2022 Recruiting: Update on Alex Karaban

[husky429]

He plays for Expressions Elite and as far as I know we have never had a recruit from that program. I know (well more knew since I don't talk to him now) the guy who owns the Expressions AAU program. He has a very good relationship with Cooley and had a good relationship with Ollie (UConn was recruiting the guy who went to NC St. - forgot his name). He's based in RI so maybe Hurley has a good relationship with him also from his time at URI.

Abdul Malik Abu is the NC State kid. Ended up being a pretty decent player

 

[HooperScooper]

Abdul Malik Abu is the NC State kid. Ended up being a pretty decent player

Thanks. That's the guy. The Expressions guy liked Ollie. I think that was before his life fell apart and he still cared about recruiting.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Looks like a player we can use. Was pleased to see that 6’7” 190 is underrating his weight. Glad to see him talking about rebounding. Given Hurley’s style of play, we are going to need a lot of 6’6-8” guys who can shoot, rebound, handle the ball and pass. I think he ideally wants us playing a 5 a 1 and 3 of those kind of guys.

His comments about Harvard and Stanford were interesting. If he’s an excellent student as noted, Stanford would be pretty appealing. Some kids have a realistic view of their NBA chances.

 

[HooperScooper]

Looks like a player we can use. Was pleased to see that 6’7” 190 is underrating his weight. Glad to see him talking about rebounding. Given Hurley’s style of play, we are going to need a lot of 6’6-8” guys who can shoot, rebound, handle the ball and pass. I think he ideally wants us playing a 5 a 1 and 3 of those kind of guys.

His comments about Harvard and Stanford were interesting. If he’s an excellent student as noted, Stanford would be pretty appealing. Some kids have a realistic view of their NBA chances.

He is a very good student and his parents really value education. Honestly, I am surprised he didn't jump on the Stanford offer already. Or maybe he just doesn't want to be that far from home.

 

[Ricker]

An afterthought, Xavier's Freemantle might be another good comp because he boards, holds his own in the paint against bigger players, steps out for 3's, and moves with the same posture, and is a major factor in most games. A difference might be Karaban shoots foul shots well. Without checking, I think Xavier has offered.

 

[HooperScooper]

An afterthought, Xavier's Freemantle might be another good comp because he boards, holds his own in the paint against bigger players, steps out for 3's, and moves with the same posture, and is a major factor in most games. A difference might be Karaban shoots foul shots well. Without checking, I think Xavier has offered.

Yes, Xavier has offered.

 

[Watchdog]

I don't want to derail the thread. I'm only responding for me. Just this once, and only because I'm the one who made the comparisons in this thread, and do it in other threads. I'm also just trying to be explanatory.

I do have biases. My primary bias is accuracy. When I compare a player to another player in a recruiting thread, the purpose of my comparison is to paint an image of the player physically, how he plays, and what his skills are, or what I think they should become. If the reader gains that image, I feel the post is successful. To paint that picture I tend to favor comparisons to players I assume Boneyard readers are familiar with. That means xUConn players, followed by Big East/conference/ regional players/past OOC opponents, followed by players of national prominence. I'm biased in that I ignore players that very few on the boneyard would know existed, and thus paints no image. I also tend to be really politically incorrect and generally make the comparison to other male players, rather than say he has the BB IQ of a Maya Moore, which gives me both color and gender balance. Do you have a better picture of Donovan Clingan if I reference Hunter Dickinson, and Big Country, or is it important to be politically correct and pretend he is black. Even if I compared Clingan to Bob Lanier or a college John Thompson, would the image be correct if the difference in race was not noted? I for one don't think I'm making a social justice comment when I'm painting a picture of a player. The player has a race that he notes on government forms.

If a player plays like Magic Johnson, JJ Reddick, Larry Bird, Christian Laettner, Hashem Thabeet, aren't these descriptions of play rather than racial comments. If they are racial comments then the reader needs to consider that maybe they are inserting the racial commentary themselves. I don't have any issue with acknowledging that a player is black, white, asian, french, Isreali, Croatian, female, male, brazilian, etc. I don't see why heritage can't be mentioned if it is appropriately descriptive. Karaban is a white guy who acknowledges himself that he plays like Tyler Lydon. He also says he fashions his game after Jalen Brown of the Celtics who is black. I didn't pick that comp because I've never watched him play.

I've noted that many of the black and white movies I watch now carry a rating warning "out of date social depictions". I should probably add this as a warning in my future similar posts.

You're not derailing it and you're being too polite with your response.

First and foremost, this is a fan message board, a place to discuss the progress of the team we love and it's future prospects, and your post is about a guy who looks as if he could be a great player for us and most of us appreciate your insights.

The derailing is being done by the guy who says he's "not alleging anything nefarious, just musing, and not passing judgement" and a host of other qualifiers for his comments, while using passive aggressive tactics in multiple posts questioning your motives for comparing the style of one player to another.

It's this kind of divisiveness, the searching for words that may have inadvertently been used the "wrong" way, imagining things that don't exist and supposing what you "really meant" that's destroying the little unity that still exists in the world. It doesn't need to be part of a fan message board.

 

[Get a Job]

You're not derailing it and you're being too polite with your response.

First and foremost, this is a fan message board, a place to discuss the progress of the team we love and it's future prospects, and your post is about a guy who looks as if he could be a great player for us and most of us appreciate your insights.

The derailing is being done by the guy who says he's "not alleging anything nefarious, just musing, and not passing judgement" and a host of other qualifiers for his comments, while using passive aggressive tactics in multiple posts questioning your motives for comparing the style of one player to another.

It's this kind of divisiveness, the searching for words that may have inadvertently been used the "wrong" way, imagining things that don't exist and supposing what you "really meant" that's destroying the little unity that still exists in the world. It doesn't need to be part of a fan message board.

It's funny: I didn't even have @Ricker in mind at all when I wrote the first post. It was his post that got my mind going in that direction, but I was not criticizing anyone, let alone him specifically. On the topic of derailment, I certainly went off on a tangent, but I don't think that's such a crime on a message board.

This topic can be discussed solely from the sociological perspective, and that was my intent. Please don't derail my derailment.

 

[Ricker]

FYI to all. @Get a Job and I messaged individually right after the initial posts and there really wasn't an issue from the outset. He wrote a thought. I interpreted too much into it and responded. Behind the scenes we agreed that We Were All Good, Move On, Nothing to See Here, back to Alex Karaban. Thanks for the support @Watchdog ,but @Get a Job was just 'thinking out loud' so to speak. I wasn't really receiving criticism.