Agree 100%. That being said, I’d take Ogbole as a backup. The problem was that he was a starter. It’s he’s as good as Ogbole, which is a low bar, this pickup is fine. If he’s Ware-level, the pickup sucks.
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BB Recruiting Kansas State transfer center Dorin Buca commits to Rutgers
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
Agree 100%. That being said, I’d take Ogbole as a backup. The problem was that he was a starter. It’s he’s as good as Ogbole, which is a low bar, this pickup is fine. If he’s Ware-level, the pickup sucks.
I don't think Sydnor can play the 5, it would look like Dortch for the most part, but against a five out type team, maybe it works with Darren then at the 4? I really wish Darren was three inches taller w his strength.
For us... good pick up. I think we'll be pleasantly surprised.
Come on man. This is not even close to being true. Baye Fall logged 25 total minutes for K-State all season. Buca played 26 minutes in the Kansas game alone…
FWIW - according to ESPN play by play, he actually started the Kansas game which was a close game until the final 6-7 minutes. The blow out MOV happened at the end of the game when Buca checked out… He recorded no stats during that period of time as he didn’t play in the short garbage time minutes.
Arizona game perhaps, but generally he wasn’t used as a garbage time player. Far from a super star but the comparison to Fall is largely inappropriate.
This move gives Pike more options, one could possibly play the 2 big men, while going with the 3 small guards.
No doubt the turnover and foul rates were way too high this past year. But those two areas almost always improve in year 2 of playing in a major conference for centers. It likely will still be an issue but hopefully not to the same level.
He’s not starting for the love of god, he’d have 3 fouls by the 2nd TV timeout.
Great pickup for the slot that needed to be filled.
Well Pike and the GM has done a really good job of bringing in a backup 7’2 center rim protector who might catch some love and grab a few rebounds. He can also be used when other teams go to 2 bigs. Pike has totally revamped his frontline with 4 new transfers. With our $ situation not sure he could have done better. Still not getting a sniff from top major guys but did well getting the next tier. This is an excellent pickup for the reason he was picked up to rim protect , give Gurdack a blow and maybe score a bucket or 2.
We really need to stop with the Ogbole comparisons. He is gone and frankly was not a high major player. He improved slightly with his rim protection but that is it in 3 years.
Pike now has a squad that will compete and match up with almost all teams. Love the pickups including this one.
We really need to stop with the Ogbole comparisons. He is gone and frankly was not a high major player. He improved slightly with his rim protection but that is it in 3 years.
Pike now has a squad that will compete and match up with almost all teams. Love the pickups including this one.
I'm willing to bet that we will never see him on the court with Gurdack.
Best part of this pick up is that we now have two actual center sized centers.
Regardless - the situations are nothing alike. In fact, in the context of what you said, K-State being weaker makes the comparison even worse. As a “better” team in 2024-25, there were ample opportunities for Fall to earn garbage time minutes. He wasn’t even worthy of “that” to them for developmental purposes.
Secondarily - let’s just clarify that K-State was “bad” the way Rutgers was “bad”. It wasn’t like they got blown out every single game to the point where the stats for everyone were completely meaningless à la Ralph Agee. Yes - they only won 12 games but every single team in their league won 17+ games except Utah who they beat. In non-conference they also played way more real games than us.
Must you always be an *******?
No just when he needs to attack and criticize unfairly--- which by the way is always-- have you found anything he's discusses that is positive ? Your statement should be directed to him cause he's always an azz.
Not if you took him out when he got his first foul. That would likely be well before the first tv timeout.
The sole purpose of him starting would be to win the opening jump and go for Pikiel’s patented lob play off the tip. Not sure how it works as often as it does, but it does seem to keep working. Worked multiple times with Ogbole.
Bottom line:
- Gurdack is an upgrade over Ogbole as the starting C.
- Buca is an upgrade over Dortch as the backup C.
Period.
- Gurdack is an upgrade over Ogbole as the starting C.
- Buca is an upgrade over Dortch as the backup C.
Period.
EO never took a shot more than 2 ft from the basket. This kid can shoot. He didn’t shoot well last year but he was giving the green light to shoot.
I find it mind boggling that anyone thinks anything other than this. There was never a chance we were getting a super star for this role and everyone said they wanted a rim protecting shot blocker type.
35 blocks is A LOT for a guy who only averaged 12.9 mpg. For perspective, Cliff had only 16 blocks as a frosh and 40 blocks as a sophomore (playing 28.7 mpg - more than double plus he played in 5 more games). This was by all counts the best we could’ve hoped for to fill this role.
We needed a backup center 
We needed more size upfront
We needed a rim protector
We needed someone who can rebound
We needed someone with P4 experience
So, naturally, half the folks in this forum are complaining he doesn't score enough. Can't make this stuff up.
We needed more size upfront
We needed a rim protector
We needed someone who can rebound
We needed someone with P4 experience
So, naturally, half the folks in this forum are complaining he doesn't score enough. Can't make this stuff up.
He shot 53% from the foul line, same as Manny. Buca did make 2 threes in one game but was 0-10 from beyond the arc otherwise, so his shooting treys was a net negative. Other than that he also took most of his shots at the rim, same as Manny.
