Drummond Lost 22 Pounds Since Season Ended

[jfuchs91]

Via Chad Ford on Twitter

"Drummond has lost 22 pounds since ending the season. He's at 268 now. He's very quick laterally for a big guy. VERY QUICK"

I'm not sure that Drummond was actually at 290, but rather 280. Apparently he had food poisoning which may have contributed to the weight loss, but according to Ford (who is an idiot, mind you) this may have actually helped him. Ford says in a later tweet that Drummond has "crazy upside if he can put it all together"

Andre was frustrating in his single season here because he showed flashes of brilliance, but didn't consistently produce. That being said, like others here, I've grown attached to Drummond not only because he's such a nice kid but because I've been following his basketball career for almost 4 years now. He has natural physical gifts that few people on earth possess and I wish him the very best in the NBA. If he performs well in workouts and camps, I think he can go #2 which would be the best in UConn history along with Emeka and Thabeet. I'm very excited to see where both Andre and Jeremy end up in this coming draft.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Will we ever have another recruit who even approaches the gap between hype and actual impact on the program that Drummond had?

Not saying that to rip the kid, I'm rooting for him, but for a kid who was the second coming for the last 4 years or so, he barely made a ripple in the annals of UConn basketball.

 

[Clockshop]

He's been working out with personal trainer Idan Ravin aka the Hoops Whisperer in NYC. Ravin also trains Carmelo, Chris Paul, and others.

 

[Fishy]

When you have no other responsibility other than basketball, this sort of thing can happen.

These prospects get in the shape of their lives heading into the draft...if they don't, that's a serious red flag.

 

[8893]

Will we ever have another recruit who even approaches the gap between hype and actual impact on the program that Drummond had?

Not saying that to rip the kid, I'm rooting for him, but for a kid who was the second coming for the last 4 years or so, he barely made a ripple in the annals of UConn basketball.

Ajou Deng had a far greater gap between hype and reality than Andre imo.

 

[SubbaBub]

Darius Miles, ainec.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Ajou Deng had a far greater gap between hype and reality than Andre imo.

"Far greater"? That's bold. Everyone's entitled to their opinion but the Deng hype was generated by Calhoun, and it wasn't anything like the hype around Drummond since he was a 9th grader. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's not like Drummond's UConn career was noticeably better than Deng's.

 

[Burnsbros23]

Anyone who actually saw Drummond play in high school knew he was far from a finished product.

 

[johnhuskies95]

"Far greater"? That's bold. Everyone's entitled to their opinion but the Deng hype was generated by Calhoun, and it wasn't anything like the hype around Drummond since he was a 9th grader. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's not like Drummond's UConn career was noticeably better than Deng's.

That is going out on a limb.

Drummond averaged 10 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks a game. During Deng's first two years at UConn, if you extrapolate his best numbers, he averaged 4.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks. Meanwhile Drummond shot 53% from the floor and Deng shot 47%.

Not to mention, Drummond had 10 double doubles, so he had a few games where he had a very big impact.

 

[nomar]

Obviously Drummond was over-hyped to a crazy degree, but if you didn't know that he was raw and wasn't going to average 20 & 12, then you weren't paying attention.

People who supposedly watched Ajou Deng in practices were saying that Deng was the best player on the 1999 championship team. Now that's ridiculous.

 

[mcs333]

AD was the highest ranked recruit to ever play at Uconn. He leaves with never winning a BE championship or even one NCAA tournament game. I would say he leaves without any basketball legacy. His legacy will be he was a nice guy on a team that under achieved.

 

[swami7774]

Ajou Deng had a far greater gap between hype and reality than Andre imo.

"The next great one." --Jim Nance, 3/29/99

 

[Ts5034]

AD was the highest ranked recruit to ever play at Uconn. He leaves with never winning a BE championship or even one NCAA tournament game. I would say he leaves without any basketball legacy. His legacy will be he was a nice guy on a team that under achieved.

Almost sounds like Dyson...

 

[ford82]

Andre's stamina wasn't great this year, but I don't really think his conditioning was ever the big question mark with him. Clearly, his biggest strength has always been his unique combo (body/athleticism). Ford's stating the obvious. Andre is quick laterally, no . If he ever watched him this year get in the passing lane, get a steal and go coast to coast it was obvious then. However, Andre gambled too much on defense often leading to numbers for the other team and therein lies the real question mark with Andre. Will he ever be a true baller? Or just a guy who will be content getting that NBA cash and never really grasps how to play. Guys who can really ball, love the game and it is apparent in how they play. James Harden, Manu Ginobili, Kemba Walker, to name a few. I think that was the most disappointing thing about last year's team. It was like they completely forgot what Kemba represented and taught them, hard work, effort and passion.

 

[Cheddie]

"Far greater"? That's bold. Everyone's entitled to their opinion but the Deng hype was generated by Calhoun, and it wasn't anything like the hype around Drummond since he was a 9th grader. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's not like Drummond's UConn career was noticeably better than Deng's.

Deng was featured in Sports Illustrated before he even got to UConn. And the hype exploded during UConn's 99 championship run. The network announcers (Packer?) went completely overboard about his game after watching him in practice.

 

[UConn990411]

Almost sounds like Dyson...

Except that Dyson was a horrible, selfish person. He's also the reason UConn is banned from the tournament and he even caused Calhoun's spinal stenosis.

 

[champs99and04]

That is going out on a limb.

Drummond averaged 10 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks a game. During Deng's first two years at UConn, if you extrapolate his best numbers, he averaged 4.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks. Meanwhile Drummond shot 53% from the floor and Deng shot 47%.

