Eric Cobb commits to UConn

[Huskybass]

Looks to have a lot more muscle than Johnnytime, but from two game vids I skimmed through, does seem to share Selvie's attitude on passing.

No. I distinctly temember an assist by Cobb.

 

[Husky25]

Thanks for the update on previous #4 players in UConn history. Some people will make an argument out of anything. Take the anger the cesspool would ya.

Who's angry? Make a point that is factually correct. Where Adrien and/or Oriaki not thumpers?

 

[Confident Carl]

Looks like KO pulled the trigger quick so he must like what he sees. A good space-eating option for down low.[/QUOTE

Ollie had better watch out, I am sure JD Grimes took notice of Eric's size and quickness! LOL

 

[Matrim55]

What is your point regarding the big men recruiting? That KO can recruit well, but the staff has been terrible at developing them?

That he didn't start recruiting well until 2015.

Because we have done absolutely nothing to date with any of those players.

I named eight players, and only two (Enoch & Durham) played a game this year. One of those was after two years of not playing because his knees exploded.

Please do keep being shrill and avoiding all context, though. That gives your argument much more weight.

 

[UC313]

Who's angry? Make a point that is factually correct. Where Adrien and/or Oriaki not thumpers?

I argue enough with the old lady I don't need it in my fantasy internet world. But to answer your question .... Adrien, yes. Oriakhi, not so much in my opinion, but that's my opinion. I suppose that I meant a guy that played angry. Adrien might have been the toughest SOB ive seen play but he wasn't the guy that would lay down a Toraino Walker elbow (from what I remember). I want a guy that will step on your foot and give you a hip check after Gary Clark drops two 3's.

 

[Fishy]

"I haven't even bothered to click the YouTube link and I don't know what in the blue hell I'm talking about, but someone tell me what I'm missing because I think this kid sucks."

Hey, thanks for taking the time to post anyway!

 

[Husky25]

I argue enough with the old lady I don't need it in my fantasy internet world. But to answer your question .... Adrien, yes. Oriakhi, not so much in my opinion, but that's my opinion. I suppose that I meant a guy that played angry. Adrien might have been the toughest SOB ive seen play but he wasn't the guy that would lay down a Toraino Walker elbow (from what I remember). I want a guy that will step on your foot and give you a hip check after Gary Clark drops two 3's.

That is a personal problem, which I care not to get in the middle, but if you think that UConn has not had a tough inside presence since 2001, you are going to get some pushback in a forum that fosters argument.

Personally, I was not a huge fan of Selvie. On the other hand he was following perhaps my favorite non-elite superstar at the PF position and could not live up to the bar set by Kevin Freeman.

Finally, while I want aggressiveness out of the two primary front court positions, IMHO what you describe above are cheap shots, fit for the early-mid 00s Pittsburgh Panthers.

 

[UC313]

Cool. Im glad we talked this one out. E-hug?

 

[superjohn]

That he didn't start recruiting well until 2015.


I named eight players, and only two (Enoch & Durham) played a game this year. One of those was after two years of not playing because his knees exploded.

Please do keep being shrill and avoiding all context, though. That gives your argument much more weight.

You named 8 players and all we've gotten out of it was 1 good season from Miller and 1 pretty good season from Facey. Our frontcourt has been a nightmare.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

That he didn't start recruiting well until 2015.


I named eight players, and only two (Enoch & Durham) played a game this year. One of those was after two years of not playing because his knees exploded.

Please do keep being shrill and avoiding all context, though. That gives your argument much more weight.

Is that even true though? Enoch and facey were both higher rated than Polley or Carlton.


And on your second point. Fair enough. I should have paid closer attention in that you were referring to classes since 2015. Apologies on that.

Either way, our big men development is less than stellar. I will obviously leave Durham out of it (I never included him in the first place) and its not a long history of bigs, (AB, Kelis Fisher, SE, Nolan) but the results haven't been there so far.

Enoch is basically the perfect guy to develop; skilled offensively, has good hands and touch, but is extremely limited in his positioning and reading/understand the game. All we need to do is teach him where to be and when and he will immediately be much better. Its the coaches job to teach him that stuff.

2 years later and hes done next to nothing. This doesn't prove KO cant develop bigs, or that Enoch will be a total bust and never amount to anything.

But we have to go by the track record available so far, and it isn't that great. At least Im trying to look at the record at hand. I dont really see what pointing to recruiting does.

If weve had such trouble developing the bigs weve had, then why should we think we can develop the ones in the future?

 

[upstater]

What is your point regarding the big men recruiting? That KO can recruit well, but the staff has been terrible at developing them? Because we have done absolutely nothing to date with any of those players.