Good to see a positive attitudeWe needed a backup center
We needed more size upfront
We needed a rim protector
We needed someone who can rebound
We needed someone with P4 experience
So, naturally, half the folks in this forum are complaining he doesn't score enough. Can't make this stuff up.
Hope this portal pick-up works out as good as you're seeing it.
7'2", understands the pick and roll, knows most times he doesn't have to jump to block shots, very good backup C pickup.
I never called him a Big 10 quality starter, you did. What I am saying is that people overrate his abilities. What I am saying is Ogbole was not good and we needed to move on to greener pastures. Yet, some still want him back here as they clearly over romanticize our existing players and overate his abilities. He is not a Big 10 quality player, yet some still want him back on our roster as a backup. Pike did the right thing in a very critical year towards his future to continue as head coach, he brought in essentially a new frontcourt as last season we did not have a Big 10 frontcourt.
He's a tall guy that is actually a center and not some much shorter forward or wing pretending to be a center. He's clearly coming in to be a backup to play maybe 10 to 15 minutes a game. Seems like a decent fit for that role.
I'm actually impressed. He has some potential. Guys that big are usually not great athletes and if they are they are in the NBA, but watching his tape he's no stiff. He can move pretty well for that size. I'm surprised. I expected to see a big stiff body and that's it. He's more than that.
Sikma was a real threat from deep his final few years in the NBA. Would be wild if Buca became a deep threat in 26-27.
I admittedly am sometimes a pessimist on here but I am stunned anyone is seeing this signing as anything other than a positive
He’s going to play 15 min a game like he already has … nobody with any real production was going to take that role here
This is a calculated dice role. Older guy. Has played major conference hoops. 35 blocks in limited minutes
if he gives anything above his current stat line it would be a + acquisition
He’s going to play 15 min a game like he already has … nobody with any real production was going to take that role here
This is a calculated dice role. Older guy. Has played major conference hoops. 35 blocks in limited minutes
if he gives anything above his current stat line it would be a + acquisition
The 95th percentile ranking D metric isn’t nothing. He’s raw on offense and might always be that way but plays defense.
I find the comment from the K-State insider reported on the latest TKR podcast bizarre. They said he did best in the early non-conference games against bad competition but the stats don’t really support this. K-State only played 5 cupcakes and Buca only played 3 minutes against UNCG and 8 min against Bellamine. It’s not like he put up double digits in the others for some massive stat padding.
Sounds like he will be an excellent backup center, which is what we needed. Definitely sounds like a defense first player, which is also something that fits Pikiel’s style.
Which means you're never going to see him more than 22 minutes as the 2nd foul would put him on bench each half
One think we can't measure as a stat , how much does he alter the other teams offense
You can measure blocked shots
“I never called him a Big 10 quality starter, you did”
no I didn’t.
Nor has any poster on this board.
thus your Moses Malone/Hakeem comment is just….. bizarre
as far as the rest of your post above - I fully agree.
seems if you refrain from hyperbole and putting words-in-people’s mouths you can actually make some good points
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If he played 22 minutes, that would leave only 18 minutes for Gurdak. Ideally, Gurdak should play as much as he can without wearing him out, presumably at least 25 minutes per game with Buca playing 15 minutes or less as the backup. Rutgers still wouldn’t want him to pick up quick fouls to lose flexibility in their substitution pattern.
Bottom line, Buca is needed as a backup and not a starter. He may bring better defense and shot blocking, but overall, of the two, Gurdak should be the better center by a lot.
For some reason, our fans keep comparing Buca to Manny as if he was brought in as the replacement. Manny wasn’t our back up center - he was an offensively challenged starter who was asked to either play alongside other offensively challenged front court players in Dylan Grant, Nwuli, etc. or play with 4 guards. He’s been replaced by Gurdack. Fall has been replaced by Buca and Sydnor and Smith project to provide more offensive punch in the frontcourt than Manny had too.
Ironically, the remaining “hole” at this point is the Bryce Dortch type defensive front court player and to a lesser extent Nwuli. We could really use another forward with length who defends in the rotation for certain match ups. But I wouldn’t trade Buca for Dortch straight up because there were far more situations where Dortch was simply to small to match up with a 5 than games where we needed Dortch to manage a 5 out style D. I do fear that we will struggle with the latter if we don’t add one more piece down low to address the gap. But still really like this pick up. It should also be noted that the addition of Gurdack enables a defense only type player (Dortch style) to play the 4 for stretches because we now have enough offense at the other positions to allow it. IMO - this is the missing link right now. I really hope we have enough funds in the tank to add this piece (with or without the guard that the staff wants).
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Oh, my comment was only on the amount of minutes you could ever expect to see him based on his rate of fouls, I hope we never see him that much. He's 100% the back up.
The comparisons are being made because Ogbole was never viewed as starting material in the first place by many. He was a 3rd center on most teams but due to the lack of money to pursue someone better wound up being the starter at Rutgers.
I don’t expect to see him that much either but Re the fouls, MJ’s trajectory suggests it’s possible for a player to cut down on fouls in their second season playing in the NCAAs. I’m not suggesting Buca can make the same year over year strides - he doesn’t have the same defensive rebounding skills as MJ did, but Buca’s defensive metrics are too good to just brush aside as a certain nothing. He played enough minutes where a 95th percentile rating shouldn’t just be dismissed as random +/- noise. At least hope there’s something to work with in my view.