We need a big man.

[Yankees32123]

I just posted about this on Reddit but I want to have a more substantive conversation here.

We need a big man. Desperately.

I can't think of a longer stretch in UConn history where we have gone without a reliable post presence (Shonn Miller maybe the exception but he was a rental). It's a shame knowing that Alex Oriakhi is the best big we've had in the last 5 years. Drummond is great now but wasn't consistent at UConn. Since then we've suffered through Enosch Wolf, Tyler Olander, Phil Nolan, Kentan Facey, Amida Brimah and Steve Enoch. Not one has been consistent or reliable. Not one can rebound well. Not one can score consistently. Not one can pass well out of the post. It's really a bad look on the coaching staff in recruiting and development.

I can root a lot of our problems this season to not having a big man who can catch, pass, rebound and finish. Defenses are going zone and flooding the driving lanes for our guards which is completely killing our offense. If we had a big to dump the ball down to without a 90% chance of him getting stripped, blocked or missing a bunny, it would open up cutting and driving lanes and spread the floor enough for our guards to penetrate. Jalen Adams can get anywhere he wants on offense, but that's stymied when every possible driving lane is clogged because our bigs pose no threat. This falls on recruiting. Josh Carlton will fix zero of these problems. I don't know about Mamadou either. Enoch, Facey, Brimah, and Juwan, who is a shell of his former self, are not going to get it done. We need to get better. Coaches need to develop our bigs better, and if not, they need to recruit better bigs. No more projects.

 

[8893]

I just posted about this on Reddit but I want to have a more substantive conversation here.

We need a big man. Desperately.

Do they still publish the Advocate weekly in New Haven and Hartford? You might try a personal ad there. I think they called it the "Entre Nous" section, with some more gender-specific sub-categories.

 

[upstater]

Boy, Emeka and Thabeet have been luxuries for this fanbase.

Prior to them, we died for big men. We recruited the same kind of big men we are recruiting now, people like Voskuhl. Only they panned out.

Think about it, Calhoun recruited guys like Souleymane Wane, Okwandu, Gavin Edwards, Josh Boone, Hilton Armstrong, Tyler Olander, etc. None of these guys had the top pedigree. Some of them were as unheralded as Amida Brimah. Others were like Enoch and Phil Nolan.

The point is, UConn has had 2 stellar centers in all those decades since Calhoun arrived, and also several kids who developed (Boone, Armstrong, Voskuhl, Knight, etc.) but also during that time, it had a bunch of middling guys who were not central to the cause (Olander, Wane, Okwandu, Edwards, Brimah, Enoch, Cyrulik, Josh Brown, Willingham, Wolf, Hayward, Klaiber, Mandeldove, etc.)

There are a lot of big men who never became a Voskuhl on that list. A lot. Lack of big men development is what we've seen since Thabeet left town. But if we're honest, there were just as many undeveloped big men before Thabeet as afterward. The string from Voskuhl to Okafor to Boone and Armstrong to Thabeet made it seem like UConn could just keep developing them... but look at all the misses during that time.

Who do you blame? Josh Brown. One and done Andre Drummond, a real enigma. Or the bad luck of recruiting lower ranked big men. I mean, we lost Jesse Govan to Georgetown for heaven's sake, so forget about Diamond Stone.

 

[August_West]

Do they still publish the Advocate weekly in New Haven and Hartford? You might try a personal ad there. I think they called it the "Entre Nous" section, with some more gender-specific sub-categories.

And you know this for what reason?

 

[Pudge]

You are leaving out Natambu Willingham, Antric Klaiber, Michael Bradley, Justin Brown, Jonathan Mandeldove, Marc Suhr, Uri Cohen-Mintz.


Act like we have ALWAYS successfully brought in development Bigs and done it well. We haven't. And I would say most other top 40 programs haven't either. Enoch may still arrive; I trust you see his athleticism exceeds the above list. And Ochefu of Villanova last year? Not very good til his Senior year. This is the way it goes.

 

[8893]

And you know this for what reason?

It was great reading. Not as compelling as Zippy the Pinhead, This Modern World or "News of the Weird," but still entertaining.

 

[gtcam]

I just posted about this on Reddit but I want to have a more substantive conversation here.

We need a big man. Desperately.

I can't think of a longer stretch in UConn history where we have gone without a reliable post presence (Shonn Miller maybe the exception but he was a rental). It's a shame knowing that Alex Oriakhi is the best big we've had in the last 5 years. Drummond is great now but wasn't consistent at UConn. Since then we've suffered through Enosch Wolf, Tyler Olander, Phil Nolan, Kentan Facey, Amida Brimah and Steve Enoch. Not one has been consistent or reliable. Not one can rebound well. Not one can score consistently. Not one can pass well out of the post. It's really a bad look on the coaching staff in recruiting and development.

