PF/C Juwan Durham (Signed LOI on 11/11)

[KembaStepback]

1. Yes
2. Essentially, players get 5 years to play 4 - so a redshirt year would still allow him to play 4.

Thanks, TCF. Helpful as always.

 

[aceboon]

If he's not ready to play next year I'm assuming he would do a post graduate year. I don't think he would come to UConn not being able to play his first year.

How would a postgrad year be beneficial to him?

 

[Yankees32123]

How would a postgrad year be beneficial to him?

I agree. If he's recovering from injury and not playing, why not be working toward his degree at UConn?

 

[CallMeBruce]

I agree. If he's recovering from injury and not playing, why not be working toward his degree at UConn?

While working with a top-notch rehab staff.

 

[David 76]

If he comes on time and stays the extra year, we get 4 years of his playing for 5 scholarship years.
And we should be happy to do that.

 

[tcf15]

 

[donyell34]

We are getting ahead of ourselves here I believe. What do we know at this point? Just hoping it isn't that serious.

 

[nomar]

We are getting ahead of ourselves here I believe. What do we know at this point? Just hoping it isn't that serious.

Look at the comment right above yours.

Awful. Bad break for the kid. We'll be holding a spot for you, Juwan.

 

[donyell34]

Ok. Gotcha 15. Question answered.

 

[huskiesnyc]

Durham will still sign his NLI with UConn in November. His focus now is to prepare for a second surgery and more rehabilitation.

“People think I’m mad and depressed, but you can’t get mad,” Durham said. “Everything happens for a reason.

Durham said the coaching staff at UConn has been supportive.

“I guess I can see a positive,” Durham said. “I’ll still be hungry to play and it’ll be all basketball, basketball, basketball. I’m ready to get up there and start a new part of my life.”

 

[aceboon]

sucks for him but ACL tears at his age aren't a career death sentence

 

[Matrim55]

Poor kid. Let's hope rehab goes well and he takes his time.

And let's all lower our expectations for what he can show us as a freshman. No Boneyard freak-outs until sophomore year at the earliest, folks!

 

[I Bleed Blue]

Well that sucks. Wish him a speedy recovery. His game was more skill based anyways, so I think he'll be just fine basketball wise.

 

[GemParty]

Any confirmation. Same knee as the first repair or the other one?

 

[I Bleed Blue]

Any confirmation. Same knee as the first repair or the other one?

Other. Said he felt a tweak in his left knee while running on a treadmill during rehab from the right acl tear. Probably compensating too much which is actually rather common.

 

[Scoe]

Damn, I'm sad for him that he misses his senior year of HS. Hope we bring him along slowly next year, maybe have him sit out the first month or 2, or even redshirt him.

 

[HooperScooper]

Very speculative post. If he can't play next year how would a post grad year be more beneficial than working toward his degree? Something he's stated is very important to him.

O.K. let's turn this around. If you're Ollie do you use 1 of your 13 scholarships on him not knowing if he'll fully recover and be as good as he was? Ollie probably needs him next year with the known and potential losses from the program. Depends on the medical risk I guess. If you take him in 2016 you're getting a 5 star recruit, which doesn't happen that often, into your program and even if he can't play next year he can rehab at UConn and then play the next year as a 2017 recruit (using 2016 as a redshirt). He may be fully healed a year from now and ready to go which would be the best case scenario. As people mentioned, ACL tears aren't as much of a risk anymore. People usually fully recover from them.

But say there is a big medical risk. Only a doctor can answer that question. He's now had 2 ACL tears in less than a year, which isn't typical. Maybe Ollie tells him to take a post grad year and prove to himself and UConn that he's back at full strength and ready to go in 2017. Ollie obviously risks losing him and never getting him if that happens.

I thought of this because a friend of mine's son is a high school pitcher. He's a senior now. Blew out his arm early last spring and had Tommy John surgery. He was offered a scholarship by a handful of Division I schools before last spring. After the injury they all told him to do a post grad year and show he's fully healed and can pitch next spring and then they'll take him.

If the doctors say he will be fully healed a year from now then I'd take him if I were Ollie. It's not worth potentially losing him. But there's obviously some risk.

