Yakwe Funk

[Class of 72]

I don't know whether he is in a funk or the competition has caught up with him.  Last year he was an unknown kid.  This year every team knows his limitations.  By the look on his face, I think he has become frustrated much the same way as Sima.  Neither kid would have had critical roles on any other balanced college team.  They got a taste  of the minutes and wanted more despite their lack of skills and experience.  Diallo from Our Savior was content to come off the bench at Kansas.  Sima and Yakwe do not appear to possess that patience. 
Whereas Diallo was naturally gifted Yakwe is not.  Just being athletic is not enough.  His positioning and footwork are still at a developmental high school level.  As has been mentioned, his hands are unsteady in pass situations.
These are all nuances that need to be learned, practiced and put to the test.  He has failed that test in most game situations but needs to stay focused and work with the other players and staff to elevate his game.
His personality may not be suited to do that as was the case with Yankuba Sima who seem to pay more attention to their handlers than to their coaches.

 

[beast of the east]

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.

Wayne McKoy's exploits in youth leagues were written about constantly in the Long Island Press when he played for Elmcor. I think he was 6'7 as a 7th grader and never grew.

 

[Ray Morgan]

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.

Wayne McKoy's exploits in youth leagues were written about constantly in the Long Island Press when he played for Elmcor. I think he was 6'7 as a 7th grader and never grew.

Mckoy didn't work out because he peaked in high school. Grew to 6'8 as a hs senior and stayed there. As Street and Smith's said: "the body of a Cadillac and the heart of a Volkswagon. The opposite of Yakwe, I hope-came to SJU with skills, and left with the same skills. Yakwe came without them. Hope he doesn't leave the same way.

 

[ipd200]

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.

I have no idea if this is Michael Porter's kid, but this is a helluva dunk by Michael Porter Jr. .

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/12...hael-porter-dunks-from-free-throw-line-video/

 

[austour]

He is not. His dad is an assistant to Romar at Washington. Played at U New Orleans.

 

[paultzman]

He is not. His dad is an assistant to Romar at Washington. Played at U New Orleans.

Porter is from MoKan AAU program, same as USF transfer McMurray, Marvin Clark & recruiting target Derrick Walker btw.

 

[monte]

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.

Wayne McKoy's exploits in youth leagues were written about constantly in the Long Island Press when he played for Elmcor. I think he was 6'7 as a 7th grader and never grew.

Mckoy didn't work out because he peaked in high school. Grew to 6'8 as a hs senior and stayed there. As Street and Smith's said: "the body of a Cadillac and the heart of a Volkswagon. The opposite of Yakwe, I hope-came to SJU with skills, and left with the same skills. Yakwe came without them. Hope he doesn't leave the same way.

Think he was 6'8" as a HS freshman, and never grew. While expectations were very high when he first arrived, within a short period of time I guess you could say that we got to see the real McCoy

 

[austour]

Yeah, he averaged 14 and 7 his last 3 years but never made it to stardom, just a serviceable undersized big. Kind of mirrored Werdann's progression without quite as much height for younger fans. And for folks who want to say McKoy's expectations were higher, remember Werdann was a McD AA.

 

[paultzman]

Zach B
Kassoum Yakwe's sophomore slump continues: 0 points, 2 rebounds, 3 fouls, 2 blocks. Big-time regression. #sjubb

 

[RedStormNC]

Yakwe will never be what most hope he can turn into.

If he's OK w/ 5 minutes per game next year, great...otherwise maybe best that he should figure out where to find his game somewhere else....

 

[HowCouldUBeSoHarkless]

Honestly speechless at how bad he's been.

 

[RedStormNC]

For his sake, I hope his excuse is that he's too tired studying... because at the rate he's going, he's got a better chance for a career on Wall Street than NBA or even Europe... Same holds true for a lot of guys on this team.

Man up boys..... drop your skirts and start playing basketball !!!!!

 

[bamafan]

Yeah, he averaged 14 and 7 his last 3 years but never made it to stardom, just a serviceable undersized big. Kind of mirrored Werdann's progression without quite as much height for younger fans. And for folks who want to say McKoy's expectations were higher, remember Werdann was a McD AA.

But no on ever told Lew Alcindor to enjoy his time in the NBA because Werdann a high school player was on his way like Bill Mazer said about McKoy.

 

[GardenCity62]

Werdann was a top recruit but McKoy was considered the best NYC player since Alcindor. Entering his high school junior year Street and Smith rated him the top player in the country. He was 6ft 8in and 240 lbs. By his senior year at SJU he was still 6ft 8in and probably about 30 lbs. heavier which only slowed him down.

 

[RedmanMike]

Yakwe's hands are terrible. He cannot catch or handle the ball at this point. After last year, I honestly thought we'd get Anthony Glover-type production out of him - maybe 11-12 ppg and 6-7 rpg. That's a pipe dream. He's probably better suited to spot duty when the other bigs are in foul trouble. Too bad - we could use a real power forward.

 

[red0356]

1 rebound

 

[paultzman]

1 rebound

Waiver wire

 

[McGarry2]

Werdann was a top recruit but McKoy was considered the best NYC player since Alcindor. Entering his high school junior year Street and Smith rated him the top player in the country. He was 6ft 8in and 240 lbs. By his senior year at SJU he was still 6ft 8in and probably about 30 lbs. heavier which only slowed him down.

Street and Smith in his freshman year in their recap of the Redmen raved about the two guards transfers( Carter & Rencher ) then proceeded to state McKoy was the prize recruit

 

[L J S A]

1 rebound

Waiver wire

I think we lose three guys, so hopefully Matt has something up his sleeve . . . not that it will take much to replace what Yakwe has done so far.

 

[beast of the east]

Werdann was a top recruit but McKoy was considered the best NYC player since Alcindor. Entering his high school junior year Street and Smith rated him the top player in the country. He was 6ft 8in and 240 lbs. By his senior year at SJU he was still 6ft 8in and probably about 30 lbs. heavier which only slowed him down.

Street and Smith in his freshman vyear in their recap of the Redmen raved about the two guards transfers( Carter & Rencher ) then proceeded to state McKoy was the prize recruit

Goodenough for Willis Reed to be brought in to coach him, or at least that was the optic.