Villanova Basketball Preview 2013: Kris Jenkins

Hometown: Upper Marlboro, MD

High School: Gonzaga

Height: 6'6"

Weight: 255

2012-13 Stat Line

Kris Jenkins, at 6-6, is an undersized power forward who is developing the tools to play on the perimeter while at Villanova. If that sounds familiar, it should, since it is substantially the same story as JayVaughn Pinkston -- not to sound like Jon Rothstein, but while the two Villanova forwards may diverge stylistically on the court, they share a similar story. Both were bulky-bodies without extreme height, who battled in the post in high school, and both have shed pounds to make it at Villanova.

He had offers from Clemson, Miami (FL), Rutgers and Xavier, but followed DC league rival Josh Hart to the Main Line. As a high school senior, he averaged 18.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.3 steals per game on his way to 2012-13 All-Met Player of the Year honors from the Washington Post.

While he is classified as a power forward, Jenkins feels plenty comfortable on the perimeter as well. He could make his biggest contribution as a freshman by making buckets from beyond the arc; he may be Villanova's best marksman. He'll be fighting against James Bell, Pinkston and bigger guards like Darrun Hilliard or Josh Hart to get on the court otherwise.

Basketball is in Jenkins' blood. His mother is an assistant basketball coach for the Jackson State women's team. She sent him away from home to live with Nate and Melody Britt (parents of fellow DC-area prep star Nate Britt) in 2007, due to his poor academic performances and tendency to hang with the wrong crowd. The Britts were a good influence on Jenkins though, and living with them helped improve things for Jenkins on and off the court.

Here's Jay Wright on Jenkins:

"Kris brings incredible skill, toughness and great basketball IQ to our team. He comes from a tremendous program with a great coach in Steve Turner. He will be a favorite of the Nova Nation."

Best Case Scenario: The Wildcats, in search of some respect on the perimeter, turn to Jenkins' to lend his sweet stroke to stretch defenders outward. He earns more and more minutes as Wright deploys him as an offensive weapon more and more regularly. He adds some rebounding prowess to the mix and begins to develop as a defensive player over the course of the season.

Worst Case Scenario: Villanova is able to get enough success from deep out of Pinkston and it's myriad of guards and doesn't require as many minutes out of Jenkins. Faced with tougher offensive options than he saw in the DC Catholic League, he needs time to learn the defensive scheme. He gets few minutes as a freshman and is asked to develop and learn in practice and limited game minutes, and likely to make his first big splash as a sophomore.

The Wisdom of Crowds Returns

We are pleased to bring back our Wisdom of Crowds experiment for the 2013-2014 season. In this series, we ask that you consider the points raised in our player preview and your own personal insights and instincts to predict the points per game each scholarship player on the roster we score in the upcoming season.

Kris Jenkins is one of three scholarship freshman on the squad, so we don't have the benefit of prior year stats as a basis for our scoring predication. To the extent that history is any guide, here's a sample of the scoring averages of past Villanova forwards during their freshman campaigns:

• Daniel Ochefu - 3.5 PPG
• JayVaughn Pinkston - 9.6 PPG
• Mouphtaou Yarou - 4.5 PPG
• Isaiah Armwood - 2.3 PPG
• Antonio Pena - 6.9 PPG

What do you think the upcoming season holds for Kris? Use the voting buttons below to predict the points per game you think he will score this year. We'd love to understand your thinking, so try to post a comment to tell us how you arrived at your prediction.