9 centers in 9 years

[moqui]

At the beginning of the century, Craig Forth and Mookie Watkins were steady and dependable (if unspectacular) fixtures in the middle of SU's back line. Since then, the school has given scholarships to 9 different centers, and many of them have either transferred, been injured, or had eligibility issues. It's not quite a Spinal Tap drummer curse, but it's noticeable. Here's hoping Keita is back so he and Roc (and Chinonso) break the pattern.

• 2005 Arinze Onuaku, lost season to injured knee, ended college career with quadriceps injury
• 2006 Devin Brennan-McBride, shoulder injury ended career
• 2007 Rick Jackson, 4 year player, Big East Defensive POY, one of the school's all time winningest players and top ten all time rebounder
• 2007 Sean Williams, transferred
• 2009 Dashonte Riley, transferred
• 2010 Fab Melo, academically ineligible
• 2010 Baye Moussa Keita, 4 year player, valuable off-the-box-score contributor, one of the five winningest players in school history, injured thumb as a frosh and injured knee as a senior
• 2011 Rakeem Christmas, has played every game in his 3 years and steadily improved; on track to become the winningest player in school history
• 2012 Dajuan Coleman, season ending injury sophomore year
  
• 2013 Chinonso Obokoh, no data yet

note: the year is the year of their commitment

 

[cto]

You make it sound better than it is.

You forgot DaJuan Coleman.

 

[moqui]

You make it sound better than it is.

You forgot DaJuan Coleman.

damn, I had him on the list, too. must have accidentally deleted him when I added CO. will edit to correct.

and of course that makes it 10 centers in 9 years.

 

[jdubs30]

Man if we had Rick the last 4 years we might have a title or 2.

 

[Libero2]

Not to nitpick... but how can you say Rak is on track to be the winningest player in SU history?

curious to see the numbers, but I would bet he is still about 40-50 wins short of that goal right now, that a lot or remaining the success he has yet to go before he gets to be the winningest player in SU history.

Wasn't Triche and J-South having like 138 wins or some absurd number like that?

 

[cto]

Both CJ and Baye were on track to break the record this year. Let's hope they both do it (i.e., silent prayer for Baye's quick healing there).

 

[moqui]

Not to nitpick... but how can you say Rak is on track to be the winningest player in SU history?

curious to see the numbers, but I would bet he is still about 40-50 wins short of that goal right now, that a lot or remaining the success he has yet to go before he gets to be the winningest player in SU history.

Wasn't Triche and J-South having like 138 wins or some absurd number like that?

Triche is the all time leader with 121 wins; Dirty didn't even crack 100 (I only count games in which they actually appeared)
here's the unupdated list . . . currently, Baye is sitting at 111 and CJ at 110

Every guy on that list didn't notch their 100th win until sometime in their senior seasons . . . Roc is sitting on 87 and has a shot at getting to 100 as a junior. Let that settle in for a moment.

 

[moqui]

Both CJ and Baye were on track to break the record this year. Let's hope they both do it (i.e., silent prayer for Baye's quick healing there).

Baye is 11 and CJ is 12 wins away from breaking Triche's career record of 121.

 

[Waltdods]

At the beginning of the century, Craig Forth and Mookie Watkins were steady and dependable (if unspectacular) fixtures in the middle of SU's back line. Since then, the school has given scholarships to 9 different centers, and many of them have either transferred, been injured, or had eligibility issues. It's not quite a Spinal Tap drummer curse, but it's noticeable. Here's hoping Keita is back so he and Roc (and Chinonso) break the pattern.

• 2005 Arinze Onuaku, lost season to injured knee, ended college career with quadriceps injury
• 2006 Devin Brennan-McBride, shoulder injury ended career
• 2007 Rick Jackson, 4 year player, Big East Defensive POY, one of the school's all time winningest players and top ten all time rebounder
• 2007 Sean Williams, transferred
• 2009 Dashonte Riley, transferred
• 2010 Fab Melo, academically ineligible
• 2010 Baye Moussa Keita, 4 year player, valuable off-the-box-score contributor, one of the five winningest players in school history, injured thumb as a frosh and injured knee as a senior
• 2011 Rakeem Christmas, has played every game in his 3 years and steadily improved; on track to become the winningest player in school history
• 2012 Dajuan Coleman, season ending injury sophomore year
  
• 2013 Chinonso Obokoh, no data yet

note: the year is the year of their commitment

The luck has been, to put it mildly, less than great.

I do think centers are just generally going to be a gamble in the college game. First, there are only so many people 6'9" and taller in the world; the pool of very tall people who are going to actually be good at basketball is pretty small. But a lot of such folks still get scholarships because the "You can't teach height" cliche is true (on this list, DBM and Sean Williams certainly fall in that category, as do past greats like Billy Celuck and Elvir Ovcina). Second, and this is totally unscientific, I think they get hurt more. Part of this may just be an extension of the first - D-I centers are, on average, less athletically gifted than players at other positions, so they get hurt more. Part of it is that being that big has inherent health risks (I think AO and Dajuan might fall in this category). And some small part of it might be that they're banging a lot.

