputation as a formidable player.

As a junior, Talbot averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds for Ellender, who advanced to the second round of the LHSAA Class 4A State Playoffs.

But even with his increased success, Talbot still didn’t have the touch around the basket that he needed to take the next step.

Likewise, he still was a little pudgy around the mid-section. He sometimes struggled to get up and down the floor in Ellender’s up-tempo offense and didn’t have the impact that one would truly expect from a man built like a monster on the floor.

I left Talbot’s junior season thoroughly impressed, but still not fully convinced that he could make enough progression in one offseason to take the leap from good to great.

Again, I was wrong.

Insert local trainer Damond Bateast into the mix.

He turned Talbot into nothing short of a monster.

I spent some time in Ellender’s gym last summer watching Talbot and Bateast train.

They worked hard.

Super, super hard.

The trainer taught Talbot conditioning – he trimmed baby fat and molded it into muscle.

Gibby now stands 6-feet, 10-inches and weighs close to 265 pounds. It’s a figure that is absolutely scary – reminiscent to Godzilla on steroids.

In addition to getting Talbot’s body in the right shape, Bateast, combined with Patriots coach Scott Gauthreaux, also taught Talbot the game of basketball.

Where Gibby was once just the big kid taking up space, he is now a true center.

His hands are above average – he now catches every entry pass in the post with ease and snags down rebounds without effort.

His touch around the basket is now soft. Early in Talbot’s career, he’d miss open looks. Now, he is able to utilize effective post moves to flip the ball softly into the hoop.

Bateast also added range to Talbot’s game. Gibby can now go out and shoot mid-range jumpers.

He was one of Ellender’s best free throw shooters all throughout the season.

If an opponent gets daring, he can even spot up from behind the 3-point line.

All of it added up equaled 25 points and 15 rebounds per game as a senior – easily the best numbers of any center in Louisiana.

What serves as the icing on the cake is that Talbot is still just a puppy in his progress.

With the right college coaching, who knows how good this kid might end up being?

I like to be right just as much as anyone else.

But I was dead wrong about Talbot.

The player he is today, compared to two years ago, is remarkable.

At this rate of progression, it’s easy to see that Louisiana Tech just may have landed the steal of the 2012 recruiting class.