Class of 2020 C Noah Waterman (NY) Portal to Louisville

[CardiacCuse]

Sounds like that visit tomorrow may be Louisville based on twitter chatter. I'd really hate that.

didnt a PF just commit to lousivulle though?

 

[Cuse99&01]

didnt a PF just commit to lousivulle though?

Yep. And they just got a commit from a 4-star freshman (Booths - decommitted from Michigan) that is listed as a SF/PF (depending on site). They also have two other SFs and 2 Centers that transferred in this offseason. That is a pretty crowded front court.

 

[two3zone]

Yep. And they just got a commit from a 4-star freshman (Booths - decommitted from Michigan) that is listed as a SF/PF (depending on site). They also have two other SFs and 2 Centers that transferred in this offseason. That is a pretty crowded front court.

Yet we can't ruffle Lampkin's feathers.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

Very little ball handling plus a lot of guard playing matador defense. Think you believe that Bell can play guard. Bell can stand on one side of the floor and shoot.-

Hypothetically, a lineup of Lampkin, Freeman, Bell, Waterman and Starling is possible... Nobody else has been promised a starting spot.

If he starts at guard, I would be curious how opponents defend us. Technically, Starling would be our point guard, and Waterman would be taller than both our forwards from the guard position.

Somebody from our opponents would be trying to guard somebody way taller than them.

Would they be able to punish us enough on the other end to make us come out of it? It might be interesting for 4 minutes at the start of the game, and then we can move into a more traditional rotation after that. It would be similar to when JB clearly had token starters in order to honor recruiting commitments back in the day.

But Waterman wouldn't get Boeheimed after getting pulled.

 

[M2MPrinciples]

Unfortunately, our recent history with bigs reinforce that bad feeling. I don't know if we've just rolled snake eyes a few times in a row, but Coleman, Sidibe, Hima, McLeod, Chukwu, Edwards and Onuaku are big men who all had severe, season ending or career affecting injuries in the last 14 seasons.

I'd go so far as to say we've had more big men suffer injuries than stayed healthy over that time period. Christmas, Jackson, Keita and Lydon (playing out of position) are the only guys who stayed healthy and productive their whole career. Big men just seem to be fragile, or we've been really unlucky.

And Coleman, Hima and Sidibe never actually recovered.

So, yeah, you might be irrational thinking that McLeod might be toast, but a lot of us share that fear. With good reason.

Not to dwell (but I guess I am), but one of the most frustrating things about JB's unwillingness to move on from the zone was his love for those types even though the same things that made them weapons in the back made them injury-prone and limited on the offensive end.

I know Chukwu had a digestive condition that made it hard for him to put on weight (and Dajuan had the opposite problem), but other than that I don't think it was bad luck because many of those guys were never going to have much upside as long as they stayed 6'10" and 215.

 

[CardiacCuse]

Yep. And they just got a commit from a 4-star freshman (Booths - decommitted from Michigan) that is listed as a SF/PF (depending on site). They also have two other SFs and 2 Centers that transferred in this offseason. That is a pretty crowded front court.

yeah no way louisville should now be able to beat SU for a PF recruit given this

 

[RyanCuse44]

Who’s McCloud?

Heard he's buddies with Sam Elliott

 

[Niastri]

Very little ball handling plus a lot of guard playing matador defense. Think you believe that Bell can play guard. Bell can stand on one side of the floor and shoot.-

No, I was thinking Waterman could handle the ball well enough where we could survive with a 3 forward lineup for short periods. Waterman had some pretty impressive dribbling highlights. Freeman can handle it as well. Nobody would be putting Bell at guard.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

The kid would play at the 4 or maybe the 3 if we go big and zone from time to time. Every starter up front has a size appropriate Back up.

 

[rrlbees]

Hypothetically, a lineup of Lampkin, Freeman, Bell, Waterman and Starling is possible... Nobody else has been promised a starting spot.

If he starts at guard, I would be curious how opponents defend us. Technically, Starling would be our point guard, and Waterman would be taller than both our forwards from the guard position.

Somebody from our opponents would be trying to guard somebody way taller than them.

