The Frontcourt Now | The Boneyard

The Frontcourt Now

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Backcourt is strong. Let's talk about the frontcourt.

Yakwe this, Yakwe that. Big question mark right now. Hurley making sure he's physically okay to play so this injury doesn't linger. Hope he regains his early form from St. John's U.

Diarra. Sooner we get him back, the better. Mamadou brings a lot of inside presence to the team. Physicality, toughness, he's strong on the blocks. Finishes around the rim, rebounds well, maybe the best on the team at this, gets out on the break, and plays tough D, but has to be better at not fouling.

Polley. Tons of minutes at the 4 as we play smaller and faster. Going to hit threes, but what else. Hurley green lit him to bring the ball up on the break, he seems capable of guarding wings and smaller 4s, but he has to be able to score midrange and take it to the rack. Dribble drive, pass/finish/get fouled. The stronger he is inside rebounding and playing defense the better we will be.

Williams. May get some minutes for physicality, we shall see.

Whaley. Gonna see a lot of Isaiah. Stronger this year, will compete for rebounds down low. Mobile, good defender with length, not a shooter but a finisher. Solid on the floor, good motor, will only get better as the season progresses, which really we can say about everyone, but he's one I think we'll really be able to tell.

Cobb. I was going to start this thread just about Cobb but I expanded the scope, why not look at the whole picture. Eric is looking good out there. Way more mobile and quick even, than last year. Still strong, still skilled. Scoring inside he looks good in the post; he's got moves, probably the best on the team. Needs to bang in there and score points. Better defender this year, better motor. Hurley may let him expand his game some, but he has to make his living as an interior player. The good thing is that he's actually going to play this year, probably 15 to 20 minutes a game or so.

Carlton. Looks like the starter at the 5. Josh is also a little quicker this year; jumps better. He needs to play more powerfully. He's got some moves, and he's going to have his opportunities to score so he needs to be a stronger finisher. More mobile on both offense and quite noticeably on D. Rebound, rebound, rebound. Carlton also will improve quite a bit as the season rolls towards March.

Sid is a wing. I hope we see him play, I think he's going to be good when he finds his groove.

We will be a much more complete team than we saw against Southern with the additions of Diarra, Yakwe, and Wilson. Each of them has a skillset to add to the team as a whole plus the depth of course.

I thought we looked pretty good in the game, although very formative, things are just starting to come together. Believing in your defensive identity as a team comes with repeated successes shutting people down so I'm looking forward to our defense getting better and better. Tougher. Bleed Blue!
 
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8893

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HalfBraveDodo-size_restricted.gif
 
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With the style uconn is going to play, guys need to be in supreme condition. That is why don’t expect anything much from Yakwe and Diarra for a while as they have spent a lot of time not running, jumping and sliding laterally because of knee and foot injuries.
 
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RayIsTheGOAT

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We will need to rely heavily on Cobb, Yakwe and Diarra being at their best to get the most production out of the frontcourt.
The other guys (even though they will get plenty of playing time because we have no choice) I am not confident about against high level competition.
Maybe we can get solid production from Carlton, Whaley, Jumpman against lesser teams but they will get tossed around by a chunk of teams on our schedule.
 
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From reading Son of Robert's post you would think he was describing Duke's frontcourt and not ours.
 
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Hate to burst people’s bubble on Yakwe, but I don’t expect too much. He posted ORtgs below 96 in all 3 years at St John’s, and never even reached 1 WS in any season. It’ll be nice to have a rim protector, but unless Hurley can completely change his shot selection and make him efficient on offense, there’s a good chance Yakwe is not going to be a difference maker for the front court.
 
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I think most of us know the frontcourt is going to be an issue. I hope we're surprised and some of them play beyond expectations. Hurley needs to recruit better talent up front than what's there right now. I'm sure if we were sworn to secrecy Hurley and the coaches would tell us that. Actually I know they would say that.
 

Jaybo

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Yakwe seems like a bust honestly. As for MO. I doubt we see much out of him early on.The kid seems cursed with bad knees.
 
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Hopefully between Carlton, Cobb, Yakwe, Diarra, and Williams, we can have a frontcourt that can put up serviceable numbers.
 

gtcam

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What happens when Cobb gets in foul trouble? - w/o Mamadou I am a little nervous
I really thought Carlton was going to be much more improved than what I saw vs SCSU
Polley is way too hesitant and shies away from being physical
Whalley has glimpses of goodness but still has mental lapses that leads to fouls and bad results
I have forgotten about Yawke - he had a handful of representable moments for St Johns but even he ended in Mullin's doghouse and CM needed big guys
Williams just won't see a ton of PT
Sid? who's that - will the real Sid step forward
This team has a chance to be good but will not succeed without any production defensively and off the boards by the bigs
 
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Yakwe
His one job is to be pick up missed gambles which will be critical to both offense and defense.
Not since 1989-90 have the two been so interdependent.
That’s the only reason we got him
 
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Watching front courts like Mich State and Kansas tonight brings me back to reality as to how deficient we are to compete with quality teams. For our guards to run we need to rebound, else we are stuck running half court offense. These guys would back us down until we foul. 2 fouls and we're on the bench. Really sucks to have such a good backcourt if it gets wasted by not having a front court.
 
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Hopefully between Carlton, Cobb, Yakwe, Diarra, and Williams, we can have a frontcourt that can put up serviceable numbers.
Rebound the ball, block a few shots. Our backcourt is going to score 90% of the points so we’re not having to ask a lot of them.
 

joober jones

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Barring Okafor, Whaley is the best natural shot blocker under 7' that we've had in the past 25 years. Will he be among the league leaders in blocked shots this year? Probably not. Sporadic minutes will likely make that impossible. Still, he's an incredible talent in that one area.
 

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