Kwesi Abaka

[97spiderfan]

Again, my main takeaway is that the majority of the posters aren't letting Mooney get away with these type of garbage signings (for the record, Kweisi is a wonderful person/human being, just not a good D-1 basketball player though) that aren't going to help our program. If myself as a fan, can say this guy is not going to make an impact before he even sets foot on the court, how can our highly compensated coaching staff not see this as well.

 

[spiderman]

odds are they did. but in June after missing on top options, they needed a body.

 

[97spiderfan]

odds are they did. but in June after missing on top options, they needed a body.

No matter what happened, no question that the failure rests with our coaching staff and their inability to either identify the right talent or land the right talent.

I think it is more of the latter but have also seen some of the former. It has been a lethal combination for our program though.

 

[spiderman]

I don't want to stick my neck out too far and have someone quote me a year from now, but I like our freshman class. all but Sal were under the radar, but I like the talent and athleticism I see in the tapes. I'll stay non-committal on Grace for now. haven't seen enough. but I believe Gustavson, Wojcik, Verbinskis and Scheider can all play. and obviously Sal.

 

[97spiderfan]

I don't want to stick my neck out too far and have someone quote me a year from now, but I like our freshman class. all but Sal were under the radar, but I like the talent and athleticism I see in the tapes. I'll stay non-committal on Grace for now. haven't seen enough. but I believe Gustavson, Wojcik, Verbinskis and Scheider can all play. and obviously Sal.

Well that never stopped me. Grace: He will redshirt this year and most likely transfer down next year or if he does stay is going to be a guy who sees the court with the regularity and impact of Friendshuh. Don't feel I'm sticking my neck out saying that at all saying that either. I feel a pretty high degree of confidence in saying that.

If I'm wrong next year, feel free to bring this back up and roast me.

 

[spiderman]

I don't think we redshirt Grace. doesn't matter how good he is. one rolled ankle by Grant or Nathan and he's needed. Sal isn't a 5.

 

[9Legs]

I don't want to stick my neck out too far and have someone quote me a year from now, but I like our freshman class. all but Sal were under the radar, but I like the talent and athleticism I see in the tapes. I'll stay non-committal on Grace for now. haven't seen enough. but I believe Gustavson, Wojcik, Verbinskis and Scheider can all play. and obviously Sal.

Some on the board use to taut our staff's ability to find "diamonds in the rough". How many of these would you say qualify for that "status"?

 

[spiderman]

well none were highly recruited or ranked, I don't think. so if they end up as solid as I think they can be in time, then they all qualify. Gustavson's highlights are nice.

that said ... they can't all show this year. it'll be competitive to see who emerges early.

 

[LongTimeLurkerFirstTimePoster]

still talking about kwasi.......must be running out of stuff to talk about.

He was going to be 3rd string until GG went down....now i will predict the next comment..."what about our depth at center". Please check the rosters and find a decent 3rd string center that Dick tarrant ever had.

 

[MrTbone]

I don't think we redshirt Grace. doesn't matter how good he is. one rolled ankle by Grant or Nathan and he's needed. Sal isn't a 5.

I expect grace will sit in uniform but only play if we get somewhat desperate. It feels like a Verbinskis scenario.

I agree we don’t really have a backup center so that increases his chances of playing but if he’s not at all ready we will play the “positionless” lineup I suspect.

 

[SpiderDaMan]

How is this positive? Guy brings nothing but a warm large body. Proven commodity.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

The other question that comes up, is do we recruit the position or the next
best player available? I think Nova recruits best players available since they
are never real big, but look at their success with their recruiting method.

Please let's stop talking about Kwesi and let his contribution to UR Basketball
be forever etched into the thimbles found in the sewing room in North Court.

 

[MrTbone]

I don’t think we follow either approach, at least philosophically. It seems somewhat that we recruit for position otherwise we wouldn’t have ended up with guys like Kwesi or JMA but that feels like the result of missing out on guys we would have preferred to have, often at different sizes/positions/roles.

 

[97spiderfan]

Our recruiting strategy at this point is to offer a bunch of nice players who could help our program, get turned by those nice players and then we turn to our back-up offers, most of whom turn us down, and then we cast an even wider net and end up with whomever signs on. Our strategy might be sound but our execution of said strategy is horrendous.

Think of all of the 2018 players we discussed and then we end up signing 3 guys in a span of a few weeks late that none of us have ever heard of and weren't on anyone's recruiting radar. But hey there highlight reels look good. Remember that one video of AJ Ford dribbling and shooting, man he looked like a budding star in that one.

 

[SpiderGuy]

Thanks for posting this Mo. Reading back through that thread which was just 2 years ago, I am impressed as to how many of our fans have become much more critical or discerning of Mooney and his recruiting since that time.

It was a d*mn love fest by most of you all for a guy who averaged a 1.5 points at Northeastern.

To get excited about a 1.5 scorer defies reality. Maybe they were incorrectly reading that he averaged 15 points at Northeastern?