Bills By 40 Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 38 minutes ago, RiseOfTheBillikens said: I actually thought TJ did really well at the 4 Sunday. Mainly on the defensive end. He's good about going straight up and contesting without fouling. Tough night on the offensive end but I was pretty happy with how he played considering Richmond has some decent bigs. Regarding traore... Y'all remember Austin Gillman.... Brett Jolly.... the other Canadian big can't remember his name. He's looked better than reggie agbeko and Jimmy bell. He's exceeded my expectations forsure. So far he is not better than Agbeko or Bell, but I expect him to be better than the two combined by conference play next year. slufanskip likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiseOfTheBillikens Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Just now, Bills By 40 said: So far he is not better than Agbeko or Bell, but I expect him to be better than the two combined by conference play next year. He's better than bell right now. I'll argue that all day every day. I'd say he's better than Agbeko was in his first few games. Agbekos only move was a right to left crossover that led to a dunk, travel or turnover. I see more fluidity in traore than both even at this point in his career. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnkielBreakers Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 2 hours ago, Soderball said: Traore is utterly inexperienced and still looks like a deer in the headlights out there. He has a lot of work to do on his conditioning and coordination. He has an extremely wide wingspan and a ton of upside, but he is all building materials right now. There isn't a player there.. yet. Ill give him at least the off-season before I issue judgment. The potential is clearly there. He can't be relied on to do anything but be a warm body during garbage minutes at this time. This is just poorly stated. Traore looks like a Freshman, but a good player. In fact, rating 4 year big men (so, no Okoro or Linssen) in the SLU program since 2007, based on the midpoint of their freshman year, in my opinion, it would go: 1. Willie Reed 2. French 3. Traore Traore doesn’t even have a decent sample size for growth at this point. On small minutes, he puts up good numbers. If he could iron out the jitters and freshman confusion, I see a really strong player. RiseOfTheBillikens likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Small window but I think he has a shot. Good form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Could it be that we have had such poor big men that Traore is being graded on the curve? I am not sure how much worse it can get if he goes out and defends his man at the perimeter if his man can shoot the 3 - how much worse than a 3 being hit 50% of he time? I think he is doing OK so far but we should be able to critique his entire game without people thinking others are ragging on him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnkielBreakers Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 5 minutes ago, cheeseman said: Could it be that we have had such poor big men that Traore is being graded on the curve? I am not sure how much worse it can get if he goes out and defends his man at the perimeter if his man can shoot the 3 - how much worse than a 3 being hit 50% of he time? I think he is doing OK so far but we should be able to critique his entire game without people thinking others are ragging on him. “Traore is utterly inexperienced and still looks like a deer in the headlights out there. He has a lot of work to do on his conditioning and coordination. He has an extremely wide wingspan and a ton of upside, but he is all building materials right now. There isn't a player there.. yet.“ How would any of that be a standard critique? It basically was saying he is totally inexperienced, without skill. Then Soderball recanted. His initial statement was too harsh. Look, the critique is that he is struggling with correct defensive positioning. A big man is coached to stay as close to the basket as possible, so that they can help when someone drives the lane. I would rather that a Freshman center make the mistake of not going out, as compared to being to far out and giving up uncontested layups. That said, his defense needs work, but he has shown the ability to man up, and guard. He needs to get smarter on D. Positioning and switching. It is a very coachable situation. cheeseman likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 18 minutes ago, cheeseman said: Could it be that we have had such poor big men that Traore is being graded on the curve? I am not sure how much worse it can get if he goes out and defends his man at the perimeter if his man can shoot the 3 - how much worse than a 3 being hit 50% of he time? I think he is doing OK so far but we should be able to critique his entire game without people thinking others are ragging on him. I'm all for open dialogue. All I ever ask for is context in a criticism. If people are going to harp on Yuri's turnovers, for example, I want everyone to understand the player we're looking at. If Yuri, with all his turnovers, is still the best point guard since H Waldman, I thought that context was totally missing from the conversation until I steered it there. If Traore is no worse than the 2nd best freshman backup big in the last 30 years, descriptions that make him sound like Justin Johnson seem off base to me. Pistol and slufanskip like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matty Light Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 1 hour ago, AnkielBreakers said: This is just poorly stated. Traore looks like a Freshman, but a good player. In fact, rating 4 year big men (so, no Okoro or Linssen) in the SLU program since 2007, based on the midpoint of their freshman year, in my opinion, it would go: 1. Willie Reed 2. French 3. Traore This may be true but if you go back to 2000, Traore is closer to Chris Braun or Ian Vouyoukas than he is to Reed or French. