Tauren Thompson/ Kaleb | Syracusefan.com

Tauren Thompson/ Kaleb

OmahaCuse

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Not exactly tearing it up for SH. Typical SH head case only playing 12 minutes per game and not stuffing the stat sheet. Kaleb not exactly tearing it up either...No buyers remorse with these players.
 
It's unfortunate that it did not work out for Kaleb... seemed like a good kid.

He may have not taken enough of a step down in program / conference to get full playing time.
 
I don't think this was necessary.
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Nothing disparaging intended. I think Thompson appears aloof (maybe he is a great kid). Kaleb is a great kid and smart, will graduate and do good things in life just like a lot of other college grads. This is a basketball forum meant to discuss recruits, transfers, players, etc. Both guys were highly touted as possible NBA players so purely from a basketball only perspective, puts things in perspective that we are better off on the court without them. Unfortunately when you are a scholarship player you will get judged in any D1 program. Hope both of these kids are happy and get a education.
 
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Nothing disparaging intended. I think Thompson appears aloof (maybe he is a great kid). Kaleb is a great kid and smart, will graduate and do good things in life just like a lot of other college grads. This is a basketball forum meant to discuss recruits, transfers, players, etc. Both guys were highly touted as possible NBA players so purely from a basketball only perspective, puts things in perspective that we are better off on the court without them. Unfortunately when you are a scholarship player you will get judged in any D1 program. Hope both of these kids are happy and get a education.


It came off as you thumbing your nose at them, intended or not. I just don't see the point of highlighting their struggles. It's not like either left with a middle finger to the program or fans.

Kaleb was, more or less, forced out and TT wanted to be closer to home/mom.
 
Two misses, IMO. Kaleb was hand picked and he was a bad miss. Thompson was a later add and talented, but clearly not capable of being a starter for a Top 25 school. Truth sometimes isn't great. Wish them both luck.
 
Two misses, IMO. Kaleb was hand picked and he was a bad miss. Thompson was a later add and talented, but clearly not capable of being a starter for a Top 25 school. Truth sometimes isn't great. Wish them both luck.

Both logged big minutes for us as freshman. Not sure they were complete misses its not like we got into ACC play and Kaleb fell off a cliff got DNP-ed like a certain current freshman guard for us has. Both had a chance to sit and improve in an easier conference and have clearly blown it Creightons guards suck and Halls forwards suck. I'm surprised.

From a purely basketball standpoint with no intangibles factored in based on their play as freshmen both would have helped last years team that had no bench with 10-15 mins a game.
 
Not exactly tearing it up for SH. Typical SH head case only playing 12 minutes per game and not stuffing the stat sheet. Kaleb not exactly tearing it up either...No buyers remorse with these players.

Maybe it says something about our talent evaluation.
 
It came off as you thumbing your nose at them, intended or not. I just don't see the point of highlighting their struggles. It's not like either left with a middle finger to the program or fans.

Kaleb was, more or less, forced out and TT wanted to be closer to home/mom.

A middle finger would have been better than the way TT left.
 
This post would of been 10,000% better if you would of provided their stats.
 
Willard did make a comment about TTs defense a few weeks ago and how he’s still struggling
 
Maybe it says something about our talent evaluation.
I was thinking the same thing or shows how difficult it is to evaluate kids and predict where they will develop.
 
Maybe it says something about how sanctions hurt us. If you miss (and all teams do despite what some people think) it hurts you a lot more than when you have a full number of schollies.

Cuse!

Yeah, I think the Joseph schollie was a clear miss and it really hurt us, but ultimately that miss is amplified by the sanctions. Not sure either of those points are debatable. Now, if you want to argue that our overall talent evaluation is a problem, certainly Joseph would be exhibit A but I really don't know that there's much there to argue with. I mean, if anything we seem to still be in early on kids and then lose out late -- maybe that's an issue with closing or connections or recruiting effort, but it would at least suggest the staff knows what a good basketball prospect looks like.

