A Couple of Coleman Thoughts......

[newmexicuse]

Firstly, I am thrilled that DC chose us. Welcome aboard !!!!

Secondly, I have only seen a couple of clips, but from what little I have seen I love his combination of power and skills. He will be a monster !!!

Thirdly, I think the only thing that might hold him back is his conditioning. He is not only our biggest thickburger, but he is a Man v Food Caliber Thickburger. I hope he commits to losing 25 pounds in the next season, if so, I just can't see anything holding him back.

Fourth, there is talk of him playing 4 or 5. I just can't see him at the 4 in our system unless he loses that weight & improves his quickness.

 

[rrlbees]

Firstly, I am thrilled that DC chose us. Welcome aboard !!!!

Secondly, I have only seen a couple of clips, but from what little I have seen I love his combination of power and skills. He will be a monster !!!

Thirdly, I think the only thing that might hold him back is his conditioning. He is not only our biggest thickburger, but he is a Man v Food Caliber Thickburger. I hope he commits to losing 25 pounds in the next season, if so, I just can't see anything holding him back.

Fourth, there is talk of him playing 4 or 5. I just can't see him at the 4 in our system unless he loses that weight & improves his quickness.

ditto on all.

 

[cuseclappy]

Firstly, I am thrilled that DC chose us. Welcome aboard !!!!

Secondly, I have only seen a couple of clips, but from what little I have seen I love his combination of power and skills. He will be a monster !!!

Thirdly, I think the only thing that might hold him back is his conditioning. He is not only our biggest thickburger, but he is a Man v Food Caliber Thickburger. I hope he commits to losing 25 pounds in the next season, if so, I just can't see anything holding him back.

Fourth, there is talk of him playing 4 or 5. I just can't see him at the 4 in our system unless he loses that weight & improves his quickness.

nicely said agree on all parts

 

[OttoMets]

Firstly, I am thrilled that DC chose us. Welcome aboard !!!!

Secondly, I have only seen a couple of clips, but from what little I have seen I love his combination of power and skills. He will be a monster !!!

Thirdly, I think the only thing that might hold him back is his conditioning. He is not only our biggest thickburger, but he is a Man v Food Caliber Thickburger. I hope he commits to losing 25 pounds in the next season, if so, I just can't see anything holding him back.

Fourth, there is talk of him playing 4 or 5. I just can't see him at the 4 in our system unless he loses that weight & improves his quickness.

Good points.

I like an offensively skilled center. I like one even more if he's a more aggressive rebounder than Otis Hill or Arinze, and more still if he's not 30 pounds overweight.

If Coleman works on the last, and is as good as advertised at the first two, he'll be a tremendous asset.

 

[cortacuse]

McKenney seems to think all of this will happen with SU's S&C program.

 

[newmexicuse]

McKenney seems to think all of this will happen with SU's S&C program.

Yes, but the question is can he improve his conditioning & do the weight loss before he hits the Hill.

 

[Jake]

Firstly, I am thrilled that DC chose us. Welcome aboard !!!!

Secondly, I have only seen a couple of clips, but from what little I have seen I love his combination of power and skills. He will be a monster !!!

Thirdly, I think the only thing that might hold him back is his conditioning. He is not only our biggest thickburger, but he is a Man v Food Caliber Thickburger. I hope he commits to losing 25 pounds in the next season, if so, I just can't see anything holding him back.

Fourth, there is talk of him playing 4 or 5. I just can't see him at the 4 in our system unless he loses that weight & improves his quickness.

The JD high school coach said that DaJuan was committed to getting a dietician and will work on reshaping his body. Admitting that he had some baby fat that needed to go. He needs to lose more than 25lbs. Closer to 35.

 

[OttoMets]

Yes, but the question is can he improve his conditioning & do the weight loss before he hits the Hill.

Yeah, good call, the Fabricio de Melo Plan of losing weight while the season is going on wasn't exactly a wild success.

Of course anyone could infer this from my somewhat tempered posts about Coleman, but I think it's a bit of a red flag that he's way overweight and his high school coach excuses it away by saying "Wait until he gets to a real S&C program." They're not aware of the benefits of eating fewer calories and running at J-D? Something's off there.

