Rick Issanza (C, 7'1", 225) to visit | Page 9 | The Boneyard

Rick Issanza (C, 7'1", 225) to visit

CL82 said:
For me at least the concern is that he doesn't appear to be strong enough to hold his ground in the college game. Don't get me wrong, I hope we get him, but I am not sure he'll have as big impact his freshman year as some posters appear to be hoping for.

In some ways our situation is perfect for him. He can get experience in snippets without the pressure of being relied on for major minutes and gets a year with Sal to build his core and base strength.
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I'm not sure I agree with the not strong enough comment. He's not a complete string-bean. He looks fairly solid. Since most teams are rolling out power forwards at the 5 spot, his height alone would bother those players. We are talking about 10-15 minutes a game here. Is he less able to hold his ground that Whaley? I don't see that at all.

When I say "impact", I don't mean freshman Pat Ewing. I'm looking for 2-4 points, 3-4 boards and 1.5 blocks. I want a guy who doesn't immediately cause the other team to run a play to score inside every minute that Carlton sits. If you have this guy, Akok and Sid as your front court, that is going to discourage the ball from coming inside on the defensive end. That's a block party waiting to happen.
 
CL82 said:
I look are Issanza's base and I think he'll be shoved all over the court against a mature big. I'd be glad to be wrong.

(I forgot how thin Akok was. Wow.)
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No doubt, a lot of strong players will get leverage underneath and push him out of position. But with his length and shot-blocking, he will often be able to recover.

I think it's a match-up thing. Carlton will be strong enough with another summer of work to contend with the strong guys. Issanza will add another dimension defensively against the teams that lack strong interior players. Guards won't easily get layups with him in the game.
 
navery12 said:
I'm aware of your 1/6th of 7 footers are in the NBA, you seem aware of math so that means 5/6 aren't. I don't know what sort of spin you did in your head to get to 50% chance of the NBA but that's crazy. Top 50 recruits don't even odds that high, he's at best in the 300s and certainly not a lock for the NBA like you're making it sound
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Most under-20 7 footers aren't playing basketball in US high schools, so he's already way ahead of the 1/6th chance. Issanza has already invested 3 years in US high school and AAU basketball. He's ahead of most of the world's 7 footers. He's the #7 rated 7-footer in his high school class, Rivals.com 2019 Centers . About 7 7-footers per year make the NBA. That to me translates to him being right on the margin, roughly a 30-50% chance of making the NBA.

I never said he's a lock for the NBA. His NBA potential is higher than his college potential. A lot of guys shorter than him will have better college careers, but less chance at the NBA.
 
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All the talk constantly about not getting another C because we will have possible better options next year. What in the world will we do if Carlton misses ANY time never mind a large chunk of the season? We need a viable option back there if anything to ensure we show some progress as a program this year if Carlton gets hurt. We don't do that and the unthinkable happens, then we inevitably regress, all the positive momentum could quickly fall into a negative spiral. Who we recruiting then? Trust in Hurley to make the right call but I don't see that being anything but finding a big man that can minimally fight for rebounds if called on. Sure I think we could get away with small ball for a stretch or too but we are INSANELY thin down low and seem to be underestimating that. All that said this is assuming we have a spot to fill if not we are already rolling the dice.
 
cap10mayhem said:
All the talk constantly about not getting another C because we will have possible better options next year. What in the world will we do if Carlton misses ANY time never mind a large chunk of the season? We need a viable option back there if anything to ensure we show some progress as a program this year if Carlton gets hurt. We don't do that and the unthinkable happens, then we inevitably regress, all the positive momentum could quickly fall into a negative spiral. Who we recruiting then? Trust in Hurley to make the right call but I don't see that being anything but finding a big man that can minimally fight for rebounds if called on. Sure I think we could get away with small ball for a stretch or too but we are INSANELY thin down low and seem to be underestimating that. All that said this is assuming we have a spot to fill if not we are already rolling the dice.
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This is a good point which has not been brought up. We always talk about guard depth because of AG's injury history but Carlton could get injured too. Maybe this kid could be a decent back up this season but also show enough growth to be the championship caliber player Hurley wants for the future? That would be the best of both worlds scenario but I have no idea if he possesses that type of potential or not.
 
