The Five

[AllHusky]

We are certainly not a donut, but Center comes up quite a bit in the discussions as a position of concern. Rather than discuss our guys, looked at who they'll be facing in the Big East, and a Final Four of Kansas, Alabama and Houston. What players will cause us to adjust for the problem they will give our Center(s).

BE-Toughest
Kalkbrenner clearly a handful and has good sized backups. Can't imagine he's developed in any significant way
Dixon at Villanova a bit small, and our depth at Center might wear him down, backups have potential&size
Freemantle-If he comes back the same or better, backups unproven
BE-TBD, maybe tough, maybe not,
Marq-Gold/Hamilton shoot 3's, D? and Rbdg?
ST J's-Iwuchukwu-has experience, undistinguished at USCw, Maker fr, 7'2
PC-Essandoke-Experienced, we were interested, Bonke 7'2, Swin fr
Not so much-Geo, SH and DePaul our 5's should handle

Kansas-Dickenson-Obviously formidable, but is he gonna kill us?
Hou-Lath and McFarland don't appear to be in any way superior
Bama-Cliff gonna be a handful, Sherrel fr/6'10 backup

No Zach Edeys to make you shudder, our talent level and system combined should be able to at least hold our own against the best 5's, and with development, be a plus in most games.

 

[auror]

Houston's bigs would demolish us as they might be the best trio in the country. J'Wan Roberts, Ja'Vier Francis, and Jojo Tugler. I don't know why you think Lath and McFarland are their starters.

Zuby Ejiofor is St John's starting center. He's also going to give us problems. Very active and athletic.

Essandoko for Providence is not experienced. He was a backup for much of the year with St. Joe's, that's his biggest weakness. He only has 500 minutes under his belt in college.

 

[UCann]

Definitely most worried about the 5…this is where we could be exploited. We lack size and shooting at the position and are foul prone. I don’t think we really have a good sense of how much Samson and Tarris have improved (Samson - rebounding, fouling and Tarris turnovers, offensive fit, fouling).

I’m certain they have and will improve significantly over the course of the season, but they will never be DC. Tarris will never be Adama, and even if he can, I think we underestimate the difference DC made as a backup. Not sure of Samson has the same impact. I kind of wish we got a 7+ foot 5 in the portal for this year, but there must have been a reason why the staff liked Tarris.

Ultimately I think our play style will evolve to take advantage of their strengths. Singare is a wild card. Who knows what it all looks like in its final state and how we can complete. I trust the staff.

 

[AllHusky]

Houston's bigs would demolish us as they might be the best trio in the country. J'Wan Roberts, Ja'Vier Francis, and Jojo Tugler. I don't know why you think Lath and McFarland are their starters.

Zuby Ejiofor is St John's starting center. He's also going to give us problems. Very active and athletic.

Essandoko for Providence is not experienced. He was a backup for much of the year with St. Joe's, that's his biggest weakness. He only has 500 minutes under his belt in college.

So in the BE we are middle of the road at 5, and in that Final 4 we’d have a tough time with the 5’s at the other 3 schools is what I hear you say. We’ll get some good looks as 11/26 Hou v. Bama and then Hou v Butler in BE B12 challenge. Don’t doubt your statement about Houston bigs, just didn’t see any of that in my search for previews.

 

[AllHusky]

Definitely most worried about the 5…this is where we could be exploited. We lack size and shooting at the position and are foul prone. I don’t think we really have a good sense of how much Samson and Tarris have improved (Samson - rebounding, fouling and Tarris turnovers, offensive fit, fouling).

I’m certain they have and will improve significantly over the course of the season, but they will never be DC. Tarris will never be Adama, and even if he can, I think we underestimate the difference DC made as a backup. Not sure of Samson has the same impact. I kind of wish we got a 7+ foot 5 in the portal for this year, but there must have been a reason why the staff liked Tarris.

Ultimately I think our play style will evolve to take advantage of their strengths. Singare is a wild card. Who knows what it all looks like in its final state and how we can complete. I trust the staff.

Question is not how good are we at but how bad could it be at the 5? Doesn’t look scary, and your statement about “style evolution” is probably as important as individual development of our 5’s.

 

[Lambeau]

DH press conference post-URI game:

SJ: "Samson is so explosive, with what we do offensively, he puts a lot of pressure on the other team."

Rebounding: "For the most part I liked what I saw, except for the rebounding, which was not typical of who we are, and we will not look like that moving forward, I promise you that.... Obviously the defensive rebounding thing, we've got to get that thing figured out."

Defense: "Obviously, the low-post defense thing, whether we start trapping it a la Houston, and take a page out of Coach Sampson's book, we've got to look for a remedy there."

Reed: "The first half was not good; there was some moaning--you're used to seeing a certain quality out of the center position. I though he showed a lot of mental toughness to have a second half that he could build on, and that he showed potentially what he could do--but he needs work. We'll get him there; he's talented."

 

[UofCT]

Trust the process also survive and advance

 

[imno1]

Doomed

 

[mauconnfan]

So here’s what I think. We have 2-3 solid pieces to play the middle for us. It will work maybe not to the extent of DC but who else has that? Problem is if you just look at the 5 sitting on an island then maybe there are better programs in that spot. The key here is who has the 1-4 pcs to support the 5 that we have including the depth at each spot? With the concern for the shooters, drivers etc we will get some offense from the 5s based on our offense. The perimeter defense will need to stay home on their guys more, take less chances because there’s not that eraser back there to keep people fearful of finishing.

Interesting to see where Reed gets, he has a nice ceiling. I think we know SJ and what he will bring, would be nice if he improved his rebounding. Singare, never know?

 

[Ricker]

Rewatch Reed's highlight video in the thread when he was committing here. A good number of the highlights were at the expense of Cliff at Rutgers who Reed dwarfed. Alabama is going to fall short if they need to rely on the 5. Freemantle has always been the matchup Alex talks about at the 4, not 5. Isn't Hugley their now? Reed vs Hugley is power vs power and I would think difficult for Johnson defensively. I think our guys will hold their own, but there will be particular nights where other centers get the better of them and we'll have to win with offense.

 

[AllHusky]

Johnson Kalkbrenner Cliff and Dickenson on Wooden watch. No other BE, no Houston.

 

[AllHusky]

Time for preseason bloviating on message boards is over.

Play ball!

 

[NJHusky]

Time for preseason bloviating on message boards is over.

Play ball!

Yup. Time for in season bloviating.