OT: Juwan Durham update

[Chief00]

But cheif he didnt see minutes because he made the team exponentially worse every time he was on the floor. What was Ollie to do? Throw games to play him?

I haven't done the statistical analysis but we were a really bad team coming out of the gates each game and Enoch did not start.

 

[Chief00]

Nice of you to intentionally misstate my position. I referred to freshman Thabeet versus senior Brimah. And freshman Thabeet was as bad offensively as current Enoch is on defense. Sophomore Thabeet (much less Junior Thabeet) was much better offensively than current Brimah.

Senior year Brimah was not a good one on one post defender. He did his best the last two years against mid major teams. Any team with a post presence put him on the bench with some quick fouls because under Coach Miller Amida never became a fundamentally sound defensive player. He had 105 fouls and fouled out of 4 games despite riding the bench after 2 fouls the first half.
He was a good help defender - and he loved blocking the ball into the tenth row, of course immediately afterwards our opponent would inbound the ball. I like Brimah as a person but just breaking his game down for the casual fans out there.

 

[RedsoxCowboys]

Well when you are the worst player on the team of course you have a short leash smh. Entitled brats

He was not the worst player on this team. He actually had moments of really good play. I wish he did play more

 

[8893]

just breaking his game down for the casual fans out there.

Thanks, Chief.

 

[Chief00]

Thanks, Chief.

No problem. We need the casual fan with our average attendance at just over 8,700.

 

[businesslawyer]

Senior year Brimah was not a good one on one post defender. He did his best the last two years against mid major teams. Any team with a post presence put him on the bench with some quick fouls because under Coach Miller Amida never became a fundamentally sound defensive player. He had 105 fouls and fouled out of 4 games despite riding the bench after 2 fouls the first half.
He was a good help defender - and he loved blocking the ball into the tenth row, of course immediately afterwards our opponent would inbound the ball. I like Brimah as a person but just breaking his game down for the casual fans out there.

Pointing out the relative strengths and weaknesses in Brimah's game is fine. I agree with a lot of that. None of that, however, puts Durham or Enoch within light years of his overall contribution.

 

[intlzncster]

Obviously my points are speculative as I am not part of the program and have no access beyond watching on tv, going to games, and reading on here and tos.

If its one player then its more likely to be player specific. But when it becomes a trend then you have to ask yourself if maybe its not just the players.

I was responding to the overwhelming majority of posts which tend to blame/ rip on JD, SE, and VJ without ever considering another explanation. As I said, I'm sure its a little of both and both parties need to share in the "blame". But the fan reaction here is not nearly as balanced and almost everyone is blaming the players for being lazy, soft, or just plain bad.

I completely agree with your analysis on every player and I have never stated otherwise. I said as much before and acknowledged all of their strengths and flaws.

My entire point was that despite these flaws, it doesn't seem like we've been able to maximize the strengths of these players. And every one of them had at least a few strengths/ skills that could have been better utilized in my opinion.

Every coach in America deals with players who are flawed. Is everyone on SMU and Cinci flawless? Do they somehow manage to only find players who are strong mentally and want to work hard? I have no idea, but it seems way too lazy to just blame this all on the players. Seems to me that their coaches have done a much better job of taking less heralded, less skilled players and getting more out of them than we do with more prized acquisitions.

Maybe all 3 of them are lazy and unwilling to put the work in. I have no idea. But its becoming too common around here and over too many classes for me to think that this is all on them.

I think all 3 of them are completely justified in wanting to transfer and can understand if all 3 of them are either unhappy with the coaches and/or doubtful of their ability to maximize their potential here.

And I don't enjoy seeing them get completely ripped on this board and dont agree with that assessment. That is all I'm trying to say.

It's fair enough to question if there's something else, which obviously there is another piece to the situation, but I'd also add that there was heavy fatherly involvement with two of the kids...and then Durham's take here.

Can you imagine these guys playing under JC??? They might not have made it through first semester.

If anything, Ollie deserves blame for recruiting this kind of kid, and of course MAL, as I mentioned.

 

[intlzncster]

When you see him play for Loiusville, you will understand what I mean better.

I also believe he had defensive ability - his problem defensively was more processing in real time our numerous defenses and defensive principles last season. Physically he is capable.

