Drummond getting better every day

[DieHardHusky]

A good buddy of mine is close with a player on the team (who shall remain anonymous at this time) and ran into him today in the Union. They were talking about the team and such, and then the player mentioned that "Andre Drummond is getting better and better every day".

Think about that for a moment...The arguable #1 recruit in the nation is getting BETTER EVERY DAY....

We all know that means we're DOOOOOOOOOMED!

 

[champs99and04]

Doesn't surpise me...I would hope he continues to improve every day for the next five years or so.

 

[FluxTZ]

Im getting better and better at my job every day too :-p. Just playing. Glad to hear the info though!

 

[Kitaman]

Thanks, its really a testament to Div 1 bball. He couldn't improve like this 'Prepping' another year.

I hate when writers talk about him taking plays off. Ollie, Blaney and Calhoun (and players) would never let him do that. It's a non issue.

 

[babysheep]

Well you need to remember that they're going back to the basics, which we all know he's kind of raw on, so there is definitely going to be reported improvement.

 

[Scot-e]

Catch the ball, keep it high and dunk it. That should be 90% of what we see from AD this year. Teaching him a few moves around the basket will make all the difference in the world- must be nice teaching a kid so gifted and willing to learn.

 

[ctchamps]

Thanks for the info. I don't think it's just hype.

We all know AD is off the charts regarding his size and athleticism.

There were two weaknesses which were reported concerning AD. The first was his rawness on offense. Most of us develop patterns early and have difficulty changing those patterns. Think of Thabeet and how he would constantly bring the ball down low. We all know the coaching staff continuously drilled him not to, but he never changed.

When I hear reports from Jeremy, Alex and Shabazz indicating how great a listener AD is, I take it as meaning whenever someone makes a suggestion to AD to improve his game, he works on it and implements it. It isn't that he stands there and nods to the players and coaches as they offer suggestions and then does his own thing. They are observing he is taking the suggestions, working on the suggestions and improving. The only thing left will be to see if in game situations, he doesn't revert and lose what he learned.

The second weakness was he takes plays off. I don't think kids like Stanley or AD are lazy or slackers. I don't think they lose focus. I think they have personalities that prefer to defer to other people. They have difficulty accepting they are special and can be the go to guy, and therefore have difficulty generating the intensity to demand involvement in every play. It is difficult for lots of us to believe people with athletic and physical gifts can be like that, but it isn't that uncommon.

I have no proof for my feelings about this behavior, but if I'm correct I believe AD will overcome his reluctance to be the go to player and the tendency to take plays off. I believe Stanley suffered from shyness and confidence. I believe AD prefers sharing the focus of attention with his team mates and deliberately holds back on his accomplishments so as to not stand out and make them invisible. He is a consummate team player, which is why he has developed great passing skills. He is the polar opposite of Johnnie Selvie.

And this is where I love that UConn has a coach like KO. There is something about KO that understands players, not only their skill sets, but their personalities. If anyone can help AD learn to be a bit more "selfish" it will be KO.

 

[iam76]

lol at the random johnie selvie shot there.. While we are firing shots.. It would suck if Drummond goes out there and looks like Fab Melo

 

[DogMania]

And to think how close he came to going to prep school and passing on this opportunity to develop his game.

After watching him participate in the dunk contest live, I'm hard pressed to come up with a better skilled athlete his size who's name is not named LeBron. He's not in King James' strata. No one is! But he's somewhere between him and the rest of the bigs I've seen in my lifetime. It's not a combination of height and athleticism. It's his combination of height, power, agility, speed, quickness, balance, motor skill and BBIQ that separates him from the rest. He just needs to learn to play with a high motor and develop his basketball specific skills like ball handling, creating space (that one shouldn't be hard ), post moves and soft touch on the glass. I think the latter, along with post moves, will be the hardest for him. It's not easy for a big guy who's running at breakneck speed, to lay it off the glass softly. I guess dunking it when all possible would be the preferred MO for him, but there are going to be times that he has to avoid the charge and be able to lay it off the glass softly, which is a lot harder than most realize. Even some of the li'l guys stuggle with that, which is what separates the baller from the athlete.

It's great to hear he's improving daily. I can't wait to see him in his first game and then to compare that to his last. I only wish it would last more than a season, but unless the NBA changes the current +1 year to +2 out of HS, we're just going to have to enjoy what we get.

 

[eos91]

From all of the video, AD seems to have a very powerful base for a big man (whether college or NBA) -- his legs are tree trunks. The key for AD will be establishing position down low, without fouling... then being able to drop step and dunk.

