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Cliff on NBA prospects: Worried about inability to shoot 3s

This is why people saying "Clif coming back improves his NBA draft prospects" is clueless.

What he's lacking isn't going to change.
He is what he is from the NBA prospective.

From this past offseason and his NBA process:

 
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3s and dribbling are certainly not his forte. I’d focus on his hands and a mid range if I were him. Hope he comes back.
 
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This is why people saying "Clif coming back improves his NBA draft prospects" is clueless.

What he's lacking isn't going to change.
He is what he is from the NBA prospective.

From this past offseason and his NBA process:

Be honest - Cliff's best shot at NBA is to go to UConn, Kentucky, or somewhere with stronger offensive coaching.
 
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He should go to the G league or play in Europe. He has nothing left to do at the college level that will change his trajectory. If he comes back that's great but if not I appreciate everything he did, great kid and great center we will be talking about a generation from now.
 
It’s a shame our guards couldn’t give good bounce passes to Cliff, most where at his feet. Not his fault, many times.
 
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I love Cliff but he needs to use what is left in his body to go to Europe or G League. He’ll either develop his shot there or he won’t. He’ll be a superior rim protector and priby isn’t improving much there so why get beat up anymore in college. Go get paid
 
It’s a shame our guards couldn’t give good bounce passes to Cliff, most where at his feet. Not his fault, many times.
Exactly. Cliff has never been able to catch a pass below his waist yet our guards continually pass him the ball around his knees. Drives me nuts
 
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As much as we like Pike, the fact that he doesn't develop any of his players is an indictment of his coaching regime. Cliff is just the latest example.
Good point. I remember four years ago when Cliff stepped in as a freshman and was immediately one of the best defensive centers in the country.
 
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As much as we like Pike, the fact that he doesn't develop any of his players is an indictment of his coaching regime. Cliff is just the latest example.
No coach has done more with less. Mostly working with lumps of coal and turning some of them into diamonds. Of the three recent players that transferred out looking for greener pastures, Both Mulcahy and Jacob Young did worse after transferring from RU. Spencer is doing fine, scoring 1.5 points more at UConn per game, but it's not because of coaching, it's because he is open more because there are other shooters on his team.

It's amazing to me that people look at the progress of Pike players, and compare them to 4 and 5 star players from other schools and assume that Pike's players should be developing at the same rate and achieving similar levels of performance. Like, if only we had a different coach then all of a sudden our motely crew of underrecruited players would "learn" shooting touch and "learn" how to can open shots at a higher rate. It's almost as if recruiting didn't matter because a coach can just "develop players." It's illogical.

Or this gem: If we just ran the right schemes we'd get uncontested layups all the time so that even our current players, that can't make 3 pointers, layups, floaters, or midrange jump shots, will all of a sudden be able to fool defenses and score more. Like, among all these million dollar coaches nobody ever thought of that if it were possible? The illogic is astounding.
 
This is why people saying "Clif coming back improves his NBA draft prospects" is clueless.

What he's lacking isn't going to change.
He is what he is from the NBA prospective.

From this past offseason and his NBA process:


Don’t totally agree. He needs to be doing basketball full time to make up for the 14 years he didn’t play the game. I’d love him back, but I’d rather see him make some money and really develop and reach his potential.
 
If it was his passion, I would have thought we would see big strides each year from him. Seems like he relied on athletic mismatches.

He could benefit from full time paid instruction to reach his potential. Maybe without splitting focus on coursework he can develop even more than we have seen in the last few years.

I hope he can play pro-ball
 
If it was his passion, I would have thought we would see big strides each year from him. Seems like he relied on athletic mismatches.

He could benefit from full time paid instruction to reach his potential. Maybe without splitting focus on coursework he can develop even more than we have seen in the last few years.

I hope he can play pro-ball

It looked like he started to develop some post moves this year, but he needs to ball full time.
 
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