Coleman's got all the tools to be a very good (I was going to say Big East, but it could well be ACC) center, but we've got generations of evidence that overweight high school players, no matter how talented, have difficulty adjusting to the college game while struggling with physical fitness. This year (and last year and the year before that) is the time to get into shape, not after he's enrolled at SU.

 

[Upstate]

The JD high school coach said that DaJuan was committed to getting a dietician and will work on reshaping his body. Admitting that he had some baby fat that needed to go. He needs to lose more than 25lbs. Closer to 35.

Truth be told, he looked thinner than I thought he would in that suit yesterday. He didn't look like Amare, but he didn't look chunky-chunky.

 

[Francis03]

Last spring Coleman got his weight down to 265 and looked to be in the best shape of his life. Then fast forward to the summer and his weight went back up to the 290's. He has shown that he can lose weight and be in good shape, my concern is just him controlling his weight at a steady level where needed.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Firstly, I am thrilled that DC chose us. Welcome aboard !!!!

Secondly, I have only seen a couple of clips, but from what little I have seen I love his combination of power and skills. He will be a monster !!!

Thirdly, I think the only thing that might hold him back is his conditioning. He is not only our biggest thickburger, but he is a Man v Food Caliber Thickburger. I hope he commits to losing 25 pounds in the next season, if so, I just can't see anything holding him back.

Fourth, there is talk of him playing 4 or 5. I just can't see him at the 4 in our system unless he loses that weight & improves his quickness.

Great post, Francis. There is no chance, zero, none, nada, that Coleman is a 4 in our system. He is just too big to be able to cover the corners and rotate out on shooters. We have way too many guys like Christmas and C.J. who are more mobile. I agree, he's really got to lose weight.

I saw him talking in his interview about having lost 10 pounds and being really proud of it. He needs someone to tell him that he has a long way to go. But I guess he'll find that out once he's starts practicing with our other big guys.

 

[RaleighSUfan]

Firstly, I am thrilled that DC chose us. Welcome aboard !!!!

Secondly, I have only seen a couple of clips, but from what little I have seen I love his combination of power and skills. He will be a monster !!!

Thirdly, I think the only thing that might hold him back is his conditioning. He is not only our biggest thickburger, but he is a Man v Food Caliber Thickburger. I hope he commits to losing 25 pounds in the next season, if so, I just can't see anything holding him back.

Fourth, there is talk of him playing 4 or 5. I just can't see him at the 4 in our system unless he loses that weight & improves his quickness.

I agree with your thoughts. The one thing I'll add is that if Rick Jackson can convert to the "4" in our system, I'm fairly confident that DaJuan Coleman can as well. When Rick Jackson came in as a freshman and even during his sophomore year, he was out of shape, unathletic and slow. He worked hard to transform his body and by his junior year and even moreso in his senior year he was in great shape... much more athletic and much quicker. There was no chance the freshman version of Rick Jackson could have played the 4.

 

[OttosBestFriend]

...but we've got generations of evidence that overweight high school players, no matter how talented, have difficulty adjusting to the college game while struggling with physical fitness.

Ever heard of Rick Jackson?

Guy was puffier than a bag of Cheetos when he arrived at 'Cuse.

He left a lean, mean, rebounding machine - very capable of playing the 4 when needed.

 

[Upstate]

Last spring Coleman git his weight down to 265 and looked to be in the best shape of his life. Then fast forward to the summer and his weight went back up to the 290's. He has shown that he can lose weight and be in good shape, my concern is just him controlling his weight at a steady level where needed.

I think when he has a stable regimen...and a staff that will look after him 24/7, I don't think there will be much to worry about. You can only do so much in HS as a coach to get kids to go to the gym. The facilities at SU, plus probably having someone in your ear 100% of the time will make that happen. Just a personal opinion. We've seen it with Melo, and I hope DC does the same. Is he allowed to use the University's facilities after he graduates HS? That means he could be in the weight room over the summer, which is where I'd imagine is the highest risk-period for gaining weight.

 

[SU in Hershey]

Instead of the question of 4 v. 5 for DC2, what about Fab being a 4? Crazy maybe, but he may have/develop a skill set for it. Videos of him while he was in high school showed some nice range and touch...could it translate?

