Paschal Chukwu

[SoBeCuse]

Do you ever find yourself wishing you rooted for another team?

I think we all do at times. When I need a break or timeout from our system and issues I’ll watch Michigan, ha. I have USC as well.

 

[Lucid]

I have a dream...

In my dream, Chukwu is under the basket, positioning for an offensive rebound. He wrests the ball from the opponent. Keeping the ball off the floor, his legs compress and then piston in one smooth motion, propelling him up and over his 6'9" defender. He extends his freakishly long arms and...

I woke up. It was just a dream.

 

[OrangeDW]

I think we all do at times. When I need a break or timeout from our system and issues I’ll watch Michigan, ha. I have USC as well.

Michigan looks like a strong national title contender.

 

[Halfmooncuse]

Why can’t we recruit a center? We don’t even have one on the horizon. Just imagine if we had an above average center.

 

[dollarbill44]

I wonder if his failure to focus on proper conditioning, including building his leg strength, has led to this most recent injury. Or maybe it's just I'm tired of recruiting giant stick figures for the zone instead of basketball players. He was insufficient to get serious minutes at Providence.

Come on man, he worked very hard in the offseason. It's not easy to maintain your height at 7 foot 2.

 

[Day2]

I think we all do at times.

I don't.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I don't.

Yay!

 

[pearl31]

Why can’t we recruit a center? We don’t even have one on the horizon. Just imagine if we had an above average center.

hey is st.johns playing tonight?

 

[longislandcuse]

Why can’t we recruit a center? We don’t even have one on the horizon. Just imagine if we had an above average center.

We’re the basketball equivalent of every SEC football team that has 4/5 star everything and can’t recruit a QB.

 

[Cusefan0307]

You guys realize nobody has a good back to the basket center in the ACC. Right?

 

[Col. Bleep]

I think Chukwu's defense going down the stretch was every bit as important as Battle's offense was.

Yes!
His play may have saved the game by undercutting OSU's comeback momentum.

We know what to expect.
He has limited offensive skills...but has dramatically improved from the foul line.

On defense he's the guy forcing altered shots and getting a hand on his share.
Remember the tourney game last season when he blocked a shot, fell down, then got up and hustled towards the corner to block another one?

No one...NOONE... on this team hustles more or plays harder than Paschal Chukwu does.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I know you've already been rebuked a bunch of times on this thread, and normally I don't like piling on ... but I want to actually answer this question, because nobody has and its important to note.

Chukwu got the freshman year Fab Melo token start in this game because he's hurt with a groin injury, so you can't blame muscle development like you did in some other post, unless you can think of a good groin work out he should try (who is going to make this joke I'm setting everybody up for?).

Boeheim started Chukwu so Ohio St would have to prepare for him, but he had no intention of playing Chukwu for more than a few minutes. I know this, because Chukwu hardly played at all until both Sidibe and Dolezaj fouled out, even though the only reliable scoring Ohio St was getting was throwing the ball down to their 300 pound center, having him throw a shoulder or elbow into a Syracuse player, and letting the official inexplicably call a foul on the Syracuse player who fell down.

That 300 pound center got 14 foul shots this way (all of them bullshit).

The funny thing is, even though Chukwu was not in the gameplan, and even though he was clearly playing hurt, that bullshit stopped when he got in the game. It stopped because when that 300 pound Ohio St center dropped his shoulder against Chukwu, he was able to stand his ground.

You try holding your ground against a 300 pound man pushing you around when you have a groin injury.

I think Chukwu's defense going down the stretch was every bit as important as Battle's offense was. I was extremely impressed with his strength and his high threshold for pain. He might be skinny but to my eyes he looked like the strongest guy on the court by a pretty wide margin.

And has anybody else noticed that Chukwu seems to play his best when his SU's back is against the wall? You've got to like that.

Interesting theories, but I disagree. With most of this. But I'm in an airport and have no interest in going point by point.

 

[Fly Rodder]

You guys realize nobody has a good back to the basket center in the ACC. Right?