 

[jibsey]

If he's within 8 feet of the basket all he needs to do is keep the ball high and lay it up, his wingspan alone makes those chippies. When he misses he's right there for the board. He should be spending 50% of his time practicing the foul shots he's gonna take. Thabeet used to get the ball and then think about it for a while. can't wait to see his passing.

 

[Walker11]

We as fans like to look at some of the NBA stars like Amare, Dwight, Lebron and wonder "what if." What if they went to college, where would they go etc. Now Drummond, who has been called the best big man prospect since Dwight, is coming to Uconn and call me crazy but I think he is being underrated by some. Scouts are basically unanimous in saying that he is a once in every 5-10 years talent and now we are seeing national "analysts" list Kendall Marshall as being a better player. If Drummond is what everyone says he is, a Dwight/Amare hybrid, he is going to really dominate in college basketball. Those guys were putting up 15 and 10 in the NBA in their rookie years and Drummond will be facing guys like Kadeem Batts, Fab Melo, Jack Cooley, Mouph Yarou on a nightly basis.

 

[intlzncster]

Catch the ball, keep it high and dunk it. That should be 90% of what we see from AD this year. Teaching him a few moves around the basket will make all the difference in the world- must be nice teaching a kid so gifted and willing to learn.

Having flash backs of freshmen Thabeet, Chuck and AO...

Don't think we'll see the same from Drummond, but still, I got the shivers.

 

[DogMania]

From all of the video, AD seems to have a very powerful base for a big man (whether college or NBA) -- his legs are tree trunks. The key for AD will be establishing position down low, without fouling... then being able to drop step and dunk.

If his teammates can get him the ball that close, he's going to be able to overpower most defenders. He's simply that big, strong and athletic to do so. As someone pointed out, Hash would get the ball seemingly within scoring range but would either get fouled or out-muscled. AD is going to get hacked a lot, that's for sure, but he's going to get a lot of and-ones. Maybe I'm over-estimating his dominance, but I anticipate he's going to have some monster games this season. Consistency and foul trouble will have a lot of say in this.

I think we're going to see a lot of 20+/10+ (pts/rbs) performances this season. What might keep his pt numbers down is the amount of offensive weapons this team seems to have. They probably don't need 20+ points from AD to win most games. And if teams try to take him out of the game by doubling him, it's going to open up a lot of scoring opportunities for the other 4 guys on the floor.

PT might also be a factor in all this. JC will have the challenging job of finding minutes for those not named Drummond or Oriakhi that earn and deserve PT. In the mix for PT at the 4 and/or 5 will be Olander, Bradley, Wolf, Roscoe and maybe even Daniels. With that said, I would not be shocked if AD is getting 30+ minutes a game and getting his share of double-doubles by the latter part of the BE season.

 

[CL82]

And to think how close he came to going to prep school and passing on this opportunity to develop his game.

After watching him participate in the dunk contest live, I'm hard pressed to come up with a better skilled athlete his size who's name is not named LeBron. He's not in King James' strata. No one is! But he's somewhere between him and the rest of the bigs I've seen in my lifetime. It's not a combination of height and athleticism. It's his combination of height, power, agility, speed, quickness, balance, motor skill and BBIQ that separates him from the rest. ..

Same here. The videos I'd seen really did not convey what a beast this kid is.

 

[jibsey]

Is it me or is this season painfully slow getting started? I'm dying here.

 

[gibhunter]

It isn't you. I feel the same.

 

[eireman]

And to think how close he came to going to prep school and passing on this opportunity to develop his game.

After watching him participate in the dunk contest live, I'm hard pressed to come up with a better skilled athlete his size who's name is not named LeBron. He's not in King James' strata. No one is! But he's somewhere between him and the rest of the bigs I've seen in my lifetime. It's not a combination of height and athleticism. It's his combination of height, power, agility, speed, quickness, balance, motor skill and BBIQ that separates him from the rest. He just needs to learn to play with a high motor and develop his basketball specific skills like ball handling, creating space (that one shouldn't be hard ), post moves and soft touch on the glass. I think the latter, along with post moves, will be the hardest for him. It's not easy for a big guy who's running at breakneck speed, to lay it off the glass softly. I guess dunking it when all possible would be the preferred MO for him, but there are going to be times that he has to avoid the charge and be able to lay it off the glass softly, which is a lot harder than most realize. Even some of the li'l guys stuggle with that, which is what separates the baller from the athlete.

