Marcus, you forgot Rakeem Christmas on Syracuse but in essence you're right. Big men are hard to come by in college hoops. That said Sampson's supposedly not a true big either so I think what folks are saying is STJ is going into the season with two bigs and that can be tough. Most BE teams have a few 6-7/8 guys like Sampson that can be used as bigs in a pinch and you're not counting them on the other teams.
Yank, I have news for you. Jakarr is the same size as Christmas.
That would be nice though everything I read has Rakeem 1-2 inches taller and 10-30 pounds heavier. That said everything I read also lists Christmas as a C and Sampson as a SF and that's really the important point.
It's not and you're wrong. Christmas is 6'8" and a PF. Jakarr is 6'8" and a SF/PF. I remember at one point I saw Khem birch reported at 6'11 when he first came on the scene, but he too is a PF at about 6'8". I could care less who is 10lbs heavier. Jakarr is the same size but has the ability to drive around guys like Christmas.
Just an old UCLA fan here - Jakarr is the exact same size as Ed 0'Bannon, and has TWO healthy legs (Ed had his ACL replaced by a tendon from a cadaver prior to his freshman year). All Ed was able to do was carry the Bruins to the NCAA Championship, and win College Player of the year - as a 6'8 205 lb Power Forward. He easily got the better of guys like "Big Nasty" Corliss Williamson in the finals, Shareef Abdur-Rahim in conference. And that was a great year for 4's - Rasheed Wallace, Joe Smith, Antonio McDeyss, Kurt Thomas, Alan Henderson, Antoine Walker, John Wallace, Roy Rodgers, Jerome WIlliams, Malik Rose...
If Jakarr ends up as our PF (I have NO idea how this all shakes out in practice - I think Pelle starts for sure at the 5, but maybe Steve will want Norvell and GG on the court at the same time to get more experience in the lineup), I'm not the least bit worried about a size mismatch. That's one of my greatest peeves - you play the guy with the talent, not the size. If you've got a talented small guy, you don't sit him just cause the opponent is big - you let him take advantage of the bigger, slower, lESS TALENTED body. And of course the same holds true the other way - you don't sit a bigger talented guy because smaller players might take advantage of him with their speed or quickness.
Once upon a time, a huge kid transferred in from JC - a true center. The coach quit that year for an NBA job, and his assistant took over. The new coach refused to play the kid, because, he said, "the smaller centers in the league woul have taken advantage of him with their speed and quickness". Because of that, the Kid, who was healthy all year, was only put into 11 games his senior year, for a TOTAL of 41 minutes. Three years later, 7'4 280 lb Mark Eaton was the NBA Defensive Player of the Year. He'd win that award twice, and be voted All NBA defensive first or 2nd team 5 times in his 10 year NBA career. He'd retire as the NBA's all time leading shot blocker. 18 years later he's still #5 on the all time list, and #1 all time in Blocks per Game.
In his two seasons of College, Mark was allowed to play a total of 196 minutes. It's not like the talent wasn't evident - with what he did in his incredibly limited time on the court (27 blocks, 71 rebs), had he gotten startrs minutes, say 35 a game, that would have worked out to 4.8 blocks per game, and 12.7 rebs per game.
So I always cringe when someone says "too Small" or "too Big" to play a certain position. All I want to know is if he's Talented enuf to play the position.
As big of a Steve Lavin honk as I am, he's not beyond the same kind of prejudice. At UCLA he once passed on a kid who DESPARATELY wanted to come to Westwood - but the kid was only a 6'6 high school center, and Steve didn't think he was big enuf to play PF, let alone center at the high D-1 level. So he never offered the kid, who then signed with Kentucky. If you follow the NBA, in 2010 with Yao Ming injured for the season, the Houston Rockets started Luis Scola for 82 games at PF. started Trevor Ariza for 72 games at SF....and gave all 82 starts as the nominal center to 6'6 Chuck Hayes (he also started 63 game there this past season)....Chuck MAY BE Lav's biggest screw-up in recruiting so far (even tho the move "looked good on paper) - passing on Hayes to sign 7-0 250 Mike Fey....