Which is true, but I think expectations different for a lot of people. It's fortunate that SU has had some stellar do-it-all centers over the years, but it's been quiet on that front for a while. JAB has said that big men are dinosaurs from the past or something to that effect, I think.

If someone is expecting more than blocks and some rebounds out of Chukwu by this point, then they're disappointed in his game (not his effort). If they were expecting Rudy Gobert, then they're really disappointed. If you want a giant in the center of the paint to swat shots and just be a body on offense, then he's been serviceable to exceptional depending on the metric.

Chukwu is a one-dimensional center (blocking shots), but that one dimension is all-league quality. If JAB's absolute priority for his center is to just block shots, then Chukwu is practically engineered for him. The only center in P5 basketball with more than 100 minutes played and a similar block percentage to Chukwu is freshman McD AA 5* recruit Moses Brown.

 

[721Comstock]

Interesting theories, but I disagree. With most of this. But I'm in an airport and have no interest in going point by point.

Thank you baby Jeebus!!!

 

[Gotothehole]

You guys realize nobody has a good back to the basket center in the ACC. Right?

What are you talking about ? There are no bigs in the country we can get that catch the ball and dunk and chew gum at the same time?

 

[Lucid]

No one...NOONE... on this team hustles more or plays harder than Paschal Chukwu does.

Not TEN Games!

 

[NorSyr66]

I mean the development he made last year was amazing. I agree. Just be tall and work on positioning. In terms of offensive development, it may have been maxed out but hopefully he keeps getting better from an IQ standpoint. But, he needs to start these games better.

Good post. Folks need to remember how he played way over half the minutes in the games during the last half of the season last year. Sidibe was hurt most of the time. The huge progression he made last year was his improvement in foul shooting which seems to be going well also this year so far. So far this year we have played two teams with good bigmen (Oregon & OSU). I am sure there will be more but the 15 fouls we can use at 5 with players of a variety of skills can get us by as long as we get scoring from the other 4 positions. Chukwu is what he is, but more of an asset to our 2-3 zone defense than liability to our offense. LGO

 

[Nicknack]

I think we all do at times. When I need a break or timeout from our system and issues I’ll watch Michigan, ha. I have USC as well.

I don't.

Me neither, never considered it. If I need a break (usually from this board), I turn to Dino and company.

 

[br801]

We’re the basketball equivalent of every SEC football team that has 4/5 star everything and can’t recruit a QB.

Except the center position in college basketball today is nowhere near as important as a quarterback is in college football.

 

[Cusefan0307]

What are you talking about ? There are no bigs in the country we can get that catch the ball and dunk and chew gum at the same time?

Most teams are playing small ball.

 

[OHIORANGES]

I think we all do at times. When I need a break or timeout from our system and issues I’ll watch Michigan, ha. I have USC as well.

Muck Fichigan

 

[moqui]

When we are stall ball protecting a lead and don’t need to score a lot, and just need some boards and protecting the paint, he’s fine.

Maybe he should just be our closer?

Give him some entrance music and bring him in when we’re up a few hoops late in a game.

he's also good to have in there at the end because he's fairly reliable at the free throw line. after a bad start last season, i think he was basically a 70% ft shooter from about the uconn game onward.

 

[Halfmooncuse]

hey is st.johns playing tonight?

Themselves you know how that is when you play with yourself.

 

[moqui]

Do you ever find yourself wishing you rooted for another team?

more and more, i find myself wishing i liked a different sport

 

[jordoo]

more and more, i find myself wishing i liked a different sport

Its become harder and harder to enjoy watching. Not just SU but college b-ball in general. I care less for the regular season than I ever have. Years ago I’d have been posting here loosing my mind after our MSG losses. I can be a more reasonible and less reactionary fan now because I don’t enjoy the sport of college b-ball as much as I used to. That is the sad reality I have had to accept. Between officiating, NCAA corruption, the ridiculousness of how top recruits go where, style of play, NCAAT selection and main stream coverage It’s less meaningful for me these days. SU B-ball is still my biggest fandom by far though.