Wenyen Gabriel?
- Thread starter RunningRamel
- Start date
I wouldn't have played him any more than Cal did - FWIW. He was good for energy, rebounds and occasional threes but had no handle whatsoever. If he didn't like how he was used then I'd say he wasn't being realistic about his abilities and contribution as compared the the talent he was playing with.
You nailed the problem right there. Gabriel was a face-up player who had 0 ability to do anything off the dribble. In modern basketball, that leaves 2 options for him, a small-ball 5 (and he's way too skinny for that) or a stretch 4, which is how he was used at UK.
Cal has really only had 2 guys at UK that I think were distinctly misused, and both were out of necessity. The first was Trey Lyles, who was a good post scorer in HS, but was pushed away from the basket simply because UK had better options in the paint (though ironically, it probably helped his draft stock), and the second was Isaiah Briscoe, who was a pure old-school PG, but played with Tyler Ulis and De'Aaron Fox, who were simply better.
Skal was probably misused to a certain extent, but nothing that happened in terms of his role on offense had anything to do with his bad defense and atrocious rebounding.
I think ballhandling is the single most underrated skill in the game. Guys like LeBron, Kobe, and Jordan were all A+ level athletes, but what really separated them was the ability to beat defenders off the dribble from anywhere on the floor. Guys who can't do anything at all off the dribble (and also aren't good passers) are hard to play at any position except center, unless they're elite shooters.
How did or does Cal deal with something like that? I also find it odd that Gabriel would do that...when all he’s ever had is support from BBN. Did it really change the mind of McDaniels?
Happy to be of service to you and anyone else I helped over the years. I hope to continue this season, by any means necessary. Just have to hope for the best that it all works out
I think WG’s issue was more of the “this is what I was told, this is what happened” complaint. I wouldn’t have used him any differently either; and WG has to realize he can’t handle the ball, so the only way he’s going to get offense is if he improves the handle. Skal is another who had some things to say to a couple of recruits that didn’t help, wouldn’t have mattered anyway though. I don’t think McDaniels changed his mind based on some messages from WG, but it probably didn’t help any.
Um no. I’ve only been in Tennessee to see a show at the Opry years ago.
I was always afraid Gabriel was going to lose us a big game doing something incredibly stupid in the final minute. Remember the wide open alley oop he flubbed in the final minute of that 103-100 win over UNC? Admittedly I missed his seven-three game in the SECT.
Another thing that scared me...Derek Willis always used to nonchalantly take the ball and lean out while he was throwing the ball inbounds. I was sure some alert coach would wait for the right moment and have his defender flash at Willis' target so he'd get called for stepping inbounds or throw the ball away.
Another thing that scared me...Derek Willis always used to nonchalantly take the ball and lean out while he was throwing the ball inbounds. I was sure some alert coach would wait for the right moment and have his defender flash at Willis' target so he'd get called for stepping inbounds or throw the ball away.
Yep. Someone actually showed me a screenshot of the supposed text from Wenyen to JM. I can’t attest to its validity but it seemed pretty legit. He didn’t really badmouth anyone per se, but he told him how incredibly hard he got worked and that he wasn’t used how he thought he would be (of course he conveniently left out that ultimately it was because he just wasn’t that good). It was exactly the kind of text that might swing someone whose mind was just about made up the other way.
I saw it. Pretty accurate. I think the comments about “being just a skinny big,” and “not being able the guy right away” were pretty damaging to JM. But what do I know. Nothing.
At this point after 3 years of dick jokes I wish any comment about his wand would get deleted .
Totally agree with you. Bunch of weird *** creepers.
Eh, it's part of the fabric of RRs now. I'd rather chuckle at a well played WG joke than see 15 Duke posts a day.
But at the end of the day it’s Gabriel? Like wouldn’t the texts/ success of Wall, KAT, Fox, Miller (Miller has made about $10 million so far) etc ?
That made laugh a lot harder and longer than it should have.
Agreed, but I have felt for several years, well,since 2015, that coaches are using examples, like WG, Skal, CM,Hump, etc as recruiting tools against Cal.