Mixtape Analysis: Steve Moundou-Missi

Not often is there a basketball player referred to by his fans by purely his first name. But at any Harvard home basketball game, one can hear the students roar "STEVEEEEE" as their favorite Cameroonian power forward throws down vicious dunks.

Moundou-Missi has always been aided by the star point guard play of Brandyn Curry and Siyani Chambers, yet a dig into his past reveals all the other sick point guards he’s played with. The investigation also reveals that he’s essentially a super-nerd, but hey, we’re all Harvard students, so is that not to be expected?

The most informative video on his high school experience is a YouTube series called Soar With the Eagles. Steve’s section starts at roughly 3:36, where his coach starts talking about Moundou-Missi’s past athletic and academic career. There were numerous surprises here in this part of the video: he went to Montverde Academy, one of the best basketball prep schools in the entire nation, and he only entered the US early in high school and has only lived in the US for roughly six years. The tape reveals that Moundou-Missi chose Montverde Academy over the number one academic school in France. It makes it all the more fitting that he dominates here at Harvard, both academically and athletically.

In the first actual highlight reel of Steve playing in a little pick-up with his former high school players, we see him doing things we’re used to him doing. Although the film only includes three of his plays, they are, in order, him throwing down an alley-oop on an unsuspecting defender, him blocking Kasey Hill—arguably the best point guard in last year’s recruiting class starting his freshman year at Florida right now—and taking off with two feet just outside the key, cocking it back, and throwing it down with some force. Ugo Okam, a former Harvard varsity basketball player who is currently dominating against law students and undergrads a couple feet shorter than he is in pick-up games, makes a little appearance at 0:50 running the pick portion of the pick and roll.

The final highlight reel is a real treat in itself – it’s a video of Steve during his AAU years in 2010, taken on a grainy, super-janky video recorder that’s well past its prime. The video, however, is definitely not all about Steve. His team also features New Orleans Pelicans 2012 first-round pick Austin Rivers, Dallas Mavericks 2013 first-round pick Shane Larkin, and UNC commit and recent Peach Jam winner (top high school basketball tournament) Joel Berry. Due to the quality of the video, or lack thereof, I can’t quite tell who Steve is, but I’m going to guess he’s number 51, purely based off of his face shape.

At 1:01, he has a strong rebound and left-handed finish. Right after, he faces up the defender in the low post and is able to back him down for a tough bank shot off the glass. At 2:00, we see a relatively weak dunk by Moundou-Missi, so it seems like he’s put on a little muscle and hops since then. We see Moundou-Missi get himself into a tough situation at 2:11, where he gets stopped as he tries to drive one way and spin back for a hook shot. Steve’s able to calmly put a shoulder into the defender to create some separation and flip the ball off the glass with a right handed scoop shot, not something you see all that often from any power forward.

We basketball fans here at Harvard would love to see a little more of that Moundou-Missi post game. We already know the value he creates as a rebounding energy man who gets a lot of easy inside shots, but it’d be interesting to see if he, Kenyatta, Zena, and Kyle Casey can form some sort of dynamic in which they get a lot of high post-low post action going. There is not too much athletic height in this league, and Steve could play an integral part of a decimating interior for the Crimson in this coming year.