Post Player Workouts (Emeka, Diarra, Mo Bamba)

[JSM1970]

Why would he want to play in a terrible conference and practice against awful players?

How does that make him better prepared for the next level? That's the question KO has to answer somehow to be relevant here.

There was some bamba buzz early on last year, before and after KO was his assistant coach in Chile. Honestly don't see what separates UConn and a team like Texas, who already have some bigs promised minutes... in all honesty jarrett Allen could have had better numbers in storrs than Austin imo. Bamba could go to east bumble **** state and be a top 2 pick next year.

 

[James]

Why would he want to play in a terrible conference and practice against awful players?

How does that make him better prepared for the next level? That's the question KO has to answer somehow to be relevant here.

None of that matters, notice my Jarrett Allen comp; he is still a lotto pick and lost more games than uconn players last year. ( Allen is very good... if you like fultz, Allen was the 2nd best player in chile with that USA squad).

 

[pj]

Why would he want to play in a terrible conference and practice against awful players?

How does that make him better prepared for the next level? That's the question KO has to answer somehow to be relevant here.

He's just been practicing against Mamadou Diarra, wrote "Them Huskies are no joke!" on a photo of him with Mamadou on Instagram, and you have the gall to assert that he wouldn't want to practice against Mamadou?

 

[JSM1970]

I love Allen, read my post from last week, I'd take him #2

But he played in the B12

None of that matters, notice my Jarrett Allen comp; he is still a lotto pick and lost more games than UConn players last year. ( Allen is very good... if you like fultz, Allen was the 2nd best player in chile with that USA squad).

 

[UConnfan8]

People who think playing against AAC competition, on ty nights and times, with less frequent ESPN appearances ISNT a factor for top recruits are just well....silly.

 

[James]

I love Allen, read my post from last week, I'd take him #2

But he played in the B12

His team was in the same area as uconns basically, no scout is weighing is performance a tad more than if he went to storrs imo. Firstly, he would have had better numbers in general as the sole star big, and played in front of PLENTY of NBA personnel. The same reasons Adams should be plenty fine with his decision, he's had as many opportunities as you can ask to sway a scouts mind.

Agents have already talked to top 5 players before college, they know they plan on 1&doning (cam reddish for example) and are weighing their options in regards to a. roster familiarity b.coach familiarity c. remoteness to home d. exposure in front of nba scouts e. History of school producing lotto talent. F. Academics. We hit a lot of those , but still I expect him at Kentucky.

 

[6xChamps]

Why would he want to play in a terrible conference and practice against awful players?

How does that make him better prepared for the next level? That's the question KO has to answer somehow to be relevant here.

Carlos Daniel

 

[upstater]

Remember those days when we used to be good and could actually get the players we heavily recruited?

Do you even know how far down the recruiting rankings those players were?

Boneyard revisionism is nice, but where were Travis Knight, Jake Voskhul, Emeka Okafor, Josh Boone, Hilton Armstrong, and Hasheem Thabeet ranked?

Yeah, we did land two top bigs in Andrew Bynum and Andre Drummond, but we got 1 full season out of them. Those were big guests, top 10 guys. It didn't work out.

Our other centers though? None of those guys, who all made the NBA, were ranked in the top 50. Some of the were not ranked in the top 100.

 

[Chief00]

Plot twist: Chief is a Cuse fan who resides here to get our hopes up then watch us get crushed over and over.

Not true - Chief is the ultimate non casual UConn fan !
( don't take this as disrespecting casual fans - Chief loves casual UConn fans!)

 

[Chief00]

Carlos Daniel

Carlos Daniels = Anthony Davis

 

[Huskyforlife]

The funny thing about the whole Daniels-Davis narrative and Bamba, Bamba is probably the closest body type in comparison to high school Anthony Davis. If that pitch worked on Whaley, it might be an incredible sell to someone like Bamba.

But we're not recruiting him so...

 

[intlzncster]

Do you even know how far down the recruiting rankings those players were?

Boneyard revisionism is nice, but where were Travis Knight, Jake Voskhul, Emeka Okafor, Josh Boone, Hilton Armstrong, and Hasheem Thabeet ranked?

Yeah, we did land two top bigs in Andrew Bynum and Andre Drummond, but we got 1 full season out of them. Those were big guests, top 10 guys. It didn't work out.

Our other centers though? None of those guys, who all made the NBA, were ranked in the top 50. Some of the were not ranked in the top 100.

Boone was well ranked.

 

[husky429]

There was some bamba buzz early on last year, before and after KO was his assistant coach in Chile. Honestly don't see what separates UConn and a team like Texas, who already have some bigs promised minutes... in all honesty jarrett Allen could have had better numbers in storrs than Austin imo. Bamba could go to east bumble **** state and be a top 2 pick next year.

Top 5 maybe. The 2018 draft will be pretty great at the top IMO. I know the 2016 class was heralded for years, but Porter, that Slovenian kid, Bamba, and Ayton all stand a chance of going #1 depending on how they play in college

 

[upstater]

Boone was well ranked.

Not top 50 though. When UConn landed him, he had very few offers (Rutgers, South Carolina, Pitt). When he went post-grad, he was unranked -- like Caron Butler. He didn't like his offers after graduation, so he decided to do a post-grad year, and back then, those kids weren't ranked for some oddball reason.

Boone had a consensus ranking of 98 from the top recruiting sites the summer after his HS graduation, according to basketball-reference.com's consensus ranking.

 

[EBonz30]

I love Allen, read my post from last week, I'd take him #2

But he played in the B12

You would take Jarrett Allen with the number 2 pick in the draft?