I will also add,( and this isn't just for you,) but overall, everyone on here is overstating Facey's development to an incredible degree. People on this board repeatedly point to his development as a beacon of KO's (and staff) player development abilities.

It's absolutely true that Kentan has improved a ton this year. (His post game and finishing have improved dramatically. His d still isnt great, but its much better than where it was).

But its also true that he was able to improve so much, because he did absolutely nothing in his first 3 years here.

If you look at where he is now based on expectations 4 years ago, I would say this is more or less the expectation.

9 ppg and 7.5rpg in the AAC for a former top 100 recruit and NY state POY seems reasonable but is certainly not exceptional. If you told us 4 years ago this is what we would sign up for we would all take it for sure, but I don't think we would be jumping up and down.

Hes been worth the scholarship for sure and has been a great kid. But I wonder why we couldn't get anything out of him for 3 years when clearly the potential was there.

You can easily make this argument about Deandre Daniels as well. He was here 3 years, and as late as January in his junior year, people said he was a bust. Then he broke out, and the rest is history. Maybe even in February people were down on him. But it is undeniable that he broke out when he played power forward.

 

[Matrim55]

If weve had such trouble developing the bigs weve had,

I reject the premise that our bigs haven't developed, so I'm probably not the greatest person to have this conversation with.

then why should we think we can develop the ones in the future?

IDK man maybe because people get better at their jobs when they have more experience, just like Ollie's gotten better at recruiting as he's gotten more experience? Or maybe because last summer we hired a coach – Killings – who has three years of experience working with NBA big men, including Emeka? Or maybe because the whole point is we have way more in terms of raw materials to work with on this roster than at any previous point under KO?

We lost to Mississippi State in the 1996 Sweet 16 despite having, at worst, the second-best team in the country that year. Why should we think Calhoun would ever get any better at winning tournament games in the future?

 

[upstater]

See this is where you're very wrong.

If anyone in a position of power trusted Boneyard posters more than Ollie a few years ago, UConn would be a 3-time champion, and Steve Pikiell would be the coach.

 

[Chief00]

I reject the premise that our bigs haven't developed, so I'm probably not the greatest person to have this conversation with.


IDK man maybe because people get better at their jobs when they have more experience, just like Ollie's gotten better at recruiting as he's gotten more experience? Or maybe because last summer we hired a coach – Killings – who has three years of experience working with NBA big men, including Emeka? Or maybe because the whole point is we have way more in terms of raw materials to work with on this roster than at any previous point under KO?

We lost to Mississippi State in the 1996 Sweet 16 despite having, at worst, the second-best team in the country that year. Why should we think Calhoun would ever get any better at winning tournament games in the future?

Wow my man - that's a tough argument to make that our Bigs under Ciach Miller have developed. Quite frankly, I just don't see it.

 

[Chief00]

I reject the premise that our bigs haven't developed, so I'm probably not the greatest person to have this conversation with.


IDK man maybe because people get better at their jobs when they have more experience, just like Ollie's gotten better at recruiting as he's gotten more experience? Or maybe because last summer we hired a coach – Killings – who has three years of experience working with NBA big men, including Emeka? Or maybe because the whole point is we have way more in terms of raw materials to work with on this roster than at any previous point under KO?

We lost to Mississippi State in the 1996 Sweet 16 despite having, at worst, the second-best team in the country that year. Why should we think Calhoun would ever get any better at winning tournament games in the future?

Ok - I just noticed your dig at Calhoun - Chief advice to you - don't be a Stairmaster clone dumping on a HOF coach.

 

[Jimdish255]

Go ahead and call me clueless but i honestly think that we could have used Lubin this year. That kid had very very few garbage minutes but here's what I saw: He had long arms, decent hands, took up space, wouldn't' get pushed around, and could make a layup. The addition of Miller deep sixed him but I believe he would have been useful. Now someone tell me what he did this year so we can all have a good laugh.

Rakim Lubin - 2016-17 - useful

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Ok - I just noticed your dig at Calhoun - Chief advice to you - don't be a Stairmaster clone dumping on a HOF coach.

Anyone who refers to themselves in the third person is unquestionably a gaping a_shole.

 

[lange10]

So because he's big and strong we won't lose to the Wagner and Northeastern's of the college basketball world anymore? Anyone else perplexed by that sentiment?

 

[businesslawyer]

I must be missing something on this one. Without having seen him play, as I imagine none of you have before this thread, what is the tangible evidence to suggest he is any good at basketball? Seriously, I'm all ears.

I swear this board has a fetish for anybody who looks like they can host Monday night raw - even if he and Lubin are different, the same things were being said about Lubin ("nice to have somebody with muscle for a change!") as if it had never before occurred to the staff that muscle was important in basketball.

