Chadrack Lufile: Man or Boy?

[shockmonster]

I'm going to go ahead and assume we will have a lot less problems from Echenique this year. He might have a cannon-ball build, but he's 6'9" 270. EO has the body to hold him, as does CJ.

Now to become Public Enemy #1 on ShockerNet...

G Stutz looked soft against Echenique (sorry, guys), I don't expect that from our bigs this year.

Hm. Third post- Hit and run. By the way, who is CJ?

[shock]

I agree. Garrett played timid a lot last year because the officials would call him for farting in the general direction of the offence.

[Dave Stalwart]

Yeah I don't think anyone is going to think that observation is off at all. Echenique took care of Stutz like other bigs couldn't. I am willing to give credit where it is due. There is also something to be said for the fact that Stutz was held below his averages because he was on the bench for fouls, not because he was getting shut down during the actual matchup. Both guys are good players. Anyway, this year is going to be pretty physical. I'll be anxious to see how it pans out

[shock]

CJ is what Chadrack goes by.

[Aargh]

I'm a huge Stutz sunshine pumper, but I will admit that Stutz fouled in slow motion. He got called for lots of stuff that others got away with because it was easier to see Garrett make contact. If you make contact that looks like slow motion, but is in real time, you're going to get more fouls called.

Orukpe is still learning how fouls are called. He's athletic and quick enough that he might be able to play very physical and not get called because of his quickness.

There is something in officiating that supports "if it looks good, it's good". Orukpe has the ability to look better than Stutz while making the same contact. I think Orukpe will be able to play more physical than Stutz and have fewer fouls called on him. Probably Lufile too.

The scouting report on Orukpe will be "don't go inside against him". In the minutes he's played, the opponents inside game has resulted in somewhere around a 25 - 33% conversion rate inside. Perimeter defenders will be able to play pretty tight. If they get beat, the worst they give up is a mid-range jumper (which very few players work on). If they get beat and the guy they were guarding goes to the hoop, there's a better than 50% chance that the Shox end up with the ball with no points scored.

If Orukpe can stay in games without foul problems and his offense and TO's don't demand sitting him, I think he can defend against any front court/back court combo in the nation.

[wsushox1]

Do we get Meshach and Abednego too? Kind of like a package deal?

[Dave Stalwart]

We have demetric and abignigerian. Thats close enough for me :)

[shock]

Do we get Meshach and Abednego too? Kind of like a package deal?

Maybe Abednego, although I don't know if he is the same caliber as his older brother.

And Meshack plays university ball in Canada, so he is a no go.

[Anthroshock]

This is obligatory. I doubt the coolness of Shockernet. Never should have taken this long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FrQVDJzIk8&feature=related

[DoubleJayAlum]

The scouting report on Orukpe will be "don't go inside against him". In the minutes he's played, the opponents inside game has resulted in somewhere around a 25 - 33% conversion rate inside. Perimeter defenders will be able to play pretty tight. If they get beat, the worst they give up is a mid-range jumper (which very few players work on). If they get beat and the guy they were guarding goes to the hoop, there's a better than 50% chance that the Shox end up with the ball with no points scored.

If Orukpe can stay in games without foul problems and his offense and TO's don't demand sitting him, I think he can defend against any front court/back court combo in the nation.

Very interesting contrasting paragraphs there.

I don't know much about him, but my recollection of Orupke was that he fouled even more than Stutz. Outside of the games against Creighton, Stutz played pretty darn well, so I'm a bit surprised to read here and on the mVCfans site about Stutz being such a rabid fouler. To me, and I grant that I didn't see him as frequently as most posters here did, Stutz's struggle had more to do with times he was matched up with someone stronger rather than being too slow. It was his inability to stand his ground that led to a large number of foul calls. The games where he dominated were when he could outmuscle guys, not because he was quicker than them.

If my recollection is accurate and Orupke's propensity to foul was much greater than Stutz's, that could really impact his effectiveness. He is really going to need to fix that or instead of the scouting report reading what you indicated, it may well read, "go right at him and get him in early foul trouble."

Distribution of minutes for WSU should be really intriguing. The athleticism of guards/wings should be your strength once again. I wish it was November...

[Dave Stalwart]

Yeah we are kind of nervously awaiting the Orukpe situation. He needs to improve a lot. I like to think on his strengths and hope that he gets his weaknesses ironed out, but there isn't even a good argument that he will for sure start until we hear more. I am expecting that he will (hoping that Marshall succeeds with the whole 5 year long project...if you go all the way back to when we found the raw athletic marvel around 2007), but we don't really know what we are going to get this year.

You are pretty close with Stutz. If you would have watched him like we have over his 4 years, though, the foul thing stands out more. There were only a few match ups that he would get out muscled and a ton of match ups where he would get fouls he could have avoided. He used to get silly blocking fouls on the perimeter and stuff like that for not making it look quite right. It was a certain type of foul that he would get, not necessarily that he was prone to inexperienced fouling. It was easy to complain about because he always made me feel like he could learn to not do some of them, where as you can't really get too mad at him when another guy is able to just beat him in certain ways. Anyway, towards the end, he became solid (especially this year).