pj said:
Most under-20 7 footers aren't playing basketball in US high schools, so he's already way ahead of the 1/6th chance. Issanza has already invested 3 years in US high school and AAU basketball. He's ahead of most of the world's 7 footers. He's the #7 rated 7-footer in his high school class, Rivals.com 2019 Centers . About 7 7-footers per year make the NBA. That to me translates to him being right on the margin, roughly a 30-50% chance of making the NBA.

I never said he's a lock for the NBA. His NBA potential is higher than his college potential. A lot of guys shorter than him will have better college careers, but less chance at the NBA.
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The big question to me is a risk/benefit analysis.

Short term less success with a better recruit (ntambwe or a 2020) vs a better next season but a likely longer rebuild
 
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navery12 said:
I'm aware of your 1/6th of 7 footers are in the NBA, you seem aware of math so that means 5/6 aren't. I don't know what sort of spin you did in your head to get to 50% chance of the NBA but that's crazy. Top 50 recruits don't even odds that high, he's at best in the 300s and certainly not a lock for the NBA like you're making it sound
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Look at our most recent 7 footers: Brimah, Chuck, Thabeet. None are in the NBA / had any impactful NBA career. But all 3 were contributors in college on final four teams, and would take any of them for our current team in a heartbeat.

I also agree w need to pump the brakes on penciling in an unknown 7-footer to NBA because some skewed stat is promising a Yahtzee on the last roll.
 
Plus

You develop Carlton incrementally better playing daily against a 7 foot guy than Whaley. You can argue till you’re blue. We are better off TODAY with Issanza than throwing dice on 4 guys in 2020. You still can get one of them.
 
kansashusky said:
“Mamadou is a valued member of the program,” Hurley said, “a valued member. We have a ton of respect for Mo. He’s home for break right now, he’ll be back for Summer I (on June 3) and we’ll kind of go from there.”
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"....we’ll kind of go from there.”
Not exactly an endorsement of Mamadou's future as a Husky.
 
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Danzz said:
"....we’ll kind of go from there.”
Not exactly an endorsement of Mamadou's future as a Husky.
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Taking this statement literally, Hurley is normally fairly honest and direct, they’re still trying to figure out what to do with Diarra and will let him know when he returns for summer camp. This puts Diarra in a terrible situation, uncertain about his future.
 
Losing out on Cockburn hurt big time. No guarantee we land Cliff in '20 but have to think if Carlton makes another leap that we have a huge selling point to bigs looking at UConn. Been awhile since we've seen development in the frontcourt like we saw from Carlton last year.

Still think the safe bet is taking on Issanza, Manuel or Coleman for next year.
 
Hey Adrien! said:
The '19 options are weak, so I'd rather go grad transfer route this year for depth and then try to get an actually good big who can eventually replace Carlton in 2020.

Tops grad transfer bigs still available:

Kelvin Jones: 6'11 230 from Idaho State. Averaged 10/5.6/1.5b in 20.0 mpg.

Jalone Friday: 6'9 250 from Abilene Christian. Averaged 13.1/4.7 and 1 block in 21.9 mpg.

Jeff Pollard: 6'9 240 from Washington State. Averaged 4.8/2.6 in 18.1 mpg.

Romani Hansen: 6'8 200 from Savannah State. Averaged 9.5/5.5/1 block in 23 mpg.

Eric Hamilton: 6'9 250 from UNC-Greensboro. Averaged 6/4 in 16.3 mpg.
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Pass
 
My bet Whaley steps up because this time Hurley will .. play him like he should have this year. Cob was never a player. Whaley will play D in the paint,rebound and block shots. That's all he has to do. He can hedge better than anybody including JC.
 
superjohn said:
Probably 70% of 7 footers aren't really 7 footers.
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So where's the cut off if someone is quoting that statistic of how many 7 footers in the world make the NBA? Any guy whose team says he's 7 feet tall? Then it's a useless statistic.
 
