• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

Austin...

B

BradleyBrave

New member
...well, people called me crazy for saying that it WAS a big deal that Austin missed the summer. Well, I think we've seen through the first 2 exhibition games how important the summer is. He's behind conditioning-wise and clearly is behind development-wise. You can tell he's a physical specimen, and can tell he's talented. But I think it's very evident he is not where he needs to be in a number of areas, and I think it can be directly attributed to not being here at all this summer. Will he get there? I think so, I really do. But it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't until the conference season.
 
BradleyBrave said:
...well, people called me crazy for saying that it WAS a big deal that Austin missed the summer. Well, I think we've seen through the first 2 exhibition games how important the summer is. He's behind conditioning-wise and clearly is behind development-wise. You can tell he's a physical specimen, and can tell he's talented. But I think it's very evident he is not where he needs to be in a number of areas, and I think it can be directly attributed to not being here at all this summer. Will he get there? I think so, I really do. But it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't until the conference season.
Click to expand...

Agreed! I also think he is kinda short for a power forward...
 
georgethedog said:
Agreed! I also think he is kinda short for a power forward...
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but I think his size and strength can make up for that. He's got to get there conditioning-wise, intensity-wise, and knowledge-wise. Just about everyone has been learning and progressing since July, with 2 months devoted to nothing but basketball. He's been learning and progressing since September, along with trying to balance school. Big difference.
 
Great point BB. It wasn't something I thought about but thinking about it now, it definately seems like RA is a step behind the rest of the guys. I think he's physically ready but obviously has some catch up work to do for Saturday and beyond.
 
he's definitely 6'7". i was looking for that today during their warm ups because someone had said he was more like 6'5". he is pretty much exactly as tall as salley and just a hair shorter than egolf. i agree that he's not ready yet but i think he's legit in his listed height.
 
JJ Tauai was small for a power forward too.

Today was the first chance I've had to watch the team this year so I can't really say much about Austin, but I would have to assume that missing almost the entire summer has had some sort of effect.

The other possibility is that JL likes to start/give regular playing time to guys who work hard on defense in practice and Austin isn't up to that yet. Case in point: some people thought Sam Singh would be a starter, but he only played eight minutes today.
 
georgethedog said:
Agreed! I also think he is kinda short for a power forward...
Click to expand...

Not in the MVC. There aren't many real good big men this year. Austin is as tall or taller than some of the best centers in the league (Coleman and Falker). And there aren't many power forwards taller than him.

I agree that RA will be OK with a little more time.
 
As far as the height concerns.......anybody remember the name.......Rolen Roberts from siu? 6'6 and 250 lbs and he dominated the Valley at center!:wink:
 
I hate to say "I told you so"...but....summer IS important!

Austin, as a junior, wasn't as patient in discussing his role. But as a late arrival to campus, he has been behind in some respects.

"As long as I'm playing, I'm all right," said the 6-7, 240-pounder. "I found I was way out of shape when I got here and it was hard adjusting. But I'm doing a good transition."

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/110807/BRA_BERILMN7.071.php
 
BradleyBrave said:
I hate to say "I told you so"...but....summer IS important!

Austin, as a junior, wasn't as patient in discussing his role. But as a late arrival to campus, he has been behind in some respects.

"As long as I'm playing, I'm all right," said the 6-7, 240-pounder. "I found I was way out of shape when I got here and it was hard adjusting. But I'm doing a good transition."

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/110807/BRA_BERILMN7.071.php
Click to expand...


I don't recall that many people disagreeing wether he would be in shape or not but moreso wether he would BE here or not. SOME were quite worried while others believed what lil Bish told us as far as his status and we need not worry.

Good news is he has yet to show us how good he can be.
 
I don't think Rashad Austin is at all behind on physical conditioning,
and we have only seen a couple of exhibitions, so give the kid some time.
But each kid comes from a different background and different system, and Rashad didn't have the time to work out this summer with the trainers and with the coaches, but he will catch up.
 
We just need a solid 8-10 minutes from him until the Valley play starts. I hope by then he is ready to provide a solid 20-25 minutes and can actually push for more based on his play. Right now we just need to see imnprovement from him game to game.
 
mexicobufan said:
We just need a solid 8-10 minutes from him until the Valley play starts. I hope by then he is ready to provide a solid 20-25 minutes and can actually push for more based on his play. Right now we just need to see imnprovement from him game to game.
Click to expand...

He's going to have to jump over Sam Singh, Will Egolf, and David Collins to get those minutes. Singh only had about 8-10 minutes against Quincy, so I would say Austin has his work cut out for him. The fact that they were considering a redshirt for Austin I think says a lot as to where his development is at right now.
 
BradleyBrave said:
He's going to have to jump over Sam Singh, Will Egolf, and David Collins to get those minutes. Singh only had about 8-10 minutes against Quincy, so I would say Austin has his work cut out for him. The fact that they were considering a redshirt for Austin I think says a lot as to where his development is at right now.
Click to expand...

Based on the last pre-game comment by Jim Les, the 4 will primarly be Wilson Egolf, with the remaing bigs being the 5 (so at least Austin "only" has to fight with Salley, Collins and Singh) and I'm sure there will be some times where Salley may need to be a 4 if Bradley needs a bigger lineup.

Since JL mentioned that last year's exhibition games purposely downplayed the 3 ball (to suprose DePaul), will there be a suprise among the bigs this year?

Can a juco transfer redshirt (non-medical) now? Would a team really want to use a scholarship for an extra year when the PT is only 2 years? We got 3 years out of Sommerville, which I believe would be impossible due to a rules change.
 
Yes, a juco could redshirt now. I believe anyone can redshirt, as long as they haven't played in a game yet. The exception would be a player who has already used a redshirt year.
 
I think only a freshmen can play in exhibition games and still redshirt. I think that is what Rick Majerus was talking about earlier in the week when he was thinking about redshirting a sophomore.
 
Jim Les basically repeated in verbatim what I have been saying all along...the summer matters!

Good to hear that Austin is staying after practice to get caught up. Hopefully by year end he can contribute.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top