I was giving him the benefit of the doubt!
Basketball Rutgers Basketball Big Man Lathan Sommerville Enters Transfer Portal
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
I think there are probably more than we realize, since I have no idea who anyone is anymore with all the roster turnovers. Queen, the kid at Duke, Ivisic at Illinois, Newell at Georgia (kinda C/PF), Sorber at Georgetown are ones I can think of.
I think Lathan has the potential to be a very good college player with his unique offensive talent. And he was not coached up offensively by Pike. His shot selection and his defense sucked. Wonder if it was coaching or Lathan not getting it or both. He will likely have a good college career but doubtful about NBA prospects.
Mid majors and below. Let them take the developmental risk. P5 will swoop in after they prove themselves.
Sommerville is a 6’8” C who can’t shoot or play D. Not a loss.
Somerville is the type of player a good team will add to their roster in 2 years. When he's a mature 21 or 22 year old who understands his role, played college basketball for a few years, learned how to play defense and pass the ball. He has a skill set, but it needs to be developed.
Those are lottery picks or first rounders. Do a better job. He was top 100 or top 150 not top 30. He played really well for a freshman . He got better rebounding and even on defense did decently against Biddle of Oregon. He was really coming on the last 10 games. We now how almost no scoring coming back next year as Grant might give you 8-10. That’s it. This is bad bad for the roster. Really difficult for next year without no low post presence.
Who said anything about “great”? Some of you are really failing to comprehend just how bad Lathan was on the defensive end. Do you not understand how much worse he was (AT DEFENSE) than even a frosh like Mamadou Doucoure (2017-18 averaged 13.1 mpg across 34 games - RU defense ranked 28th that year - Shaq Doorson absorbed 12 of the other minutes at 5 on that team sophomore Eugene and Freeman playing center by committee the rest of the time) - that was our “rim protection”.
Please don’t sell me a bunch of garbage about it being other positions compensating - we had a green frosh in Geo playing 32 minutes in the backcourt and a horrendous defender in Issa who was tall but played small - playing 29 minutes. Yet 28th ranked…
He may not have been that good, but he was our best returning player by FAR.
Guy either has zero feel for the defensive game or was simply too lazy to try. And I have issues with Pike but he always got his guys to play hard until this crew came along.
You may watch a lot of ball but you’re not paying attention,
We’re on the same page. See my post about the Duke man 2017-18! Hardly great at anything. Couldn’t even break the starting line up at La Salle as a 6th year senior. Materially better than Lathan at defense as a frosh though. The thing is - that’s not saying much because Lathan. Just really really bad at that side of the game. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t know how to evaluate D in my opinion.
Of course. But if we only have money for one big, are we better spending on a guy who plays the worst big man defense I’ve seen but gets buckets or a player with less offensive skill who can protect the rim and understands what help side defense is?
Sure - maybe he’ll improve but his starting point is very low.
It is, but I would expect him to take a big jump on defense from his freshman to sophomore year. This year he was just getting his feet wet and he was thrust into a role he was not ready for. He should have been coming off the bench behind Cliff.
Yeah exactly. Many of our fans don’t seem to get just how bad Lathan’s D was. Typical year over year improvement wouldn’t get him close to servicable next season. Maybe by his junior year, but not likely in one off season. His starting point is really low and athleticism a definite factor too.
You are blinded by your mantra of cannot play defense. Our whole team couldn’t play defense not just Lathan. The primary problem starts at the perimeter no matter what garbage you write. Our guards got beat and with no rim protector it was layup after layup. The defensive rotations needed to overcome this , being taught to freshmen was never a good idea. It was Pike’s failure.
Not sure what you watched but the last 10 games Lathan was really coming on sand scoring double figures as our center for half the minutes. Having a rim protector for the other minutes would have helped immensely. The opinion that it is not much of a loss is incredible to say the least .
His large role made his defensive issues more visible, but his poor defense would’ve been very notable regardless.
Any center who can play a lick is going to command 500k+ - probably more. Get it? That’s the market. We would not, under any circumstance, have the money to pay Lathan this money along with the same thing for someone else halfway decent. It’s not that I wanted him gone - it’s that I wanted us to bring in an established big man who plays decent defense and there was no chance of that happening if we were paying big money to retain Lathan.
Lathan would have been by far our best offensive player returning (had he stayed), for a team that will VERY LIKELY be VERY offensively-challenged. so that alone makes him a big loss.
but, I would have been absolutely shocked if he stayed.
I frankly always considered him a one-year player from the start.
so.. oh well.
but, I would have been absolutely shocked if he stayed.
I frankly always considered him a one-year player from the start.
so.. oh well.
With our present resources, no. But if people pony up, we’d have the resources to keep Lathan and get a decent big man.
WTF are you going on about? The question was how many freshman starters are there, and that was all I could come up with, but I'm sure there are some more. No one was talking about level of recruit. You have me confused with someone that didn't want him back, I did, despite the flaws I think his game has. No idea what it means for next year until we see the final roster.
It’s true. Shelby was invited into a Signal chat and was privy to the discussion.
Bulkshit. Michigan State has 3 centers and doubtful one of them is making close to $500000. They probably get paid that combined. Now we need a rim protector who also is an offensive player and that cost a million and we do not have that for 1 player. We are screwed 10 worse by losing Lathan. But you are to blind to see that.
Lathan is good but I don't think this is the staff that will get the best out of him. He's allowed to do what he wants and he knows he's the best option. Probably needs a coach that's going to be a disciplinarian..
And Can they please bring in a veteran guard that can make decisions and hit free throws. Terrible that my biggest concern about losing lathan is the comfort you feel when he's on the court in crunch time of close games. Lol once he gets the ball he's going to try to score and will most likely get fouled. Easy money at the line..also, it seemed no matter how wacky or forced his shot looked it went in more times than not. Lol good player but the team needs a big man that can do big man things. Like rebound and defend the paint. I look forward to seeing lathan become the next Zach Randolph though. Needs to work on that jumper, looks uncomfortable shooting it, slow release..
I liked Grant but I do feel like we had optimism about Wolf too after his frosh season. I think the jury is still out on how good he will be.
Richie reported that Lathan asked for 7 figures. Thats why he’s in the portal.
Waaaaay better than wolf. Showed a lot more potential and he's more versatile than wolf as well. Let's see what kind of work he puts in this off season. He will be so much better if he works with a pro skills trainer..A handle and a jump shot can make him a lot of money in the future..
I don’t remember what Wolf was like. But I do remember a lot of fans on here talking about him being a stud.
That’s not a position anymore. So you answered your own question. He’ll have to move down.
