Next Year's Hopes - Durham &Diarra

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

I don't like that philosophy. It takes away the opportunity to fast break on a consistent basis.

Pretty much. No bigs running the floor and the guards have to go coast to coast.

 

[Pudge]

Back to Enoch ...

And given this board, I watched him more carefully this week. And since I don't live within an hour of Hartford (ahem whaler11) it was TV. I heard pointed defensive comments on Enoch from Tim Welch - former PC Coach and an old school guy.

Here is what I will say on the defensive side ... he got better at boxing out. Honestly. I give him "incremental" baby step credit in a few weeks as I think he was the primary guy who kept Kyle Meier of Houston off the Offensive board (Meier had 11 Rebs in Hofheinz but only 3 last week). That is harder for the casual fan to watch: Enoch knew where his guy was ... and put his big body in box out form. As for the "ole' " nature and comments, I think he has a LONG way to go; unfortunately. He doesn't move his feet fast enough to catch guards coming through and when he is a rim protector, it's purely happenstance. In Zone ... or with a good Offensive guy on the opposing team (*think Gary Clark), he really is not very effective.

As for his Offensive moves? I wonder if people are watching the same game: Enoch has a good assortment of post moves. He can easily hit the 10-15 foot side jumper and out to the foul line straight. He moves rather gracefully and polished. He still has too much lack of awareness and seemingly doesn't know where he is supposed to be at times. No offensive crashes. When you think 19yo with that body, mediocre cannot be the grade. Comparables? What do you want? He does things that Nolan, Olander, Brimah, Oriakhi, Okwandu ... couldn't dream of doing.

As for Durham ... I think we saw far less. What we have seen has some promise.

 

[upstater]

To me, development needs to occur in the off season. I'm baffled as to why Brimah never went to a big man camp to improve his skills. I know one off season he had the shoulder problem, but what did he do the other three?? Enoch needs to go to a big man camp or have someone work with him the entire summer, rather than beating up on clearly inferior competition in Angola or wherever the hell he was last summer. Durham just needs to get stronger, he has the skills.

Amida went to a big man camp.

 

[joober jones]

I wish Enoch had Nolan's footwork.

 

[freescooter]

Pudge
Enoch might have a few offensive moves but he doesn't finish all too often. If he misses another baby hook he might end up in Guinness. You are absolutely right about his defense. But I think he has many of the same issues on offense...slow and he doesn't make a strong move. He doesn't quite know what to do with the ball. I am certainly hoping Diarah or Durham return to form after their respective injuries because Enoch is a low mid major player with a big time body

 

[Pudge]

Pudge
Enoch might have a few offensive moves but he doesn't finish all too often. If he misses another baby hook he might end up in Guinness. You are absolutely right about his defense. But I think he has many of the same issues on offense...slow and he doesn't make a strong move. He doesn't quite know what to do with the ball. I am certainly hoping Diarah or Durham return to form after their respective injuries because Enoch is a low mid major player with a big time body

You're both crazy ... and you don't know what you are looking at.

I don't know whether that KID ever develops. But "mediocre" doesn't begin to define the skillset. Olander? Nolan? Brimah (now)? Each had a few things that could put them on the floor. Enoch is RAW; but, he posseses things that those three could only hope to ever gain. I saw huge reasons to sit Enoch over the few days of the AAC. He teases really often though. What am I talking about? Touch on his shot; fast strong hands, and that body that you won't have to create. I hope it happens. As many many posts state: It is on Enoch to work. He seems like a good nice kid that we should root for.

 

[JSM1970]

I like his potential. Remember the first FF Houston made and we saw Olajuwon and he was very raw and then then next he was a dominant player.

Certainly not comparing the 2 or expecting that, it is very possible for SE to make a huge leap for him and be a consistent and productive player.

25 mins from him would be great
20 from Durham
20+ from some combination of Diarra, Carlton, Cobb

He's 19 years old. 21 months younger than jalen but in the same class. It takes big men longer to develop and with Enoch being so young that development takes longer. He has all the tools and physical ability to be a dominant big man. It's up to him to put in the endless hours of work

 

[Tenspro2002]

He's 19 years old. 21 months younger than jalen but in the same class. It takes big men longer to develop and with Enoch being so young that development takes longer. He has all the tools and physical ability to be a dominant big man. It's up to him to put in the endless hours of work

Then he should have been redshirted.

On his current trajectory, we'll get 1 good year, maybe, out of Enoch. That's not cutting it.

