skyIdub
Illini Basketball 2019-2020
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Listen, we are all upset about the Samba situation and yelling at us doesn't help.
MB33, i agree, thought Samba should have played more last year.
DeLaRosa was a one year player. He had a physical presence and experience that Samba lacked. Samba appears to have upside. It is too bad he’s decided to leave.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Ya think? Would be a monumental coup, especially after his Peach Jam performance. Plus, would restore our Canadian pipeline.
Don't forget, Underwood needed to win in order to show and get recruits. It's not like the football program where you can dismantle and still tell a story of rebuilding from the ground up. That won't work in MBB where you really only need a few key players that make a difference and you can be in the NCAA tourney. So I don't fault BU for going with a more experienced route. Even then, DeLaRosa didn't see THAT much playing time as BU went small most of the time. So Samba not even seeing the floor at times I think is evidence of where he was at from a development standpoint. I think he was poised to make strides, but I think with seeing how different Kofi is and perhaps the disparity between his skills and Kofi's, he probably projected a very similar pathway where if Kofi isn't in the line-up, Brad will likely go to a small line-up vs. bring Samba in to play and projected to have a very similar season, play time-wise.
I wish Samba all the best, but he was probably a good year or two away from somewhat being a contributor and likely needing a red-shirt year to make an impact his senior year. Not an attractive route if I'm a young player IMO.
Wait, you're saying its not producing? The whole reason I'm on IL is for the Canadian Pipeline.
IbleedOandB2014
In BU we trust
- Chattanooga
Are we going to get some good news today about Tillman?
If Samba is our worst loss in the next 12 months, i can live with that
Everyone expected ADR to play, but between his injury and the way the season went, it looked really bad IMO that Samba stayed on the bench. I don't recall agreeing with his lack of opportunities at the time (playing Adonis consistently over Samba), so I checked the game logs after our 0-6 start in the BIG, when an at-large was no longer possible.
ADR: All 13 games, just under 10 min/game avg
SK: 11 TOTAL minutes.
I don't care if you're not the best option on paper: unless you have bad habits in practice and need to sit, you've got to get buy-in with the player on how they get their PT, so they're not feeling mistreated when they're on the bench. Young guys need some encouragement, so FIND A WAY to make them feel like they're developing, and make them hungry to get that next call. It keeps their head in the game, it keeps them focused on the things they need to do, and it builds resistance to feeling like they need to move on to get minutes.
My sense from far away (and I admit I can't possibly know a tenth of what BU knows) is that BU is such a "win now" guy that he misses some of the subtle signs of keeping guys on the same page and happy enough to stick with his hard-nosed approach. But having watched college ball for a long time, I've admired coaches who are both insanely focused, but also give players enough rope to hang themselves in games if they can't cut it quite yet. If a player struggles in game setting, then the coach has great ammunition when telling a player they need more work before they get more minutes. You avoid the uncomfortable disconnect between the player expecting minutes they don't deserve and make them commit to their end of things before their next stretch.
Again, I don't know enough to say it with confidence, but my 2 cents from all the previous defections as well as seeing the way guys are developed, is that BU doesn't know how to walk that line yet. If true, they shouldn't wonder why they lost him, they should look in the mirror and ask how they get better. BU might value "culture" so highly that he's willing to lose a few guys to high expectations....But we're already past "a few guys" --maybe it's time to think about how they manage those relationships to get higher buy-in, and more opportunities.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Generally, some good points. WRT Kane, I think his decision was based on projecting a low mpg future, rather than how his freshman year transpired.
IMO, I wouldn't make too much of this...Samba is the only player we lost this year & someone is always going to be on the end of the bench... add he missed the summer, some rumored college adjustment issues, he was obviously behind, and throw in the limited playing time - you can see why he wasn't ready & how he could be disappointed with the season. If you look at last year's departures, Mark Smith, EBO, Black, Finke all played and had a chance to play this year, different situations. ...the only one who you could throw into the category of not playing & not seeing the future was Matic, could this have helped maybe,...but this hasn't been the issue with the bulk of the transfers.
Don’t tempt fate!
Heard he is waiting on his pending waiver before his making announcement publicly.
I have no information but I suspect that Samba was required to spend most of his available free time coping with his studies, rather than in the gym. Maybe I wasn't looking, but during media interviews in the shoot arounds I don't recall seeing much of him. Since he missed the summer, and assuming he could not put in a lot of extra time to catch and keep up, it would not be surprising for BU to play the guy (DLR) that is putting in the work. There is only so much time to spread around. And if you all don't recall DLR played a rather pivotal role in the MSU win, which might explain why he got most of the time in the last 12 games of the conference season.
