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Post by aceshigh on Jun 27, 2020 11:30:55 GMT -6
Looking at Alex Mathews and thinking about a recent recruit that UE had a strong interest in and how his freshman year progressed and I like what I see. The other recruit was Michael Moreno who went to Eastern KY. As a HS senior Michael was listed at 6-6 and 190 on various sites. As young men of that age do many have a couple of years of growth and a lot of muscle that can be added with proper weight training. Michael has a terrific year at Eastern and has added an inch in height and is now listed as 220.
What I like about Alex is that he’s currently listed at 6-5 and 210 and already has advanced skills for a HS player. For a small forward he can run the floor, handle the ball, take it to the rim and score. He has a nice shooter’s touch, sees the floor well and is a good passer.
Being an incoming freshman with senior leadership on the team he will have time to develop a college game without the pressure to perform immediately. While he doesn’t have the quickness of some Valley small forwards, as his strength and skills improve he will be a lot to handle.
I think Coach got a really good one with this signing.
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Post by aceshigh on Jun 28, 2020 11:10:22 GMT -6
Iyen Enaruna seems to fit the direction of big men for UE basketball in the future as I see it. I believe that TL’s vision for paint players at UE will be long, lanky players (forwards) with athletic skills and the ability to score, rebound and handle the ball. Trey Hall also fits this mold.
The hardest player to find in college basketball is the traditional #5 spot. The best are taken by the high majors and the mid-majors have to battle for the rest many of which have incomplete skills. To find a 6-10 to 7-0 250 pounder who can dominate is rare at the mid-majors especially for a smaller program like UE. Even Egidius had his limitations and he was one of our best big men.
I like the idea of a front line player who can play the 3,4 or 5 and spread the defense with the ability to hit the outside shot. Not only did we just bring in those players but our already disclosed recruits for next winter are in the same mold. Things are looking good for the Aces.
I believe TL was the correct choice to replace WMC even though he was criticized for his age and even health. In a recent interview TL said he was building a program for the future and I believe him. Now let’s find out who his assistant coaches will be.
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Post by austinace on Jul 3, 2020 15:17:21 GMT -6
Found this article from a couple of years ago (March 2018) where Iyen and his brother were in the States to play American competition. The article was primarily on his brother, who his two years younger and a big time recruit at Kansas. However, there was this short blurb on Iyen: “... Iyen Enaruna is two years older but barely known and less skilled brother. He posses equally good length and body which moreover already filled out more. However his ceiling is definitely not as high as Tristan’s. Feel for the game is really poor, and simple mistakes like dribble turnovers or bad one handed passes happens regularly. However you can dig something interesting in defensive potential and willingness to slash...” Not an overwhelming review but he has had two years to get better. Here is the entire article (mainly on his brother): Scouting notebook – Tristan Enaruna vs American prospects eurospects.com/?p=8796
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Post by aceshigh on Jul 5, 2020 9:15:08 GMT -6
This article was written almost three years ago by a European reviewer. He mentioned up front his limited time of seeing the play of the Enaruna brothers.
Most of the article was about Tristen who just completed his freshman year with Kansas. But after reading his analysis of Tristen I came away with the feeling he would struggle with a USI team much less than with one of the premier teams in the US. At that point I was left thinking Tristen would not be successful on any US team. Which brings me to Iyen. I read somewhere that he has not been playing basketball very long which brings me to the reviewer’s comments. Sounds like he possibly saw Iyen very early in his basketball history.
Kansas scouts didn’t go into this blindly when they brought Tristen into their program. I would say his skills improved over time. While I have only a few videos of Iyen to view, he appears to have a much higher skill level than expressed in the article. I would expect the UE scouts like those at Kansas saw things they liked very much and agreed that Iyen would make a very nice addition to the Aces team.
I for one am glad he’s coming to UE and as a famous coach once said, you can’t teach height.
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Post by Aces&Eights on Jul 5, 2020 10:12:10 GMT -6
Kansas scouts didn’t go into this blindly when they brought Tristen into their program. I would say his skills improved over time. While I have only a few videos of Iyen to view, he appears to have a much higher skill level than expressed in the article. I would expect the UE scouts like those at Kansas saw things they liked very much and agreed that Iyen would make a very nice addition to the Aces team. I for one am glad he’s coming to UE and as a famous coach once said, you can’t teach height. I believe when TL assessed Iyen on the coaches caravan, he said Iyen's coach spoke highly of him as a person and player. Iyen is all upside in my eyes.
