OT: Juwan Durham to Notre Dame

[tcf15]

 

[pj]

Good for him. Seems like a good fit. Hope he makes the most of his chance. And enjoys watching us win another championship.

 

[WvConn]

Good luck to Juwan. I wish him nothing but success at ND. I just never got the feeling he was a hungry husky. His effort level always seemed like it was lacking passion for the game.

 

[JonnyRI]

Call me an but based on his contributions here (lack of) and how he left I find it very hard to root for him or vjax (he at least contributed - but really seemed like poison to the program between him and pops) in the future.

 

[Walker11]

Yea as @pj said, this looks like an excellent fit - unlike Enoch. The redshirt year is going to be huge.

 

[Waquoit]

It wasn't nearly all him. A good coach makes it work here.

 

[UConnSwag11]

It wasn't nearly all him. A good coach makes it work here.

The one good coach that offered him a scholly after two surgeries and believed in him?

 

[Walker11]

The one good coach that offered him a scholly after two surgeries and believed in him?

For the umpteenth time, we were not the only good offer JD had. Not by a long shot. We weren't even his best offer.

 

[djct1999]

To me, this is the inverse of the Pitt/Cam Johnson situation. In that case, the school looked bad. In this case, I blame the player. I will not pretend that I know Juwan Durham nor will I wish bad on the kid. But as a UConn fan, he will be very hard to root for. He did the program dirty.

As for those better offers coming out of high school......in no way would he have seen the floor for any of those programs as a freshman.

 

[pj]

What happened with JD here is not transparent, but we've changed our big man coach and our strength and conditioning coach, which seems like an acknowledgement there was some fault on our side. Hopefully any problems on our side have been fixed.

 

[Fishy]

Some fault?

Three potential starters left. Two have already ended up in better situations.

I'd say there were some problems.

 

[MadDogRevival]

This thread should be title, "Juwan Durham moves on - get your parting shots in."

I'm guessing that these threads would correlate strongly with who is a bad breaker upper and who is not (you've got a big head, Elaine).

 

[Chief00]

I am not going to criticize any player for leaving. I do however, appreciate the guys who stayed, somehow I think they will be better off than the guys who left. Time will tell.

 

[mauconnfan]

Some fault?

Three potential starters left. Two have already ended up in better situations.

I'd say there were some problems.

Of course there is some fault, there's no doubt. But the kid sucked, he did nothing with his minutes so who is most of it on? What coach believed in him through the down times ? I mean let's single out the one guy in this thread rather than take the 3 of them, he owed KO and UConn something no matter what the issues were. Kids need to earn some stuff too, this is crazy.

Seemed like a really good kid, probably is but not tough enough to hang in there and step it up for the one guy who believed in him. Hard to root for him at ND that's for sure.

 

[Chief00]

Of course there is some fault, there's no doubt. But the kid sucked, he did nothing with his minutes so who is most of it on? What coach believed in him through the down times ? I mean let's single out the one guy in this thread rather than take the 3 of them, he owed KO and UConn something no matter what the issues were. Kids need to earn some stuff too, this is crazy.

Seemed like a really good kid, probably is but not tough enough to hang in there and step it up for the one guy who believed in him. Hard to root for him at ND that's for sure.

Our S&C program has basically been non existent the last few years except for some incremental improvement last season after Benedict ordered changes. Our Bigs Coaching could have made a SNL skit.

You have two experience and successful ACC
Coaches make different talent assessments than you and some other posters.

It can only get better with the coaching changes.

 

[uconnell]

It's hard to root for ND period.

 

[Fishy]

Of course there is some fault, there's no doubt. But the kid sucked, he did nothing with his minutes so who is most of it on? What coach believed in him through the down times ? I mean let's single out the one guy in this thread rather than take the 3 of them, he owed KO and UConn something no matter what the issues were. Kids need to earn some stuff too, this is crazy.

Seemed like a really good kid, probably is but not tough enough to hang in there and step it up for the one guy who believed in him. Hard to root for him at ND that's for sure.

Good news then - he's not here anymore. He just turned down a top five program to sign with a top 20 program...odd given that only one coach on this earth believes in him.

But I'm sure the three-star kid we rolled New Mexico for will be much, much better.

 

[Brochacho]

Can't wait for Juwan Durham to shoot 40% from 3 two years from now. There's some talent there; between him, Facey, Brimah, and Enoch he seemed the most likely to have touched a basketball before the age of 16.

Interesting that some of the board cheerleaders are in here trashing Durham yet laud the addition of David Onuorah, despite the fact in what will now be Onuorah's fifth year as a college basketball player his per minute stats are nearly identical to freshman Durham's who played sparingly coming off two ACL injuries. But as @mauconnfan says, no talent of course.

 

[boog204]

He's at a better place, for now... Just not sure he's ever going to be the player he was pre-injury. This off year will be enormous for him physically. But mentally, will he trust his body? You saw it every once in a while this year. But more often than not, he was Charmin soft and tentative.

 

[HooperScooper]

We've now lost one to Louisville and one to ND. I don't want to hear about the recruiting. Development is more the issue.

 

[boog204]

We've now lost one to Louisville and one to ND. I don't want to hear about the recruiting. Development is more the issue.

and whatever the culture was last year... it's not just that they were not developing, it's that two/three potential starters opted to sit out a year rather than playing for UConn. That's scary toxic.

 

[Hi-Low]

I already forgot he was at Storrs.....in 2 years when he plays again I will care even less.

 

[UConnSwag11]

For the umpteenth time, we were not the only good offer JD had. Not by a long shot. We weren't even his best offer.

I said good bc the comment I was quoting used "good"

 

[upstater]

Some fault?

Three potential starters left. Two have already ended up in better situations.

I'd say there were some problems.

I think Durham found an excellent spot for the way he plays. He will be able to post low in a slower game at ND.

I do not believe Enoch found a better spot though. I know Louisville will be one of the top teams in the nation and in the ACC, and Pitino is excellent. But there is a lot of desperation in Louisville for big men currently, and their fans are up in arms at the lack of development of big men, and their inability to play defense or "make a layup." Although Louisville is flying high, their recruitment of Enoch was about desperation for bigmen. They are throwing anything they can at the wall.

I have nothing against either of these kids, but I believe Durham will have much success at ND, while Enoch will not succeed at Louisville.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

It's hard to root for ND period.

Right? lol people seem to forget that. Regardless of the battles we've had against them and the nearly Duke-Esque succession of annoying players I blame a lot of our CR woes on them. They should have stayed in the Big East and maybe the ACC adds us and Cincy to be the first league to 16. Or the should have joined the ACC full time and maybe we're 16. Them being in the ACC makes very little sense to me as the Big East has added even more Midwest catholic schools in Creighton and Xavier.