Enoch

[auror]

Prototypical BY - you left out the context to distort the meaning - you can get a job in the media!

 

[Chief00]

Chief called you on that and now it's all a joke.

 

[Kitaman]

Quite frankly, Steve has good soft hands, strength and adequate speed/quickness. A big, strong body with soft hands is rare with a big and that's why so many experienced elite coaches made the assessment to go after him despite his underperformance at UConn.

No doubt Steve had something to work with, but Coaches can't make the player 'work'. Lebron James is super talented and has a work ethic 2nd to none. Kevin Ollie's NBA work ethic and dedication is legendary but even he can't transmit that to his college players. Furthermore HS does not prepare kids for D1, and many All Staters come to schools expecting to produce based on 'yesterday' only to find out they are true freshman.

If Enoch, Vital (or insert any name with talent) puts in the work results will follow. What's mind boggling to me is that any 7 footer with basketball skills has an opportunity to become a millionaire, its a matter of how much they invest in their craft. Yet they don't improve or even positively make adjustments (now coaching does affect this).

What I will say is that HOF Calhoun made you work or you weren't going to play (hence ruining your NBA dreams). I'd be curious to know how many transfers out of Calhoun's system made it to the NBA.

Not saying Ollie is soft, he had no options/leverage with a depleted roster and the Senior Boatright team was a tragic situation. However this season I expect Ollie to be a mean SOB with increased demands. Each position has a backup, so no tolerance for lack of effort/work. Looking forward to a change in direction for our basketball program.

 

[Chief00]

No doubt Steve had something to work with, but Coaches can't make the player 'work'. Lebron James is super talented and has a work ethic 2nd to none. Kevin Ollie's NBA work ethic and dedication is legendary but even he can't transmit that to his college players. Furthermore HS does not prepare kids for D1, and many All Staters come to schools expecting to produce based on 'yesterday' only to find out they are true freshman.

If Enoch, Vital (or insert any name with talent) puts in the work results will follow. What's mind boggling to me is that any 7 footer with basketball skills has an opportunity to become a millionaire, its a matter of how much they invest in their craft. Yet they don't improve or even positively make adjustments (now coaching does affect this).

What I will say is that HOF Calhoun made you work or you weren't going to play (hence ruining your NBA dreams). I'd be curious to know how many transfers out of Calhoun's system made it to the NBA.

Not saying Ollie is soft, he had no options/leverage with a depleted roster and the Senior Boatright team was a tragic situation. However this season I expect Ollie to be a mean SOB with increased demands. Each position has a backup, so no tolerance for lack of effort/work. Looking forward to a change in direction for our basketball program.

From what I understand many guys thought he was a mean SOB last season and at least for him it did not work well. Granted, another standard seemed to apply to Purvis and Brimah and that also had consequences.

 

[pj]

From what I understand many guys thought he was a mean SOB last season and at least for him it did not work well. Granted, another standard seemed to apply to Purvis and Brimah and that also had consequences.

You have to be a mean SOB who loves his players -- which means, among other things, and showing them their path to the NBA and helping them achieve it, i.e. player development. Having a full roster is going to help. I hope we don't get another raft of transfers next spring from the big men who don't win the minutes battle. A sense that the coach cares for them and is helping them develop will make a huge difference.

 

[Tenspro2002]

From what I understand many guys thought he was a mean SOB last season and at least for him it did not work well. Granted, another standard seemed to apply to Purvis and Brimah and that also had consequences.

Care to elaborate? Did the younger players think that Purvis and Brimah got to play through mistakes, while they were benched instead?

If that's the case, not a smart calculation on KO's part.

 

[David 76]

Chief called you on that and now it's all a joke.

Prototypical BY - you left out the context to distort the meaning - you can get a job in the media!

Oh, so Chiefoo is POTUS!

 

[HooperScooper]

"We worked Steven out and right away anytime you say a kid was a top-40 player in high school, didn't play at UConn and he's a great person, something just didn't make sense," Pitino said. "We were blown away by his aggressiveness and shooting ability.

"We came away with the conclusion that UConn just went with almost like if we had Mangok (Mathiang) and Anas (Mahmoud) and we went with Anas even though we knew Mangok was a good player. So they went with a defensive guy and not the offensive guy."

UConn transfer Steven Enoch turns into a major addition for Louisville basketball team

I don't believe anything coming out of Pitino's mouth but I do get the feeling we're going to hear a lot about Enoch when he's eligible to play.

 

[Waquoit]

"We worked Steven out and right away anytime you say a kid was a top-40 player in high school, didn't play at UConn and he's a great person, something just didn't make sense," Pitino said. "We were blown away by his aggressiveness and shooting ability.