As a not quite random example to show this isn't confined to Syracuse, here are the centers Georgetown has signed who could theoretically be playing this year:

• 2013: Josh Smith (suspended, academic reasons)
• 2012: Brandon Bolden (transferred after freshman year); Bradley Hayes (still on team but buried deep on the bench)
• 2011: Tyler Adams (career ended before it began because of health issues); Mikael Hopkins (current starter)
• 2010: Moses Ayegba (on team, contributing as backup C)

So six guys were signed to produce two guys who are contributing. Combined, the two most highly-recruited guys (Adams and Smith) have played about half a season.

 

[Libero2]

Baye is 11 and CJ is 12 wins away from breaking Triche's career record of 121.

When did CJ miss a game to be a win behind Baye?

 

[Libero2]

Triche is the all time leader with 121 wins; Dirty didn't even crack 100 (I only count games in which they actually appeared)
here's the unupdated list . . . currently, Baye is sitting at 111 and CJ at 110

Every guy on that list didn't notch their 100th win until sometime in their senior seasons . . . Roc is sitting on 87 and has a shot at getting to 100 as a junior. Let that settle in for a moment.

If Rak wins 100 games in 3 years.. That's just flat out absurd.

Out of curiosity does anybody know who the winningest player in NCAA history is? I assume it's one of the UCLA guys who won 88 in a row.

 

[moqui]

When did CJ miss a game to be a win behind Baye?

it is explained in the linked post

 

[General20]

If Rak wins 100 games in 3 years.. That's just flat out absurd.

Out of curiosity does anybody know who the winningest player in NCAA history is? I assume it's one of the UCLA guys who won 88 in a row.

From what I found with a quick google search, Shane Battier is the winningest player with 133 wins.

Christmas is on pace to get right about that same number if SU can keep it up for another year and a half.

 

[OttoMets]

If Rak wins 100 games in 3 years.. That's just flat out absurd.

Out of curiosity does anybody know who the winningest player in NCAA history is? I assume it's one of the UCLA guys who won 88 in a row.

Gotta be an early-'90s Duke player like Laettner or Hill, I'd guess. They just played so many more games than '70s-era players (with more limited schedules and ineligible freshmen) did.

 

[upperdeck]

When the record doesnt include UCLA players that lost a game or 2 in a career its pretty much a meaningless record.

 

[Shawn91111]

Battier as said before has 133, Wayne Turner from UK has 132

 

[PeteCalvin]

Battier as said before has 133, Wayne Turner from UK has 132

Wayne Turner. He was one of the "back-up" plans we missed out on when we thought we had Marbury in the bag. Oh Lord

 

[HoustonCuse]

Coleman actually lost both his frosh and sophomore seasons to year ending knee injuries.

 

[two3zone]

A lot of centers at every level go down with injuries. These are huge dudes constantly jumping around and running with a lot of weight on their joints. We've caught some bad breaks but we've seemed to always be solid in that department.

 

[Opus]

It's karma. Everyone (well OK a lot of people) seemed to pile on Craig Forth for his deficiencies. He was the starter for the 2003 Championship Team. Since then? Can we bury/burn a Forth jersey (if one exists) asap paying homage to him?

 

[Dave85]

Man if we had Rick the last 4 years we might have a title or 2.

Rick and Arinze were the best I've seen a long time. I still think Christmas has a chance to make his mark. He's been showing some brilliance at both ends of the court. CJ says Obokoh has a very good knack for timing his jump on rebounding and that he usually ends up with the ball even though he's not the tallest center. I am looking forward to seeing Obokoh play next season.

 

[two3zone]

Rick and Arinze were the best I've seen a long time. I still think Christmas has a chance to make his mark. He's been showing some brilliance at both ends of the court. CJ says Obokoh has a very good knack for timing his jump on rebounding and that he usually ends up with the ball even though he's not the tallest center. I am looking forward to seeing Obokoh play next season.

Having a combo like a senior Arinze and a junior Rj is crazy. I don't think we've ever had two low post guys THAT good at the same time a long time before that and may not for a long long time. Considering how much the PF position has changed even in just a few years we may never see it again. I really do appreciate those two and the great careers they had here. I always thought Rj was very under appreciated. I wasn't around these parts when he played but that's the impression I got from other fans.

 

[jdubs30]

Having a combo like a senior Arinze and a junior Rj is crazy. I don't think we've ever had two low post guys THAT good at the same time a long time before that and may not for a long long time. Considering how much the PF position has changed even in just a few years we may never see it again. I really do appreciate those two and the great careers they had here. I always thought Rj was very under appreciated. I wasn't around these parts when he played but that's the impression I got from other fans.

People always talked about Scoop, KrisJo or Waiters before RJax was ever mentioned. He was just someone that was taken for granted. We pretty much went from Arinze to him, so it was easy to forget about him. But now that we haven't had a legit low post scorer in a while, it's easy to see how good/important Jackson was.

 

[Doc5120]

Having a combo like a senior Arinze and a junior Rj is crazy. I don't think we've ever had two low post guys THAT good at the same time a long time before that and may not for a long long time. Considering how much the PF position has changed even in just a few years we may never see it again. I really do appreciate those two and the great careers they had here. I always thought Rj was very under appreciated. I wasn't around these parts when he played but that's the impression I got from other fans.

How dare you disrespect Mookie Watkins & Terrence Roberts!

I agree with you. Experience, ability to score efficiently in the post, solid rebounders (specifically Rick). Those guys were very good for us throughout their careers.