Player Preview: Jayvaughn Pinkston

This is Part IV of The Nova Blog's pre-season series covering the 2010-2011 team. In case you missed them, please see the links to the players that have already been covered at the conclusion of this post.

Jayvaughn Pinkston, a 6'6" forward from Brooklyn, NY looks the part of BIG EAST veteran, not BIG EAST newcomer. The powerful forward who played his high school ball at Bishop Loughlin is widely known for his bruising style of play, despite being what many would consider undersized for a power forward role.

Pinkston proved the doubters wrong game after game in his senior season, ending it all by becoming his school's first player to be selected to The McDonald's All-American game.

How do we know Pinkston will be a star at Villanova? He's all about business.

"In the end, it's not about individual stuff but getting the 'W.' You take nothing for granted; I did my talking on the court."

More on Jayvaughn after The Jump.

Pinkston wasn't always destined for Villanova however. While Villanova seemed like the likely destination for most of his recruitment, he was at one time all set to become a part of the Tennessee Volunteers.

At the last minute however, Pinkston cancelled the press conference he had scheduled at his school, and a couple of weeks later Tennessee's loss become Villanova's gain.

Pinkston averaged 23 points and 10 rebounds per game his senior year, playing against solid competition in the New York City Catholic League. But what will that success translate into during his freshman campaign?

It's not much of an argument to say that Villanova has some decent options in the frontcourt with Mouphtaou Yarou and Antonio Pena providing a solid front 2, with Isaiah Armwood and Maurice Sutton providing solid depth off the bench. At first glance Pinkston may be a 5th option in the frontcourt.

But according to reports during his senior year, Pinkston's handle and outside shooting touch were greatly improving, leaving many to think he could eventually end up as a SF in college who has the ability to both bang with the bigs down low and play out on the perimeter.

In my opinion, his style of play is going to be hard to keep off the floor, especially now that James Bell may be staring down a redshirt, leaving Jay Wright with just 9 scholarship players available. While many may want to avoid the 10, or even 9-man rotation, Pinkston offers a unique skill-set that will come in handy against teams like the West Virginia Mountaineers and Pittsburgh Panthers, teams known for giving the Wildcats problems in recent years by going with size over speed.

I think you'll see Pinkston early this year, and he'll be a key role player during the brutal BIG EAST season.

• Russell Wooten
• Dallas Ouano
• James Bell