+1
His overall defensive metrics based on opposing team performance and Illinois performance with and without him on the court suggest he's a Top 50 defensive player in the nation. Opponent's gameplans changed dramatically when he was on the court, and he is indeed a player that can absolute disrupt an entire team's offense. His size and length forces teams to either try bringing it into the paint and fear getting blocked or try to shoot over him from the outside with low percentage rainbows. There were relatively few teams and players unaffected by him last year.
He is indeed no doubt a phenomenal backup center to the point that I'd think he'd be starting for most P4 schools. He is indeed inconsistent and he was not able to put the strength on his frame he needed to to reach his extraordinarily high ceiling. But yeah, you're not going to find a better backup pretty much anywhere.
As for some posters concerns about his play this preseason, they do realize this is preseason, right? I want to say he's done this almost every preseason- go through the motions, get whatever fanbase in a tizzy. I think of all players on the team he cares the absolute least about preseason ball.