"Filling a need" is nonsense. We have gaping holes all throughout the front court and exactly zero proven players. You fill a need when you already have good players, not when you're in the process of throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. This is really about this boards collective frustration with Brimah. Anybody That's Not Him is going to draw rave reviews from this crowd, whether it's a dude that's a small scrapper or a big guy who looks like a bouncer.

"Knock Gary Clark on his ass" is a nice sentiment that makes fans feel better and does nothing else. We need guys who can play, and if we're looking for somebody to "fill a role" than look no further than Steve Enoch. What this move really does is occupy a ship that we can't use in the grad market to bring in somebody who is actually, you know, good. There are 1,000 of these kids out there, but hey, we had Shonn Miller one time and we didn't win a national championship with him, so who wants that? I'd much rather take a kid who might develop into a 5-10 minute guy by his senior year.

Do you honestly believe they gave out this offer forgetting it might stop them from taking a grad transfer? You don't think it's a little more likely that they evaluated what they could reasonably get in that market and made a decision that this was a good use of the schollie?

 

[businesslawyer]

Anyone who refers to themselves in the third person is unquestionably a gaping a_shole.

Agreed. But go to the cesspool and just add him to the list.

 

[uconnell]

Ok - I just noticed your dig at Calhoun - Chief advice to you - don't be a Stairmaster clone dumping on a HOF coach.

I didn't take it as a dump on JC, just the opposite. Fans didn't lose faith in JC after that loss, like the fans are doing to Ollie. Give Ollie time.

 

[Tenspro2002]

You can easily make this argument about Deandre Daniels as well. He was here 3 years, and as late as January in his junior year, people said he was a bust. Then he broke out, and the rest is history. Maybe even in February people were down on him. But it is undeniable that he broke out when he played power forward.

He broke out when he played power forward because he was a matchup nightmare for traditional bigs.

DD having success is more a byproduct of the value of the small lineup (he's really a 3 playing the stretch-4 -- an ideal college lineup IMO) than of DD having gotten good "big man development".

I wouldn't even consider him to be a "big" in the way it's truly intended here.

Edit: Another way to say this is: he succeeded because of his guard/wing skills for his height, not because of his "big man" skills.

 

[upstater]

He broke out when he played power forward because he was a matchup nightmare for traditional bigs.

DD having success is more a byproduct of the value of the small lineup (he's really a 3 playing the stretch-4 -- an ideal college lineup IMO) than of DD having gotten good "big man development".

I wouldn't even consider him to be a "big" in the way it's truly intended here.

Edit: Another way to say this is: he succeeded because of his guard/wing skills for his height, not because of his "big man" skills.

You remember it differently than I do. He was a terror down low on defense. Stopping drives, swatting balls away. Offensively, yet he was a European type PF. But defensively he was a presence--reminiscent of Roscoe Smith.

The point is, he was night-and-day in terms of his development. He made a big leap.

The book on Ollie's development of bigs is unwritten because we only have 3 guys to go on, and the Enoch story is unwritten. We have to remember that Amida Brimah has been here for all of Ollie's 4 years. He has been the starting center. And just because he hasn't developed, we suddenly have this idea that Ollie can't develop. Facey has developed, albeit in his senior year, though in his key junior year, he was superseded by Shonn Miller.

I'd say this is way too small a sample--and as Mau has pointed out many times, the people Ollie has been in charged with developing are two soccer players who picked up a bball at the age of 15, and one kid--Enoch--who didn't make his Soph. HS team and was scouted by people here who aside he was so so so far behind kids his age in terms of playing basketball. He came to UConn at the age of 17.

 

[superjohn]

I reject the premise that our bigs haven't developed, so I'm probably not the greatest person to have this conversation with.


IDK man maybe because people get better at their jobs when they have more experience, just like Ollie's gotten better at recruiting as he's gotten more experience? Or maybe because last summer we hired a coach – Killings – who has three years of experience working with NBA big men, including Emeka? Or maybe because the whole point is we have way more in terms of raw materials to work with on this roster than at any previous point under KO?

We lost to Mississippi State in the 1996 Sweet 16 despite having, at worst, the second-best team in the country that year. Why should we think Calhoun would ever get any better at winning tournament games in the future?

That loss still hurts, it was the one game where both Ray and Doron didn't show up and not having Ricky Moore was a killer. Also a shame UConn and UMass didn't play each other. They were clearly two of the best three teams in the country and there was so much star power with Ray, Camby, Calhoun, and Calipari.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

You can easily make this argument about Deandre Daniels as well. He was here 3 years, and as late as January in his junior year, people said he was a bust. Then he broke out, and the rest is history. Maybe even in February people were down on him. But it is undeniable that he broke out when he played power forward.

Very true. But I think you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who considers DD a big. He was great no matter what you label him though. I agree on that