Yakwe Funk

[beast of the east]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

That was when height thing came out. Pete Vescey mentioned it in Hoop Du Jour and also that Pat Riley made some disparaging comments about his basketball IQ.
Big Glass fan. Dunked on Ralph Dalton's head and trashed talked the whole Gtown bench afterwards. When we beat Reggie Miller and UCLA he shut Miller down and trash talked him the whole game. Those two stand out becuase I happened to be at those games and had good seats as a kid and he was usually pretty quiet. Also best in game ST John's dunker I ever saw.

David Russell had some major dunks over his 4 years here also.

My favorite was Frank Gilroy driving baseline vs. Duke and reverse tomahawk in the Holiday Festival. I believe it was in the consolation game, and we sent Duke home with 2 losses.

 

[we are sju]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

That was when height thing came out. Pete Vescey mentioned it in Hoop Du Jour and also that Pat Riley made some disparaging comments about his basketball IQ.
Big Glass fan. Dunked on Ralph Dalton's head and trashed talked the whole Gtown bench afterwards. When we beat Reggie Miller and UCLA he shut Miller down and trash talked him the whole game. Those two stand out becuase I happened to be at those games and had good seats as a kid and he was usually pretty quiet. Also best in game ST John's dunker I ever saw.

David Russell had some major dunks over his 4 years here also.

My favorite was Frank Gilroy driving baseline vs. Duke and reverse tomahawk in the Holiday Festival. I believe it was in the consolation game, and we sent Duke home with 2 losses.

Didn't see Russell until his Junior year and I was a little kid but he would be number 2 on my list anyway.

 

[beast of the east]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

That was when height thing came out. Pete Vescey mentioned it in Hoop Du Jour and also that Pat Riley made some disparaging comments about his basketball IQ.
Big Glass fan. Dunked on Ralph Dalton's head and trashed talked the whole Gtown bench afterwards. When we beat Reggie Miller and UCLA he shut Miller down and trash talked him the whole game. Those two stand out becuase I happened to be at those games and had good seats as a kid and he was usually pretty quiet. Also best in game ST John's dunker I ever saw.

David Russell had some major dunks over his 4 years here also.

My favorite was Frank Gilroy driving baseline vs. Duke and reverse tomahawk in the Holiday Festival. I believe it was in the consolation game, and we sent Duke home with 2 losses.

Didn't see Russell until his Junior year and I was a little kid but he would be number 2 on my list anyway.

I wold have to say my favorite dunk was the Chris Mullin dunk on Syracuse his senior year when we blew out Syracuse from the opening tip. He rarely if ever dunked before and ahead of the field he bounced his last dribble so the ball ricocheted like an alley oop and then with one hand threw it down. Because it was unexpected from Mullin and because it was icing on the cake of a Syracuse humiliation on their own floor that had to be the best dunk by far.

 

[we are sju]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

That was when height thing came out. Pete Vescey mentioned it in Hoop Du Jour and also that Pat Riley made some disparaging comments about his basketball IQ.
Big Glass fan. Dunked on Ralph Dalton's head and trashed talked the whole Gtown bench afterwards. When we beat Reggie Miller and UCLA he shut Miller down and trash talked him the whole game. Those two stand out becuase I happened to be at those games and had good seats as a kid and he was usually pretty quiet. Also best in game ST John's dunker I ever saw.

David Russell had some major dunks over his 4 years here also.

My favorite was Frank Gilroy driving baseline vs. Duke and reverse tomahawk in the Holiday Festival. I believe it was in the consolation game, and we sent Duke home with 2 losses.

Didn't see Russell until his Junior year and I was a little kid but he would be number 2 on my list anyway.

I wold have to say my favorite dunk was the Chris Mullin dunk on Syracuse his senior year when we blew out Syracuse from the opening tip. He rarely if ever dunked before and ahead of the field he bounced his last dribble so the ball ricocheted like an alley oop and then with one hand threw it down. Because it was unexpected from Mullin and because it was icing on the cake of a Syracuse humiliation on their own floor that had to be the best dunk by far.

I was at the "Coming to America" Marist game at the Garden. Michael Porter dunked on Rik Smits. That gets my vote.

 

[beast of the east]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

That was when height thing came out. Pete Vescey mentioned it in Hoop Du Jour and also that Pat Riley made some disparaging comments about his basketball IQ.
Big Glass fan. Dunked on Ralph Dalton's head and trashed talked the whole Gtown bench afterwards. When we beat Reggie Miller and UCLA he shut Miller down and trash talked him the whole game. Those two stand out becuase I happened to be at those games and had good seats as a kid and he was usually pretty quiet. Also best in game ST John's dunker I ever saw.

