UConn has a huge amount of playing time available at the PF/C positions

[upstater]

We don't know what we have in Brimah. Nolan is going into Soph. year and is a question mark. Facey may get docked years by the NCAA. Regardless, that C position is looking at 3 players, Facey, Brimah and Nolan, all with huge question marks. If Facey loses another year of eligibility next season, then we're looking at a need of 40 minutes at PF.

if Uconn loses Abu, we may see a kid like Larrier playing 35 minutes at the PF spot. The situation is this dire.

 

[champs99and04]

Nolan's less of a question mark than you think, IMO. He's raw, but he's athletic, long, and displayed enough discipline/poise at the end of last season to make me a believer. At the very least, I'd expect him to be a 25 MPG center by his junior year.

Regarding the power forward position, it's certainly a question mark as of now with Facey's situation up in the air. Abu is a huge recruit.

 

[Matrim55]

Don't sleep on Tolksdorf. Dude got stronger and played well for Germany this summer.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Facey may have to sit this season or he may lose a year on the backend. But unless he flat out leaves Uconn, he's going to be able to play in 2014-2015.

 

[pj]

We have a ton of minutes at PF and three players who are question marks at C. So Abu would get plenty of playing time as a freshman and he'd also be the #1 offensive option inside.

 

[CTBasketball]

We need to recruit more big-men.

 

[3uconn]

Paul White could play PF. 6'9" and has some muscle to play with right now. Another year he will be stronger. However, Abu would end these discussions.

 

[Gurleyman]

Dire is a strong word. We won our last national title with Roscoe and Giffey essentially playing PF (after Tyler got his token four minutes to start the game). It isn't ideal to be without a true power guy inside, but if we end up with two 6-6 or 6-7 small forwards and no PF, you can win with that in college (Burrell and Henefeld did it in an era where dominant big men were all over the place in college, albeit with a defensive system nobody could solve). Villanova's FF team is by no means a prototype, but Randy Foye was sort of their PF equivalent (in the sense of being the biggest and best rebounder of the Nardi-Lowry-Ray-Foye perimeter).

Now, I clearly would prefer Abu or someone like that to balance our lineup. The best chance to win is to have different options and to be able to either go big or go small effectively - and to not have a glaring weakness to be exploited (perhaps we didn't have much post scoring with Jake and Free, but you couldn't attack us inside or hit the offensive boards against us). However, if there's one thing you have to have it is a couple of talented guys who can create their own shots or set someone up (it can be two guards, or a guard and a big - but one of them has to be a guard for those late shot clock situations). You can't rely on the picket fence every time you need a bucket - sometimes you have to clear out for Chitwood.

 

[upstater]

I think Roscoe was a freak in that regard. Would be hard to duplicate his defensive abilities.

NC State fans are reporting that PF Gary Clark is a lean verbal to them today.

 

[aceboon]

I think Roscoe was a freak in that regard. Would be hard to duplicate his defensive abilities.

NC State fans are reporting that PF Gary Clark is a lean verbal to them today.

Giffey is just as good a defender as Roscoe imo, Roscoe was a good defender but lets not make him out to be Stacey Augmon or somebody like that.

 

[Gurleyman]

I think Roscoe was a freak in that regard. Would be hard to duplicate his defensive abilities.

NC State fans are reporting that PF Gary Clark is a lean verbal to them today.

You could be right. Last year is tough to use as a measuring stick, but it would have been tough to feel comfortable about a deep tourney run knowing that we could be outrebounded by 30 on any given night. If a Hamilton-Larrier 3-4 combo couldn't box people out, we'd potentially have some of the same issues.

 

[dunlow66]

I think Roscoe was a freak in that regard. Would be hard to duplicate his defensive abilities.

NC State fans are reporting that PF Gary Clark is a lean verbal to them today.

Yes, finally approved. Hi UConn fans, I post on NCSU boards and wouldnt mind some friendly basketball recruiting banter. Concerning Gary Clark, he is a local kid from Clayton NC and grew up an NCSU fan. Under the radar prospect who played EYBL this summer with CP3 Allstars and had an excellent run. We waiting a while before offering, but did so after the Peach Jam. Many thought he would commit on the spot, but Gary decided(and rightfully so) to take some official visits before committing anywhere. He will be visiting Cincinnati and NCSU on officials in Sept.

Now as how that relates to Abdul Malik Abu, Our staff would take both if they want to commit. Abu will commit before Gary and is higher ranked, so I doubt Clark will have any effect on Abu. Abu may scare off Clark, but not vice versa. Honestly, I think we are sitting in a very strong position with Abu right now and do not be surprised if he ends up at NCSU.

 

[uconnell]

Tired of talking with the P.C. fans?

 

[kansashusky]

Yes, finally approved. Hi UConn fans, I post on NCSU boards and wouldnt mind some friendly basketball recruiting banter. Concerning Gary Clark, he is a local kid from Clayton NC and grew up an NCSU fan. Under the radar prospect who played EYBL this summer with CP3 Allstars and had an excellent run. We waiting a while before offering, but did so after the Peach Jam. Many thought he would commit on the spot, but Gary decided(and rightfully so) to take some official visits before committing anywhere. He will be visiting Cincinnati and NCSU on officials in Sept.

