Who does Mbakwe's departure benefit most?

[tower912]

Who is goint to turn the lemon into lemonade?   I vote for Fulce.   We will get to see if he really is Shawn Marion 2.0.

[1990Warrior]

I think Fulce had minutes backing up Wes and Lazar before this happened.  I voted for O'tule simply because of his hight advantage over Hazel.  Considering that Burke averaged a foul every 5.5 minutes last year, my guess was that he would only see 20-25 mins a game and that Mbakwe would have gotten the the majority of the rest.  Now we need a guy to play a significant amount of minutes at the center position in the BE.  Hazel can do this some but I think Otule will be put in more to hopefully pull down some boards and bang.  Hazel definitely will get more mins as well at the 4 and 5 but not quite as much as Otule because Mbakwe affected the Center more than PF position.

[oshkoshbgosh]

I vote for Jamil Wilson. If he takes Mbakwe's scholarship MU will bring in three forwards comparable to the three guards they got four years ago.

[MUBB7703]

Hazel will get the first shot.  If he plays well and earns his minutes, he will continue to play.  If not, you have to play Otule and remember what Al use to say "by the end of the year they have played enough and are really Sophomores."  Let's hope Otule makes a big jump as he gets more experience.

[AZWarrior]

Offhand, I'd say our opponents.......   

[LastWarrior]

Offhand, I'd say our opponents.......   

You beat me to it... my thoughts exactly!

[TVDirector]

or whatever school he transfers to.....

[Nukem2]

Buzz reports in today's on-line issue of Sporting News Today that the team's veterans have reported to him that they are very excited with Otule's progress.  He goes on to say that he will be given every opportunity to prove himself.  I suspect that Otule may provide much more than many folks anticipate...??

[Sir Lawrence]

Here is the Sporting News article link:

http://today.sportingnews.com/sportingnewstoday/20080826/?pg=26&pm=1&u1=friend

[rocky_warrior]

Thanks for the link - here the clipping

[77ncaachamps]

Now that article has my curiosity spinning: Who advised him to go juco?

[MUFanInGreenBay]

Now that article has my curiosity spinning: Who advised him to go juco?

Tom Crean did. This is all his fault. Mbakwe will now end up at Indiana.

[Rollout-the-Barrel]

I like Blake Griffin got a ticket for "outraging public decency" for peeing on a bush.
I must have "outraged the public" a million times.   

[wadesworld]

Now that article has my curiosity spinning: Who advised him to go juco?

I don't mean to speculate on something that I have no idea about, but the only thing I can think of is his grades weren't good enough.  That's the only thing that makes sense to me, as Minnesota sounded to be interested on him and I'm sure if he wanted to transfer other Division 1 schools would be calling him, so that's all I can think of.  Again, I hate to speculate on something I have no idea about because it could be absolutely untrue, but it's what makes most sense to me.

Then again, why would a Marquette basketball player have academic troubles, we held too high of standards academically UNTIL Buzz Williams became head coach to cover up his lack of experience.

[Marquette84]

I don't mean to speculate on something that I have no idea about, but the only thing I can think of is his grades weren't good enough. 

This is dangerous speculation--especially considering that nobody felt that way about  Kinsella's grades.  Very similar situations--Trevor got in a handful of games his freshman year, where Kinsella missed the entire season. 

Kinsella left Rice, transferred to JUCO, played a season at Minnesota Tech before playing at MU.  Nobody suggested the reason he left Rice was because of grades. Kinsella didn't want to sit out another full year as a transfer, so he played at a JUCO. 

How about we give some credit to the possibility that Mbakwe's reason is the same that Kinsella gave:  he wants to transfer but simply doesn't want to sit out another year.

[bma725]

I don't mean to speculate on something that I have no idea about, but the only thing I can think of is his grades weren't good enough.  That's the only thing that makes sense to me, as Minnesota sounded to be interested on him and I'm sure if he wanted to transfer other Division 1 schools would be calling him, so that's all I can think of.  Again, I hate to speculate on something I have no idea about because it could be absolutely untrue, but it's what makes most sense to me.

Word going around is that his academics were actually fine and he did well in summer school.   I think the JUCO thing is more so he doesn't have to sit out a year at a D-1 school, since we know he was not interested in sitting out at MU.  Plus it will also give him ample time to show other D-1 schools that he is truly recovered from the knee injury and get him more suitors.

FWIW, I don't that Minnesota was showing much interest anymore.  They were a player before he committed to MU, but things have changed.   Their class of 2008 has two 4-star centers including one that was a RSCI top 100 player, plus another 6'8 JUCO forward.  Their 2009 class already has Royce White, a top 40 Power Forward, and they seem to be one of the big players for Sam Dower(6'9 PF) and Torin Walker(6'10 Center). 

I wouldn't put too much into trying to make sense of this because Mbakwe's moves in the past just haven't made sense.  He went to one high school in Minnesota for two years, then transferred to a HS in Georgia for his junior year only to transfer back a few months later.  Then after his junior season ended in Minnesota, he tried to transfer back to Georgia, only to end up transferring to a different school in Minnesota.  He was also one of those kids that throughout the recruiting process seemed to get new leaders all the time based upon who he had talked to most recently.  So likely, there isn't a logical explanation for this.

[rocky_warrior]

the only thing I can think of is his grades weren't good enough. 

Read the article again.  DeCourcy says: "He had spent the summer in the Marquette program and was in good academic standing" (3rd paragraph).

[mu_hilltopper]

What's a bit goofy about that scenario (going juco to not sit out) is .. you'd develop far more as a player transferring to a D1 school and playing a few thousand games versus your new D1 teammates in practice.   Sure, you don't play ~33 games versus random opponents .. compare that to playing at a JUCO and the low-level competition you'd get for that year?  Does not compute.  -- That's on top of changing schools twice, making friends, leaving them, etc.

I think he's just messed up .. no real logic in his decisions.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I think his departure helps most whatever school he ends up at.  I dknow some have taken swipes at him here, perhaps because he was a Crean recruit.  I think he'll end up being a nice player and a 8 to 10 rebound per game kind of kid and averaging double digit points as well.

[79Warrior]

Tom Crean did. This is all his fault. Mbakwe will now end up at Indiana.

Now that would be very interesting.

[MUFanInGreenBay]

Now that would be very interesting.

Yeah, I was obviously being sarcastic when I said that(forgot to change the font), but wouldn't that be something if he really did end up at Indiana. I'm sure any amount of respect still left for Crean around here would be long gone.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Yeah, I was obviously being sarcastic when I said that(forgot to change the font), but wouldn't that be something if he really did end up at Indiana. I'm sure any amount of respect still left for Crean around here would be long gone.

If that happens... PRN will be back with a vengeance!

I was giving Trevor the benefit of the doubt... but this is getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

[ecompt]

You can almost hear the venom in Buzz's voice in that last quote in DeCourcy's article. Good riddance. I don't know Mbawke's reasons, but the way he did it was wrong, and the team will be better off without him. He'll have no problems competing academically or otherwise in the Big Ten.

[wadesworld]

If that happens... PRN will be back with a vengeance!

I was giving Trevor the benefit of the doubt... but this is getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

Yeah sorry for the speculation about grades, I didn't know how weird everything in the situation is so I figured the only logical explanation would be mine, but looks like I'm wrong there.

[THEGYMBAR]

My opinion it benefits MU the most. They can now sign Jamil Wilson.