 

[pnow15]

O.K. let's turn this around. If you're Ollie do you use 1 of your 13 scholarships on him not knowing if he'll fully recover and be as good as he was? Depends on the medical risk I guess. If you take him in 2016 you're getting a 5 star recruit, which doesn't happen that often, into your program and even if he can't play next year he can rehab at UConn (he may be fully healed a year from now and ready to go) and then play the next year as a 2017 recruit (using 2016 as a redshirt). As people mentioned, ACL tears aren't as much of a risk anymore. People usually fully recover from them.

But say there is a big medical risk. Only a doctor can answer that questions. He's now had 2 ACL tears in less than a year which isn't typical. Maybe Ollie tells him to take a post grad year and prove to himself and UConn that he's back at full strength and ready to go in 2017. Ollie obviously risks losing him and never getting him if that happens.

I thought of this because a friend mine's son is a high school pitcher. He's a senior now. Blew out his arm early last spring and had Tommy John surgery. He was offered a scholarship by a handful of Division I schools. They all told him to do a post grad year and show he's fully healed and can pitch next spring and then they'll take him.

If the doctors say he will be fully healed a year from now then I'd take him if I were Ollie. It's not worth potentially losing him. But there's obviously some risk.

Somehow I always feel there is a moral commitment to a kid who says he wants to play for you and then gets hurt.

 

[superjohn]

O.K. let's turn this around. If you're Ollie do you use 1 of your 13 scholarships on him not knowing if he'll fully recover and be as good as he was? Ollie probably needs him next year with the known and potential losses from the program. Depends on the medical risk I guess. If you take him in 2016 you're getting a 5 star recruit, which doesn't happen that often, into your program and even if he can't play next year he can rehab at UConn and then play the next year as a 2017 recruit (using 2016 as a redshirt). He may be fully healed a year from now and ready to go which would be the best case scenario. As people mentioned, ACL tears aren't as much of a risk anymore. People usually fully recover from them.

But say there is a big medical risk. Only a doctor can answer that question. He's now had 2 ACL tears in less than a year, which isn't typical. Maybe Ollie tells him to take a post grad year and prove to himself and UConn that he's back at full strength and ready to go in 2017. Ollie obviously risks losing him and never getting him if that happens.

I thought of this because a friend of mine's son is a high school pitcher. He's a senior now. Blew out his arm early last spring and had Tommy John surgery. He was offered a scholarship by a handful of Division I schools before last spring. After the injury they all told him to do a post grad year and show he's fully healed and can pitch next spring and then they'll take him.

If the doctors say he will be fully healed a year from now then I'd take him if I were Ollie. It's not worth potentially losing him. But there's obviously some risk.

Of course we take him, this is silly.

 

[aceboon]

O.K. let's turn this around. If you're Ollie do you use 1 of your 13 scholarships on him not knowing if he'll fully recover and be as good as he was? Depends on the medical risk I guess. If you take him in 2016 you're getting a 5 star recruit, which doesn't happen that often, into your program and even if he can't play next year he can rehab at UConn (he may be fully healed a year from now and ready to go) and then play the next year as a 2017 recruit (using 2016 as a redshirt). As people mentioned, ACL tears aren't as much of a risk anymore. People usually fully recover from them.

But say there is a big medical risk. Only a doctor can answer that questions. He's now had 2 ACL tears in less than a year which isn't typical. Maybe Ollie tells him to take a post grad year and prove to himself and UConn that he's back at full strength and ready to go in 2017. Ollie obviously risks losing him and never getting him if that happens.

I thought of this because a friend mine's son is a high school pitcher. He's a senior now. Blew out his arm early last spring and had Tommy John surgery. He was offered a scholarship by a handful of Division I schools. They all told him to do a post grad year and show he's fully healed and can pitch next spring and then they'll take him.

If the doctors say he will be fully healed a year from now then I'd take him if I were Ollie. It's not worth potentially losing him. But there's obviously some risk.

The options that you gave aren't realistic man, if KO pulls the offer, which Durham already said isn't happening, then another school would take him. Durham isn't gonna do a postgrad year to prove he's worthy to UConn, he'll just go somewhere else. You think schools like USF or Miami wouldn't gladly take him as basically an open box special? 2 tears is definitely troublesome, but they are in different knees, this isn't something that's gonna end his career.