David Russell had some major dunks over his 4 years here also.

My favorite was Frank Gilroy driving baseline vs. Duke and reverse tomahawk in the Holiday Festival. I believe it was in the consolation game, and we sent Duke home with 2 losses.

Didn't see Russell until his Junior year and I was a little kid but he would be number 2 on my list anyway.

I wold have to say my favorite dunk was the Chris Mullin dunk on Syracuse his senior year when we blew out Syracuse from the opening tip. He rarely if ever dunked before and ahead of the field he bounced his last dribble so the ball ricocheted like an alley oop and then with one hand threw it down. Because it was unexpected from Mullin and because it was icing on the cake of a Syracuse humiliation on their own floor that had to be the best dunk by far.

I was at the "Coming to America" Marist game at the Garden. Michael Porter dunked on Rik Smits. That gets my vote.

Last comment before a mod intercedes. Porter dunks were awesome because of 1) his size 2) the power of them 3) many were done in traffic Too bad we only had him one season.

 

[Knight]

I really liked Jordan's leap over- the-defender dunk!

 

[austour]

the hands are the biggest problem. For whatever reason our offense often runs through Owens or Yakwe at the top of the key or FT line/elbows. With the guys we've had including Sima, this has been problematic. McDermott in post game (compliment) called Sima's defection addition by subtraction and this is part of it. Owens hands have improved. Yakwe has not.

I've hated it from the start and then add in that we also get these same guys getting the ball out in the short corners where the options become dribbling or jump shot. The only times this has worked effectively is last night with Owens hitting I think 5 jumpshots from the short corners and during a couple of games where our passing was really good and we had them hitting cutters or kicking out for 3 pt shooters from the posts or FT line.

The skills here don't match our guys: Good hands, good handle. The one thing that I thought did work well with this offense, was the bigs diving from the FT line where all they gotta do is catch the ball and use their athleticism without any fancy post moves. But I think we've run that maybe three times all season with Yakwe. Despite last night I'm going to continue hating that shot from Owens I'd rather have some post presence and let our guards do the distance shooting. To his credit Owens has protected the ball pretty well and stopped doing that foot shuffle at the top of the key he was doing at the beginning of the season.

As I previously posted regarding Owens short jumpers I don't mind this shot at all. Take a good look at his squaring up and rotation on the jumper. At the same time he pulls the center away from the basket, thus opening some cuts to the basket.

I cringed when he took them. But, as long as they go in the basket he can take them all game long.

Maybe you should take note of the fact that his form is good, he's shooting 54% from the field and 74% from the FT line and not worry so much about it.

 

[Red.Fans]

the hands are the biggest problem. For whatever reason our offense often runs through Owens or Yakwe at the top of the key or FT line/elbows. With the guys we've had including Sima, this has been problematic. McDermott in post game (compliment) called Sima's defection addition by subtraction and this is part of it. Owens hands have improved. Yakwe has not.

I've hated it from the start and then add in that we also get these same guys getting the ball out in the short corners where the options become dribbling or jump shot. The only times this has worked effectively is last night with Owens hitting I think 5 jumpshots from the short corners and during a couple of games where our passing was really good and we had them hitting cutters or kicking out for 3 pt shooters from the posts or FT line.

The skills here don't match our guys: Good hands, good handle. The one thing that I thought did work well with this offense, was the bigs diving from the FT line where all they gotta do is catch the ball and use their athleticism without any fancy post moves. But I think we've run that maybe three times all season with Yakwe. Despite last night I'm going to continue hating that shot from Owens I'd rather have some post presence and let our guards do the distance shooting. To his credit Owens has protected the ball pretty well and stopped doing that foot shuffle at the top of the key he was doing at the beginning of the season.

As I previously posted regarding Owens short jumpers I don't mind this shot at all. Take a good look at his squaring up and rotation on the jumper. At the same time he pulls the center away from the basket, thus opening some cuts to the basket.

I cringed when he took them. But, as long as they go in the basket he can take them all game long.

Maybe you should take note of the fact that his form is good, he's shooting 54% from the field and 74% from the FT line and not worry so much about it.

Other than against Creighton. He's not shooting 54% from that spot. And where you in your role, shoot, matters. It affects your teammates and the opponent. For example you want your bigs drawing fouls to loosen up the interior and get defenders in foul trouble. Get them to the line and take advantage of that free shot. It is a 40 minute effort. Having your bigs non-existent inside makes it tougher on everyone else. Having them pop out and play small is at best diminishing returns - fool's gold.