A lot goes into the calculation of who gets playing time, and no casual fan has the info to understand that decision. Calvin, I really don't think that BU is such a "win now" guy that he does not understand the need or the way to keep bench players happy. He has been around the game long enough to understand that dynamic as well as anyone. The most likely answer is that Samba didn't earn the time. It is obvious that BU does make some calculus on rewarding players as he gave Samba a lot of tick in the UNLV game in which IIRC Samba had a friend playing against us, in addition to giving AG time when his father was there to see the game.
There is another calculation in that DLR only had one year of eligibility. He transferred here to get some playing time. BU may want potential grad transfers to know that they are going to get some real playing time if they chose UI for their final year, and not just be shuttled to the end of the bench so a young player that hasn't really earned the time can get experience.
Wins were tough to come by last year. Had BU taken the approach of giving playing time to the players of the future as advocated by quite a few on here, the 0-6 start would have turned into about a 2 win total at the end. I am very much OK will BU trying to get every win he can and turning what could have been a devastatingly bad season (with a bunch of players leaving) to a bad one with promise for the future (with players buying in).
A lot goes into the calculation of who gets playing time, and no casual fan has the info to understand that decision. Calvin, I really don't think that BU is such a "win now" guy that he does not understand the need or the way to keep bench players happy. He has been around the game long enough to understand that dynamic as well as anyone. The most likely answer is that Samba didn't earn the time. It is obvious that BU does make some calculus on rewarding players as he gave Samba a lot of tick in the UNLV game in which IIRC Samba had a friend playing against us, in addition to giving AG time when his father was there to see the game.
There is another calculation in that DLR only had one year of eligibility. He transferred here to get some playing time. BU may want potential grad transfers to know that they are going to get some real playing time if they chose UI for their final year, and not just be shuttled to the end of the bench so a young player that hasn't really earned the time can get experience.
Wins were tough to come by last year. Had BU taken the approach of giving playing time to the players of the future as advocated by quite a few on here, the 0-6 start would have turned into about a 2 win total at the end. I am very much OK will BU trying to get every win he can and turning what could have been a devastatingly bad season (with a bunch of players leaving) to a bad one with promise for the future (with players buying in).
3 point girl
- texas
Andy Katz from NCCAA.com just listed his top 25 college basketball players for the 2019-20 season. Ayo is number 22.
The only guy we lost that was a bit disappointing was Smith. Transfers are all the rage in the NCAA, so not surprising to me.
Finke? Leron (kinda)? JCL (has been injured)?
I agree, that transfers are now a part of NCAA basketball. If we're churning the end of bench because guys who won't significantly play here want to play more elsewhere, then I have no problem with that. I'll be concerned if we end up graduating players to better programs, and become a stepping stone similar to what happened to Rutgers with whatever his name is.
We had a number of transfers at the transition between staffs. I hope that's the end of our starting lineup transferring.
Ebo and Finke had a more negative affect IMO because we needed size. If Kane is transferring because he won't get playing time then it probably isn't a loss as the opportunity is certainly there, if he has developed. We need some depth of big players. What happens if Giorgi gets hurt?
Deleted member 29907
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agree - however I think the other issue that gets lost was Samba's thin frame. He could not have played for any length of time against the larger / stronger bigs in the B1G. UNLV had more runners than bangers which allowed him some time. Against most other teams - we were undersized in length and girth anyway and SK did not help solve that issue so you had to use DLR to push opponents out of the lane.
While that may be true, don't you think he'd project more minutes and be more optimistic if BU gave his high-potential bench more opportunities? The message I see is that he's not going to find a chance to put you in until you're "ready" even when we're 5-14.
You'd think they could come up with a couple plays he could run even if he was struggling with understanding the offense before taking him back out.
This is a meritocracy, Calvin. We aren't giving out participation medals to these guys. I imagine he could get lots of PT at ISU, SIU, etc.
I'm not counting Black in that comment, he graduated and went on to pro ball. That's an entirely different situation, he didn't transfer.
Guys have to be willing to be depth. What is it you want to do, give them a stern talking to and tell them to stay? Guys see the writing on the wall and want to play. Hard to blame them. If one of the bigs gets hurt we have to play Tevian, Verdonk, Kouma at the 4.
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