 

[Fishy]

Not top 50 though. When UConn landed him, he had very few offers. He was a post-grad, so unranked -- like Caron Butler. He didn't like his offers after graduation, so he decided to do a post-grad year, and back then, those kids weren't ranked for some oddball reason.

Stop.

UConn beat Kansas, Virginia and Georgetown for Boone. Kid had offers out of his ears.

He went to midnight madness at Kansas, then visited UConn and Georgetown. He cancelled his visit to Virginia and committed to UConn.

 

[upstater]

Stop.

UConn beat Kansas, Virginia and Georgetown for Boone. Kid had offers out of his ears.

He went to midnight madness at Kansas, then visited UConn and Georgetown. He cancelled his visit to Virginia and committed to UConn.

Well, not according to Boone. BasketballRecruiting.Rivals.com - Boone Ready For Trip

I just got that from an article in which he was quoted. Kansas wasn't in his own quote. You think I remember who Josh Boone's offers were years after the fact?

Anyway, he didn't like his offers after graduation. That's why he went to post-grad. That I do remember. His coach was quoted as saying that. But yeah, he committed to UConn in the fall. Between late August and 6 weeks later, Kansas offered him.

 

[champs99and04]

People who think playing against AAC competition, on Scalitoty nights and times, with less frequent ESPN appearances ISNT a factor for top recruits are just well....silly.

Is there anything to suggest that Texas basketball - or any Big 12 team sans Kansas - gets more exposure than UConn? Serious question.

Because while I'm not making the upstater argument where I'm simply counting the amount of nationally televised games, we play Syracuse, Auburn, Arizona, and maybe Villanova in addition to playing in arguably the most talented preseason tournament field ever (granted Texas also plays in that same tournament). We also play what should be a top 10 Wichita State team twice, a top 25 Cincinnati team another two times, and a bunch of other potential tournament teams - Houston, SMU, UCF, etc. - on top of that.

And yeah, even when Wichita State and Cincinnati are good they don't have the same brand appeal as Duke and UNC. But we're not talking about Duke and UNC, we're talking about Texas Tech and Oklahoma. The big 12, despite recent success, is not a conference with a lot of fan interest or marketing appeal.

 

[champs99and04]

I agree with everything you've said. But the question was in regards to our bigs. It's very easy to recruit against us by showing film of screening machines masquerading as big men. You're absolutely right, though, the big men as a major offensive force is dead. But our pick and roll schemes are designed to create opportunities for our guards and wings, not for the big man and most incoming college big men think they can actually play. In regards to Amida in the post, unless I'm misremembering, he got maybe 4-5 courtesy posts a game. We weren't "force-feeding him." Miller we used a bit more, and we actually should have used him significantly more than we did.

Perhaps I'm being biased, but Duke and Kentucky's offenses seem to use the post or at least the big man as a threat more than us. Again, I might just be jaded b/c we have been a donut team for awhile.

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't object to the notion that our big men have led monotonous existences offensively in recent years. Some of it is obviously a function of their limitations, but I think it's fair to question whether they were used to their full capacity. I agree with you on Miller - there are probably several posts of me clamoring for him to get more post touches during that season, though in fairness to the staff he was in foul trouble a lot - and I think the same could be applied to Facey. Whether it was because of his natural timidity or poor schemes, he didn't get enough shots. I was actually very critical of the offensive philosophy at large last season and I can't say I blame any big men who questions whether they were being utilized properly. Brimah continued to be stuffed into a round hole as a high screener even when it became clear that defenses would blow it up every time by trapping Adams. It would have made a lot more sense to swap Facey into that role and allow Brimah to lurk the baseline for lobs, but that adjustment didn't get made and I think it's fair to criticize them for it given we really had nothing to lose by trying.

But at the same time I don't think the staff would have any trouble showing tape on how, specifically, a high usage big man could fit into our guard-oriented offense. That's actually the one part of your post I would disagree with - I think pick and roll schemes are designed to create opportunities for big men, and in fact, that's how a lot of post ups are initiated. It's a lot easier to win post position when you can set a ball screen and then swing the ball to the strong side wing, because the hedge man has to extend so far on the ball screen (especially with a guy like Adams) that it's more difficult to win the race to the block and front the post.

 

[Chief00]

Do you even know how far down the recruiting rankings those players were?

Boneyard revisionism is nice, but where were Travis Knight, Jake Voskhul, Emeka Okafor, Josh Boone, Hilton Armstrong, and Hasheem Thabeet ranked?

Yeah, we did land two top bigs in Andrew Bynum and Andre Drummond, but we got 1 full season out of them. Those were big guests, top 10 guys. It didn't work out.

Our other centers though? None of those guys, who all made the NBA, were ranked in the top 50. Some of the were not ranked in the top 100.

Charlie was very highly ranked - Clyde reeled him in.

 

[polycom]

Lol we are not going to land bamba unless a shoe box lands somewhere.

 

[upstater]

Charlie was very highly ranked - Clyde reeled him in.

Yes, but he's not a center.

 

[Kemba429]

Kind of weird how weve heard more from Bamba than Tremont about UConn.

 

[BaZZnBOAT]

Kind of weird how weve heard more from Bamba than Tremont about UConn.

If and of course that is a big, unlikely IF, Bamba does come here Tremont will follow in no time. He still might of course, but that will make his decision easy.

 

[AstarIsBorn31]

I am kind of shocked that so many think there is a chance Bamba is coming here.

As fluid as recruiting is, I find it very unlikely that he ends up here after knocking us out of his top 5. All I'm taking out of this instagram is how great it is that Mamadou is putting that work in... with Okafor!