Gardner and Durley

[GGGG]

It's really difficult to understand why we have so much trouble recruiting two or three good big men.  We have to scrap and fight against taller teams every week.  "Other" teams have good big men, why not Marquette?  And, when we do recruit a big man he's not on the charts.

It's also hard to understand why Durley doesn't play much on his high school team.  Can understand that he plays behind Ridley, but still, if has talent, he should deserve minutes.  Why didn't he change to a high school that would appreciate his talent and play him?  There are a lot of questions that should be answered. 

Well, you are likely not going to get the answers you want...at least immediately.  But at least you are asking questions instead of making projections.

[brewcity77]

What is his AAU productivity?  There are several references to the fact that Durley played well in AAU but I've never seen any numbers to back it up.

http://www.houstonhoopstars.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=60

The Hoopst*rs website doesn't have averages or box scores, but they do give the stats of a couple players for each game. Durley has a number of double-doubles in there, and a number of other games where he's putting up 5 and 9, 12 and 6, 6 and 8, etc. The TexAgs website last year had him as the #13 recruit in Texas for his class.

I just find it baffling that people are so down on a guy that our coaching staff is clearly high enough on to give a scholarship to, and that was being recruited by other high majors. Durley seemed to generate more interest on the recruiting track than Gardner, Mbao, Roseboro, or Otule did. Are we suddenly so deep at the 5 that we will be set for the next 5 years at center? Did I miss that Otule was granted a 7th, 8th, and 9th year to go along with his 6th? Or that Gardner is going to be granted a waiver to stay in school for 8 years because his body type isn't well-suited for the next level? I just don't see any sense in not wanting Durley.

[Lennys Tap]

Exactly...based on nothing but boxscores.  Showing no faith in the coaching staff that wants to bring him here.

My faith in our coaching staff is off the charts and everyone around here knows that. If they think Durley is worth a shot I'm all for it, with the caveat (as stated by Brew) that scholarships are 1 year renewables. If he's Otule or Gardner, great. If he's Roseboro or Mbao both player and program move on - without the weeping and gnashing of teeth about "Buzz cutting", etc.

I readily admit I don't know what's going on down in Texas. Maybe all those DNPs are an attempt to motivate him and have the full support of our staff. But I'm nonetheless concerned that a 6'11", 270 lb athlete (former baseball player) and Big East recruit plays almost not at all on his high school team as a senior. Hope the red flags I'm seeing are meaningless - I'd love to be wrong on this.

[lurch91]

It's also hard to understand why Durley doesn't play much on his high school team.  Can understand that he plays behind Ridley, but still, if has talent, he should deserve minutes.  Why didn't he change to a high school that would appreciate his talent and play him?  There are a lot of questions that should be answered. 

It's known that Durley is relatively new to the US (been here 3-4 years), maybe the family trusts the HS coach, maybe they didn't want their son bouncing around high schools/prep schools/basketball schools-academies.  There's plenty of reasons why he is where he is. Let's just hope that his AAU coach and HS coach (is it the same guy?) have his best interests at heart.

I'd rather have a few Rod Grosse/Fasial Abraham/Greg Clausen/Jarrod Lovette's then a starting forward line-up of six-sixer's (and under).

[kmwtrucks]

I think durely is going to grow into a good college center, but he was hurt for a year (if memory serves) and is behind probably the top true center in the country on his HS team he is just not getting enough time on the floor.  You can improve in practice but more times then not game speed is always faster and the applies to all levels of sport.   Its hard to play 2 true center's, and Durley and Ridley are bigger then Otule and DG and they never play together.   

[WarhawkWarrior]

Are you kidding me?  Most teams would relish the thought of having Gardner, Otule and a project center in the mix.  Imagine practice for these guys.  There were years that the only competition we could find for our center or lack of one was Big Mac the announcer.