Yakwe Commits | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Yakwe Commits

Played 3 years at SJU and graduated? Sweet.

Any reason some of his numbers declined over those 3 years? Minutes, points and rebounds all down.
 
Sphinx said:
I'm sorry, but I look at the resumes of Smith and Yakwe and I see next year's Anderson and next year's Onourah. The resemblance, even physically, is uncanny. In the case of Yakwe and Onuorah, there's even the mystery of why these guys all but disappeared after their freshman year. We all have high hopes for Dan Hurley, but so far it has resulted only in a trade of Akinjo, Matthews and Kisunas for Adams, Smith and Yakwe. Yikes! As I said before, an awful lot of blind trust is being asked for here.
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Isn't it all blind? We don't know for sure how things will translate from URI to UConn...
 
Storrs South said:
I like what I see

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We have any St Johns BBall experts on this board? I'm wondering why the dropoff from his freshman year? Hopefully it's a coaching thing and Hurley can get the best out of him
 
Sphinx said:
I'm sorry, but I look at the resumes of Smith and Yakwe and I see next year's Anderson and next year's Onourah. The resemblance, even physically, is uncanny. In the case of Yakwe and Onuorah, there's even the mystery of why these guys all but disappeared after their freshman year. We all have high hopes for Dan Hurley, but so far it has resulted only in a trade of Akinjo, Matthews and Kisunas for Adams, Smith and Yakwe. Yikes! As I said before, an awful lot of blind trust is being asked for here.
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The difference being that Hurley has shown he can do more with less. It's late in the process and these guys are fine replacements for Ollie recruits. If this was his class after a full year of recruiting, maybe you'd have a point.
 
the Q said:
Soooooo...like Whaley.
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Yeah, but about 300% stronger. Yakwe's FT% has drastically improved and he getsto the line a lot. It looks to me like his issues are that he attempts too many mid range/tough shots and tries to handle the ball too much, resulting in turnovers. If he played like Brimah and basically only took shots close to the basket or lobs, he'd probably be fine offensively. This still isn't saying much, but Yakwe's career assist rate is aabout 2x as high as Brimah's too. One of Brimah's biggest issues offensively was that he was an incapable passer.

TLDR: He needs to take easy shots, pass willingly, and limit turnovers, but looking deeper, there's a very conceivable way to make Yakwe a solid rotation player.
 
4xChamps said:
We have any St Johns BBall experts on this board? I'm wondering why the dropoff from his freshman year? Hopefully it's a coaching thing and Hurley can get the best out of him
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This may explain some of it:

His second and third years, however, saw his effectiveness at scoring and rebounding dip. He took far fewer shots as the Johnnies played a faster pace and did not run post up plays for him. Yakwe started 31 of 33 games in 2016-17, but could not reach the potential of his freshman year.

St. John’s Kassoum Yakwe to transfer
 
Sphinx said:
I'm sorry, but I look at the resumes of Smith and Yakwe and I see next year's Anderson and next year's Onourah. The resemblance, even physically, is uncanny. In the case of Yakwe and Onuorah, there's even the mystery of why these guys all but disappeared after their freshman year. We all have high hopes for Dan Hurley, but so far it has resulted only in a trade of Akinjo, Matthews and Kisunas for Adams, Smith and Yakwe. Yikes! As I said before, an awful lot of blind trust is being asked for here.
Expand ...

"Blind trust" lol.

How foolish.

The man has demonstrated time and time again his ability to both build programs and develop players.

He's doing what he's being paid to do.
 
UConnStats said:
Heard the staff didn’t feel as confident once he left campus. Nice little surprise.

We’ll see what Hurley can do with him. Mullin is pretty damn bad.

Basically, you want him to be just average enough to keep on the floor offensively, and let him make his impact on the defensive end.

Floor of 4 open scholarships now for 2019.
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4 guaranteed ships for '19 is the best part. Gives the staff a ton of flexibility
 
Not much information on the St John's board. That place seems like it has a real toxic vibe.

Yakwe Transferring

Happy to have this kid! It's nice to have some experience up front. Hopefully he does more than DO.
 
blue93 said:
The difference being that Hurley has shown he can do more with less. It's late in the process and these guys are fine replacements for Ollie recruits. If this was his class after a full year of recruiting, maybe you'd have a point.
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Spot on. Saved me the trouble of explaining it.
 
Jalen Adams will make things easier for all these kids by drawing a lot of attention.

My only concern at this point is scoring.

Need a second go-to guy.

I'm not saying I expect a good year, but these new guys will improve simply because they were not playing with a guy of Adams' caliber.

Same with Anderson last year. He gave UConn more than he ever gave at Fordham.
 
Sphinx said:
I'm sorry, but I look at the resumes of Smith and Yakwe and I see next year's Anderson and next year's Onourah. The resemblance, even physically, is uncanny. In the case of Yakwe and Onuorah, there's even the mystery of why these guys all but disappeared after their freshman year. We all have high hopes for Dan Hurley, but so far it has resulted only in a trade of Akinjo, Matthews and Kisunas for Adams, Smith and Yakwe. Yikes! As I said before, an awful lot of blind trust is being asked for here.
Expand ...

Actually it's a trade of 4 years of Akinjo, Matthews, and Kisunas for 4 years of Adams, 1 year each for Smith and Yakwe, and 3 years each from 2 others.

You're missing the two players to be named later in your trade analysis. Yikes!
 
Sphinx said:
I'm sorry, but I look at the resumes of Smith and Yakwe and I see next year's Anderson and next year's Onourah. The resemblance, even physically, is uncanny. In the case of Yakwe and Onuorah, there's even the mystery of why these guys all but disappeared after their freshman year. We all have high hopes for Dan Hurley, but so far it has resulted only in a trade of Akinjo, Matthews and Kisunas for Adams, Smith and Yakwe. Yikes! As I said before, an awful lot of blind trust is being asked for here.
Expand ...

They’re better than both.
 
UConnStats said:
Yeah, but about 300% stronger. Yakwe's FT% has drastically improved and he getsto the line a lot. It looks to me like his issues are that he attempts too many mid range/tough shots and tries to handle the ball too much, resulting in turnovers. If he played like Brimah and basically only took shots close to the basket or lobs, he'd probably be fine offensively. This still isn't saying much, but Yakwe's career assist rate is aabout 2x as high as Brimah's too. One of Brimah's biggest issues offensively was that he was an incapable passer.

TLDR: He needs to take easy shots, pass willingly, and limit turnovers, but looking deeper, there's a very conceivable way to make Yakwe a solid rotation player.
Expand ...

Yeah, I get you.

I was really just referring to the fact that Whaley was easily our best defender last year and just needs to be average-ish on offense to really make an impact.
 
I don't want to look too stupid here, so let me acknowledge the obvious. In one short month, Hurley has done the three things he had to do. He has assembled a first-rate coaching staff; he has filled the glaring needs on next year's roster; and he has freed up four scholarships for the following year, when the true rebuilding process begins. If I seem impatient, it is because I turn 80 in the fall, and I fear I will be watching it all from the nosebleed seats.
 

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