 

[freescooter]

This great offensive player is shooting 41% from the field and can't rebound. Good grief Pudge! That is pitiful for a guy who plays his position. He needs to improve dramatically just to be considered mediocre. He averaged 12 minutes a game this year and will be lucky to get that next year if Durham and Diara and the newcomers are even half what they are supposed to be.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I think Enoch is a poor man's Toraino Walker without the signature explosion game on a big stage. That was just a tease from Walker and he was never consistently productive. Enoch needs a lot of reps at game speed to progress into something more than a big body with fouls to give and occasional hot hand earning a few extra minutes.

 

[3rdbass]

We know that Enoch has to play 25 min per game next year and will at least be decent from the offensive side but staying on the floor will be a problem. Our guards and forwards have always gotten rebounds but can D&D do enough? It's comparing Brimah, Facey and Enoch to Enoch, Durham, Diarra and Cobb against meaningful competition, tough teams. A big part of this is that I hope there is a hands upgrade, along with BBIQ. Durham is a stick figure on bad knees. Diarra I don't know, he looks tough enough. Cobb in the video looked like a bridge abutment. Unless a team has unbelievable guards and ours will be very good, there has to be help down low. It just seems we have a question mark again for the 3rd straight season in a row where we are banking on "summer progress" and wishful hoping rather than reality. The last scholarship seems to be key.

We won't be playing a traditional lineup next year. Expect to see a lot of TL and VJ at the PF with 3 guards or both together. We really just need one reliable rebounder solid defender inside. Do we have that now? Not sure as SE is more offense, Durham bad knees, Durham not much of a rebounder, Cobb is unknown, and Carlton is a Freshman. If none of them can supply rebounder/positional defender we could be in trouble for sure when we have to beat the bigger teams like SMU and Cincy.

 

[Pudge]

This great offensive player is shooting 41% from the field and can't rebound. Good grief Pudge! That is pitiful for a guy who plays his position. He needs to improve dramatically just to be considered mediocre. He averaged 12 minutes a game this year and will be lucky to get that next year if Durham and Diara and the newcomers are even half what they are supposed to be.

Use your damn eyes ...

His shots were in limited patches. He has skill etc etc. If this is all it takes for you to crap on a KID ... move onto the next. Again, he may never get to a higher level; however, there is no doubt on his physical skills. It is a bunch of things that are holding him back. I will not be surprised if he surpasses all the guys we'd name in the last 6 years. The probable outcome is he never gets it. IF he works though ...

 

[Pudge]

Carlton could walk in and surprise. We have started Freshman bigs from day one in our past. There is that opportunity.

 

[Danzz]

How many bigs can step right in and be a factor on offense and defense? 6 or 7 maybe and most of them play for Kentucky and Duke. Big men take time to develop and some never do or they develop below expectations. It is BS to think that UConn isn't doing something that other teams are doing. Brimah and Facey started very late and as a result nothing came natural. Natural more often than not comes from playing from 5 years old.
Player development comes more from the player: his talent, basketball IQ, athleticism and ability to implement what he is taught.

This great offensive player is shooting 41% from the field and can't rebound. Good grief Pudge! That is pitiful for a guy who plays his position. He needs to improve dramatically just to be considered mediocre. He averaged 12 minutes a game this year and will be lucky to get that next year if Durham and Diara and the newcomers are even half what they are supposed to be.

 

[ford82]

They need more talent. period.

Ollie can talk about what guys need to work on but you need to have the talent. UConn's bigs are extremely limited and often looked overwhelmed.

The biggest thing this team needs is Ollie to work as hard as possible to find more talent. He hasn't shown a great ability to evaluate and land enough talented players. He has gotten a few good players but not enough to build a new quality team. Ollie talks about what the players need to do but it all comes down to his ability to evaluate, land and develop quality, healthy talent. Depth is important as well.

Calhoun always had a process of putting great teams together 3 to 4 years at a time. Great progression each year leading to an eventual deep NCAA tourney run. Ollie doesn't seem to have things planned out well - multiple players at the same position with major deficiencies at other positions.

 

[huskymagic]

We will utilize VJ and Terry together a lot to mitigate our big man problems and to mitigate VJ's lack of footspeed and athleticism on the perimeter. Durham has the best instincts and upside of the big men, the only thing he was missing was strength and confidence in his legs.

Durham should be much better and more confident next year. If not then we have even bigger problems developing big men then we currently think. I like Mamadou as well. Mama is a strong body who wont get bullied with good motor and defensive instincts. Hopefully he is good to go because he is the Vital of the big men in work ethic and intensity.

Enoch needs to move away from potential and start going to realization of his physical talents. He teases us with the offense, but rushes and misses so many easy layups, hook shots etc around the rim. Defensively he was backing up when Gary Clark was posting him up and either picking up fouls or letting him score. That should never happen when you have 3-4 inches on him and 30-40 pounds on a guy. Enoch is soft spoken and the problem with these types is that they play timid and unsure of themselves. Kid needs confidence. All of our good big men had confidence/swagger (Jake, Villanueva, Emeka, Boone, Thabeet, Andre, Donyell, Cliff).

