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Welcome Lassina Traore!


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Hope springs eternal, I guess.  I think Traore is a fine addition for practice fodder and (rare) insurance against foul trouble and/or injury.  You young'uns haven't lived through 46 years of Billiken seasons and rising expectations.  And usually failures to meet said expectations.  Maybe Traore breaks the mold.  Time will tell.

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3 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

Hope springs eternal, I guess.  I think Traore is a fine addition for practice fodder and (rare) insurance against foul trouble and/or injury.  You young'uns haven't lived through 46 years of Billiken seasons and rising expectations.  And usually failures to meet said expectations.  Maybe Traore breaks the mold.  Time will tell.

Traore is going to break your jello mold. Wide open.

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again, if we were filling a starter's or even a rotation spot, i would be rolling my eyes.  but we are filling a 3rd string opening.   he seem to have some athleticism so wtf.  let it roll

brianstl, bauman, A10Ref and 1 other like this
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14 hours ago, Taj79 said:

I will also say over time, I thought Cory Remekun had a disappointing career.  I guess I just expected more.  His upside was 133 games played.  And he had a career FG% of over 50%.  But only 400 points for a ppg of 3.0 left me craving something more.  He did get his fair share of blocked shots. 

Cory was never an effective offensive player, even in high school. He was an important role player on some of the best Billikens teams in history. He ended up playing professionally after that. If his career was disappointing, I would say it is more of an issue with your expectations than anything else.

Traore is even more under-the-radar than Remekun was. If he has a Cory Remekun career, that will be outstanding. If he is a good teammate and solid practice player, that's just fine too. 

SLU_Lax, 3star_recruit and ACE like this
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On 8/22/2021 at 10:08 AM, 3star_recruit said:

I agree that we don't have a track record of developing project bigs.  Then again, we don't have a track record of 6'9 run and jump athletes on the roster either.  Traore is our first one.  Allotting our 13th scholarship to such a player is a low-risk, medium reward proposition.

This is it.

I think people are also underrating the importance of depth at this position, especially for practice. Rashed Anthony was more valuable than we ever realized because of this.

The upside here is we have the potential to have him around for four years. He could develop into a nice big, and if he doesn't, he's depth until he leaves. There's not really any downside here.

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2 hours ago, Pistol said:

This is it.

I think people are also underrating the importance of depth at this position, especially for practice. Rashed Anthony was more valuable than we ever realized because of this.

The upside here is we have the potential to have him around for four years. He could develop into a nice big, and if he doesn't, he's depth until he leaves. There's not really any downside here.

-I hope all read and understand this as it is right on target............keep this in mind when someone goes to practice or at Midnight Madness when he does something great on one play and expectations get thrown way out of line

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3 hours ago, Taj79 said:

Hope springs eternal, I guess.  I think Traore is a fine addition for practice fodder and (rare) insurance against foul trouble and/or injury.  You young'uns haven't lived through 46 years of Billiken seasons and rising expectations.  And usually failures to meet said expectations.  Maybe Traore breaks the mold.  Time will tell.

After all these years Taj I cannot break the habit of huge expectations every season.

I agree with you but I just cannot help myself.

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15 minutes ago, Cowboy II said:

-I hope all read and understand this as it is right on target............keep this in mind when someone goes to practice or at Midnight Madness when he does something great on one play and expectations get thrown way out of line

Cowboy II?? Did something happen to your original account?

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10 minutes ago, CBFan said:

After all these years Taj I cannot break the habit of huge expectations every season.

I agree with you but I just cannot help myself.

I'm the same way. I go into every season thinking undefeated is a possibility. Really don't understand the concept of expecting them to do worse so I won't be disappointed. 

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1 hour ago, DirtyRican said:

Met the big guy yesterday at the women's soccer game.  He was very friendly and seemed extremely excited to be here.

 

 

 

bills.jpg

Looks like our new recruit has played a lot of soccer and is practiced at setting up a wall to block a free kick.

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4 hours ago, DirtyRican said:

Met the big guy yesterday at the women's soccer game.  He was very friendly and seemed extremely excited to be here.

 

 

 

bills.jpg

Love the Yurimania shirt!!!

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I pasted this video earlier in the thread, but removed it because I did not know exactly who it showed, and did not want to get anyone’s hopes up. But now, I think we have blown through that gate. So, this is just a general clip of TFlo (Team Florida). I am pretty sure that Traore is number 8. It definitely looks like him. If it is, he does a good job moving without the ball, setting screens and blocking his man. He also can finish on an entry pass. I am not sure if he takes any outside shots. Too grainy. Overall, it is AAU, so the defense is weak, but he is clearly a decent plug in player. Doesn’t look like he fumbles the ball or trips over his feet (ie. DJ, Anthony, any Crews big). My hope is that he can be a positive backup rebounder. Most likely, he will be someone who plays 5 minutes or less per game this year. However, if he learns how to defend and rebound, he could make more of an impact later in the season. We will see.

 

 

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On 8/22/2021 at 8:37 AM, 3star_recruit said:

Remekun came in as a defensive specialist.  In fact he was his high school district's Defensive Player of the Year in a district filled with D-1 players.  It remains to be seen what Traore is good at in a real basketball game.

Victory Rock Prep attracts many foreign players from remote locales who are looking to hone their game.  By definition, their roster is filled with athletic projects.  If we can develop one of these projects into a viable rotation player, it's a win-win for both sides: VRP raises its profile and they may send us even better players in the future.

It would also be nice to develop a pipeline with this program since we have already pulled two guys from there.  Developing connections is never a bad thing, and Ford is the master.

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On 8/22/2021 at 9:44 PM, brianstl said:

He was 21 in high school and couldn’t dominate.  Okoro at 18 was one of the most dominate bigs in the country at the high school level. Okoro at 22 is working on developing upon a base of talent and skills that is light years ahead of Traore. 

Sure, Traore can still develop. That said, any expectation that he will develop beyond a role player level are most likely misplaced.

Maybe he just hasn't had a chance to practice day after day against someone who was one of the most dominant bigs in the country in high school.  Maybe that is what he needs to develop into a quality big himself more so than coaching or his age.  When a new kid comes in, part of the fun of being a fan is to have high hopes for him until you find out that those hopes may not have been realistic.  Doesn't mean you were wrong to have the high hopes in the first place though.

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18 hours ago, AnkielBreakers said:

I pasted this video earlier in the thread, but removed it because I did not know exactly who it showed, and did not want to get anyone’s hopes up. But now, I think we have blown through that gate. So, this is just a general clip of TFlo (Team Florida). I am pretty sure that Traore is number 8. It definitely looks like him. If it is, he does a good job moving without the ball, setting screens and blocking his man. He also can finish on an entry pass. I am not sure if he takes any outside shots. Too grainy. Overall, it is AAU, so the defense is weak, but he is clearly a decent plug in player. Doesn’t look like he fumbles the ball or trips over his feet (ie. DJ, Anthony, any Crews big). My hope is that he can be a positive backup rebounder. Most likely, he will be someone who plays 5 minutes or less per game this year. However, if he learns how to defend and rebound, he could make more of an impact later in the season. We will see.

 

 

I will second that point guard can play who is that guy.

I also agree our big knows how to set screens.

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