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Big Men

tornado

tornado

New member
here's an interview that might shed some light on the recruitment of big men...

nobody in the BIG TEN needs a BIG MAN more than Tom Crean at Indiana...
he's offered and landed TWO 7-footers in the past 2 years, but despite both being built like prize fighters,
they are also both quite useless and inept, neither (Tijan Jobe, Bawa Muniru) being able to even crack the lineup for more than a minute here and there.
Muniru was even quite highly rated, a 6th year prep schooler - who was rated a Top 100 prospect!!

BUT here's what Tom Crean says in answer to question why he can't get a servicable big man!!
"..Crean was asked about recruiting more big men...
...a caller saying something along the lines of “I think the future of the IU
basketball program is going to be built on aircraft carriers, what’s your
comment on that?”

Crean responded that he certainly wanted to find more big men, but told the
caller that there aren’t a lot of “aircraft carrier” types around the country
and there aren’t any coming “on the horizon.”

(instead) He said that programs are built on “multi-checkmark guys,” who can
do a lot of things like shoot, pass and get the ball in the lane."


So if a Big Ten program can't find a big guy any better than those two guys who'd also have never been able to even get off the bench at the mid-major level...then it's not likely we're anywhere near the threashold of landing a big time contributor.
 
Then perhaps we should just give up, as I have said time and again. Sadly as it is to say to some, Tom Crean's definition of quality big men is likely more different than our is.

All I know is that ISU has found a way to find some over the years, and they're just a half hour down the road. I'm not asking for a Patrick O'Bryant in every class, but someone who can at least defend and rebound. I mean jeez, it has gotten to the point where I would take Matt Salley playing the 4 spot in a heartbeat (knocking TB to the 3), and he wasn't even that good.
 
Here is an example of how hard it is to find good big men.
Seton Hall of the Big East should be able to land 4 or 5-star big men, right? At least solid 3-star big men?
Seton Hall is a team that is starving for quality big men, and they are an undersized team compared to most of the other Big East teams. But until today, the only comittments they had gotten for 2010 were a couple guards, and a 6'5" forward.
http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?Year=2010&Sport=2&School=68

Today, they just announced a verbal commitment from a 6'6" center/PF who is rated by Scout.com as a 1-star recruit--
http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=4801807

Rivals does not even rate him.
 
Their desperation for a big man is why they're so willing to take chances on guys like Bawa, Jobe, and even John Riek, etc....
 
Well, with less and less to choose from, it sounds like this is going to be a matter of development. Maybe it would be easier to focus on finding a coach who can develop mediocre big men than the other way around...
 
ImAStowellMan said:
Well, with less and less to choose from, it sounds like this is going to be a matter of development. Maybe it would be easier to focus on finding a coach who can develop mediocre big men than the other way around...
Click to expand...

I was always told by coaches at every level "You can't teach size". So I am more of the ilk of recruiting the size and turning them into players as opposed to going for the finished product. Big men seem to take longer anyways, and apparently no one can find them. I think we have kind of tried to get the size, we just haven't done a great job of developing it. My concern comes from us seemingly pursuing many more players of the small variety than the big variety.
 
BradleyBrave said:
I was always told by coaches at every level "You can't teach size". So I am more of the ilk of recruiting the size and turning them into players as opposed to going for the finished product. Big men seem to take longer anyways, and apparently no one can find them. I think we have kind of tried to get the size, we just haven't done a great job of developing it. My concern comes from us seemingly pursuing many more players of the small variety than the big variety.
Click to expand...

That's what I was getting at BB. Obviously kids aren't going to be getting any smaller over the coming years. It's just going to be up to someone to turn them from mediocre nobodys into "overlooked stars." Much easier said than done, I'm sure, but what other options are there?
 
A6-8 or 6-9 250 lb. guy that is physical is what we need, we need one that can come off the bench and contribute as far as defending, rebounding and able to score, Egolf is getting better and Brown has also been great but we lack inside depth and with some decent help off the bench we would be hard to beat.
 
I have been thinking for a couple years that we just need someone with the skills of Matt Salley. I had some problems with his play, but I think we lack the defense and steady rebounding he had. I'd love to have someone who could score more. I would take just adequete though.
 
I think the key to Bradley's post game is to develop guys with size as it has been in the past. Think back to the days when Molinari was the coach. Guys like Adebayo Akinkule and Aba Koita were projects when they showed up on campus. By their senior years they were formidable big men for the Valley. That's why it concerns me that there is not an assistant on staff that has enough experience developing the bigs. Even O'Bryant was raw when he showed up on campus. At that time Al B was the Bigs coach and he turned into a great player. I think that is definitely something that needs to be addressed in the offseason. I would love to see Anthony Thompson have a great junior and senior season but he needs instruction that helps him elevate his game to that next level.
 
buballer82 said:
i think the key to bradley's post game is to develop guys with size as it has been in the past. Think back to the days when molinari was the coach. Guys like adebayo akinkule and aba koita were projects when they showed up on campus. By their senior years they were formidable big men for the valley. That's why it concerns me that there is not an assistant on staff that has enough experience developing the bigs. Even o'bryant was raw when he showed up on campus. At that time al b was the bigs coach and he turned into a great player. i think that is definitely something that needs to be addressed in the offseason. i would love to see anthony thompson have a great junior and senior season but he needs instruction that helps him elevate his game to that next level.
Click to expand...

Agreed!
 
There is a guy close to the BU program that was great at developing big men. We just need him to come out of retirement for a bit. You wonder if JL has even asked him (Coach Stowell) for some help in developing the bigs on the team. If he hasn't asked then he should.
 
I like Carmichael...should we offer him and see if he wants to come to BU??

but the quote above by Tom Crean at least suggests there really aren't too many top big men floating around out there waiting for an offer...
My guess is that our staff is doing as much as any other staff and if there is one who'll come to BU, we would probably offer...
 
RedSoxDSM said:
There is a guy close to the BU program that was great at developing big men. We just need him to come out of retirement for a bit. You wonder if JL has even asked him (Coach Stowell) for some help in developing the bigs on the team. If he hasn't asked then he should.
Click to expand...

Seems like they keep pushing Coach Stowell farther away from the program. He is the only one on the radio broadcasts that calls it straight.

They don't even let him ask Coach Les questions after the games most of the time.
 
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