Now as how that relates to Abdul Malik Abu, Our staff would take both if they want to commit. Abu will commit before Gary and is higher ranked, so I doubt Clark will have any effect on Abu. Abu may scare off Clark, but not vice versa. Honestly, I think we are sitting in a very strong position with Abu right now and do not be surprised if he ends up at NCSU.

Take a number, everyone thinks they are in a strong position with Abu.

 

[aceboon]

Yes, finally approved. Hi UConn fans, I post on NCSU boards and wouldnt mind some friendly basketball recruiting banter. Concerning Gary Clark, he is a local kid from Clayton NC and grew up an NCSU fan. Under the radar prospect who played EYBL this summer with CP3 Allstars and had an excellent run. We waiting a while before offering, but did so after the Peach Jam. Many thought he would commit on the spot, but Gary decided(and rightfully so) to take some official visits before committing anywhere. He will be visiting Cincinnati and NCSU on officials in Sept.

Now as how that relates to Abdul Malik Abu, Our staff would take both if they want to commit. Abu will commit before Gary and is higher ranked, so I doubt Clark will have any effect on Abu. Abu may scare off Clark, but not vice versa. Honestly, I think we are sitting in a very strong position with Abu right now and do not be surprised if he ends up at NCSU.

lol @ friendly banter with all the garbage you talked about regarding UConn on the PC boards, man get outta here

 

[dunlow66]

lol @ friendly banter with all the garbage you talked about regarding UConn on the PC boards, man get outta here

I said some UConn fans, not all, guess we know who one of them is

And for the record, lot of garbage talked on this board about NCSU. I dont know all you guys and have had some intelligent conversations with a few UConn fans in the past. We can be civil or not, either way not a big deal. Seems like a lot of your fans are concerned with Providence though. I was pulling for you guys to get that ACC offer in the past, but if you are happy with the AAC, great for you.

I would have loved to post on this site in the past, just didnt know it existed until I found the link at the Providence site.

Note: And we will see where Abu lands and then maybe talk again

 

[Kitaman]

With more playing time (i.e. experience) all of our bigs will improve. One of them will step up and surprise us all. They aren't on scholarship because of some gratuitous or pity gifting by the staff.

 

[upstater]

Tired of talking with the P.C. fans?

Really, the guy is slaughtering us over on the PC board, comes here and says hello. LOL.

 

[upstater]

I said some UConn fans, not all, guess we know who one of them is

And for the record, lot of garbage talked on this board about NCSU. I dont know all you guys and have had some intelligent conversations with a few UConn fans in the past. We can be civil or not, either way not a big deal. Seems like a lot of your fans are concerned with Providence though. I was pulling for you guys to get that ACC offer in the past, but if you are happy with the AAC, great for you.

I would have loved to post on this site in the past, just didnt know it existed until I found the link at the Providence site.

Note: And we will see where Abu lands and then maybe talk again

If you're downing aceboon, you're downing us all. He's all class.

I'm not being sarcastic either, he's top 5 in knowledge and equanimity on the basketball board.

 

[upstater]

With more playing time (i.e. experience) all of our bigs will improve. One of them will step up and surprise us all. They aren't on scholarship because of some gratuitous or pity gifting by the staff.

I have a lot of faith they will improve. I just don't think there are enough of them. 3 for 2 positions? Uconn isn't shy with fouling people down low.

 

[upstater]

I was pulling for you guys to get that ACC offer in the past, but if you are happy with the AAC, great for you.

But don't you think it's funny that you scoffed at the idea of SMU basketball one day, and the next day they are adding Mudiay to their good C Moreia, Keith Frazier and Moore? That's a pretty good 4 right there. The AAC is not nearly as bad as fans are saying. It's going to be much better than the Catholics, lot more talent.

 

[upstater]

Giffey is just as good a defender as Roscoe imo, Roscoe was a good defender but lets not make him out to be Stacey Augmon or somebody like that.

F4 Roscoe dominated. Rewatching those games, he stood out. Name wasn't called that much, but he was the hammer in those games.

 

[Gurleyman]

NC State fans should hang out on the Hartford Hawks board. They are also the third best basketball school in a 30-mile radius (falling behind both the flagship state school and the Blue Devils). And they have the same school colors. They'd have a lot in common.

 

[UConn17]

I think Larrier or DR both have the potential to play defense at the four the same way Roscoe did

 

[aceboon]

F4 Roscoe dominated. Rewatching those games, he stood out. Name wasn't called that much, but he was the hammer in those games.

True, he did, especially in the Butler game when he was challenging shots just as much as AO & Chuck, and that's an ability that Niels won't have even though he does give great effort on weakside rotations. I think Niels is just on par or even better with perimeter defense though, we've seen him guard PGs(he did a great job on Jordan Theodore after Blaney switched him onto him during a game against SH when Theodore lit Bazz & Boat up), he's guarded bigger wings effectively like we saw with CJ Fair and Otto Porter last year, and even had to cover at C during those moments when Tyler was getting abused and play better there than him. I envision Giffey as being that guy that comes in this year and guards whoever is hot at the time.