Creighton, a well coached team knows all this and are willing give our 6'11 guy and the only guy with decent hands that shot all game because it is a losing strategy for us.

 

[austour]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

And once he got to camp someone on the Lakers was quoted as saying he had the worst fundamentals of anyone he'd ever seen in an NBA uniform or similar. Much of that was hidden playing on a team with future hall of famers and NCAA poys.

 

[austour]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

That was when height thing came out. Pete Vescey mentioned it in Hoop Du Jour and also that Pat Riley made some disparaging comments about his basketball IQ.
Big Glass fan. Dunked on Ralph Dalton's head and trashed talked the whole Gtown bench afterwards. When we beat Reggie Miller and UCLA he shut Miller down and trash talked him the whole game. Those two stand out becuase I happened to be at those games and had good seats as a kid and he was usually pretty quiet. Also best in game ST John's dunker I ever saw.

David Russell had some major dunks over his 4 years here also.

My favorite was Frank Gilroy driving baseline vs. Duke and reverse tomahawk in the Holiday Festival. I believe it was in the consolation game, and we sent Duke home with 2 losses.

Didn't see Russell until his Junior year and I was a little kid but he would be number 2 on my list anyway.

You know what was really fun? Watching Russell in HS dunk on my classmates on the floor I played on in gym class. LOL

We had exactly one kid on our team who played college ball, he went to Chaminade, and a bunch of slow undersized white guys. Good times.

 

[austour]

PS the Russell visits my last two years at HS were the only games you had to worry about getting a seat in our gym.

 

[we are sju]

PS the Russell visits my last two years at HS were the only games you had to worry about getting a seat in our gym.

Told this story before but a close family friend sat the bench for Louie's teams in the 70's. So he used to get tickets for us after he graduated and my father took me for the first time to see this freshman everyone was talking about Chris Mullin. Left old Alumni Hall with David Russell as my first favorite Johnnie.

 

[austour]

PS the Russell visits my last two years at HS were the only games you had to worry about getting a seat in our gym.

Told this story before but a close family friend sat the bench for Louie's teams in the 70's. So he used to get tickets for us after he graduated and my father took me for the first time to see this freshman everyone was talking about Chris Mullin. Left old Alumni Hall with David Russell as my first favorite Johnnie.

Probably the best basketball player Bellport HS ever produced.

Of course the town took a big hit after the Grucci explosion of '83.

 

[we are sju]

PS the Russell visits my last two years at HS were the only games you had to worry about getting a seat in our gym.

Told this story before but a close family friend sat the bench for Louie's teams in the 70's. So he used to get tickets for us after he graduated and my father took me for the first time to see this freshman everyone was talking about Chris Mullin. Left old Alumni Hall with David Russell as my first favorite Johnnie.

Probably the best basketball player Bellport HS ever produced.

Of course the town took a big hit after the Grucci explosion of '83.

1st in long line of Johnnies that a young WASJU was devastated that they didn't make the pros or have a good pro career.

 

[austour]

PS the Russell visits my last two years at HS were the only games you had to worry about getting a seat in our gym.

Told this story before but a close family friend sat the bench for Louie's teams in the 70's. So he used to get tickets for us after he graduated and my father took me for the first time to see this freshman everyone was talking about Chris Mullin. Left old Alumni Hall with David Russell as my first favorite Johnnie.

Probably the best basketball player Bellport HS ever produced.

Of course the town took a big hit after the Grucci explosion of '83.

1st in long line of Johnnies that a young WASJU was devastated that they didn't make the pros or have a good pro career.

Too young for Wayne McCoy I guess. He was mine. Ad a kid who grew up reading Newsday every day I thought McCoy and Russell's year together should have been extraordinary given all I'd read about both when they were in HS. Instead it was the only year Louie didn't make the dance between 76 and 88,.

 

[we are sju]

PS the Russell visits my last two years at HS were the only games you had to worry about getting a seat in our gym.

Told this story before but a close family friend sat the bench for Louie's teams in the 70's. So he used to get tickets for us after he graduated and my father took me for the first time to see this freshman everyone was talking about Chris Mullin. Left old Alumni Hall with David Russell as my first favorite Johnnie.

Probably the best basketball player Bellport HS ever produced.

Of course the town took a big hit after the Grucci explosion of '83.

1st in long line of Johnnies that a young WASJU was devastated that they didn't make the pros or have a good pro career.