I can root a lot of our problems this season to not having a big man who can catch, pass, rebound and finish. Defenses are going zone and flooding the driving lanes for our guards which is completely killing our offense. If we had a big to dump the ball down to without a 90% chance of him getting stripped, blocked or missing a bunny, it would open up cutting and driving lanes and spread the floor enough for our guards to penetrate. Jalen Adams can get anywhere he wants on offense, but that's stymied when every possible driving lane is clogged because our bigs pose no threat. This falls on recruiting. Josh Carlton will fix zero of these problems. I don't know about Mamadou either. Enoch, Facey, Brimah, and Juwan, who is a shell of his former self, are not going to get it done. We need to get better. Coaches need to develop our bigs better, and if not, they need to recruit better bigs. No more projects.

Some those guys you suffered through have national championship rings and played some meaningful minutes towards that end.
UConn has not been known as a "big man" school - yeah we had Emeka and Thabeet
When I look at the list of bigs UConn has had during the past 20 years - there's some guys who had nice junior and senior years but none that were one and done (Drummond was/is a physical freak).
As far as Juwan is concerned - you are positive he is a shell of his former self?

 

[willie99]

I want a 6'10" farmer named Billy Bob, 9 points and 9 rebounds per, with ZERO blocked shots

We've lost our big man compass, they just don't produce outside of blocked shots, we've fallen in love with projects who block shots and can't rebound

It's getting harder and harder for me to watch, my patience as been abused, I hate block shots now, I want a freakn REBOUND

 

[UConnfan8]

Plain and simple- Calhoun made HUGE strides in our ex-bigs development. It was unreal. Gavin Edwards a bust?? His senior year he was a double-double machine. One of the best defensive players in the country. Josh Boone- JOSH freakin BOONE- left after 3 years and got drafted 23rd! And we didn't recruit big men well in the past? Oh okay. Charlie Vill was the #3 prospect out of high school...

Calhoun was the reason. It's a damn shame that he didn't teach KO how to improve big men while he gave him his lessons the last few years. I fear we will never see a competent big man again.

 

[Pudge]

Plain and simple- Calhoun made HUGE strides in our ex-bigs development. It was unreal. Gavin Edwards a bust?? His senior year he was a double-double machine. One of the best defensive players in the country. Josh Boone- JOSH freakin BOONE- left after 3 years and got drafted 23rd! And we didn't recruit big men well in the past? Oh okay. Charlie Vill was the #3 prospect out of high school...

Calhoun was the reason. It's a damn shame that he didn't teach KO how to improve big men while he gave him his lessons the last few years. I fear we will never see a competent big man again.

Crazy.

It will take one good kid to turn this view around. Brimah is disappointing; however, it comes down to basic ability and he can't seem to throw himself into the right positioning and then rebounding - he is no Bill Russell. Enoch should intrigue everyone ... and I recognize the vitriol of the criticism. I see real athleticism and skill on a kid that really just had not played at any high level before St Thomas More. Facey and Enoch and Durham are really going to get a lot of minutes of real game experience. I opine that we all should see how they are playing Feb 20 before we drain this swamp.

 

[upstater]

Plain and simple- Calhoun made HUGE strides in our ex-bigs development. It was unreal. Gavin Edwards a bust?? His senior year he was a double-double machine. One of the best defensive players in the country. Josh Boone- JOSH freakin BOONE- left after 3 years and got drafted 23rd! And we didn't recruit big men well in the past? Oh okay. Charlie Vill was the #3 prospect out of high school...

Calhoun was the reason. It's a damn shame that he didn't teach KO how to improve big men while he gave him his lessons the last few years. I fear we will never see a competent big man again.

Why didn't Calhoun impart his wisdom to the two dozen other bigs who never development (see above list)?

 

[joober jones]

Brimah may not be what we thought he'd become, but I wouldn't lump him into Dove territory.

 

[willie99]

Boy, Emeka and Thabeet have been luxuries for this fanbase.

Prior to them, we died for big men. We recruited the same kind of big men we are recruiting now, people like Voskuhl. Only they panned out.

Think about it, Calhoun recruited guys like Souleymane Wane, Okwandu, Gavin Edwards, Josh Boone, Hilton Armstrong, Tyler Olander, etc. None of these guys had the top pedigree. Some of them were as unheralded as Amida Brimah. Others were like Enoch and Phil Nolan.