It's great to hear he's improving daily. I can't wait to see him in his first game and then to compare that to his last. I only wish it would last more than a season, but unless the NBA changes the current +1 year to +2 out of HS, we're just going to have to enjoy what we get.

i've been watching him steadily improve for over two years .....when i first saw him his basketball iq was nil even though he had won a state championship.........yeah it's too bad it's only gonna be for one or two years......to those that think he'll be a bust ....rest assured that's not going to happen.......his numbers are not going to be astronomic because he's been schooled to be a team player......and while he will dunk on the run you'll see him lay it up with a feathery touch (have also seen him try some very awkward stuff also)...........i can't wait to see if JC deploys him as front man and chaser on an all out press....he wreaked unbelievable havoc in the best non college league in the country doing just that.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I can't wait to see Andre play and develop over the course of the year. JC said the only comparison was Emeka and Andre is bigger and more athletic than Emeka as a freshman. Whether he will have the work ethic and make progress like Emeka remains to be seen. My one concern about Andre is whether he will be too nice. Kinda like Rudy, he may have a tendency to defer too much and not be as dominant as he could. Oh well, I felt the same thing about Alex and he got better over the course of last season, coming up big when we needed him. There are many billions of worse things than being too nice......maybe Jeff could stop by and give him just a little Adrien'ism to give him a little "edge."

 

[eireman]

I can't wait to see Andre play and develop over the course of the year. JC said the only comparison was Emeka and Andre is bigger and more athletic than Emeka as a freshman. Whether he will have the work ethic and make progress like Emeka remains to be seen. My one concern about Andre is whether he will be too nice. Kinda like Rudy, he may have a tendency to defer too much and not be as dominant as he could. Oh well, I felt the same thing about Alex and he got better over the course of last season, coming up big when we needed him. There are many billions of worse things than being too nice......maybe Jeff could stop by and give him just a little Adrien'ism to give him a little "edge."

he has the edginess ....gave Kennedy a freshman man mountain at nova some introductory elbows last year......I would like to see him get stronger just to exacerbate the edginess

 

[Dogbreath2U]

he has the edginess ....gave Kennedy a freshman man mountain at nova some introductory elbows last year......I would like to see him get stronger just to exacerbate the edginess

Really? I never heard anything like that.

Awesome!

 

[eireman]

Really? I never heard anything like that.

Awesome!

good but not so good......there were a few fouls......but big men won't get anywhere unless they have that edginess........you just don't want to evolve into cheap shots but he's not afraid to get chippy

 

[Chief00]

And to think how close he came to going to prep school and passing on this opportunity to develop his game.

After watching him participate in the dunk contest live, I'm hard pressed to come up with a better skilled athlete his size who's name is not named LeBron. He's not in King James' strata. No one is! But he's somewhere between him and the rest of the bigs I've seen in my lifetime. It's not a combination of height and athleticism. It's his combination of height, power, agility, speed, quickness, balance, motor skill and BBIQ that separates him from the rest. He just needs to learn to play with a high motor and develop his basketball specific skills like ball handling, creating space (that one shouldn't be hard ), post moves and soft touch on the glass. I think the latter, along with post moves, will be the hardest for him. It's not easy for a big guy who's running at breakneck speed, to lay it off the glass softly. I guess dunking it when all possible would be the preferred MO for him, but there are going to be times that he has to avoid the charge and be able to lay it off the glass softly, which is a lot harder than most realize. Even some of the li'l guys stuggle with that, which is what separates the baller from the athlete.

It's great to hear he's improving daily. I can't wait to see him in his first game and then to compare that to his last. I only wish it would last more than a season, but unless the NBA changes the current +1 year to +2 out of HS, we're just going to have to enjoy what we get.

Dogmania, glad to see you are on-board. I hear that KO has a nice problem in terms of guys wanting ships next year. Remember we are starting at a -1 with Bradley going to ship next year. Not an expert on all the NCAA rules but there is some hope they add back if we show progress academically. What happened to Kemba graduating??????

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Catch the ball, keep it high and dunk it. That should be 90% of what we see from AD this year. Teaching him a few moves around the basket will make all the difference in the world- must be nice teaching a kid so gifted and willing to learn.

Add to that "if they double team you, kick it back out".

 

[UCHuskies08]

HasheemTheDream Hasheem Thabeet
Great Practice with the Youngins at UConn( @aoriakhi34@AndreDrummond03 etc) for past few days.. #HuskyNation All Day.. LetsGo
1 hour ago