Heeeelllllll nnnnnnnooooooo
Six ten, 260? Has he murdered anyone? If not, hell yes. Travion Leonard ate our lunch this year. And probably everyone else's. A big fat dope is exactly what this team needs. Georgetown's offered, Pitt's going to. Sold. I'd rather have Sean Muto II than another wing.
Travion Leonard?
He had 8 pts and 4 boards.
Canty was the frontcourt player who killed us for Fordham
And Teague on Seton Hall. But DeLa Rosa is nowhere near Teague.
There's a pretty long list of front court players who had one of their best games of the season against us.
Remember Jefferson from Baylor? (20 pts 14reb)
Canty (15/16)
Teague (22/5)
Lubbick (16/10)
Rudd (18/11)
Yarou dropped 18 in the BE tourny game
I'm not saying I want this guy. I admittedly don't know enough. In general though, I'm a big fan of having one behemoth on the roster, because there are always a handful of matchups where they're needed.
And, if you draw a team with two bigs in the 1st round of the NCAAs you could be shit out of luck if your roster isn't well rounded.
You mean the guy that scored 25 on Texas? 25 on Kansas? 23 on Iowa? 26 on Providence? 21 on Arizona State (they had the #2 shot blocker in D1- 7'0 265 Jordan Baschynnski).
Seriously tho, I agree. Absolutely NO reason not to invest your 12th or 13th ride into a project big. Worst case scenario, you get 5 fouls to give off the bench at the center spot for 4 years. Best case, they develop over time and turn into a contributor. Very rarely, they become an integral part of something great.
Center X: 7'0, 255
1992: 3.9 mins, 1.1 pts, 1.1 rebs, 38% FG, 50% FTs.
1993: 9.0 mins, 2.4 pts, 1.7 rebs, 42% FG, 71% FTs.
1994 24.6 mins, 11.1 pts, 7.0 rebs, 52% FG, 76% FTs
1995 23.4 mins, 10.6 pts, 5.4 rebs, 56% FG, 73% FTs
George Zidek. 1995 Anchored the NCAA Championship Team (Shut Down Bryant "Big Country" Reeves of OK State, Travis Knight of UCONN, and Erik Dampier of Miss. State in the tourney title run). 1st round Pick Charlotte Hornets.
Kid was BLASTED for two years by "fans" as an absolute waste of a scholarship.
Sometimes they don't produce at all - but hey - they gave your starters someone to work against in practice. You can't teach "big".
Center Y (a JC Transfer):
7-4, 295 lbs
Jr. 1981, 8.9 mins, 2.1 pts, 2.6 rebs, 46%FG, 29% FT, 2.1 blocks
Sr.1982, 3.9 mins, 1.3 pts, 2.0 rebs, 42% FG, 80% FTs, 1.5 blocks.
Sometimes coaches are just absolutely stupid. THIS guys coach refused to play him because "smaller centers would take advantage of him with their speed and quickness".
At at time when Abdul-Jabbar, Ewing, Hakeem, Ralph Sampson, David Robinson, Artis Gilmore and Robert Parish were in the NBA, THIS guy managed to overcome his college coach's stupidity - to the point of being named 1st or 2nd team All NBA defensive Center 5 times, NBA Defensive Player of the Year Twice, and end his career as the #1 shot blocker in NBA history. Not bad for a 3.9 minute per game, 18 times "DNP-Coaches Decision" his senior year "waste of a scholarship" guy. If any one hasn't guessed, those are Mark Eaton's accomplishments.
Valuable to have, but man - you gotta be smart enuf to USE them when the matchups are right. Eaton's senior "Per 36" in blocked shots, playing all 33 games that year would have been... 457 blocks. I kid you not.
Obviously he wasn't going to get Nearly THAT many (but his JUNIOR year "per 36" at the 34 games that season would have been 288 - and he had ACTUALLY blocked 170 as a JC Soph!). But how in the world does a kid blocking a shot almost every 2 minutes he's on the court get less than 4 minutes a game??
Wow - weird tanget with the meds kicking in....
Back to the original thought. Rice lost their two bigs to transfer last year. 6'8 Arslen Kazemi was arguably Oregon's best player in their NCAA tourney run this year. But Rice also lost 7'1 JUNIOR Omar Oraby, who was immediately eligible at U$C with 2 years eligibility. Oraby only played 14 minutes a game, as USC already HAD a 7'0 starting center in Dwayne Dedmond. In those 14, Oraby put up 7 pts and 4 rebs, and shot 61% from the filed. Doesn't take a math genius to figure a 28 minute Oraby might get you 14/8, and an inside scoring presence (61%???) we were lacking all year. And even if he doesn't earn a starting spot - man that is one club you want to have in your bag when the situation rises (my dad always carried a 3 1/2 wood - never saw him use it on the links. He said a either 3 or a 4 was usually the right choice - but that you never known when the lie is going to make that 3 1/2 the right choice - and it does you no good if it's not in your bag.....