I don't believe anything coming out of Pitino's mouth but I do get the feeling we're going to hear a lot about Enoch when he's eligible to play.

Yeah, but something didn't make sense.

 

[BlueMAB]

I'm sure the kid looked great in workouts. You could see the talent.

But when he got in the game, he was lost on defense, and couldn't finish on offense. He's nearly 7' tall and shot around 40% from the field. That's remarkably bad.

With Pitino's defensive style, I'll be shocked if he does much better there. I want to root for the kid to do well, but can't stand Ville. hopefully he ends up being a bright spot on an absolutely terrible team.

 

[Guapo]

Enoch always looks great...

In practice.

 

[Balker]

"We worked Steven out and right away anytime you say a kid was a top-40 player in high school, didn't play at UConn and he's a great person, something just didn't make sense," Pitino said. "We were blown away by his aggressiveness and shooting ability.

"We came away with the conclusion that UConn just went with almost like if we had Mangok (Mathiang) and Anas (Mahmoud) and we went with Anas even though we knew Mangok was a good player. So they went with a defensive guy and not the offensive guy."

UConn transfer Steven Enoch turns into a major addition for Louisville basketball team

I don't believe anything coming out of Pitino's mouth but I do get the feeling we're going to hear a lot about Enoch when he's eligible to play.

We probably would have heard a lot about him if he stayed, too... if he asked Ollie to let him red shirt a year, worked his butt off at UConn for the next 12 months, and then spent two years playing as our starting center I'm sure he would have ended up a fantastic college player like Adrien. Pitino implicating another coach as the reason Enoch didn't succeed, even if doing so subtly, isn't the best form.

The dude was given 10 MPG last year, and was a massive liability for all of them. His stats were terrible, and that's even discounting his inability to play the defensive end of the floor competently. Hard to play that type of guy over a former conference defensive player of the year who was constantly thinking about his team winning rather than his own stats...

 

[Huskybass]

I think Stephen will do well at Lville, especially if he works hard in this year off. Kid is a physical specimen.

 

[David 76]

I wish him well regardless of the grief it will cause on the Boneyard.

 

[gtcam]

Care to elaborate? Did the younger players think that Purvis and Brimah got to play through mistakes, while they were benched instead?

If that's the case, not a smart calculation on KO's part.

ALL the younger players got more minutes than any of them dreamed of last October

 

[gtcam]

"We worked Steven out and right away anytime you say a kid was a top-40 player in high school, didn't play at UConn and he's a great person, something just didn't make sense," Pitino said. "We were blown away by his aggressiveness and shooting ability.

"We came away with the conclusion that UConn just went with almost like if we had Mangok (Mathiang) and Anas (Mahmoud) and we went with Anas even though we knew Mangok was a good player. So they went with a defensive guy and not the offensive guy."

UConn transfer Steven Enoch turns into a major addition for Louisville basketball team

I don't believe anything coming out of Pitino's mouth but I do get the feeling we're going to hear a lot about Enoch when he's eligible to play.

Thanks for the info but as you said = don't believe what comes out of the schmuck Pitino's mouth and who really cares what he says?

 

[pj]

Pitino and KO go after many of the same players, he's going to get as much recruiting mileage out of Enoch as he can. "KO failed Enoch but I got the best out of him" may resonate with recruits. Also, remember how JC used to praise players in the preseason. Pitino may be encouraging Enoch to motivate him to work through the year on the bench.

 

[jibsey]

We needed Enoch to play a lot last year and why? development sure, but he was our future center. Let him play, develop and make mistakes, it takes floor time especially after those devastating injuries happened. Our season was toasted so there was nothing to lose at that point. Watching Brimah go out there in games and be the same ineffective player had to piss him off, and of course his father would play on that. Especially when he knew how much better he was offensively. We saw his capabilities, and forget about statistics because when you play 12 minutes a game those numbers are meaningless. KO cast his lot, lord knows why and we are left to cobble together some kind of front court. Enoch is a kid who wants what most kids who transfer wanted, PT. KO poisoned that well for him. I understand Pitino's quotes.

 

[Danzz]

I remain an idiot then because I very much think the the dude can play. Additionally, my argument has never been solely that we did not use him right - although true that's a part of it. We basically did not have a functioning S&C program for Bigs and our Bigs coaching was nonexistent. We also changed defenses last season like a Chinese fire drill and more often than not different guys were playing different defenses at the same time. Hopefully, with the staff changes we will see improvements in those areas but it remains to be seen if Carlos is really our Bigs coach behind the scenes?
Quite frankly, Steve has good soft hands, strength and adequate speed/quickness. A big, strong body with soft hands is rare with a big and that's why so many experienced elite coaches made the assessment to go after him despite his underperformance at UConn. These guys are not idiots - they get paid millions to evaluate/recruit talent and win games.
He can seal a guy, catch the ball and put up a nice soft shot. No question the kid can be a rebounding machine and I think his defensive problems were more playing mentally slow than anything physical. Coach Miller's defenses were overly complex and all our Bigs often looked confused. I think Pitno will simplify things in comparison so Steve will be able to play at game speed.
I hope this helps. Good luck to your aunt next season.

