Chaminade head coach Bryan Cantwell provides insight on K.J. Simpson

Bryan Cantwell is the head men's basketball coach at Chaminade College Preparatory High School in West Hills, Calif.

Led by senior point guard K.J. Simpson, who recently committed to Colorado after being granted a release from his NLI to Arizona in the aftermath of the Sean Miller firing, the Eagles are off to a 10-1 start in their COVID-19-make-up spring season.

Cantwell had loads of good insight to provide on Colorado's incoming four-star asset.

With Simpson set to immediately enter the conversation around who will be seeing action at point guard for the Buffs in 2021-2022, along with graduate transfer Mason Faulkner and redshirt freshman Keeshawn Barthelemy, Cantwell broke down what fans can expect out of the 6-foot-3, 180-pound blue chipper.

For starters, Simpson sounds like a hard worker.

“On the court, he is all business," Cantwell said. "He is after it all the time, nonstop. He is intense and is going to make you go hard in practice. You could be his closest friend in the world but he’s going to dig into you about practicing harder and playing harder. He’s a good leader on the court that way.”

As Colorado heads into its first season without four-year starter McKinley Wright IV running the show on offense, this upcoming preseason will contain within it a trial and error period to see how the aforementioned three candidates fit in at point guard vs. more of a shooting guard role.

Barthelemy is the one returning player with experience in Colorado's system.

Faulkner and Simpson, while they'll have to learn the ropes in Boulder, also have more of a pure point guard background.

Cantwell could see it going either way in Simpson's case, with respect to him fitting in at the point guard vs. 2-guard.

“He can do either or but once he gets there and (coaches) see in-person and in practice how fast he is getting the ball down the floor — he’s an attacking, scoring guard," Cantwell said. "He’s not a traditional, 20 or 30-years ago point guard that comes up, calls a play, distributes, etc. That’s not him. He’s a scoring guard and better at scoring than he is at shooting."

In other words, the way Cantwell described him, Simpson sounds like he's most at home when he has the ability to be aggressive and drive to the net.

Barthelemy was a pupil under Wright IV, a point guard with very good ball distribution instincts, for two seasons.

In 2020-2021, his first season playing with the Buffs following his redshirt campaign the prior year, Barthelemy averaged just over 11 minutes per game, contributing on average 3.7 points per game while posting a respectable 1.91 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Faulkner never quite had the assists numbers in his four years of college hoops (two at Northern Kentucky, where he was used sparingly off the bench, and two at Western Carolina) that Wright IV did — although he did average 6.1 APG as a junior at Western Carolina.

But conversely, if any of the three players look the part of being able to transition the smoothest to the 2-guard, it may well be Faulkner, who posted a 43% make rate from the floor in two seasons at Western Carolina, while hitting 33% of his three-pointers in that span.

That all being said, there will be plenty of time to figure all of that out as the Buffs assemble back in Boulder over the summer to begin conditioning and workouts.

"His shooting his improving tremendously — he works on it all the time — but he’s not a pure shooter, he’s a pure scorer," Cantwell said of Simpson. "He’ll take it right down the middle and try to dunk on a 7-footer or he’ll take it down the middle where he does a behind the back thing with the ball or Eurostep around a guy."

"He’s a rebounding guard who gets a lot of offensive boards. He’s a ball hawk and a guy who’s just a scorer. If you have a traditional point guard also with him at the 2, then you’ve got two legitimate point guards going, which makes them stronger in transition. That’s what he’s very good at.”

While Cantwell was complimentary about Simpson's ability to drive and attack the rim, he admitted that continuing to do so will be a major area of adjustment upon getting to college.

Already, opposing defenses he faces now are regularly double-teaming him, something he usually is able to battle past, but when he starts playing Pac-12 basketball, it may well become apparent quickly that he won't be able to do so with such ease.

Cantwell identified Simpson's need to be able to identify when a double-team is coming and react accordingly as something that'll challenge him in the college ranks.

"He does a good job of it now, but he’s still so easily able to beat doubles," Cantwell said. "He finds the open guy, but he’s able to elevate over people all the time. There’s not always, 6-foot-8, 6-foot-9, 6-foot-10 guys in the middle of the lane when he penetrates right now — sometimes there is — but knowing that’s all the time going to be going on and then within the flow, finding the open guy, it won’t be as easy to score in the half court offense as it is in high school for him."

More from Bryan Cantwell on K.J. Simpson below:

“He has no problem at all shooting the three on people, but a lot of times, what (opponents) are doing now, right now in high school at least, is they’re running doubles on him. He’s getting a double most of the time but is able to find the open guy."

"He’s probably averaging seven assists per game this year, which is a high for him. (In years past) he would just go score. Now, he’s finding the open guys because the defenses people are running (to stop) him. But he can definitely shoot the three from outside."

"His mid-range (shot) is great but he doesn’t often not go to the basket because he can. Obviously, that’s going to change at Colorado — he’s not going to be able to just blow by everybody — but coming off screens and hitting screens, he’s fine."

“When you go watch club events and travel ball, there’s not a lot of defense being played — not when K.J.’s playing. He gets up into dudes. He doesn’t care who’s playing. He is up, playing hard and in your grill the whole game and at these travel events, some of these high-level players will get frustrated because they’re not used to it at the travel level. Same at the high school level — he gets into their guys nonstop."

"He can move down and guard a 6-foot-6 or 6-foot-7 kid on the block if he needs to. Also, if they put a smaller guard on him, you put him in the post in the offensive end. Or, if they put a bigger guy on him, you can keep him outside. So, defensively, he gets into (players), he doesn’t foul, he moves his feet — he’s nonstop."

"One of the things that was attractive to him for coach Boyle was the defensive part of it and the attacking part of it from defensive rebounding to the other side of the court in seconds, pushing the ball so quickly.”

“That is one of the big reasons that this was such a smooth transition and easy transition when everything went down. Colorado was in his Final 3 the first time and it was very hard for K.J. to call coach Boyle and say that he decided to go to Arizona. It was tough for him to do."

"Coach Boyle says something to the effect of: ‘K.J., if anything happens in the future, we’re still here for you. We love you, your family, everything about you, so if something happens, we’ll be the the first ones to get back ahold of you so that you know that we truly want you to be a part of this family and this program.’"

"Other coaches (were like) ‘Okay, whatever, thanks, bye.’ One in particular, I won’t say who it is, but he called — didn’t even say hello when he called — and I said ‘Hey, coach how’s it going?’ and he just said ‘How’d we lose him? What the hell?’ Whereas, coach Boyle and Bill Grier — they’re just great guys.”