Taurean Thompson to me, as a later add, was actually an example of good talent evalutaion but perhaps not the best evaluation of a player's off-the-court situation and, perhaps, his overall mentality. I mean, the kid averaged 9 a game in 18 minutes on 55% shooting as a true frosh big. You don't see that very often. But it just seems like those other issues are holding him back. Just sort of sad b/c he's a talented kid. Hopefully he figures it out.
 
It came off as you thumbing your nose at them, intended or not. I just don't see the point of highlighting their struggles. It's not like either left with a middle finger to the program or fans.

Kaleb was, more or less, forced out and TT wanted to be closer to home/mom.

Call me crazy, but didn't the SU coaches find out about TT after the school semester started and TT was a no show? I recall during that summer many posters wondering why he wasn't at SU all summer and what was going on. I also thought he disengaged from all of his teammates that had been attempting to get a hold of him? If that truly was the case, that's kind of him giving us the middle finger in my book, regardless of what his mother's involvement was, he was an adult.
 
Call me crazy, but didn't the SU coaches find out about TT after the school semester started and TT was a no show? I recall during that summer many posters wondering why he wasn't at SU all summer and what was going on. I also thought he disengaged from all of his teammates that had been attempting to get a hold of him? If that truly was the case, that's kind of him giving us the middle finger in my book, regardless of what his mother's involvement was, he was an adult.

Sounds like the coaches knew in June that he was transferring.

Why Taurean Thompson, once promising Syracuse forward, went back home
 
Call me crazy, but didn't the SU coaches find out about TT after the school semester started and TT was a no show? I recall during that summer many posters wondering why he wasn't at SU all summer and what was going on. I also thought he disengaged from all of his teammates that had been attempting to get a hold of him? If that truly was the case, that's kind of him giving us the middle finger in my book, regardless of what his mother's involvement was, he was an adult.

That's less an FU and more a product of immaturity, imo. It wasn't cool, but I was referring to the fact that there didn't appear to be any animosity or malice. His mom was handed a bag of money, or whatever, and convinced her son to come back home to play ball.

I wasn't happy when he left and didn't appreciate the way he left, but pointing and laughing at him this far down the road just seems to be in poor taste.
 
Are you sure?

This is from your link: But sometime late in the summer of 2017, he said, he notified Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim that he would transfer

He wasn't in Syracuse all summer long, and he wasn't returning any phone calls.

I'm sure JB at least suspected that TT was unhappy.
 
To me, KJ2 was a baffling miss. I thought he would be good. Identified by the staff early. They have a good record on those recruits.

To me, TT made a mistake. I know it's not in vogue, but I think he would have been developed at SU into much more than what we're seeing at the Hall. He would have needed to learn defense, the much easier side to learn. He would have the scoring center role. The Marek/Lydon role. TT still would have needed to improve his D, but he could easily have made strides in that department, IMO, by just improving his effort and decision making. He made a mistake, at SU he would have had Marek's minutes with more of an offensive pop.
 
He wasn't in Syracuse all summer long, and he wasn't returning any phone calls.

I'm sure JB at least suspected that TT was unhappy.
I'm sure JAB thought he had seen everything in all his years of coaching but how often would you have a player not talk to any coach or player. JAB did fly down there in August to probably find out what was going on and to see if he could talk TT to come back. Really weird that no one knew for sure because of the lack of communication.

But sometime late in the summer of 2017, he said, he notified Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim that he would transfer. He explained to Boeheim that his decision was not related to frustration with playing time or the coaches. Instead, he wanted to play at a New York area school to be near his mom, who had begun “experiencing some issues,” he said.

Soon, Thompson said, Boeheim flew from Syracuse to New Jersey to meet with him. He did not recall much of the August 2017 meeting. Thompson explained his mother’s health.
 
TT ghosted JB... All the millennials are doing it... It's socially acceptable now ;)
 
He would have needed to learn defense, the much easier side to learn.
I"m not sure about that, especially if you're not motivated but even if you are. Not every four-year player got the hang of the zone.

He's been at SH two years and his coach says he's struggling on defense. He might not have done well here.
 

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