commadore wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 9:24 pm
Will Perdue's freshman stats were no better.
Will Perdue's freshman stats were in the SEC. And he was playing as a backup on a team with some pretty good SEC big men (Olympian Jeff Turner, Brett Burrow, and fellow freshman Steve Reece), so he was only getting 5-6 minutes per game. Also, he was a legit 7'0" with absolutely ginormous hands. So it's not really a fair comparison.
All that said, I'd be happy to welcome Isaac Jack as a Commodore, if he chooses us. We have had some previous good luck with Buffalo big men transferring in. Of course it would help if we had Ed Martin around to work with him, like Will Perdue did. (With all due respect to our current wonderful coaching staff, Ed was an absolute legend: https://vucommodores.com/ed-martin/)
I just looked him up again yesterday out of curiosity. Shame, because he visited.
VU desperately needs to close the deal on a big man or two in the portal.
dore74 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 3:41 pm
So hard to know whether we or he lost interest. Given Stack’s hot acquisition week suspect it may have been us—but we’ll never know.
I would suspect that one has nothing to do with the other, given that the players we've added were at completely different positions and center remains a position of strong need for us. That is not to say that we didn't lose interest in Jack, but it feels unlikely that we would stop going after someone we wanted at center because we grabbed three wing players.
I don't feel that this was that big of a loss in terms of there being better players available on the portal, and that Jack just didn't have a particularly high ceiling. I'd have rather had QMB back for next season than Jack.
dore74 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 3:41 pm
So hard to know whether we or he lost interest. Given Stack’s hot acquisition week suspect it may have been us—but we’ll never know.
I would suspect that one has nothing to do with the other, given that the players we've added were at completely different positions and center remains a position of strong need for us. That is not to say that we didn't lose interest in Jack, but it feels unlikely that we would stop going after someone we wanted at center because we grabbed three wing players.
I don't feel that this was that big of a loss in terms of there being better players available on the portal, and that Jack just didn't have a particularly high ceiling. I'd have rather had QMB back for next season than Jack.
I would describe Jack's ceiling as a mystery because he does have athletic talent but didn't play against decent competition until last year and when he went up against a 250 pounder like Dwight Wilson, got completely "misused" by him as the kids on the playground used to say in the 1970's.
On the other hand, Wilson had 21 vs Hunter Dickinson in a game at Michigan last season. Maybe that was an unfair way to gauge Jack.
dore74 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 3:41 pm
So hard to know whether we or he lost interest. Given Stack’s hot acquisition week suspect it may have been us—but we’ll never know.
I would suspect that one has nothing to do with the other, given that the players we've added were at completely different positions and center remains a position of strong need for us. That is not to say that we didn't lose interest in Jack, but it feels unlikely that we would stop going after someone we wanted at center because we grabbed three wing players.
I don't feel that this was that big of a loss in terms of there being better players available on the portal, and that Jack just didn't have a particularly high ceiling. I'd have rather had QMB back for next season than Jack.
I would describe Jack's ceiling as a mystery because he does have athletic talent but didn't play against decent competition until last year and when he went up against a 250 pounder like Dwight Wilson, got completely "misused" by him as the kids on the playground used to say in the 1970's.
On the other hand, Wilson had 21 vs Hunter Dickinson in a game at Michigan last season. Maybe that was an unfair way to gauge Jack.
I mean, his numbers as a freshmen (adjusted for playing time) were worse than QMB's were as a true freshman at Rice. The difference isn't massive, but QMB has the advantage in involvement in the offense (shot percentage), rebounding rate, assist rate, TO rate, block percentage, foul rate (for and against) and FT rate. Jack shot the ball a little better from the floor and from the line, but that was probably due to his taking fewer attempts and being even more selective than QMB was as a freshman. Note that QMB scored in double figures 11 times as a true freshman at Rice, and went for 8 or more rebounds 10 times. Even with those numbers he really struggled as a sophomore at VU, because of the jump to the SEC is no joke for a player who lacks a ton of athleticism.
And as you note that Jack isn't even as tall as QMB is, making it difficult to imagine that his ceiling goes much higher than QMB. I guess it is possible, but it seems unlikely that Jack was being held back as Buffalo started a 6'-9" 200 lb center ahead of Jack. High ceiling guys tend to find playing time on bad teams without much depth at their position. We aren't getting him anyway, but I think that dore74's theory that we weren't showing super strong interest could have something to do with his going elsewhere. I think CJS can recruit better players. He's proven that before and I think he will continue to do so. Jack was not on the level of Taylor, who seems like a guy who will have a big impact next season, similar to a player like Manjon or Robbins. CJS has moved forward from the DJ Harvey and Terren Frank types and has brought in much better players through the portal in the past two seasons. If he does it one more time with a good post, we are likely to make our first tournament since 2017.
Of course it would help if we had Ed Martin around to work with him, like Will Perdue did. (With all due respect to our current wonderful coaching staff, Ed was an absolute legend: https://vucommodores.com/ed-martin/)
