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Non freshman players that blossomed

J

jasonpeoria911

New member
What are some players that blossomed into a good 6th man role or became a good starter that didn't show that potential as a freshman at BU? I bring this up because i'm finding it very rare in the last 3-4 seasons, that a player improved significantly from a rough freshman season.

I'm just concerned that i'm not seeing a whole lot of progress in JP and the rest of the Soph, Juniors and Seniors. Perhaps this is partially to blame on coaching?

Jason
 
JC was okay as a freshman, disappeared as a soph, then was good his junior year, great his senior.

JJ Taui was terrible for early in his career, and come on to be a valuable player
 
jasonpeoria911 said:
What are some players that blossomed into a good 6th man role or became a good starter that didn't show that potential as a freshman at BU? I bring this up because i'm finding it very rare in the last 3-4 seasons, that a player improved significantly from a rough freshman season.

I'm just concerned that i'm not seeing a whole lot of progress in JP and the rest of the Soph, Juniors and Seniors. Perhaps this is partially to blame on coaching?

Jason
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Here are a few -

Bayo took a while to develop. Was an all-MVC player and MVC DPOY by his last year.
Koita was really on valuable his final year toward the end.
Zobrist was overmatched as a freshman, and was invaluable as a junior and senior.
Dye was a bit overmatched as a freshman, and was arguably our best PG since Manuel.
Jerome Robinson didn't do anything for 3 years. Was Valley POY his senior year.

We haven't really had much of a 'system' where we recruit guys to play roles and develop them for those roles over the course of their 4 years. We've kind of been all over the map in what we do. Not saying that's good or bad - Some would say the adaptability is a good thing. We just hear the phrase 'our system' thrown around all the time, when in reality we don't really have a 'system'. CU under Altman had a system. Jacobson at UNI looks to be building a 'system'. SIU used to have a system.
 
jasonpeoria911 said:
What are some players that blossomed into a good 6th man role or became a good starter that didn't show that potential as a freshman at BU? I bring this up because i'm finding it very rare in the last 3-4 seasons, that a player improved significantly from a rough freshman season.

I'm just concerned that i'm not seeing a whole lot of progress in JP and the rest of the Soph, Juniors and Seniors. Perhaps this is partially to blame on coaching?

Jason
Click to expand...

Taylor Brown? Andrew Warren? Sam? All three have improved tons from their freshman year. JC did. DRuff did. You may say that these guys 'showed potential' but that's easy to say in hindsight. And if someone doesn't show potential, theres generally a reason... This will just be a case where people blame the coach for recruiting bad players. Pretty much the typical discussion - JL can't recruit and can't coach, even though one can happen without the other, but because we don't have an MVC championship, neither can be true. JL's fault.
 
I know it's a little different as he was a Juco, but Will Franklin went from a role player on the sweet 16 team, to an all conference player his senior year.
 
Number of jucos does limit this stat.

Adams got better. Egolf is better (though I hope the Duke game could be his minimum performance
 
Nate Funk played 34 games as a freshman, and averaged 4 ppg, 1 rpg, and didn't look to have anything that would have made you think he was anything special
 
tornado said:
Nate Funk played 34 games as a freshman, and averaged 4 ppg, 1 rpg, and didn't look to have anything that would have made you think he was anything special
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Good call on Funk.

And perhaps for another thread, players in the MVC who were great their freshman year and never got better or got worse. I'll start the conversation with Eric Coleman of UNI. He gained weight, but didn't gain much skill, after an impressive freshman year.
 
Jason, good thread but I don't think I'd be so quick to label Prosser a disappointment. He is nine games into his college career and averaging five boards a game in 17 minutes per. Both of those numbers will increase as the season goes on and he'll get more comfortable shooting from close range around the basket too. This kid is gonna be a major, major stud for us. Book it.
 
Missouri Brave said:
Jason, good thread but I don't think I'd be so quick to label Prosser a disappointment. He is nine games into his college career and averaging five boards a game in 17 minutes per. Both of those numbers will increase as the season goes on and he'll get more comfortable shooting from close range around the basket too. This kid is gonna be a major, major stud for us. Book it.
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Agree 100%. Offensively I think he looks like he's had shot blocked for about a year straight, which is not surprising considering he was playing against 6'3" post players most of his HS career. Big men take time to develop and adjust. However I think he rebounds very strongly, and will get better offensively around the basket. Physically he's clearly strong enough. He just needs to continue to refine his offensive skills. He's 9 games in to a 4 year career - I guess I would ask what the expectations were? He's going to be fine.
 
Missouri Brave said:
Jason, good thread but I don't think I'd be so quick to label Prosser a disappointment. He is nine games into his college career and averaging five boards a game in 17 minutes per. Both of those numbers will increase as the season goes on and he'll get more comfortable shooting from close range around the basket too. This kid is gonna be a major, major stud for us. Book it.
Click to expand...

LOVE this post! He is doing fine and will keep getting better and better...its called work ethic...he has it!
 
Agree JP is going to be a very good player for us...It is however hard for me to believe that at one point during his recruitment, he was considered somewhat of a perimeter player?
 
Double D said:
Agree JP is going to be a very good player for us...It is however hard for me to believe that at one point during his recruitment, he was considered somewhat of a perimeter player?
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What? When was this? He always played center in HS, and I never saw anything saying he would be a perimeter player....
 
JP played center in HS, because he was 6-8 inches taller than most of his teammates.

Early in his recruitment there was talk of significant interest by some of the BCS schools (Wisconsin, Kentucky). Much of that interest tended to hinge on his ability to play as a 3 or 4 and have the perimeter skill to do that.

I saw quite a bit of JP in high school and always felt his best skills were around the basket. He could always step out and hit 15-17 foot jumpers then, but I never saw the ball handling potential or lateral quickness to guard on the perimeter.

Bottom line...great kid, great family, he will be a good 4 year player for us.
 
Buesch N Chips said:
I believe he tried to develop the 3 point shot...
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BTW -- slightly off topic -- but some familiar names among the nation's leaders in 3-pt shooting..

1 John Shurna, Northwestern Jr. 6-8 F 5 18 27 66.7
2 David Kyles, Wichita St. Jr. 6-4 G 7 25 41 61.0
.
4 Scott Christopherson, Iowa St. Jr. 6-3 G 8 27 46 58.7
.
6 Marcus Denmon, Missouri Jr. 6-3 G 7 22 39 56.4
.
8 Colt Ryan, Evansville So. 6-5 G 6 18 32 56.3
9 Ben Hansbrough, Notre Dame Sr. 6-3 G 8 23 42 54.8
11 Mickey McConnell, St. Mary's (CA) Sr. 6-0 G 8 21 39 53.8
.
19 Xavier Silas, Northern Ill. Sr. 6-5 G 6 16 31 51.6
.
32 Ryan Wedel, Drake Sr. 5-11 G 6 18 39 46.2
 
Thanks for the answers gang. I'm pretty confident that DSE will pull things around but not so sure on Prosser. He can rebound good but it's just so surprising that he's this bad on shooting after 1.5 years of scrimmaging against his teammates. Maybe Les was so concerned with his weight, that Prosser just packed on the pounds and only concentrated on his D moves. We all know Les and his D preaching. Now his O is paying the fatal price.

Jason
 
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