BYU Basketball Player Profile: Jordan Chatman looks to follow in his father's footsteps

The last name of Chatman is one that many Cougar fans remember. That is, they remember the former version of a Chatman in BYU blue, as in Jeff Chatman. Jeff — the father of Jordan, a freshman point guard on this year's team — played for BYU from 1984-1988, racking up 1,788 career points, good for seventh on the BYU all-time scoring list. Quite the name to live up to right?

Now, I don't mention this to make people think that Jordan is going to come in and do everything his dad did. First off, Jordan has a totally different body and style of play than his father. Jeff was an undersized post player who only took three 3-point shots his whole career. Jordan is a smooth combo guard that will probably do most of his offensive damage from the outside. Personally, I would love to see him improve upon his father's career, especially because that means that we would be watching another BYU great in the making.

What do we actually know about Jordan? He was the 2012 Gatorade Player of the Year in Washington state. He averaged 20 points, 6 rebounds and almost 3 assists per game during his senior year. He has a very good release and was able to get his shot off seemingly at will in high school. He is very long for a guard. His high school team ran a full-court press and used him in the middle of the floor, daring teams to try and throw over him. He has good timing and a great awareness of what is going on around him on the court. (Granted, the videos I found are dating back to 2012 as he served a mission to Taiwan right after high school.)

We have now seen Jordan play in two live basketball situations since returning to the United States. In both, he showed his inexperience. In the Cougar Tip-off, he hit a deep three and played a little point guard but mostly played off ball. In both that scrimmage and the first exhibition game against Colorado School of Mines, he got beat badly on back cuts. I think that was due more to not playing live basketball for over two years rather than a lack of effort or skill. Another thing to remember is that he is coming off a knee injury and it might take him a little while to trust his knee going full speed.

It will be interesting to see exactly how Jordan is used during this season. With Jake Toolson looking like he could play some quality minutes on the wing, and obviously with Tyler Haws, Kyle Collinsworth, Frank Bartley IV, Anson Winder and Skyler Halford all returning, it looks like the majority of the wing minutes are taken. If he is going to play he would have a better chance at playing point guard, where it looks like Jordan Ellis is the only point guard on the roster other than Kyle Collinsworth. However, if he can't crack the regular lineup, it could be a good idea for Dave Rose to let him redshirt and get comfortable with the speed of the game and allow his body to acclimate to playing again.