The one thing he'll have at Louisville that he didn't have here, is the 2/3 zone. They'll be able to hide him down low in that system in a way that was not possible with UCONN's man to man. This will significantly simplify what he has to do, and since he lacks the foot speed of a lot of guys at his position, covering one small area should help him tremendously.

 

[Kembacity]

The one thing he'll have at Louisville that he didn't have here, is the 2/3 zone. They'll be able to hide him down low in that system in a way that was not possible with UConn's man to man. This will significantly simplify what he has to do, and since he lacks the foot speed of a lot of guys at his position, covering one small area should help him tremendously.

He is gonna get BURNED when a driver gets to him and the perimeter guy cuts to the hoop though. I might tune in to some LVille games in 2 years just to see how far he's come as a defender with regards to his feet. He just seemed to have no clue where to get to

 

[8893]

@Kembacity , always meant to ask: Is it intended to be "Kemba city," or "Kembacity," i.e., one word, like "audacity?"

 

[Stainmaster]

Chief, making ridiculous excuses for players whose skills and abilities aren't up to par is one of the most "casual fan" things one can do.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

Please stop. Thabeet was twice as smart as Brimah on the court you could see it immediately. We aren't even talking about the same kind of player Thabeet was so much better it wasn't close, because he had natural ability. Are you going to give JC all the credit for Emeka too? No he made himself better, was very smart and picked things up immediately you could see it happening. These kids are taught how to play, I saw AB in one on one coaching that is allowed in September for the hour or 2 at Gampel once and I thought he was going to be a world beater posting up against some 6'2 walk on practice kid. His moves and jump hooks we're really nice, repeating it form both sides for a very long time. Now transition it to the game..oh sorry he couldn't. He's a totally different case than Thabeet, not close.

What we are forgetting is a lot of teams have Brimah's but they were lucky enough that they weren't starting theirs. Many back ups have flaws and that's the reason they are bench players. We didn't get anyone better so this flawed player was in the spotlight too much hence the constant questioning of the staff. If they recruited the position better everyone would be thrilled with AB playing 12-18 minutes off the bench.

Thabeet had natural ability? He could barely catch a basketball when he got here.

I was really excited the first time I saw Brimah in our exhibition game his freshman year. While he was raw, you could tell he had a lot of upside. He looked like a steal for a low level 3 star prospect. He was certainly much quicker, agile, and athletic than Thabeet was.

You could argue that upon arrival he was actually the better prospect of the two.

Regarding why Thabeet developed as much as he did. I would have to give JC a lot of credit there. Especially considering how Thabeet did when JC was longer his coach. And a lot of people accused him of not putting the time in or being committed etc. I don't think anyone would argue that Thabeet was the determined 24/7 hard worker that Emeka was.

 

[intlzncster]

Sitting Jake Voskhul to play Justin Brown is mailing it in.
Reducing the time of an ineffective Brimah to develop a high potential guy is not.

No it's not. Mailing it in is giving up on the present to focus on the future. In other words, 'giving up'. It's physically impossible to argue that JC was mailing it in with the 99 team. Keeping Jake fresh for the guaranteed post season run on a dominant basketball team is just good basketball.

We weren't out of this season at any point, if you take into account the AAC tournament auto-bid. Which you should. Have to win as many games as possible.

And I keep going back to: if you play kids minutes they do not earn in practice, and take minutes from kids who do earn then, just because of 'potential', then you've lost your program permanently.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

It's fair enough to question if there's something else, which obviously there is another piece to the situation, but I'd also add that there was heavy fatherly involvement with two of the kids...and then Durham's take here.

Can you imagine these guys playing under JC??? They might not have made it through first semester.

Ollie deserves blame for recruiting this kind of kid, if anything, and of course MAL, as I mentioned.

Exactly. So its a little of both. Which is what I've been trying to say this entire time!

 

[AntG168]

He was not the worst player on this team. He actually had moments of really good play. I wish he did play more

Who was worse than juwan durham last yr???????????

 

[intlzncster]

He is gonna get BURNED when a driver gets to him and the perimeter guy cuts to the hoop though. I might tune in to some LVille games in 2 years just to see how far he's come as a defender with regards to his feet. He just seemed to have no clue where to get to

I'm not saying it'll be easy. But the simplification of the scheme will probably help. If he doesn't have to think--just do, his undeveloped bb instinct will be mitigated. jmo of course. I will tune in as well.