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Post by austinace on Jul 5, 2020 11:14:00 GMT -6
Kansas scouts didn’t go into this blindly when they brought Tristen into their program. I would say his skills improved over time. While I have only a few videos of Iyen to view, he appears to have a much higher skill level than expressed in the article. I would expect the UE scouts like those at Kansas saw things they liked very much and agreed that Iyen would make a very nice addition to the Aces team. I for one am glad he’s coming to UE and as a famous coach once said, you can’t teach height. I believe when TL assessed Iyen on the coaches caravan, he said Iyen's coach spoke highly of him as a person and player. Iyen is all upside in my eyes. I share in your optimism. However with that said, we all know that our experience with jucos at UE have been tenuous or inconsistent at best. I agree that he has a lot of upside potential and I hope that he achieves it. However, a definition of potential that I have heard in the past is “that means you aren’t any good right now”. That might sound a little harsh but it gets the point across: That is that he is a raw talent with a lot of upside but don’t expect too much out of the gate.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2020 6:44:24 GMT -6
Iyen is worth the gamble. Moreover, he is no less that a good backup to Kuhlman and an upgrade from Peace. He does have athletic skills and is getting more familiar with the game. Like any juco, he will have to make adjustments to playing in the MVC. We have the staff that can help him do that.
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Post by austinace on Jul 6, 2020 8:13:11 GMT -6
Iyen is worth the gamble. Moreover, he is no less that a good backup to Kuhlman and an upgrade from Peace. He does have athletic skills and is getting more familiar with the game. Like any juco, he will have to make adjustments to playing in the MVC. We have the staff that can help him do that. We all hope so. Time will tell, as always.
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Post by 6thman on Jul 6, 2020 13:22:27 GMT -6
Kansas scouts didn’t go into this blindly when they brought Tristen into their program. I would say his skills improved over time. While I have only a few videos of Iyen to view, he appears to have a much higher skill level than expressed in the article. I would expect the UE scouts like those at Kansas saw things they liked very much and agreed that Iyen would make a very nice addition to the Aces team. I for one am glad he’s coming to UE and as a famous coach once said, you can’t teach height. I believe when TL assessed Iyen on the coaches caravan, he said Iyen's coach spoke highly of him as a person and player. Iyen is all upside in my eyes. Iyen is a great get with the Dead Period being extended and the restrictions placed on the coaching staff. I'll believe if the Aces are able to get 15-17 minutes a game in the OOC, he'll be a great assett when the MVC slate is played. The recruiting class is a great addition to built on.
Well done Coaches
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Post by Tom Servo on Jul 6, 2020 13:37:43 GMT -6
I think given the situation we are in - he's probably the best we could get. We need someone who has some size and can hopefully give some minutes without being completely lost and a liability to the team. We'll see a lot of small lineups this year because unless Peace takes a massive jump (and I mean massive) he won't play. Kuhlman will play most of the minutes with Iyen being the backup. That's really the only choice there is. The key is to get one (or both) of Sisley and Hatten for next year. Those are the kind of guys I think can make some noise in the MVC. If we can just get some minutes out of Iyen where he gets some rebounds and plays decent defense - that's better than where we would be if he hadn't signed him.
The most important thing is the 2021 recruiting class - lot's of good offers out to good players - I like seeing us offering Indiana players. Tired of getting burned by them every where we turn when they end up on other teams.
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Post by lawrencevgibson on Jul 13, 2020 16:07:08 GMT -6
Iyen and Alex are both listed on the roster.
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Post by austinace on Jul 13, 2020 16:33:10 GMT -6
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Post by Ace78 on Jul 14, 2020 8:43:39 GMT -6
I'm confused about Trey Hall's listed height. Trey is 6'9 on the UE roster, yet I've seen his height listed as 6'7 in other places.
Has he grown quite a bit? Just curious.
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Post by Aces&Eights on Jul 14, 2020 9:22:05 GMT -6
You would think that players are weighed and measured once they arrive on campus. To that end, assuming Trey is not on campus, who knows.
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