Not to mention, Drummond had 10 double doubles, so he had a few games where he had a very big impact.

Obviously Drummond made a bigger statistical impact than Deng, but I think in terms of impact he made on the overall state of the program, Drummond's was very small, if not negative. I'm not in any way trying to villianize Drummond for our disappointing season last year, but when one of your best players is as limited as he was offensively, that certainly has a ripple effect on the rest of the team. A National Champion returned four starters and hauled in a top three recruiting class but could not get out of the first round, in what has to go down as one of the three most disappointing seasons in the history of the program.

Where Drummond's impact on the program lies now, is in his NBA career. If he can become the next Dwight Howard, just imagine the positive effect it would have on recruiting, branding, and visibility. I'll say this - the guy will win at least one slam dunk contest in his career. A man his size should not be able to run and jump like he can, plain and simple.

 

[jleves]

Wow - I really don't get the overall negative reaction to Drummond's year. Was he raw on offense? sure. But the kid still put up really respectable numbers for a Frosh center on a team with a lot of weak points. Nobody really had to worry about the three position or offense from the 4 position. There was no penalty to doubling any big who got the ball down low as the other big and the SF were really not credible threats. Add into that not being a good three point shooting team, that leaves a ton of pressure on your center. He came in raw but with amazing attributes and anyone who doesn't think he would be a dominating stud if he stayed for a second year really doesn't get it. So he was a year behind where you wanted him to be. He was a year away from living up to the hype and still had a really good year.

Compared to the hype vs output of Ajou, there's no comparison. Andre's gonna be a top 5 pick. Ajou might be serving you fries tomorrow.

 

[Chief00]

Except that Dyson was a horrible, selfish person. He's also the reason UConn is banned from the tournament and he even caused Calhoun's spinal stenosis.

People used to say well at least Jerome graduated -I used to disagree but couldn't prove it - now a recent favorable article mentioned he indeed did not graduate. As for Andre a totally different story, in his year at UConn he got the most out of his college experience. Averaging nearly double/doubles in the Big East play isn't bad for a freshmen. He also led a defense that gave up a low FG percentage. Our biggest defensive weakest was against the 3 v- not Andre's fault. I do agree whatever he did last year was just scratching the surface of his potential. He has great hands for a big guy and has really great athleticism - needs to work on his foul shot and some go to offensive moves - he will be an outstanding player in time.

 

[johnhuskies95]

People used to say well at least Jerome graduated -I used to disagree but couldn't prove it - now a recent favorable article mentioned he indeed did not graduate. As for Andre a totally different story, in his year at UConn he got the most out of his college experience. Averaging nearly double/doubles in the Big East play isn't bad for a freshmen. He also led a defense that gave up a low FG percentage. Our biggest defensive weakest was against the 3 v- not Andre's fault. I do agree whatever he did last year was just scratching the surface of his potential. He has great hands for a big guy and has really great athleticism - needs to work on his foul shot and some go to offensive moves - he will be an outstanding player in time.

The "at least he graduated" thing has more to do with the APR impact. He didn't affect the APR negatively.

 

[superjohn]

Drummond is a CT. kid and stayed to play for his hometown Univrsity, don't get the negative reactions. He's a great kid and I'll be cheering my butt of for him in the nba.

 

[Scot-e]

I lost 22% of my ability to care about AD when he left.

Fortunately I was 100% positive I wanted the kid in a UCONN uni.

 

[champs99and04]

Wow - I really don't get the overall negative reaction to Drummond's year. Was he raw on offense? sure. But the kid still put up really respectable numbers for a Frosh center on a team with a lot of weak points. Nobody really had to worry about the three position or offense from the 4 position. There was no penalty to doubling any big who got the ball down low as the other big and the SF were really not credible threats. Add into that not being a good three point shooting team, that leaves a ton of pressure on your center. He came in raw but with amazing attributes and anyone who doesn't think he would be a dominating stud if he stayed for a second year really doesn't get it. So he was a year behind where you wanted him to be. He was a year away from living up to the hype and still had a really good year.

Compared to the hype vs output of Ajou, there's no comparison. Andre's gonna be a top 5 pick. Ajou might be serving you fries tomorrow.

I don't think it's a negative reflection on Drummond as much as it is a negative reflection on the one and done. I don't think any UConn fan has anything against Drummond, or wishes him any ill will for leaving. Everybody who watched the kid in high school could have predicted he would have had an underwhelming freshman year consisting of flashes of brilliance and flashes of irrelevence. That's what happens when you're an immature big man who has no idea how talented you are.

With that said, Drummond's improvement as a player does not mean he left the program in a better place than it was when he first stepped on campus. I admire Drummond for staying loyal to his home state and choosing to play at Connecticut. But the reality is, a raw, freshman big man is not going to leave much of an imprint on a program of Uconn's stature.

 

[Ts5034]

I just get the feeling, and its pretty simple that if last years team won more games and made a deep NCAA run, Drummond would be looked up to as a saint. As others pointed out already AD had a solid rookie season. I just wish we all got to see what he could have done as a sophmore but it is what it is.

 

[jfuchs91]

Also, there's the fact that Drummond would have been back had we been eligible for the postseason next year by most accounts. While he definitely could have used another year in college, I completely understand Drummond's decision to go pro after one year. I'll always be thankful for him coming to UConn, even for just the one year.

Now, as others have stated, the best thing he can do for the program is develop his game and dominate the league. He loved the UConn program growing up, so hopefully he will stay close to the program during his career. It never hurts in recruiting to have NBA players roaming around Storrs...