Karim Coulibaly

[navery12]

polley is the de facto forward in a lineup featuring 3 guards and either carlton/cobb.

if next year's lineup is coulibaly, 3 guards and carlton, then how is he not fighting polley for minutes?

are you saying coulibaly would play center at only 6'8?

i'd rather have coulibaly's rebounding/passing on the floor than polley's occasional 3s

I think this is all a pointless discussion because he doesn't have an offer and isn't coming here. But yes, he'd be fighting for minutes with Diarra and the bigs

 

[MDHuskFan]

I’d rather a grad transfer & a scholarship the next season, 2 years into the Hurley era than a project

 

[intlzncster]

Tough crowd here.

This is how recruiting is supposed to work. You don't just offer the Top 20 and wait for them to commit. You canvas the whole spectrum.

This guy is a great back of the bench developmental type. Strong, defensive presence. At worst, he's a great practice body for the starting big to go against day in and day out.

At best, he's a Hilton type who might develop into something over 4 years.

Relax.

 

[tcf15]

Tough crowd here.

This is how recruiting is supposed to work. You don't just offer the Top 20 and wait for them to commit. You canvas the whole spectrum.

This guy is a great back of the bench developmental type. Strong, defensive presence. At worst, he's a great practice body for the starting big to go against day in and day out.

At best, he's a Hilton type who might develop into something over 4 years.

Relax.

Think there's something of a KO hangover effect here too as it relates to player development - personally I would love to see Hurley bring in an end-of-the-bench project player and see what he's able to do with him.

 

[mauconnfan]

Tough crowd here.

This is how recruiting is supposed to work. You don't just offer the Top 20 and wait for them to commit. You canvas the whole spectrum.

This guy is a great back of the bench developmental type. Strong, defensive presence. At worst, he's a great practice body for the starting big to go against day in and day out.

At best, he's a Hilton type who might develop into something over 4 years.

Relax.

These guys wouldn't have liked the Rod Sellers, Jake Voskhul, Hilton Armstrong pick ups early in their career huh? Not everyone can be Top 50 need to keep the blinders off recruiting. I have faith in this staff all the way through.

 

[Towney007]

These guys wouldn't have liked the Rod Sellers, Jake Voskhul, Hilton Armstrong pick ups early in their career huh? Not everyone can be Top 50 need to keep the blinders off recruiting. I have faith in this staff all the way through.

Quoting Muconnfan, but also the previous two...

This is also why I like Wahab and this guy so much - because they're REALLY what this team needs - front court depth with some upside. Carlton probably starts next year, but if it's Cockburn here - then he's going to get the next lion's share of minutes. I'd chew my foot off to have a guy behind those two who can do most of what Cobb and Yakwe can do now - but has another three years after that to get even better.

At this point in the college game - big name recruits come and go pretty quickly. Guys like this are the guys who sustain dynasties or extended runs of success.

 

[UConnStats]

Quoting Muconnfan, but also the previous two...

This is also why I like Wahab and this guy so much - because they're REALLY what this team needs - front court depth with some upside. Carlton probably starts next year, but if it's Cockburn here - then he's going to get the next lion's share of minutes. I'd chew my foot off to have a guy behind those two who can do most of what Cobb and Yakwe can do now - but has another three years after that to get even better.

At this point in the college game - big name recruits come and go pretty quickly. Guys like this are the guys who sustain dynasties or extended runs of success.

Wahab’s upside as a defender is high, but he’s not skilled offensively, so I can’t see him being much more than a rim runner/lob catcher on offense. But if he’s efficient he’ll still be an impact guy.

Coulibaly is more of a offense-first forward/center hybrid. He’ll grab a lot of boards too, but I think he’s too short to effectively guard some 5s and too slow to effectively cover some 4s.

 

[Walker11]

We are seeing this response because of the expectations that had been set, nothing against Coulibaly. Supposedly Akok had verballed and we were getting hints that a Cockburn commitment was imminent. Coulibaly has some solid offers and seems like a nice backup plan.