The point is, UConn has had 2 stellar centers in all those decades since Calhoun arrived, and also several kids who developed (Boone, Armstrong, Voskuhl, Knight, etc.) but also during that time, it had a bunch of middling guys who were not central to the cause (Olander, Wane, Okwandu, Edwards, Brimah, Enoch, Cyrulik, Josh Brown, Willingham, Wolf, Hayward, Klaiber, Mandeldove, etc.)

There are a lot of big men who never became a Voskuhl on that list. A lot. Lack of big men development is what we've seen since Thabeet left town. But if we're honest, there were just as many undeveloped big men before Thabeet as afterward. The string from Voskuhl to Okafor to Boone and Armstrong to Thabeet made it seem like UConn could just keep developing them... but look at all the misses during that time.

Who do you blame? Josh Brown. One and done Andre Drummond, a real enigma. Or the bad luck of recruiting lower ranked big men. I mean, we lost Jesse Govan to Georgetown for heaven's sake, so forget about Diamond Stone.

we were national leaders in rebounding margin each and every year without exception, we won 30 games per year, we did not have a big man problem

you're solid upstater, you really are, but I have to admonish you for mentioning Thabeet and Meka in the same sentence, that's just wrong

 

[upstater]

we were national leaders in rebounding margin each and every year without exception, we won 30 games per year, we did not have a big man problem

you're solid upstater, you really are, but I have to admonish you for mentioning Thabeet and Meka in the same sentence, that's just wrong

I have a post above that mentions Voskuhl, Okafor, Armstrong, Boone and Thabeet. For sure these were great players.

I happen to believe UConn was better at rebounding back when it blocked fewer shots. Calhoun fell in love with it because of Thabeet. Players like Kevin Freeman contributed to the gawdy rebounding #s.

Thabeet deserves to be in the same sentence a Emeka. Emeka was Player of the Year (or should have been) so Thabeet isn't at his level, but Thabeet was a college superstar who totally altered the game. Price, Adrien, Dyson, Stanley and Thabeet made that 2009 team the second best team in the nation, if not the best, when Dyson was healthy. Thabeet becoming the second pick in the draft speaks to the impact he had on the college game, even if he was nowhere near the player Emeka was. Thabeet was a college superstar.

 

[UConnfan8]

Why didn't Calhoun impart his wisdom to the two dozen other bigs who never development (see above list)?

I mean we led the NCAA for like 10 years defensively. That wasn't just lucky. Kids developed under JC.

 

[King Husky]

Here's what bothers me... IMO the most important things you should look at when evaluating big men are 1. Hands, and 2. Footwork. It's fine if you want to recruit some tall, skinny, uncoordinated centers for the purposes of rim protection, but it seems like these are the ONLY guys we go after and we try to develop them into offensive talents.

Just give me one undersized, high IQ big man who is comfortable playing with his back to the basket and I'll be happy. A true post-up player. Look at the guy Happ from Wisconsin. He wasn't a top 100 recruit.

 

[Kitaman]

I'll gladly take a Dan Cyrulik type right now.

 

[GlastonTim]

Give me a Rod Sellers and a Travis Knight too

 

[gtcam]

This team needs a Jeff Adrien - a lunch pail worker who became a scorer

 

[nomar]

Do they still publish the Advocate weekly in New Haven and Hartford? You might try a personal ad there. I think they called it the "Entre Nous" section, with some more gender-specific sub-categories.

I think would be under m4bm

 

[Glastonhusky]

This team needs a Jeff Adrien - a lunch pail worker who became a scorer

Hopefully, that guy is Josh Carlton.

 

[7774]

Plain and simple- Calhoun made HUGE strides in our ex-bigs development. It was unreal. Gavin Edwards a bust?? His senior year he was a double-double machine. One of the best defensive players in the country. Josh Boone- JOSH freakin BOONE- left after 3 years and got drafted 23rd! And we didn't recruit big men well in the past? Oh okay. Charlie Vill was the #3 prospect out of high school...

Calhoun was the reason. It's a damn shame that he didn't teach KO how to improve big men while he gave him his lessons the last few years. I fear we will never see a competent big man again.

Boone never improved that much at all.

 

[Yankees32123]

Hopefully, that guy is Josh Carlton.

He won't be. I promise. He looks exactly like the bigs we've recruited for the last 5 years. I hope to god that he proves me wrong but I've been shown nothing to make me think otherwise.

 

[King Husky]

This team needs a Jeff Adrien - a lunch pail worker who became a scorer

Yes. A thick bodied, highly coordinated tough guy.

 

[HooperScooper]

Boone never improved that much at all.

I beg to differ. Although freshman year all he was asked to do was rebound and play defense so it's tough to tell what he could have done if he asked to do more. But sophomore year he was a much better offensive player.