Welcome Malik Henry

I mentioned it in another thread, but can we either delete or admit that the rankings are of his high school and not of him. I'm sure you all can find something else to be critical of instead.

Piss off. All I did was post rankings. You make it sound like I'm bashing the kid.

You must be related to Jim, who I ignore.

FIFY

I am really excited about Malik Henry dawning the green and gold. If you guys have seen, he was the 2-time Defensive POY in High School. Out of our 3 incoming recruits, I think that Malik will provide the biggest impact right away because of his ability to defend the post. Oduro is quite nifty and gifted as an offensive threat, but he was not agile enough or strong enough to defend other big men down low. If he got pinned down, he would routinely allow the opponent to score. I really hope that Oduro gains that agility/quickness and turns that baby fat into muscle this summer. This offseason is huge for Oduro's development.

Malik is gonna team with AJ and provide fierce shot-blocking ability, and has the same type of athleticism as AJ possesses. It seems as though he's lengthier than AJ is too.

If anything, the addition of Malik gives us 5 more fouls to give in the post. The way I see it, we will have AJ (32 MPG), Oduro (28 MPG), and Calixte (5 MPG)...It allows Malik Henry to slot in with approx. 15 MPG as a true freshman between the 4-5 positions.

What in the actual F?!?

Good, cogent, well-considered post!

I think maybe he's not quite as athletic as AJ is, but as you mentioned, he's longer than AJ, so he may provide roughly equivalent rim protection.

All in all, I 100% agree with this post

I remember you saying something like "if Paulsen could actually reel in a big like Malik Henry, then I'll be happy with this class."

As soon as he actually committed, you got negative. Bravo.

Nice of you to repeat this minus the context.

I am higher on Malik than any recruit since AJ and JDS (my bad). Doesn't mean that equates to me thinking the team will suddenly become good. I don't have us coming in 4th or 6th like most of the homers that support our program do because that is absolutely crazy talk.

Malik Henry also not a traditional big but I am sure he will be mis used by Paulsen who has no idea how to coach athletic players

LOL, I think AJ Wilson would disagree with this.

LOLOLOL

You must have forgotten about the first 2 and 3/4 of AJs career. Next season hasn’t been written yet either..

I'm not going to say Paulsen's approach was the only one or even the best one, but it worked. AJ bought into the plan and did the work, and they transformed him from a freak athlete who hunted blocks and dunks into a well-rounded basketball player with great defensive instincts, a three-point shot, etc. The AJ we saw hit the floor last November was a project years in the making. AJ could have taken the easy way out and found another school with a Hewitt-type coach and immediate playing time, but he didn't, and he's a much, much better player as a result. The player we have today wouldn't exist without both AJ's hard work, and the staff challenging him to be better. I don't understand why this isn't seen as a success by Paulsen.

You don’t seriously think this right?

You mean the kid paulsen would pull immediately for any mistake while playing a flat footed 6 foot 8 dude that couldn’t run or jump over him that wasted OTis senior season. That AJ Wilson?

I would guess if AJ didn’t like the process he’d be gone, no?

In hindsight, I have no idea why Reuter was allowed to play, and I complained about his minutes many times as it was happening.

I didn't see AJ being treated much differently than any other player - Paulsen has made it clear from day one that if you can't play defense, you won't play. I assume the reason the old AJ got yanked so often was because he was repeatedly out of position on defense, moreso than any other player I can think of. The very first thing I noticed about AJ this past season, from the first scrimmage, was how much his defensive instincts had improved.

How do you think he achieved that improvement?

I mean you remember the rumors posters put on here about his mom wanting him to transfer but that he didn’t want to. I’m obviously glad he didn’t listen but let’s not act like it wasn’t veering that way.

Because Paulsen is the greatest coach in college basketball history

I heard he went back into the lab with his AAU coach and slowed the game down during the summer and came back a completely different dude. Paulsen gets some credit but he clearly stunted his growth his redshirt soph year