By definition an elite stretch 4 should be able to stretch the floor AND guard other bigs/the rim. Our best teams had them:
Big strong quick 4s bothered Alex. Stewart is going to be a defensive upgrade. Better shot blocker, much quicker. By next year probably as strong. I’m not worried about slow beefy post 4s because they won’t be able to guard our guys. Stewart can flex 3-4. I’m not sure the others can. McNeeley will be a 3.
Not sure I really agree with that, but in any event Karaban averaged 1.0 and 1.1 blocks per 40 minutes and Stewart was at 0.7 so not a huge difference in those guys for me
Why? The game isn't played like that anymore.
No team is going to win a basketball game in the year of our Lord 2024 by having their 4 overpower your 4 for 40 minutes.
The problem, or one of the problems besides skill set, is that he projects as a pro 3, not a 4 (probably not even as a combo fwd). If you want to attract and retain 5* talent you don't take them out of their most likely pro role. Can he play some 4 here and there sure, but it opens up a can of worms other than on court stuff. As far as on court, he would get bullyballed on the block by an average 22yr power forward. He's going to likely be expected to score from the get go. Playing him out of position defensively could lead to unnecessary fouls and get counterproductive real fast.
People said that about Adama’s game. He overpowered everyone.
He also had elite footwork and knew how to use angles. It wasn’t just overpowering guys
And he did that playing the 5, not the 4. Besides the fact that our offense took off when we stopped force feeding him the ball in the post and he started shooting 3's
Guy was a total stud. 250+ lbs, 9' standing reach. What else do you want?!
The angst of Karaban not being big enough and strong enough at the 4 resulted in 2 Nattys.
Little premature to say they all should return. It’s May and the new players aren’t even on campus yet
Let’s see how Kansas does this year. They brought in a bunch of me first type players who all need the ball.
That's not necessarily true, it happens. For example Bryce Hopkins abusing Freshman Karaban in Providence in our loss there in January '23. That mismatch was the biggest key to PC's victory. However, I agree overall that over a season other attributes of a "modern" 4 are enough to win a lot, an example there would be this year that kid Reneau on Indiana really gave us a ton of trouble. We still killed them, but we couldn't handle him at all. As always, there is not one way to get this done. Good teams exploit mismatches on a game to game basis. Different rosters present different mismatch opportunities. If the last two natty squads had any soft spot defensively that showed itself to be consistently exploitable, it was handling skilled, physical 4 men who preferred to bang inside the circle in iso's rather than stretch the floor. Luckily not so many of those people exist.
Talk about misplaced angst. When Clingan was hurt he was defending 5s. And in the championship game, he was defending a 7-4 guy. LOL!
I think we need a big 4 if Karaban goes to the NBA. We don't have a big body we need.
9 kids realized hes an average coach at a big time school living off the legacy of a legend. Until Scheyer shows me he can actually win at a high level i see him as nothing more. Btw the only reason they made a run is because the committee protected dook who shouldve been a 4 seed in the east not the south from getting wrecked in front of the country by Uconn. A committee member was even asked about the unusual Auburn/dook swap and he gave some lame reasoning even the heads at CBS werent buying. It really irked me because i wanted to trounce dook so badly in front of all world burger boy Pooper Flagg.
As has already been mentioned Power 4s are a dying breed. Yeah it would be nice if the guy has height and decent weight but he also needs a perimeter game as that is how we with 4 out.
Because Malone could shoot from 3 point range, run the court, create his own shot, crash the boards. Are you telling me he wouldn’t play on an NBA roster today?
Don’t believe me. Then listen to some all time greats talk about the mailman. He could play in any era.
If you don’t believe me, see what some NBA greats said about the mailman. He could play in any era.
But whether he could hit 3 point shots he was not a stretch 4 and scored most of his points 10 Feet and within. We just need another stretch 4 and preferably one built like Alex and maybe a little better rebounder.
I don’t agree. Malone is number 3 in all time scoring and brought a physical presence Karaban will never have. We don’t know for sure about our rebounding with this team but I am skeptical we have any physical toughness on the boards. Maybe Reed but we won’t have big guards crashing the glass.
Let me rephrase. No one could overpower him.