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgstl Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Im pretty confused about this Traore convo. We picked him him like weeks before the season started. He's our 3rd string big and frosh. Did I miss somewhere that he was a big time recruit? We needed him for a few minutes one game, thats all. Fraz likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SShoe Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 1 hour ago, AnkielBreakers said: This is just poorly stated. Traore looks like a Freshman, but a good player. In fact, rating 4 year big men (so, no Okoro or Linssen) in the SLU program since 2007, based on the midpoint of their freshman year, in my opinion, it would go: 1. Willie Reed 2. French 3. Traore Traore doesn’t even have a decent sample size for growth at this point. On small minutes, he puts up good numbers. If he could iron out the jitters and freshman confusion, I see a really strong player. Rob Loe? RUBillsFan likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgstl Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 1 hour ago, Bills By 40 said: So far he is not better than Agbeko or Bell, but I expect him to be better than the two combined by conference play next year. I think those two are very close, Bell as played a lot more, and against better comp so I'll give him the edge. But that's not to say Traore couldn't average what Bell did if he got the minutes every day. I also Liked how much space Bell takes up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 15 minutes ago, SShoe said: Rob Loe? Rob was a starter for over half the year. I think having a discussion about big-time recruits who were brought in to start -- French, Reed, Loe, Baniak -- is a different discussion. But Traore does compare very favorably to the backup bigs we've had over the last 30 years. I'd say the only one better than him as a freshman was Izik Ohanon, and he was like 23 when he got here. Oh, and how could I forget, the Immovable Object, Chris Heinrich. Very good as a freshman backup big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennis_w Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 3 hours ago, johnbj14 said: Canadian big man Matt Neufeld?!?!? I remember actually being excited for him. He actually put up decent numbers at UC Davis after transferring. am i the only one who remembers melroy butler? AGB91 likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy II Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 2 minutes ago, dennis_w said: am i the only one who remembers melroy butler? -I don't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennis_w Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 8 minutes ago, Cowboy II said: -I don't he was a big back in the grawer days when the bills had no bigs and he still never got off the bench Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremio14 Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 4 hours ago, RiseOfTheBillikens said: He's better than bell right now. I'll argue that all day every day. I'd say he's better than Agbeko was in his first few games. Agbekos only move was a right to left crossover that led to a dunk, travel or turnover. I see more fluidity in traore than both even at this point in his career. Over the past 50 years, how many of our 3rd string centers would have scored as fluidly as Traore did from that sweet Nesbitt pass? The answer is easy: none of them. Heck, a significant amount of our 2nd string 5’s would have found a way to turn the ball over… drkelsey55, billikenbill, billiken_roy and 1 other like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Traore has 3.3 rebounds in just 7.8 mpg. Yes, he has played sparingly, but those rebounding numbers speak to some potential. Also, the eye test tells me this kid has the chance to develop into a very good rebounder. A nose for the ball, aggressive, decent hops and quick to the ball. drkelsey55, MusicCityBilliken and billiken_roy like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennis_w Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 22 minutes ago, Gremio14 said: Over the past 50 years, how many of our 3rd string centers would have scored as fluidly as Traore did from that sweet Nesbitt pass? The answer is easy: none of them. Heck, a significant amount of our 2nd string 5’s would have found a way to turn the ball over… absolutely correct Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmbilliken Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 7 hours ago, dennis_w said: am i the only one who remembers melroy butler? Overweight and under skilled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almaman Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 1 hour ago, kmbilliken said: Overweight and under skilled. sounds like an old review from terminated Backpage website SLU_Lax likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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