[shockmonster]

3

Yeah we are kind of nervously awaiting the Orukpe situation. He needs to improve a lot. I like to think on his strengths and hope that he gets his weaknesses ironed out, but there isn't even a good argument that he will for sure start until we hear more. I am expecting that he will (hoping that Marshall succeeds with the whole 5 year long project...if you go all the way back to when we found the raw athletic marvel around 2007), but we don't really know what we are going to get this year.

You are pretty close with Stutz. If you would have watched him like we have over his 4 years, though, the foul thing stands out more. There were only a few match ups that he would get out muscled and a ton of match ups where he would get fouls he could have avoided. He used to get silly blocking fouls on the perimeter and stuff like that for not making it look quite right. It was a certain type of foul that he would get, not necessarily that he was prone to inexperienced fouling. It was easy to complain about because he always made me feel like he could learn to not do some of them, where as you can't really get too mad at him when another guy is able to just beat him in certain ways. Anyway, towards the end, he became solid (especially this year).

I didn't think that Stutz' biggest problem was with big opponents last year as in years past. Some games he was more effective than others. UNLV had a couple of big muscular centers and he played pretty well. His fouls happened often when players tried to drive past him (often on the perimeter) and he would stick out his hip to stop them.

As for Orupke, at Tulsa last year, in the final half, when our other bigs encountered foul problems, Orupke was our only option and he absolutely took over the game single handedly for a 5-10 minute period, blocking 2-3 shots, intimidating shooters in the lane for 2-3 additional misses, and grabbing a number of rebounds, many of these stops leading to fast break baskets. Tulsa was closing in on our double digit lead and in a matter of minutes, Orupke changed that. He has the athletic ability and aggressiveness to change games from his inside presence more than any other center in our league (and most other leagues too). He wasn't always this good but he could be amazing.

[Dave Stalwart]

Definitely, and the home Drake game, too. He was a monster inside. He is fun to watch when he gets comfortable.

Between Stutz and Durley, the last few years haven't had the kind of inside defense that make you jump up out of your seat, although they were great offensively and with fundamentals. I think this year, we could see some of the other with Orukpe, Hall and Lufile.

[C0|dB|00ded]

I don't know much about him, but my recollection of Orupke was that he fouled even more than Stutz. Outside of the games against Creighton, Stutz played pretty darn well, so I'm a bit surprised to read here and on the mVCfans site about Stutz being such a rabid fouler. To me, and I grant that I didn't see him as frequently as most posters here did, Stutz's struggle had more to do with times he was matched up with someone stronger rather than being too slow. It was his inability to stand his ground that led to a large number of foul calls. The games where he dominated were when he could outmuscle guys, not because he was quicker than them.

When Stutz dominated it was because the refs let him play. When he went to Creighton, he was whistled for a few ticky tack fouls and never even had a chance to warm up. Stutz is no superman, but he was big enough, and skilled enough to score against any center in the MVC.

If my recollection is accurate and Orupke's propensity to foul was much greater than Stutz's, that could really impact his effectiveness. He is really going to need to fix that or instead of the scouting report reading what you indicated, it may well read, "go right at him and get him in early foul trouble."

If he gets the same treatment up in Nebraska that Stutz got, he could very well be sitting for a majority of the game. However, he is faster than Stutz, stronger than stutz, has a longer wingspan than Stutz, and can jump much higher than Stutz. He's most likely smarter than Stutz as well considering his mathematical/engineering aptitude (but that hasn't translated into basketball IQ as of yet).

Distribution of minutes for WSU should be really intriguing. The athleticism of guards/wings should be your strength once again. I wish it was November...

Athleticism of ALL our players will be our strength. Nobody in the Valley will even compare. Some of our players need skill and experience, but athleticism (and size)... our cup runneth over.


T


...:cool:

[Spaulding]

3

I didn't think that Stutz' biggest problem was with big opponents last year as in years past. Some games he was more effective than others. UNLV had a couple of big muscular centers and he played pretty well. His fouls happened often when players tried to drive past him (often on the perimeter) and he would stick out his hip to stop them.

As for Orupke, at Tulsa last year, in the final half, when our other bigs encountered foul problems, Orupke was our only option and he absolutely took over the game single handedly for a 5-10 minute period, blocking 2-3 shots, intimidating shooters in the lane for 2-3 additional misses, and grabbing a number of rebounds, many of these stops leading to fast break baskets. Tulsa was closing in on our double digit lead and in a matter of minutes, Orupke changed that. He has the athletic ability and aggressiveness to change games from his inside presence more than any other center in our league (and most other leagues too). He wasn't always this good but he could be amazing.

The box score from the Tulsa game shows Ehimen with 0 rebounds, 0 points, and 2 blocks in 9 minutes of action.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=2851&DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=205345042

As for Cold's statements comparing Ehimen and Stutz physical prowess, I would agree with the fact that Orukpe may be more physically intimidating, but Garrett was light years ahead of him with regards to basketball skill, which is what matters most, IMO.