New article: Frontcourt Problems

[CTBasketball]

http://the-boneyard.com/blog/frontcourt-problems-an-issue-going-forward/

Attached.

 

[Zionn]

Thanks for sharing. While not arguing any of the points you raised, I feel much better about our frontcourt now then I did this time last year.

 

[UC990411]

Thanks for being so optimistic

 

[aceboon]

the frontcourt is injury proned?

 

[CTBasketball]

the frontcourt is injury proned?

Olander and Facey are. Facey was injured often throughout HS.

 

[aceboon]

What injuries did Facey suffer in HS? other than a bruised heel in his soph year and the broken foot he suffered last year I don't recall any other injuries Olander has had.

 

[James]

Nonsense

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Nonsense

Agree 100%
DD will be a power at the 4 (he will become aHuskie legend) with a veteran NG in support. DD. can play three with NG at 4 in a 2 guard set.
Leon has a year undrr their belt . Facey is a bonus.
That leaves Phil Brimah and TO to play the 5. Not superstars but with the scoring potentential of the other 4 they will be open a lot.
Any team can be hurt by injuries. The one most difficult to overcome is SN.
I not sure RB is ready at the point. Kromah was a good add.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I prefer to characterize our frontcourt as "servicable." They're not going to "Wow!" you, but I have faith they won't be the liability they were at times last year. My optimism is based on the expectation of the improvement of Nolan and Olander and the arrival of Facey and Brimah. If nothing else they can play very aggressive and wear teams down a bit.

 

[Fishy]

For the most part, the front court isn't particularly talented, but at least there seems to be a lot of parts. We need Brimah or Nolan to emerge as a solid player in the middle.

While I think they did a decent job of scrambling for "plan C" players, they've really had a tough time landing their primary and secondary front court targets. Unfortunately, the problem seems to have gotten even worse this year.

 

[Scot-e]

Fishy-you are not a fan of us signing "Rock"? I think making a run in the NCAAs this years and generally having a strong showing should help moving forward- (much less pain with JC leaving then I though there would be- so far).

 

[Fishy]

I'm not against signing anyone - you have to field a team and if this particular recruit is the best they can do, he's the best they can do.

A new broom should sweep clean - you generally get a nice bounce on the recruiting trail by hiring a new coach. The bounce here was not terribly high.

Hamilton is a very good player. We got Purvis off the rebound as a transfer. Fine and fine.

But now the staff is getting handled by mid-majors and marginal power conference teams and they're way deep into stretch recruits - that is really disappointing given Ollie's rep, his first full year and a $40M athletic facility to show off. Despite some ridiculous claims to the contrary here, the conference is definitely a drag, but it should not be such a drag that they find themselves plumbing deep into the top 500 for recruits.

The stakes are so, so high - UConn athletics simply will not survive with a middling men's basketball team.

 

[Scot-e]

I agree for the most part- but If you look at DH and RP as being top 30 type players - could this just be a case of them finding a diamond in the rough? I do not see much difference between him and Konobo (sp) and everyone here seemed to have a giant woody for him.

The position that I am concerned about is PG - we should have more interest from high level guards considering what KO has done in his NBA career. Hopefully it is just a lack of information and there are still some high level players on the radar that are looking at us.

DOOMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[nomar]

I see some undue pessimism here. We've got D-Ham and Purvis coming in -- that's not a big bounce? We've been in a lot of living rooms in a short period of time. Obviously results are the most important thing, but you've got to build things up.

We've always settled for our 3rd and 4th options. Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor weren't our first choices, let alone Josh Boone and Hilton Armstrong. Things have a way of working out.

We were staring into the abyss, both before and after out last title. I feel a lot better than I did a year ago.

 

[Gurleyman]

Other than Abu, we haven't had what I would consider a letdown recruiting loss. Maybe Perkins since he seemed like a good fit, but we never got very far along in the process with him. We almost stole Larrier, but were late to the party and sometimes that's not enough, even if you're a better school. Other guys we jumped in the fray for a short time, or were on some lists at one point, but with Hamilton and Purvis on board early (and Omar already here), 2s and 3s were going to be hard to get (and 1s too with Boat/Purvis uncertainty there).

Even Abu isn't reason to crawl out on a ledge. He seems like a quality player who would have helped, especially giving us an element of physicality we lack, but he's not a program-changer. Also possible that Facey will be our primary 4 after Daniels goes and we'll be back to a more traditional three-out, two-in team.

We don't seem to have great depth for next year if Boat and DD go, but we always have the last option of the Evans/Kromah fifth-year guy for extra depth.

 

[Kitaman]

We won a NC with Chuck, who perhaps wouldn't have started on many of our other teams (including non-Championships). We just need our bigs to 'collectively' rebound and block a couple of shots. I think they and the new recruits can do that to do some damage.

Win some games, let Ollie get a 'coaching' rep and the better (i.e. taller) top recruits will come. Right now Ollie is in a tough spot and he obviously can't lean on Calhoun's resume. He needs time and a couple of good winning seasons.