Too young for Wayne McCoy I guess. He was mine. Ad a kid who grew up reading Newsday every day I thought McCoy and Russell's year together should have been extraordinary given all I'd read about both when they were in HS. Instead it was the only year Louie didn't make the dance between 76 and 88,.

Too young for McCoy but remember reading an old Sports Illustrated or maybe was Sport when I was in the dentist as a little kid where they thought he could have gone straight to the pros from HS and discussing what happened to him.
Don't remember why they said he never worked out.

 

[Section9]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

That was when height thing came out. Pete Vescey mentioned it in Hoop Du Jour and also that Pat Riley made some disparaging comments about his basketball IQ.
Big Glass fan. Dunked on Ralph Dalton's head and trashed talked the whole Gtown bench afterwards. When we beat Reggie Miller and UCLA he shut Miller down and trash talked him the whole game. Those two stand out becuase I happened to be at those games and had good seats as a kid and he was usually pretty quiet. Also best in game ST John's dunker I ever saw.

Riley said Glass was the least prepared college player he'd ever seen.

 

[we are sju]

Seeing how Willie Glass and David Russell have hijacked this Yakwe thread maybe we should change title to ST John's forwards who could really jump but were disappointing to various degrees.

 

[austour]

Hopefully he was better prepared for the online porn revolution and it's impact on his business.

 

[we are sju]

But I think with Yakwe most are just really surprised at how poorly he has played. That surprise has led to frustration than eventually anger. I do not think it is the double standard thing. It does exist but I don't think it is in play here.Personally I think people got carried away with expectations, but honestly he has been a disaster. The hands thing is the most baffling thing to me.

I'm surprised as well, I thought he'd be a stud. Even if he never developed an offensive game he had the athleticism to do what Willie Glass did. Lock down on defense and rebound and get garbage points. That he has not done which is the most puzzling thing of all, because that's just effort. You can't fault a kid who's been playing basketball for five years for having a suspect handle but you can question his interest and commitment if he looks like he's dogging it. Just because you're 6'7" and black doesn't mean you have to like basketball.

But there is a double standard, if there weren't there'd be six pages of posts saying what a great guy he is and another six pages saying how dare you. The fact is that there are legitimate reasons to criticize Yawke just as there are Missini. The double standard is in the reaction to to the critic and the criticism, not the substance of the criticism itself.

I think most on here liked Yakwe which has spared him until recently. If you look at it stat wise Mussini has played better than him this year and really took until recently for Yakwe to start to take some hits.

I agree I thought Willie Glass was the ground floor for him. I tried to temper my expectations but I def thought he could be Jerome Lane by his Senior year.
I not sure what is going on and I think people who try to dissect a guy's every facial expression are crazy, but he does look unhappy.

I do think that the expectations were unfair and unrealistic, I thought that going back to last year. He showed some flashes last year that he could become a very good player, but nothing close to consistent. Both Lane and Glass came to college with far more skills than Yakwe. Jerome was undersized, but strong as a bull and had an uncanny instincts around the basket. As for his facial expressions and body language, maybe he looks unhappy because of he's not happy with his play and the resulting reduction in PT. Maybe he'll stick around and work harder. Maybe Lovett looks happy because he's an upbeat kid. Maybe he'll still leave at the end of the year. We all tend to try and determine what's going on with these kids, as you said, when in fact myriad things could be going on that we have no clue about. Think we need to get a board member who's one of those facial expression/body language readers. Sta

As far as Lane and Glass. Glass came here with the same skill level he left with unfortunately. He jumped really high. Glass was one of my favorites but he was limited as well. And you can say he also played out of position because supposedly he measured out at 6-3 w/o sneakers.
I thought Lane was a good comparison because around same height and if you look at Lane's frosh season stats they are eerily similar to Yakwe.

If I'm not mistaken, Glass was a third round pick of the Lakers. He had a medium range game and one tough ballplayer. In the end a little undersized to play an NBA forward, but the main limiting factor was not enough range on his jumper or overall basketball skills to be an NBA player at his size. He was a very good college player for us though

That was when height thing came out. Pete Vescey mentioned it in Hoop Du Jour and also that Pat Riley made some disparaging comments about his basketball IQ.
Big Glass fan. Dunked on Ralph Dalton's head and trashed talked the whole Gtown bench afterwards. When we beat Reggie Miller and UCLA he shut Miller down and trash talked him the whole game. Those two stand out becuase I happened to be at those games and had good seats as a kid and he was usually pretty quiet. Also best in game ST John's dunker I ever saw.

Riley said Glass was the least prepared college player he'd ever seen.

I wanted that little part he had shaved in middle of his head but alas I just didn't think I could pull it off.