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Post by sdcoug on May 2, 2016 17:35:28 GMT -8
As much as I love the fact that this is picking up steam, they sent the letter to the wrong guy. Shultz doesn't start at WSU until June. Dr. Dan Bernardo is the acting president until then.
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Post by Gundo on May 2, 2016 19:41:13 GMT -8
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Post by AztecMyke on May 3, 2016 12:13:17 GMT -8
OK. So now it looks like this kid will be available. Checked out the stats. Is this really the best we can do? I punched holes in my walls the last 4 years watching Sky shoot FTs and never improve at anything. Only digressed in most areas. He seems exactly like him. Blocks are nice of course. Can't teach height or leaping ability. Foul trouble city too which is huge red flag. We don't even have a Big Man coach to help him. I mean, I see the upside of inside presence we are desperate for, but.............
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Post by sdcoug on May 3, 2016 13:38:57 GMT -8
OK. So now it looks like this kid will be available. Checked out the stats. Is this really the best we can do? I punched holes in my walls the last 4 years watching Sky shoot FTs and never improve at anything. Only digressed in most areas. He seems exactly like him. Blocks are nice of course. Can't teach height or leaping ability. Foul trouble city too which is huge red flag. We don't even have a Big Man coach to help him. I mean, I see the upside of inside presence we are desperate for, but............. Shelton, Hutson & Dutch are all very capable coaches when it comes to teaching posts IMO, so disagree with you there. We don't need a Patrick Ewing (or a Pete Newell-type) to say we have a "big man coach".
We're not looking for someone who can carry the inside scoring load, only someone who can defend opposing bigs, taking the pressure off our young guys - Narain, Z & McD. Izundu is a freak athlete, much more so than Sky. He won't put up big #'s, but he won't kill us either. He's raw, and far from a finished product, which is a good thing. With another year he may come into his own.
He's not a Plan A - get your starter long-term player, but he's definitely a rock solid Plan B guy. Nothing wrong with that. MANY programs would love to have him.
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Post by AztecMyke on May 3, 2016 14:58:20 GMT -8
Some fair points. Not sure why he did not get more "developmental" minutes from a 9-22 team losing it's last 17 games in a row. I am frustrated Sky was never taught at least one "go-to" move on the block. 4 freakin years! The switching of the dominant hands at the FT line and on the court was frustrating to watch and confused the heck out of him obviously. Often confidence busters.
If this guy can come in and say what you say he can do, then the hole would be mostly filled. I watched alot of Pac 12, but never Wazzu. I have a very low tolerance for big men losing the ball alot and not having softer hands like Sky and Chol. Drives me nuts.
I agree, the team we field next year is already better than this year's team. Talent and shooters all around. Gives me a sense of relief and anticipation. I want to run and gun, play frenetic D, hit tons of 3's, hit a much higher FT%, play guard-heavy smaller line-ups and wipe teams off the court at our pace!!! See Villanova etc.
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Post by sdcoug on May 3, 2016 16:01:44 GMT -8
Some fair points. Not sure why he did not get more "developmental" minutes from a 9-22 team losing it's last 17 games in a row. I am frustrated Sky was never taught at least one "go-to" move on the block. 4 freakin years! The switching of the dominant hands at the FT line and on the court was frustrating to watch and confused the heck out of him obviously. Often confidence busters. If this guy can come in and say what you say he can do, then the hole would be mostly filled. I watched alot of Pac 12, but never Wazzu. I have a very low tolerance for big men losing the ball alot and not having softer hands like Sky and Chol. Drives me nuts. I watched at least 20 of their games (alum), and the answer to that is easy. WSU needs a lot of things, including offense, as they really only had 2-3 good scorers on that team and 2-3 good defenders. None who are good at both. They had another big named Connor Clifford who has the "soft hands" you speak of & is actually excellent around the rim with the ball, so they needed him on the floor to give them a legit scoring threat. However, he STINKS on D, and hence whenever they played someone with a decent 5 on the floor Izundu would get the call. Whenever Josh/Ike/Q weren't on the floor then they had to play Clifford.
He also missed several games due to injury, and after that his minutes were less consistent. Plus, Kent stunk it up, and never came up with a rotation. Never. He'd start Izundu, then pull him after 2 minutes against Rabb & actually never put him back in the game, and would play another guy who rarely plays 20 minutes. Then switch back & play Izundu 20 minutes the next game, but not start him, and the other guy wouldn't see the floor. It was ridiculous.
