Donnal is obviously nothing special but calling Dukan an “NBA talent” over and over again is highly misleading. The guy literally played 20 minutes in the league and got cut. And his career high at Wisconsin was 4 points per game.
I think Donnal gets a bad rep here because he isn’t physical and people don’t like his body language. He’s a solid finisher on offense (over 50% from the floor every year of his career and can knock down the three ball too. He’s a bad defender and rebounder but frankly, so is Wagner. Last night he had a perfect box out and his block on Happ was huge. For a backup center, 10 MPG role I think we could do far worse.
It would not surprise me to see Davis have a career that surpasses Jordan Morgan, with the exception that Morgan had less talent in front of him. Davis has much better hands and shooting ability already, to go with the added length. Looks like he is getting his body in pretty good shape, also.
(Disclaimer: I’m in the camp for banking the scholarship till Class of '18)
As to why the Coaches apparently passed on Cain in October/November but may have interest in a similar player in February…the data set has changed. The coaches have 3-4 more months of information.
They have more information as to the progress of Class of '18 targets — better feel for the odds of someone like Ryan or Carmody coming on board
They have more information about the players currently on the roster.
- they have a better feeling for the ceiling/floor of Ibi Watson
- same w/MAAR. There was a lot of excitement from some segments of fans/coaches that MAAR might have another level of offensive production to his game (instead we’ve seen he’s largely plateaued offensively)
- same with Duncan Robinson. There was some feeling the new coaches could help Duncan’s defense take a big step forward this season (we see he’s competing better but probably too much of a pipe dream to think he can become even a “league average” defender)
- same with DJ Wilson. Coaches were high on his upside, but they’d been saying that the two previous years as well (we’ve seen him settle in as a nice complementary wing capable of defending the “4” but probably not someone you’d ever run the offense through)
With the added information/improved data set, maybe the coaches now feel they need the element a Cain or Elliot can bring? Or maybe they’re just kicking tires in case of a mystery transfer?
See I’m not giving up on the pure big man. I actually think as the game changes that this could be an interesting strategy. Most young bigs no longer have the skill sets to be effective as low post big men due to the changes. What if they did though.
Could you compete with the new style by going big and working the post/ banging down low relentlessly along with crashing the boards hard? I think it can be done still and would like to see teams try it with the right group. Purdue is like this a bit and I think that’s why I like them/ think they will be a tough out.
At the very least I think having a guy with that skill set can be useful even if it’s off the bench. Gives you something different and creates more balance and versailtility which is good for a roster. We shall see.
Just because Davis is improved from Oct 16 to Oct 17 doesn’t make him a rotation player and with guys like Teske/Wilson/Wagner in his way good luck getting any run. Even if Davis supplanted one of those guys that’s not a good thing.
I’m not making any predictions. Others are concluding that he can’t be a factor at this level. With little to go on other than he redshirted and Teske did not.
This is the topic. Elliot isn’t coming to UM and that’s been clear. The entire point for a while in this thread is to air grievances. As it looks more and more like this year (and beyond) isn’t going to be some disaster, those who have been arguing it would be just get angrier.
Who said this year and beyond is going to be a “disaster”? I’ve never seen a person continually make up stuff…might want to go to a doctor and get that checked. What was said is the roster is not not constructed for a deep run and without more creators will not make any deep runs in the near future. JB can crank out bubble teams that get eliminated before the4 S16 all day.
Not to nitpick - but if Davis is good enough to supplant Wilson or Wagner, whom I think we have a grasp of how good they are, that is certainly a good thing. It would mean that Davis is much better than expected. Now if you just said if he supplants Teske, then I agree its questionable how good of a thing that is.
What other data points? Discouraging HS film? Discouraging physical tools? Discouraging physical tools? And I said trend…a trend is literally the opposite of saying something is definitive. Davis can obviously prove me wrong.
It may be relevant depending on why the decision was made. High school film for a guy like Davis is not very helpful. Man amongst boys. Ethan Happ redshirted and his best offers as a recruit were UWGB and UWMilwaukee. He obviously came a long way from high school to his rs freshman season. Davis won’t get the opportunity that Happ had because of roster. But I would not give up on him already.
We just have to disagree. Draftexpress saw Happ before his RS freshman year and raved about his potential. He also plays nothing like Davis so I have no idea why you and others keep bringing up his name. Wisconsin has a great track record with big men, JB does not.
The point is that you can’t just downgrade someone because he redshirted. Could be a guard, a wing, whatever. The fact that Happ plays a different style is not relevant. I’m not saying that Davis is Happ, but both were low profile coming out of HS, both redshirted. Let’s give Davis a chance before writing him off. BTW, I could not find the post redshirt year write up on Draft Express that you referenced.
It was the summer before he arrived in Madison. And yes, style of play and physical tools does matter when projecting a player. If you don’t think so then agree to disagree. I haven’t even “written” Davis off, I said he is trending meaning moving in a certain direction…nothing absolute about it.
I mean, I would say he is trending statically. The expectation when he was recruited was that he would redshirt, so idk why it would change his “stock”.