 

[RichZ]

...I'm baffled as to why Brimah never went to a big man camp to improve his skills. I know one off season he had the shoulder problem, but what did he do the other three??...

I agree that SE needs to spend this summer at a quality big man's camp. But there are only three summers in a 4 year college career, not four.

 

[JSM1970]

Carlton is not even top 200 by 247. Facey and SE were both top 75 and we're complaining about SE and saying Facey took years to develop.

Shocked people expect anything from Carlton as a frosh. It would be a nice suprise.

Carlton could walk in and surprise. We have started Freshman bigs from day one in our past. There is that opportunity.

 

[Matrim55]

I don't like that philosophy. It takes away the opportunity to fast break on a consistent basis.

We were getting crushed on the boards in early 2014 when he finally scrapped the leak-out by the guards. It was after the SMU game that we finally stopped trying to run, and as a result we were a better team for the rest of that season than we otherwise would've been.

We just haven't had the big men to do anything else since then. Saying "I don't like the philosophy of having all five guys crash the defensive boards because it limits our chance to break" is nice, but the alternative is "holy hell did we really give up 15 offensive rebounds and 25 second-chance points?"

 

[InKembaITrust]

We need a big man coach to teach Enoch and Cobb to perfect the art of carving out space down low for defensive rebounds.

2 builds like that there is no excuse to not be grabbing defensive boards at a MUCH higher level than this past season with the twigs of Facey and Brimah

 

[UCweCONN]

Then he should have been redshirted.

On his current trajectory, we'll get 1 good year, maybe, out of Enoch. That's not cutting it.

Agreed. If we continue to bring in big men that take four years to contribute, we'd be much better off not even recruiting high school kids and go exclusively the JUCO route. That way you get a 2-3 contributor and save money and effort by not competing with the college basketball elites for high school players. Let the staff focus on guards and small forwards and get bigs from JUCO or from overseas.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I hope that KO will put Durham in more and run plays for him. He has seemed tentative, as well as maybe a little too nice. I would love to see him a little pissed off and ready to mix it up on the boards. I continue to think that he has potential to be very good, but he needs more than a minute here or there. I know he did not produce a whole lot in the time in the games, but we all see that he has more basketball instincts than any of our other bigs.

 

[JSM1970]

What instincts? He was awful and produced virtually nothing in an awful league.

He's a total wait-n-see.

I like having the 5-6 players playing for minutes at the 4-5. Who knows who emerges and it will likely change at times.

We need production there. Hopefully the stress and pressure produces great results.

I hope that KO will put Durham in more and run plays for him. He has seemed tentative, as well as maybe a little too nice. I would love to see him a little pissed off and ready to mix it up on the boards. I continue to think that he has potential to be very good, but he needs more than a minute here or there. I know he did not produce a whole lot in the time in the games, but we all see that he has more basketball instincts than any of our other bigs.

 

[mauconnfan]

Enoch has to improve defensively no doubt, but how & where? Watching against Cincinnati, he starts okay between opponent and basket, but the other guy just backs in closer & closer to basket without Enoch disturbing him much. In fact, it seemed Enoch would just step backwards and offer opponent space so he could continue backing in to basket. So, at the minimum, he needs to stand his ground and keep a body on his opponent. He is certainly big enough to not be pushed around. Secondly, he just doesn't move feet well defensively or is quick enough to do that; perhaps he hasn't learned how to anticipate his opponent's moves. Some of this is probably due to conditioning and would improve if he lost a little weight/work on foot drills.

Nothing a good big's coach couldn't teach!

A big mans coach can't teach instincts on D so many people are so wrong on this. I hope he picks it up himself because they are teaching it, but people have to be able to learn it. Truth be told both Facey and Brimah were the same on defense. The only thing separating Brimah and Enoch on that end was Brimah's ability to block 2.7 shots a game, otherwise he's the same guy. Always lost but good news is he could make it up sometimes. But not enough, he was a shot blocker and crappy overall on defense. Why? because the instincts of thinking ahead to see what's going to happen, to read the help required and to get your hands on the side to make that pass tougher are NOT there. I will say it again, need smarter players, simple as heck!

I will be honest not sure Steve will ever get that end unfortunately but next year will tell us a bit more.

 

[mauconnfan]

I envision Juwan to be a lot better next year - summer of working hard and the confidence that he was able to play a year without injury so may be time to go ALL out. Just think the process was mentally challenging to the kid, my hope is all that stuff we saw on the video's, solid scorer with some shot blocking ability suddenly show up for 17-18. He's one of the many keys for next year and I think we will all be pretty happy with the jump.