Would they be able to punish us enough on the other end to make us come out of it? It might be interesting for 4 minutes at the start of the game, and then we can move into a more traditional rotation after that. It would be similar to when JB clearly had token starters in order to honor recruiting commitments back in the day.

But Waterman wouldn't get Boeheimed after getting pulled.

Waterman’s not gonna play the 2.

 

[JDubbin]

I think we should start every game with 6 players on the court… take the immediate technical while simultaneously checking all of our starter commitment boxes, and keep it moving from there

 

[OrangeXtreme]

I think we should start every game with 6 players on the court… take the immediate technical while simultaneously checking all of our starter commitment boxes, and keep it moving from there

UNLV did that once on Senior Night back in the 80's or 90's.

They had all six seniors on the court and took the technical.

They still won by 30.

 

[Tony DeFranco]

Are we actually talking to him or is this board speculation? He looks excellent in the vid

 

[721Comstock]

Are we actually talking to him or is this board speculation? He looks excellent in the vid

Yes.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Yes.

 

[Cuse99&01]

I think we should start every game with 6 players on the court… take the immediate technical while simultaneously checking all of our starter commitment boxes, and keep it moving from there

You know if a team has 6 players on the court and the refs don’t catch it and that team scores a basket, it would actually count.

 

[Niastri]

You know if a team has 6 players on the court and the refs don’t catch it and that team scores a basket, it would actually count.

Somebody get Higgins out of retirement, that guy couldn't see anything when he was young!

 

[AlaskaSU]

Very little ball handling plus a lot of guard playing matador defense. Think you believe that Bell can play guard. Bell can stand on one side of the floor and shoot.-

Bell belongs at SG. Forwards muscle him. At shooting guard he would have a height advantage and be on the perimeter. With 3 bigs up-front we can protect the paint.

 

[Niastri]

Bell belongs at SG. Forwards muscle him. At shooting guard he would have a height advantage and be on the perimeter. With 3 bigs up-front we can protect the paint.

If Bell had his current elite shooting, and a well rounded game, we could get away with that.

He would need to improve his defense in every area, his ball handling off the dribble, and probably three other skills I'm forgetting right now before he would be remotely playable at guard.

Some people here aren't sure he's playable at forward!

 

[Cappy3]

Bell belongs at SG. Forwards muscle him. At shooting guard he would have a height advantage and be on the perimeter. With 3 bigs up-front we can protect the paint.

There is basically no one Bell could cover as a teo. Not to mention he lacks the ball handling and passing skills necessary. Especially if you’re thinking of Starling, a pure 2, as the point.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Confirmed that he’s at Louisville tonight.

 

[CU44SE]

I know it’s only 1 year. And call me crazy. I would prefer this kid over bell.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I know it’s only 1 year. And call me crazy. I would prefer this kid over bell.

Why? What is this for?

 

[CU44SE]

Why? What is this for?

What do you mean, what is this for? I would take this kid and play him more minutes than bell. Bell is 1 dimensional. He can’t dribble, can’t drive, can’t play defense, can’t rebound. I would plug this guy at the 3 in place of bell. I would go with Carlos, JJ, Waterman, Freeman, Lampkin. Westry and Bell would be first guys off the bench.

Still doesn’t solve our PG issue. But I think this would be a much better front line.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

What do you mean, what is this for? I would take this kid and play him more minutes than bell. Bell is 1 dimensional. He can’t dribble, can’t drive, can’t play defense, can’t rebound. I would plug this guy at the 3 in place of bell. I would go with Carlos, JJ, Waterman, Freeman, Lampkin. Westry and Bell would be first guys off the bench.

Still doesn’t solve our PG issue. But I think this would be a much better front line.

It's just ironic that in this transfer portal world on the one hand there's all this hand wringing about how there's no point developing players anymore because chances are they're just one year players and it's not the college basketball landscape we used to know, and then on the other hand we have a player in Bell who we're actually watching develop over multiple years in the program and all off-season we've had posters engineering fanciful ways out of nowhere to dump him or replace him because they don't actually appreciate his game.