No argument that he has the tools to play. He just didn't do it at UConn and it wasn't because the defenses were too complex. He got beat on simple 1 on 1 matchups regularly. It doesn't get more simple than that. I have to believe that it was more desire to play D than anything else. We've had bigs with much less talent who managed to at least challenge their man. Steve didn't do that very often.

 

[Chief00]

No argument that he has the tools to play. He just didn't do it at UConn and it wasn't because the defenses were too complex. He got beat on simple 1 on 1 matchups regularly. It doesn't get more simple than that. I have to believe that it was more desire to play D than anything else. We've had bigs with much less talent who managed to at least challenge their man. Steve didn't do that very often.

We will see - I can't argue he needs more fire on the belly.

 

[upstater]

We needed Enoch to play a lot last year and why? development sure, but he was our future center. Let him play, develop and make mistakes, it takes floor time especially after those devastating injuries happened. Our season was toasted so there was nothing to lose at that point. Watching Brimah go out there in games and be the same ineffective player had to piss him off, and of course his father would play on that. Especially when he knew how much better he was offensively. We saw his capabilities, and forget about statistics because when you play 12 minutes a game those numbers are meaningless. KO cast his lot, lord knows why and we are left to cobble together some kind of front court. Enoch is a kid who wants what most kids who transfer wanted, PT. KO poisoned that well for him. I understand Pitino's quotes.

Winning is the most important thing. You should never purposely tank for future development.

 

[mauconnfan]

We needed Enoch to play a lot last year and why? development sure, but he was our future center. Let him play, develop and make mistakes, it takes floor time especially after those devastating injuries happened. Our season was toasted so there was nothing to lose at that point. Watching Brimah go out there in games and be the same ineffective player had to piss him off, and of course his father would play on that. Especially when he knew how much better he was offensively. We saw his capabilities, and forget about statistics because when you play 12 minutes a game those numbers are meaningless. KO cast his lot, lord knows why and we are left to cobble together some kind of front court. Enoch is a kid who wants what most kids who transfer wanted, PT. KO poisoned that well for him. I understand Pitino's quotes.

I don't get the "let's play this kid more because he will still be here. We will do this despite the fact he can't guard a chair and the senior at least can block shots and deserves the time." You want negative recruiting you just asked for it? I mean "KO doesn't care if you're the better player later on your career, if the team is having an off year you're not playing because he's going to play the kids who need to get better for him and next year"

That just isn't good. Here's a thought, when you're on the court prove you deserve to stay on the court and use everything you learned in practice. And if people go by you and score because you have no clue on defense and on the other end you get a rebound but can't finish a dunk or get a lay up blocked even though you have low block position then work harder next time and maybe you get a few more minutes? How's that for a concept on playing time?

By the way I was with you at the beginning of the year on this, but he didn't improve and proved nothing at all and deserved nothing more than he got.

 

[pj]

We needed Enoch to play a lot last year and why? development sure, but he was our future center. Let him play, develop and make mistakes, it takes floor time especially after those devastating injuries happened. Our season was toasted so there was nothing to lose at that point. Watching Brimah go out there in games and be the same ineffective player had to piss him off, and of course his father would play on that. Especially when he knew how much better he was offensively. We saw his capabilities, and forget about statistics because when you play 12 minutes a game those numbers are meaningless. KO cast his lot, lord knows why and we are left to cobble together some kind of front court. Enoch is a kid who wants what most kids who transfer wanted, PT. KO poisoned that well for him. I understand Pitino's quotes.

Play Enoch over Brimah and we go 9-23. That's not fair to the other players who are working their asses off. The question is why couldn't KO and Glen Miller motivate Enoch to play defense, not whether the demotivated Enoch we saw should get more playing time.

 

[Danzz]

Play Enoch over Brimah and we go 9-23. That's not fair to the other players who are working their asses off. The question is why couldn't KO and Glen Miller motivate Enoch to play defense, not whether the demotivated Enoch we saw should get more playing time.

Lead a horse to water.....

 

[pj]

Lead a horse to water.....

Yes, that's why I think the transfer will end up being good for both parties. We replaced Enoch with guys who want to work, and he got an opportunity for a fresh start that he will have to make good on. He'd better drink the water in Louisville or his career is over almost before it started.