 

[KembaStepback]

I really don't see a way he does a PG year. He's got exactly 1 year to recover...which seems like plenty of time for a kid his age. WORST CASE is he red-shirts and comes on in 2017.

No way Ollie doesn't honor the scholly. The kid is a major talent. What kind of recruiting message does that send? "Thanks for commiting stud recruit! Oh...you're hurt? Sorry, bye!" KO is a man of honor promoting a family environment. As soon as this kid gave us a verbal he was part of the UConn family.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

O.K. let's turn this around. If you're Ollie do you use 1 of your 13 scholarships on him not knowing if he'll fully recover and be as good as he was? Ollie probably needs him next year with the known and potential losses from the program. Depends on the medical risk I guess. If you take him in 2016 you're getting a 5 star recruit, which doesn't happen that often, into your program and even if he can't play next year he can rehab at UConn and then play the next year as a 2017 recruit (using 2016 as a redshirt). He may be fully healed a year from now and ready to go which would be the best case scenario. As people mentioned, ACL tears aren't as much of a risk anymore. People usually fully recover from them.

But say there is a big medical risk. Only a doctor can answer that question. He's now had 2 ACL tears in less than a year, which isn't typical. Maybe Ollie tells him to take a post grad year and prove to himself and UConn that he's back at full strength and ready to go in 2017. Ollie obviously risks losing him and never getting him if that happens.

I thought of this because a friend of mine's son is a high school pitcher. He's a senior now. Blew out his arm early last spring and had Tommy John surgery. He was offered a scholarship by a handful of Division I schools before last spring. After the injury they all told him to do a post grad year and show he's fully healed and can pitch next spring and then they'll take him.

If the doctors say he will be fully healed a year from now then I'd take him if I were Ollie. It's not worth potentially losing him. But there's obviously some risk.

With Tommy John surgery, you're talking an 18-month recovery and then usually a few more months of trying to regain command, arm strength, etc. Not that this isn't serious surgery, but it's not the same as TJ for pitchers.

In Durham's case specifically, this doesn't change the fact that there is considerable upside here and other schools would be doing backflips if we cut him loose. Even if we took loyalty out of the equation, we're not landing another 2016 PF with this much upside and talent at this point in the game. Plus, having Diarra in the fold in the same class decreases the need for another PF anyway.

 

[I Bleed Blue]

With Tommy John surgery, you're talking an 18-month recovery and then usually a few more months of trying to regain command, arm strength, etc. Not that this isn't serious surgery, but it's not the same as TJ for pitchers.

In Durham's case specifically, this doesn't change the fact that there is considerable upside here and other schools would be doing backflips if we cut him loose. Even if we took loyalty out of the equation, we're not landing another 2016 PF with this much upside and talent at this point in the game. Plus, having Diarra in the fold in the same class decreases the need for another PF anyway.

Very true. Diarra himself is already a Top 100 guy at PF and still rising. The talent gap between 50-100 is not very big. Enoch and Facey will be around too. I think we'll be fine.

 

[James]

With Tommy John surgery, you're talking an 18-month recovery and then usually a few more months of trying to regain command, arm strength, etc. Not that this isn't serious surgery, but it's not the same as TJ for pitchers.

In Durham's case specifically, this doesn't change the fact that there is considerable upside here and other schools would be doing backflips if we cut him loose. Even if we took loyalty out of the equation, we're not landing another 2016 PF with this much upside and talent at this point in the game. Plus, having Diarra in the fold in the same class decreases the need for another PF anyway.

Think this is big. people sleep on diarra... Having a project like durham on the team isn't that bad, and would be perfectly fine as long as KO continues to recruit 2016 hard but more than likely 2017 bigs. I would perfer another hybrid 4 or 5 in 2016 though, or hope brimah is here all four years ( which he isn't predicted to do).

 

[Tenspro2002]

Of course he's coming here, but there's a legitimate concern after 2 ACL tears that he won't be the same guy that earned a Top 30 ranking.

A top, NCAA-ready big has to remain a priority for 2017 if not 2016.