I think Steve will be a good, not great, college player. I wanted him back, so that we could reap the benefits Sr year.

The redshirt year will probably be the most significant factor in Steve's development. And let's face it, Pitino is a HOF coach for a reason.

 

[intlzncster]

As though that's not a statement made to sound deep and intricately knowledgeable about the game, but in fact is one of the more simplistic statements that could be made. Not trying to rip Chief, but sometimes this stuff is too obvious to not point out. I mean, how is that high level basketball stuff? Sounds 'casual' at best ...

You are not ripping him. This is the very essence of Chief and his 'casual fan' schtick. Present the obvious as esoteric insight.
I'm not saying he never offers up any nuggets, but still...

 

[intlzncster]

Please stop. Thabeet was twice as smart as Brimah on the court you could see it immediately. We aren't even talking about the same kind of player Thabeet was so much better it wasn't close, because he had natural ability. Are you going to give JC all the credit for Emeka too? No he made himself better, was very smart and picked things up immediately you could see it happening. These kids are taught how to play, I saw AB in one on one coaching that is allowed in September for the hour or 2 at Gampel once and I thought he was going to be a world beater posting up against some 6'2 walk on practice kid. His moves and jump hooks we're really nice, repeating it form both sides for a very long time. Now transition it to the game..oh sorry he couldn't. He's a totally different case than Thabeet, not close.

Brimah had the ability, he just didn't have the mind for the game, to process it quickly enough and translate that into actions. I mean, what can you do?

Not a comment on his intelligence, as he's reportedly a sharp kid.

 

[intlzncster]

Who was worse than juwan durham last yr???????????

Don't know if he was worse, but Foxen was behind Durham. Just an objective evaluation. For the casual fan.

 

[AntG168]

Don't know if he was worse, but Foxen was behind Durham. Just an objective evaluation. For the casual fan.

Im talking scholarship players. Foxen maybe one of those goodwill scholorship players. But he's still considered a walk on

 

[UConnNick]

Who was worse than juwan durham last yr???????????

"Johnnie Time!" Selvie. Everything that's gone wrong with the UConn men's BB program since the early 2000's is his fault.

 

[mauconnfan]

Brimah had the ability, he just didn't have the mind for the game, to process it quickly enough and translate that into actions. I mean, what can you do?

Not a comment on his intelligence, as he's reportedly a sharp kid.

Never directed at his "intelligence" as a kid, seems like a wonderful and bright kid for sure. For his sake, I wish it translated into bball he could have been very good. As it was I appreciate that he was as good as he could be for UConn.

 

[mauconnfan]

He was not the worst player on this team. He actually had moments of really good play. I wish he did play more

New here huh? "RedsoxCowboys", uhgghhh rough start using those in one word!

Welcome and by the way he did show those flashes of what he could be I agree. I also wish he had played more but I'm guessing he didn't do anything to earn the time, others probably outworked him. Only a guess but I doubt KO would not a play a kid he thinks deserves to be out there. Kid when recruited was such a smart kid, seemingly a real good kid just wanted more, thought he somehow deserved more. Sucks but hey, maybe these slots make us better in the long run?

 

[mauconnfan]

Exactly. So its a little of both. Which is what I've been trying to say this entire time!

All on the same page just reading different paragraphs LOL. We all want the same result, a better basketball team and let's hope we get one. Frustration is running rampant and who could blame anyone?

 

[RedsoxCowboys]

I agree that Durham wasn't very good last year. Too slow and weak and rusty from the injuries. And he had some chances and never showed much. And i definitely don't agree with him voicing these opinions publicly.

But this is 3 players leaving, at least in some part, because they dont think the staff was utilizing them properly. And 2 of them (Enoch and Durham) who we all agreed had a ton of potential and barely showed anything at all here.

Is it possible that there is some truth to what they are saying? Does it seem like the staff did a very good job utilizing their skillsets? Enoch and Durham both had plenty of opportunities, and neither made the most of them. But I don't think the coaches are completely blameless here either.

I can't really blame either one for having doubts about their ability to develop here.

I agree with your comments here. If any of these guys turn out to be great, this is on the UConn coaching.