 

[Rocco]

Firstly, I am thrilled that DC chose us. Welcome aboard !!!!

Secondly, I have only seen a couple of clips, but from what little I have seen I love his combination of power and skills. He will be a monster !!!

Thirdly, I think the only thing that might hold him back is his conditioning. He is not only our biggest thickburger, but he is a Man v Food Caliber Thickburger. I hope he commits to losing 25 pounds in the next season, if so, I just can't see anything holding him back.

Fourth, there is talk of him playing 4 or 5. I just can't see him at the 4 in our system unless he loses that weight & improves his quickness.

I agree but this will all come down do your 3rd point. If he can re-shape his body like Rick did, look out. He could be an absolute beast in the paint. I also think he could slide enough to play the 4 if he weighed 245-255. No way he could right now. I think of DC as Arinze with a 14 foot jump shot. That is all we need.

 

[OttoMets]

Ever heard of Rick Jackson?

Guy was puffier than a bag of Cheetos when he arrived at 'Cuse.

He left a lean, mean, rebounding machine - very capable of playing the 4 when needed.

Uh huh. And, just as I said, he had great difficulty adjusting to the college game.

 

[reedny]

Getting his commit is sweet ... now we can relax and speculate about his weight and the various frontcourt rotations.

In trying to understand DC's skillset, the first thing I notice is that, if he's in shape (i'm guessing in the 255-265 range), he's a defensive matchup problem. If you put a big (like a 7'0) center on him, he's capable of moving around the defender or facing up and shooting the mid-range jumper. If you play a smaller PF against him, he will just post up. If you double him, he's capable of passing out of the block to another big or a perimeter player.

This gives the coaches options and creates problems for opposing teams, which is why JB has already stated (according to DC) that DC will play "the 4 or the 5". C is the obvious choice given his post up ability. But it's not impossible that he would see some time at PF, for a few reasons.

First, Although DC was an obvious Center in HS with his size, PF is his natural position in college and the NBA. He's already working on a face-up game. According to his coach at JD, he has a mid-range jumper and is even capable of shooting from the outside. Clearly, at the college level, he'll need to slim down in order to move his feet and handle the ball against better/quicker players. But I don't see this as a stretch because his post game is already there and he understands where his future is as a player.

Second, with KJ moving on and X-Mas the lone sophomore big enough to play the 4, there will be some minutes available off-center. The 5 will have 2 junior players who are not only more experienced but also much taller. Keita can (and has) play(ed) the 4, but practice reports (and X-Mas) have him at center backing up Melo and the need for this is obvious. So the 4 looks like the most likely spot from a 'minutes'/backup standpoint.

Third, having either Melo or Keita at center with DC at the 4 doesn't mean that DC can't guard the opposing center. This would allow the taller center to block shots off the ball on defense (not DC's forte'). On offense it makes less difference -- DC can do his thing and the center can rotate into the paint for rebounds and put-backs.

The main issue will be DC's mobility. Can he get his weight down enough (ala RJ) so he can guard the wing and blossom as a PF? I'm guessing he can, but either way, his inside offense will be a godsend.

 

[l'orange]

I expect to see DC2 in a similar style as Arinze but maybe a bit further along, maybe like Arinze as a Junior. I worry about him running the court because we have some speedy athletes surrounding him and the impact on knees for these bigger guys can be very damaging. I will say it will be nice to have a guy that we can throw it into and can carve out space under the hoop. I can't foresee DC2 being a prolific shot blocker which puts some pressure on the 4 being active and lanky. Fortunately, XMas and Keita could fit that role nicely.

 

[SU8888]

My prediction Fab/Coleman 5 kieta/ Christmas 4 CJ/ Grant 3. Atleast for the first year, after that DC could transition to the 4 after christmas/ CJ are possible going to the NBA. Kieta can definately play the 4 on defense and would probably be most effective there because he is so long and fast. On offense that might be a different story

 

[baggerbob]

Isn't it nice to be thinking about having so much talent that is interchangeble on offence and defense. Defense is where the size of all 4 will make the biggest impact in blocking and altering shots, as long as they remember to rebound they could be a devastating team.