Pastner wanting ugag transfer

MtnWasp

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Didenko looks way too heavy legged to guard on the wing. He is not tall and not a leaper but has some thickness.

I thought we might have wanted to develop him as a thick/strong kid who would bang in the middle on defense but mostly be used to draw a post defender out of the paint on the offensive end with his shooting range. But then I heard Pastner talk about Didenko in the pre-season like he was a "3 & D" guy which didn't make a lot of sense to me. He is a real tweener and I'm not sure what the thought process was on him.
 

lv20gt

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slugboy said:
I thought the same on Didenko last year. It was a lean year for us, but that really did not pan out even as a developmental take.
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How can you really evaluate how someone was as a developmental take after just 1 year? Isn't that expected as a developmental take?

Anyways, I'm not overly enthusiastic about Howard but we have 3 openings late in the process during a time we can't really do a lot of the normal recruiting things. With us having 3 scholarships open and an incentive to fill them all quick, getting in before the NCAA rules on our appeal and basically cuts that to 2 openings, it doesn't surprise me to see us show some interest. If the NCAA rules change allowing for a one time free transfer then he gives us another big body for next year and brings a decent shot blocking threat (blocked at a rate similar to Banks last year although on a much lower mpg). If not then it gives us a third post option after next year that has some experience and development.

MtnWasp said:
Poor hands doesn't really work well for the way we use the Center on the offensive end. That is a big limitation for a basketball player.
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With the change we made midseason last year it isn't quite as big a deal. That kind of depends on the direction Pastner chooses to go with the team, but we moved away from having the 5 as a playmaker this past year, and with it leading to better play it wouldn't surprise me to see us go in that direction in general. Still not something you want but not quite as big a deal as it would have been in the recent past for us.

In any case he's a big body who if eligible next year we can throw in the post and tell him to go for blocked shots without worrying too much about getting in foul trouble.
 

tbglover

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lv20gt said:
With the change we made midseason last year it isn't quite as big a deal. That kind of depends on the direction Pastner chooses to go with the team, but we moved away from having the 5 as a playmaker this past year, and with it leading to better play it wouldn't surprise me to see us go in that direction in general. Still not something you want but not quite as big a deal as it would have been in the recent past for us.
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The team did get away from using the 5 at the top of the key to facilitate offense and went to more of a PG oriented system with lots of picks. Problem is, he won't be an effective roll man with bad hands and we all saw a lot of situations where the guards would penetrate too deep into traffic and be forced to try difficult passes. He's also no help there. Personally idI prefer that they take a grad transfer and Meka and Gigiberia can be the posts who are being developed and then add a 2021 big man.
If you take Howard it should be as a last resort kind of like last year.
 
slugboy

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lv20gt said:
How can you really evaluate how someone was as a developmental take after just 1 year? Isn't that expected as a developmental take?
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Maybe it’s changed, but my understanding is that he was looking to leave, though he’s not listed in the transfer portal. Various sources have said that Price, Cole, and Didenko are all leaving.

If he *is* leaving, then that’s a bad sign. If we heard “he’s coming along/strong work ethic/doing what we want him to do”, that would be a good sign.

orientalnc said:
I am surprised he is still on the team. Maybe the talk about him having one year was bogus.
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I don’t know—the last I’d seen was that he was leaving. With campus shut down and no practices or even voluntary team activities, I have very little visibility into what’s going on.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
LongforDodd

LongforDodd

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Heard on 680 this afternoon that a guy from gaggertown who’s in the transfer portal is getting beaucoup attention from Pastner. He’s a big, played high school in the ATL area, and was recruited by Pastner in high school.
 

lv20gt

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tbglover said:
The team did get away from using the 5 at the top of the key to facilitate offense and went to more of a PG oriented system with lots of picks. Problem is, he won't be an effective roll man with bad hands and we all saw a lot of situations where the guards would penetrate too deep into traffic and be forced to try difficult passes. He's also no help there. Personally idI prefer that they take a grad transfer and Meka and Gigiberia can be the posts who are being developed and then add a 2021 big man. If you take Howard it should be as a last resort kind of like last year.
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For the aspect of being a roll guy in a pnr situation hands aren't really that big a deal. They are nice, but you're not really a deal breaker. Look at Moses who has his own issue with catching the ball. Regardless I'm not sure why we would use him as a PNR guy next year. He doesn't have much of a midrange and so the defender would be able to help and recover easier. With us having 2 experienced guards very capable of being their defender off the dribble even without a pick, there isn't a huge need for the PNR but rather something we can go to if we see an advantage.

The second situations is an issue you want your 3 and 4 year starting guards to get better at rather than something you try to hold against a big.

Like I said, I'm not overly enthusiastic about him. I think there are better options, but I also don't think there are as many grad transfer ACC level centers as people are acting like. I think if he does add some value on defense and probably rebounding next year in a 10-15 mpg type of role. Beyond that is more a product of how he develops.
 
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