Also, people underestimate his rebounding skills. He has a motor & is actually a pretty good rebounder. However, his teammate led the conference in rebounding the last 2 years & always tends to gravitate toward most the rebounds, the if Izundu had an equal chance at the ball most would defer, letting Josh get his double-doubles & lead the conference.
He does have a tendency towards foul trouble, but he also gets several of those trying to clean up other people's messes on the D-end. On SDSU he'd have significantly more help on the D'end, would face fewer elite centers, and would be much less likely to get in foul trouble (knock on wood).
Lastly, I do have to comment on what you said about Villanova. You do realize SDSU was a more uptempo basketball team offensively than Villanova, right? Neither play a "run and gun" or even "frenetic" game by any means, which goes to the point you don't have to in order to be successful. They definitely do pump up a LOT of 3's though. But they also had a 6'11 kid who was critical to their success by altering shots and crashing the boards. We need that as well.
"I want to run and gun, play frenetic D, hit tons of 3's, hit a much higher FT%, play guard-heavy smaller line-ups and wipe teams off the court at our pace!!! See Villanova etc."
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Post by AztecBill on May 3, 2016 16:04:35 GMT -8
He is a good option. We don't have anyone like him so he will be useful. We have 2 spots. Using one on him is a good idea.
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Post by standiego on May 3, 2016 19:36:42 GMT -8
Usually the coaches use transfers to fill the needs of our team . Glaring needs for the 2016 team after Skylar's graduation is some one who has experience at the 5 , especially against quality P5 opponents , plays D ,rebounds, plus having a 3.0 GPA does not hurt . Nolan is learning the 5 and is projected to be a very good offensive player , only the coaches know about his D or rebounding . Zylan would also be learning the 5 position . Jaylen has said he prefers to play the 4 and at 185 pounds needs to add to his frame . Our coaches usually hone in on 1 or 2 guys , we did not sign the high quality JC guy ( Ducks ). Believe Izundu was option B. Do not think we have had other guys lining up to come here that play the 5 . So IF and still IF he does come here it would be a good fit .
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Post by Gundo on May 5, 2016 2:01:45 GMT -8
Usually the coaches use transfers to fill the needs of our team . Glaring needs for the 2016 team after Skylar's graduation is some one who has experience at the 5 , especially against quality P5 opponents , plays D ,rebounds, plus having a 3.0 GPA does not hurt . Nolan is learning the 5 and is projected to be a very good offensive player , only the coaches know about his D or rebounding . Zylan would also be learning the 5 position . Jaylen has said he prefers to play the 4 and at 185 pounds needs to add to his frame . Our coaches usually hone in on 1 or 2 guys , we did not sign the high quality JC guy ( Ducks ). Believe Izundu was option B. Do not think we have had other guys lining up to come here that play the 5 . So IF and still IF he does come here it would be a good fit . We missed out on Bigby-Williams at U of O, but now he competes with play time with MJ Cage. Izundo is a better athlete then Spense and Chol, he just needs to stay healthy. IMO, Z, McD and Nolan are not true 5s. We need to have a rim protector if we play man to man every day. I am hoping that we get 20 minutes from Izundo and 20 from a combo of Z, Nolan and McD at the 5. Not sure if McD will,play or redshirt. At this point it looks like he may wear the shirt while he gains strength. lastly, we will have Malik as well. His D is getting better but I don't se him as a strong low post defender. He will block shots, and rebound, but still needs to strengthen to compleat his game.
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Post by jpaztec on May 5, 2016 7:27:02 GMT -8
Usually the coaches use transfers to fill the needs of our team . Glaring needs for the 2016 team after Skylar's graduation is some one who has experience at the 5 , especially against quality P5 opponents , plays D ,rebounds, plus having a 3.0 GPA does not hurt . Nolan is learning the 5 and is projected to be a very good offensive player , only the coaches know about his D or rebounding . Zylan would also be learning the 5 position . Jaylen has said he prefers to play the 4 and at 185 pounds needs to add to his frame . Our coaches usually hone in on 1 or 2 guys , we did not sign the high quality JC guy ( Ducks ). Believe Izundu was option B. Do not think we have had other guys lining up to come here that play the 5 . So IF and still IF he does come here it would be a good fit . We need the kid, all there is to it. "Learning" to play the 5 is still rather futile if you're a 6-8 forward like Zylan, or even worse a lean 6-8 forward like Jalen McDaniels. (And yes, they're listed as 6-9, but they're 6-8) The only guy who could play some 5 for us this year currently is Nolan, and even that wouldn't be the best way to utilize his impressive midrange game. Valentine is a bona fide big man, who belongs down near the basket, and he would greatly benefit us on defense and as a dump off option down low if he came.