 

[superjohn]

Think there's something of a KO hangover effect here too as it relates to player development - personally I would love to see Hurley bring in an end-of-the-bench project player and see what he's able to do with him.

There is that and people are fearing we miss on all our other frontcourt recruits and this kid is the only one we bring in which would obviously be major trouble for next year. If we had any sort of frontcourt we would have the luxury of bringing him in to develop him down the road but that's obviously not the position we are in. Not at all worried though so no point in belaboring it.

 

[UConnStats]

Added Coulibaly to this view because I think people will be surprised by the results. He played in the Adidas Gauntlet, and as a reminder these are AAU numbers only.

*In case people are confused by Coulibaly's REB, he did lead the Gauntlet in DREB%, but he did very little OREB and only averaged ~15 MPG, leading to his modest REB average. Coulibaly is a bit of a PF/C tweener at 6'8, but he can score at a high level.

 

[bendm]

Coulibaly is more of a offense-first forward/center hybrid. He’ll grab a lot of boards too, but I think he’s too short to effectively guard some 5s and too slow to effectively cover some 4s.

thank you. i got shot down multiple times for saying Coulibaly could play the 4 alongside a more traditional center like carlton (or wahab). he proved it last year by playing with two 7 footers on his highschool team.

coulibaly reminds me of a young boris diaw with his rebounding/passing.

rui hachimura was also just a 3 star recruit and look at him now.

 

[UConnStats]

thank you. i got shot down multiple times for saying Coulibaly could play the 4 alongside a more traditional center like carlton (or wahab). he proved it last year by playing with two 7 footers on his highschool team.

coulibaly reminds me of a young boris diaw with his rebounding/passing.

rui hachimura was also just a 3 star recruit and look at him now.

I think Coulibaly is underrated, but Hachimura is a physical specimen, and Coulibaly is on the opposite end of that spectrum. I also don't know how well he fits in an uptempo system like Hurley's. He may have to play the 5 in that situation. But on paper he's better than his ranking suggests IMO.

 

[bendm]

the rui remark was only meant to highlight the upside of 3 star guys, b/c overnight they seemingly not good enough for uconn anymore.

two of hurley's first three freshmen commits (adams and gaffney) are 3 stars and no one has any issue with them

 

[navery12]

I think Coulibaly is underrated, but Hachimura is a physical specimen, and Coulibaly is on the opposite end of that spectrum. I also don't know how well he fits in an uptempo system like Hurley's. He may have to play the 5 in that situation. But on paper he's better than his ranking suggests IMO.

Yeah that's my feeling, he *could* play the 4 in college. But in a system like Hurley's I don't think that's maximizing his talent

 

[intlzncster]

the rui remark was only meant to highlight the upside of 3 star guys, b/c overnight they seemingly not good enough for uconn anymore.

two of hurley's first three freshmen commits (adams and gaffney) are 3 stars and no one has any issue with them

Exactly. I know they were criminally underrated, but still.

You gotta trust Hurley and staff's evaluations here. They know what they are doing. Lot of experience.

 

[husky429]

Exactly. I know they were criminally underrated, but still.

You gotta trust Hurley and staff's evaluations here. They know what they are doing. Lot of experience.

I think we still need to wait and see with Adams. He came in as a shooter, but his form is a little wonky. Seems to defend 1 on 1 well enough. Team concepts not so much.

I'm hoping he can be a 7/3/2 in 20 minutes kind of guy by the end of the season.

 

[Storrs South]

UConn: “They think that I can be a pro one day. They interest me. They are a big-time school. I know how they have won of late and have had a lot of NBA players and have good coaching.”

BasketballRecruiting.Rivals.com - Three-star Karim Coulibaly hearing from several programs

 

[intlzncster]

UConn: “They think that I can be a pro one day. They interest me. They are a big-time school. I know how they have won of late and have had a lot of NBA players and have good coaching.”

BasketballRecruiting.Rivals.com - Three-star Karim Coulibaly hearing from several programs

Keep propagating this meme my man! Maybe people will forget the past few years more quickly!

 

[Chief00]

Chief up in Boston area today talking up UConn and Hurley. The grind never ends - even on holidays!