I first saw Simeon Wilcher (“Sim”) at the 2023 HoopHall Classic.

It was January of his senior season at Roselle Catholic High School (NJ). He was running point guard, committed to North Carolina at the time, playing alongside Mackenzie Mgbako and others.

After the season, Sim flipped his commitment from Carolina to St. John’s, where I saw him play live three times as a freshman and 10 times as a sophomore.

From the beginning, the thing that stood out wasn’t production—it was traits.

At 6-foot-4 with long arms, quickness, and crafty ball handling, Wilcher immediately looked like a natural lead guard who makes things happen with the ball. Even in limited minutes as a freshman—on a veteran-heavy roster under Coach Pitino—he brought a level of burst and creation that no one else on the team really had.

Wilcher averaged just 9 minutes per game, but the flashes were consistent: a blow-by drive, a pull-up jumper, a clean separation move. He wasn’t fully formed yet, but the talent and potential upside were obvious.

That team played through Joel Soriano, and the backcourt—filled with new players—never gelled, while Daniss Jenkins was trusted with the ball for most of the game. Wilcher’s role stayed small, and the team came together late, but not enough to make the Tournament.

Sophomore year, Sim was part of a loaded St. John’s group that was ranked in the top 15 for most of the season. He started 25 of 36 games, averaging 8 PPG, 2 RPG, and 1 SPG in 25 minutes. His talent was still evident—but again, in a limited role. He was sharing the floor with Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis, Deivon Smith (a ball-dominant guard), and Kadary Richmond. It was a crowded backcourt.

When his sophomore season ended and those guards departed, it felt obvious that Wilcher would finally get his chance to run the point. He’d already done it in high school, and more importantly, playing him off the ball simply hadn’t maximized his game. The team had success, but Wilcher was settling into a role that didn’t fit. He needed to develop his game—a game that wouldn’t develop without on-ball reps.

This is a guy who shares traits with guards like Elfrid Payton and Bez Mbeng—quick-twitch athletes who defend, get into the paint, and impact the game with the ball in their hands. Those guys were not growing their games in college playing off the ball. Sim doesn’t have the same physical strength or length that Payton had, and he’s not the defensive stalwart Mbeng was. But the through-line is clear: he’s smooth and quick with long strides, gets to the rim at will, creates off the dribble, shoots it, locks up defensively, switches everything, fights through screens, has good court vision, and has a propensity to make positive things happen in the open court.

Those types of guys don’t develop playing off the ball.

So when St. John’s’ veteran guards departed after his sophomore season, it felt like a chance for Sim to finally step into a true point guard role.

Instead, St. John’s brought in a different guard corps, and Sim transferred to Texas last summer.

At Texas, once again, his role didn’t match his game. In 36 games, he averaged 5.6 points, 1.7 assists, and 1.8 rebounds in 18.6 minutes per game, while starting just one game after starting 25 the year prior at St. John’s.

The fit wasn’t great mostly because of Texas’ style of play. Their half-court offense predominantly consisted of:

Empty-side pick-and-rolls and isolations for wings Dailyn Swain and Tramon Mark
DHO-heavy actions flowing into Swain and Mark
Interior touches for Matas Vokietaitis

Within Texas’ structure, Swain and Mark became the primary creators. I don’t necessarily fault it, though, because multiple things were true at the same time. Swain, in particular, understandably needed the ball on the perimeter, as teams would often send help when he caught it in the mid-post. But that same structure places a premium on wing creation, not the point guard orchestration that Wilcher needs.

And the effect was direct: Wilcher became a secondary piece instead of a driver of offense. Furthermore, when you consider he wasn’t the catch-and-shoot threat Jordan Pope was, or the DHO straight-line-driver Chendall Weaver was, Wilcher essentially didn’t fit at all.

An offense run through isolations and pick-and-rolls for wing players isn’t the right system for Wilcher, who is better suited to run PG with shooters on the wings (like he had in high school with now-Yale sharpshooter Trevor Mullin) and bigs who are versatile enough to open the painted area for driving lanes.

After one season in Austin, Wilcher has entered the transfer portal again and is now looking for his next opportunity.

Maybe giving Simeon Wilcher the ball and letting him orchestrate isn’t an optimal strategy for a high-major team. He obviously isn’t AJ Dybansta. Nor is he Josh Hubbard in terms of take-over scoring ability. There are real questions about how efficient an offense with Sim at the helm would look over a full season.

That’s valid.

But we’ve also seen what happens when players are put in the right team with the right role.

If Gus Yalden can transfer from Seton Hall to Vermont and ostensibly dominate overnight—going from 2 PPG in 8 MPG to 16 PPG/6 RPG/2 BPG/51% FG with a top-10 usage rate nationally—then there is a place for Sim Wilcher to finally get his chance to run an offense. A place where his job is to create, not defer.

It’s fair to have reservations about Wilcher’s ceiling. It’s fair to question what the efficiency would look like. He could over-dribble at times, slow the offense, or make poor reads. But the truth remains: he hasn’t been given the runway yet.

For someone as good as he can be, that opportunity is warranted.

Poor read: