You Had Me At Game 1 - My First Impression Of Ja'Kobe Walter

First impressions matter and Baylor Freshman Ja'Kobe Walter knocked it out of the park with his collegiate debut.

Written on November 8, 2023.

Today, Ja’Kobe Walter was going to introduce himself to me

His Baylor side was facing off against Auburn on ESPN so I decided to lock in on the 6’5 Freshman guard and see what he was all about.

Going in I knew his name, he was ranked number 8 in the 2023 ESPN 100 and was someone people consistently brought up when talking about the 2024 Draft and the top Freshmen in the country, so I had to see what the fuss was about.

It was genuinely enjoyable knowing he was a highly rated Freshman but not knowing a heap about his game.

Whatever I was about to see would be my first impressions of him, good or bad

To be honest I don’t think the introduction could have gone better. You could argue that his collegiate debut couldn’t have gone better.

He finished with 28 points, a Baylor Freshman scoring record on debut, on 7/13 FG, 10/10 FT and 4/7 3PT. To cap it off his Bears came from behind to get the win in exciting fashion and there was a big buzz in the stadium as they made their run.

You can watch his full highlights here.

How do you top that?

Forget a great debut, that’s a hell of a game full stop, and could literally be the best one of his college career, which is amusing to think about but I firmly believe it.

Walter wasted no time, his first score for Baylor was a tough pull-up 3 with the face of the defense right there. Ok tough shot, fair play.

4 minutes later, a slick catch and shoot 3 with no hesitation. I’m starting to see the shooting signs now, and it’s a smooth looking jumper at that.

The turning point

The two shots were nice, but it was after them that I’ll call the turning point for me.

Something was said that made really think he might be the full package, it was this quote on air from Fran Fraschilla.

“I’ve been around Baylor basketball for a while, I don’t remember a coaching staff and teammates rave about a young man’s intangibles, character, work ethic… obviously a great talent.”

I absolutely love when people “in the know” talk about a players attitude and personality in a positive light. Everything mentioned above is such a big tick of the box from a personal side of things.

“He is their hardest working player in the game.” Fran finished with.

Tick tick.

It’s one thing to be said for raw talent, raw athleticism and basketball skill, but if you add a good head on those shoulders it can be a game changer.

Speaking of characteristics, Ja’Kobe looked completely unafraid. Unafraid of the moment (being his debut), unafraid of taking the shot and lastly, unafraid of attacking the paint even when it didn’t work out for him a moment ago. 

Building character

There was a moment in the second half where Walter attacked the basket and jumped into the body of the defender, but the Auburn defense won the battle, a wall of verticality that lead to Ja’Kobe sitting on the floor after a no-call. Didn’t matter, he received the in-bound pass, sized up the opposition again and attacked the paint for a tough layup.

It’s moments like these, little plays that happen that show someone’s character. This play screamed competitor, someone that wasn’t going to back down, but also someone that isn’t reckless with it either.

My favourite play of the game was a great one

Oh, have I mentioned my favourite play of the game yet?

Start of the second half, Walter gets the rock and over dribbles maybe a bit, but it didn’t matter as he hits the tough, step-through floater plus the foul.

Nice.

But this is where my Ja’Kobe fandom lifts a notch.

Baylor are in a full court press, Walter’s on the ball applying pressure, gets the steal by knocking it out of the oppositions hands to his teammate, Walter gets the rock back and dribbles into a pull-up 3, cash.

A buzz hits the stadium.

He’s loving it, as are his teammates, as are the commentators who are continuing to sing his praise. The cherry on top was Ja’Kobe hitting the 3 and smoothly pulling out the Jalen Brunson 3 fingers over his face celebration which was a highlight for mine.

Just a terrific sequence, and one that I’m sure will be shown a lot when any media outlet runs “Ja’Kobe Walter Baylor Highlights”.

Is he just a scorer and that’s it?

I have only talked about offense so far because that was easily the main attraction to this game for Walter, well more specifically, scoring.

He didn’t have a single assist in this game but that actually sounds worse than what you are probably picturing right now.

Freshman comes in, wants to be the man, focuses on scoring only, plays a borderline selfish brand of basketball and is all smiles afterwards as it paid off with the win.

That’s not the case. He came across as a willing passer, he wasn’t out there forcing shots by any means, he looked more than happy to keep the offense flowing by moving the rock which was encouraging to see. I’m not sure what his playmaking ability is like yet but time will tell.

I walked away pretty impressed with the defensive side of things, too

Now defense, he looks like he can defend pretty well on first look. He looked to be able to stay in front of his man and use his length to make life pretty difficult for them.

The thing that stood out to me on this end was his transition defense. He made smart defensive plays here. Not overcommitting when Auburn players were attacking the rim in transition, playing it smart and just going straight up with it. It’s good defense.

He also read one transition movement in advance and set himself up quite early for the charge and got the call. Again, these little moments that build faith and confidence in who he is as a player. The ability to read the floor well.

Walter hustles too, there were multiple plays where he battled for the loose ball and fought for his side. He certainly wasn’t the type of player that had me questioning whether his head was in it all the time. Fran Fraschilla’s comments on his work ethic again reassured my thoughts on this.

It was an honour to meet you, Ja’Kobe

My first impressions on Ja’Kobe Walter are super positive, I couldn’t have picked a better game to judge a guy off of really.

The talent was there, the confidence, the competitiveness, the intelligent play, the aggression and investment into the game, what more could you ask for?

Watching a highly ranked player for the first time always gives me a buzz. It’s like you’re discovering a player before they have been discovered.

Nobody knows what they will turn into, you’re finding out as you go and that’s a different kind of enjoyment I feel.

“The beautiful thing about college basketball is that you can watch stars in the making.”

Beautifully said Fran, beautifully said.