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Post by untitled on May 5, 2016 7:44:57 GMT -8
two questions:
does he have hands of stone? does he have even 60% of Malcolm's post scoring in him?
if so my season expectations just went from six to midnight.
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Post by aztecindal on May 5, 2016 9:04:05 GMT -8
I doubt he has much offensive scoring moves. He is a defensive anchor... I would like to see JH create much more for others, especially the big man. He gets in the lane anytime he wants... If he can improve that area to add maybe 3-4 assist a game it would be wonderful. Izundu is more athletic than Spencer, I can see alot of dunks from ZH and him. Couple that with improved shooting from the outside.
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Post by sdmotohead on May 5, 2016 9:10:44 GMT -8
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Post by sdcoug on May 5, 2016 10:08:29 GMT -8
two questions: does he have hands of stone? does he have even 60% of Malcolm's post scoring in him? if so my season expectations just went from six to midnight. He's not Poeltl or Sabonis by any means, but he's not a stiff either. His "range" is still within 3 feet, but IMO he's much stronger to the hoop & more consistent with the ball than Sky. You're less likely to see point blank misses from him than you did from Sky, and I'd say with most of the shots he takes there's a legitimate chance they go in. Especially with another year to work on that.
He's not going to give you a 10 footer, or a fade-away 5 or 6 footer, but he's going to give you the 3 foot jump hooks more consistently, even if only 2-3 per game (which is all we'd need). He'll finish on the O-boards as well.
I've said this several times before, but picture Sky when he was having a game where he was angry & aggressive. That's what you'll get more out of with Valentine. On the flipside, he has great athleticism & a knack for the block, but he hasn't been coached on the D-side of the ball anywhere near the level Sky had been.
And he's not a good FT shooter by any means, but you also don't look at his shot & think it has no chance of going in, like we've seen at times with Sky. I think with Sky you'd see he was a 50% FT shooter & wonder how that many went in. With Valentine he may shoot 50-60% but you're more likely to wonder why it's not a little higher.
Maybe instead of six to midnight it's 11.
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Post by Ambivalent_Fan on May 5, 2016 15:04:27 GMT -8
The sooner he makes up his mind (wishfully choosing the Aztecs...only if the coaches and players actually want him)...the sooner he can start to get the coaching he seems to need...hopefully he won't drag this out until August...
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Post by aztecfankrishnan on May 5, 2016 18:06:18 GMT -8
Cons: 7. He is on lock-down by WSU 8. Might not ever play for SDSU 9. End of story... 10. Ooops...story continues. FIFY
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Post by sdcoug on May 5, 2016 18:27:43 GMT -8
The sooner he makes up his mind (wishfully choosing the Aztecs...only if the coaches and players actually want him)...the sooner he can start to get the coaching he seems to need...hopefully he won't drag this out until August... Coaches can't do much with them right now anyway, so not a big deal. Plus, couldn't come here until he enrolls unless he pays his rent, and that's assuming he's enrolling in summer session.
Unlike football, with hoops summer sessions aren't all that critical. They'll still have all of September & October, and most keep in pretty good shape over the summer. It would be nice for him to get to know his teammates sooner rather than later, but again, that can be done relatively quickly. Isn't there an early & late summer session? I'd hope he'd be here by the late session & enrolled in a class or two.
I hope it's resolved soon to the rest of the dominoes will fall. If Izundu goes elsewhere, the sooner we can act on Plan B (or C).
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Post by standiego on May 6, 2016 17:52:36 GMT -8
IF he chooses SDSU , first summer session begins May 23 and the second July 6 . Aztec D is sometimes a little complex so would help a new player to get involved during the summer .
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Post by AztecBill on May 6, 2016 23:36:14 GMT -8
IF he chooses SDSU , first summer session begins May 23 and the second July 6 . Aztec D is sometimes a little complex so would help a new player to get involved during the summer . Coming in early makes a big difference for new (and veteran) basketball players . Jalen McDaniels recently tweeted that he will be moving to San Diego July 6th. He is set for the summer session and a lot of time in the JAM Center. Coaches are strictly limited in the time they can spend with players, but working out with current players and having access to other physical training for 2 months will be huge.
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Post by dunksalot on May 7, 2016 9:07:28 GMT -8
It was never more apparent than during the NIT that when Skyler went out we looked soft inside. When he came in teams stopped attacking our rim. So adding Izundu is so much more important than the scoring shows. Plus, our offense will be much, much better next season.
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