Our frontcourt woes

[superjohn]

Clearly we haven't been UConn in the last few seasons but a couple things still resemble UConn basketball, namely we still get really good point guard play. One thing that has absolutely fallen off a cliff and doesn't at all resemble UConn basketball is our frontcourt.

We went from leading the country in blocks for like a decade straight, rebounded tenaciously, and even had some great big to big interior passing to pick apart zone defenses to THIS. We went from having a frontcourt with Okafor, Boone, Villanueva, Armstrong, and Marcus White all on the same team to THIS. We went from a frontcourt with Thabeet, Sticks Robinson, Adrien, and Gavin Edwards all on the same team to THIS.

Since Ollie has taken over our frontcourt has basically consisted of Brimah blocking shots, a huge Brimah and 1 in the first round of the NCAA tournament and 1 good grad transfer season from Shonn Miller. The past few years have been pretty tough to watch but the most painful thing is constantly watching our big guys get pushed around, get knocked off the block, fumble passes, and have no semblance of any go to moves.

The question is how did we go from being a frontcourt teams across the country were scared to play against to now THIS? Now for the first time ever we have a frontcourt with zero experience which is totally comprised of 3 star recruits. I pray one or two of them turns out to be much better than their ranking but the odds aren't in our favor.

 

[mauconnfan]

Sj really? A thread to discuss the obvious and something which has been beaten to death?

Must say I'm surprised at you, must be a tough day at work or something.

 

[Pudge]

We could use an Enosch Wolf.

I keep saying ... Durham and Enoch may be on a skill-athlete level surpassing of many of the Bigs we have had since 2005. But, WE developed Hilton Armstrong and Gavin Edwards. On the practice floor. Neither got much playing time at the level those two kids were last year. I am hoping Diarra has ONE thing that the two dearly departed did not ... a head for the game and the eagerness to just go for ball. Come what may. You don't know what Cobb-Whaley-Onaurah bring yet. But given the productivity of the Two and the projections into what they could have provided in 2017-2018 ... I actually think our immediate next games, we are better off. Both needed the year of development they will get at Louisville and ND.

Killings and Chillious. Don't judge them on a Spring scramble. 2018 class is it.

 

[80shusky]

I've been missing this. Glad its back.

 

[B1GEast]

I think the front court, despite the transfers, has been addressed this off-season.

 

[Guapo]

I've been missing this. Glad its back.

I have hope for Carlton, maybe not for this year but I think he has the potential to be a very good big.

And, honestly, the game has changed from the early 00's too. Guard play is where it's at, we just need some semi-competent bodies down low to be successful.

 

[LStudfellow]

A combination of things happened over the last 5 years Superjohn - taken separately they could have been straightened out by now, but put together you can see the path that has led us to this current lowly state. And then the question becomes: have the right steps been taken to reverse/change this course? The next year or two of recruiting are key, in combination with whether Chillious and Daniel were the right guys to help our bigs improve more once they are on campus.

Here is how we got to this current state:

1. 2012 - our two best bigs (Oriahki and Roscoe Smith) transferred out, as did our young project big at the time (Michael Bradley).

2. 2013-2014 - recruiting sanctions and negative recruiting against us limited our big men recruiting to getting a project big (Brimah) and a newbie to basketball who played well enough to garner some New York player of the year awards with potential, but not innate basketball skills (Facey).

3. 2015 - excellent post-grad brought in (Shonn Miller); the guy who was supposed to develop into our next really good/excellent big as well (Enoch). Neither Brimah nor Facey progressing to the level any of us would have hoped.

4. 2016 - Brought in Durham and Diarra as bigs - I can see where many on here would find fault with not bringing in at least one big without health concerns, particularly in retrospect. We finally see some progression in Facey's game... but I would say that between the strength & conditioning as well as the inadequate consistent big man coaching (which needs no further beating of that very dead horse) there was not nearly enough progression individually or as a group. Then of course 2 graduate and 2 big hopes for the future transfer. Majority of fault lies with KO, as head coach and leader of the program. Looks like he thought he had the big men part of this heading in the right direction, but too much of it was fool's gold. And I would agree with the anti-KO crowd that he should have realized before the mass exodus that the lack of a good big-man coach was hampering their development.

5. 2017 - 5 big men recruits (counting Polley). 1 4-star, 1 3-star, a 2/3 star (Whaley), a juco in the 3 star range (Cobb) and a grad transfer (Onuorah) who I would agree is also no more than a 3-star.... maybe even 2 1/2 stars.

So, to recap:
Transfers of bigs and recruiting sanctions hurt us at the beginning of this period. Lack of a good big-man coach and our Strength & Conditioning program over the last several years (as highlighted in the Courant articles back in April) has stunted their growth and led to transfers of our two projected best big men... and KO's lack of attention to detail as the captain of the ship over the last several years has hurt in this area more than any other.

And the question now becomes will the changes in the staff (Chillious coaching the bigs and Daniel as the S&C coach) and Ollie's supposed renewed focus and dedication with the help of AD Benedict turn it around?

Since I am not Nostradamus or Kreskin, I for one am taking a wait and see attitude, hopeful that KO can recapture that junkyard-dog attitude with the chip on his shoulder that carried him through a 13-year NBA career and a masterful job in his first two years as the HC when he had what seemed an even more impossible task of following the Michelangelo of coaches in Jim Calhoun...

 

[LStudfellow]

Sj really? A thread to discuss the obvious and something which has been beaten to death?

Must say I'm surprised at you, must be a tough day at work or something.

Or, I could have taken this approach and saved myself a whole lot of time... Thanks for authoring a better, much more succinct response Mau.

 

[UConnStats]

Whaley and Carlton put up good percentages and rebounding numbers in the EYBL. They didn't play huge minutes for their teams, but they looked like solid players. Hopefully at least one of them takes the next step.

Diarra put up very impressive numbers on the UA circuit (12/9/1.5 BLK) and had the respect of big time post players like Spellman and Bamba. I wouldn't overlook him either, as his height resulted him in being ranked under several players he completely outproduced in last year's class.

Bottom line is that these kids do have talent, and it's time for the coaching staff to work with them and make sure both sides are putting in a ton of work.

 

[Chief00]

I know everyone is waiting for Chief to chime in since I identified this problem early on.
Quite frankly, I agree the offseason moves of replacing our gymnastics strength coach with Daniels and Mr Red Soxs with Chil will help.
I think we will have less talent but more production in 2017/2018 than last season.

 

[Rocktheworld]