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HooperScooper said:
So where's the cut off if someone is quoting that statistic of how many 7 footers in the world make the NBA? Any guy whose team says he's 7 feet tall? Then it's a useless statistic.
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I have no clue what PJ is talking about in this thread.
 
lange10 said:
Losing out on Cockburn hurt big time. No guarantee we land Cliff in '20 but have to think if Carlton makes another leap that we have a huge selling point to bigs looking at UConn. Been awhile since we've seen development in the frontcourt like we saw from Carlton last year.

Still think the safe bet is taking on Issanza, Manuel or Coleman for next year.
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Yes I agree take a center this year to develop during what seems to be another rebuilding year. We can always bring in another center in 2020 or 2021. My problem with Carlton is that his ceiling is limited because of his lack of athleticism. Also, His style of play doesn’t mesh well with what Hurley is looking to do, you kind of need a shot blocking defensive presence at the 5. But still his offensive performance last year gives me hope.
 
UcannUconn said:
Yes I agree take a center this year to develop during what seems to be another rebuilding year. We can always bring in another center in 2020 or 2021. My problem with Carlton is that his ceiling is limited because of his lack of athleticism. Also, His style of play doesn’t mesh well with what Hurley is looking to do, you kind of need a shot blocking defensive presence at the 5. But still his offensive performance last year gives me hope.
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Yes and no. Yes I admire all the hard work Josh has put in and his improvement. Yes he is limited athletically and not a starter on a good team. No, don't take a 2019 project you hope will develop. This team is not going to be all that anyway and 2020 schollies are too valuable. Just because we whiffed on Kofi does not mean we will on a big for '20.
 
Ewekon said:
Yes and no. Yes I admire all the hard work Josh has put in and his improvement. Yes he is limited athletically and not a starter on a good team. No, don't take a 2019 project you hope will develop. This team is not going to be all that anyway and 2020 schollies are too valuable. Just because we whiffed on Kofi does not mean we will on a big for '20.
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I'll disagree and believe that Carlton would start on many good teams. I expect enough improvement over last year to make Josh one of the best bigs in our league.
 
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Ewekon said:
Yes and no. Yes I admire all the hard work Josh has put in and his improvement. Yes he is limited athletically and not a starter on a good team. No, don't take a 2019 project you hope will develop. This team is not going to be all that anyway and 2020 schollies are too valuable. Just because we whiffed on Kofi does not mean we will on a big for '20.
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Why isn’t Josh Carlton a starter on a good team? Jake Voskuhl. Travis Knight , Alex Oriakhi and Amida Brimah were the centers on great teams. None of them were extremely talented even Alex who was overrated. I guess fans think we always had Emeka Okafors and Andre Drummond’s at Center. Uconn has been built with great wings and guards and a solid and not spectacular center. Josh is already offensively better than all of them. Hopefully with another offseason of getting stronger he can be up their defensively too. I think we are fine with Josh Carlton as our center next year. Our problem is we have nobody to back him up in any capacity. Whaley is too undersized to be backing up Carlton at center. He will foul out in 5 minutes.
 
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UcannUconn said:
Taking this statement literally, Hurley is normally fairly honest and direct, they’re still trying to figure out what to do with Diarra and will let him know when he returns for summer camp. This puts Diarra in a terrible situation, uncertain about his future.
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I think they are leaving it to Diarra to decide after going home and talking to his family.
 
UcannUconn said:
Yes I agree take a center this year to develop during what seems to be another rebuilding year. We can always bring in another center in 2020 or 2021. My problem with Carlton is that his ceiling is limited because of his lack of athleticism. Also, His style of play doesn’t mesh well with what Hurley is looking to do, you kind of need a shot blocking defensive presence at the 5. But still his offensive performance last year gives me hope.
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Akok is his shot blocker.
 
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