Understanding the Souf Mensah Mistake
- Thread starter RUSCFORMERLYRULOU
- Start date
I get some of the rational criticisms but the guy doesn’t look completely out of place, He’s built like a tank, has some handle, does not take crazy shots, shows some hustle, is active on the bench and one of the mature guys on the squad. He can probably tell Corey a thing or two and not think twice about it.
He is not the biggest miss I’ve seen in a RU uniform. That disctinction goes to the young man recruited by Jordan 2-3 yrs ago who was redshirted and then played a yr and was suppose to be a sharpshooter. Kid could not dribble, defend, had the body of a 12 yr, could not get off a shot and had no business playing in a division one uniform let alone playing in the BIG conference. That is what I call a major miss not Mensah. It is what it is.
GO RU
He is not the biggest miss I’ve seen in a RU uniform. That disctinction goes to the young man recruited by Jordan 2-3 yrs ago who was redshirted and then played a yr and was suppose to be a sharpshooter. Kid could not dribble, defend, had the body of a 12 yr, could not get off a shot and had no business playing in a division one uniform let alone playing in the BIG conference. That is what I call a major miss not Mensah. It is what it is.
GO RU
Freeman was really hyped coming out of Juco, and there was a lot of talk about how great he'd be and how he'd help turn the program around. Then he started in the OOC schedule and put up big numbers (14.5/5.5 in 29 min through first 6 games), and there was a lot of talk about how he'd be this dominant PF once conference play started. Then he got hurt... so people talked about his great OOC numbers for the season until he came back the next year.
So lots of hype around him as a Juco, but in the positive direction rather than the negative.
While he never would have been a very good defender, Justin Goode did score 9 points against Minnesota and 8 against Northwestern on a very bad and injured Rutgers team. With development he was certainly a D1 player, though likely a better fit at low to mid major level. Mensah has some decent qualities, but his offense is nonexistent.
Oh please. That kid was horrible. Never to be seen in another division one basketball game. If you had a good set shot and played on as poor a team as RU was you could make 3 uncovered three pt shots. Especially when you had a 6’5” center player playing center. Souf would destroy that kid in a one on one game.
GO RU
Looks more comfortable the last couple of games. Defense has been better and he hasn't hurt us on offense. Not a great player but holding his own on defense and not hurting us at the other end of the court. I would expect him to improve from this point forward.
Don't be silly, there is really nothing to argue with here. I have no interest in sitting and defending a player from several years back, but to say that scoring multiple baskets in B1G games as a redshirt freshmen doesn't translate into being a credible player at a lower level as a junior and senior is ridiculous, end of story. I should hope a 23 year old Souf would physically handle an 18 year old Goode. And I'm not so sure about the outcome of that one on one, when one of the two players has no jumpshot.
Every HOF coach has the odd recruiting mistake, taking a kid who just can't play at that level, or even a level lower. Pay attention to the transactions list in the paper (those of you that still read a paper)--or on ESPN--and you will find guys transferring down. Lots of them a year--supposedly transfers are trending way up. So we had Bullock (Pike's first class with no track record here) and Mensah. For a little perspective, let's look at Duke. In March 2017, it was announced that Sean Obi and Chase Jeter would be transferring. In April, it was announced that former 5-star recruit Marques Bolden would be transferring. And that's from the greatest college basketball coach ever (in his own mind, anyway), Coach K. Yes, this is a message board and endless worrying about minutiae is what message boards do. But----
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The Souf item is solved by playing Dadika where he shouldn't hurt RU too much...i think Dadika is at least a threat to score
Based on your description of Souf's playing ability, and your hope that he transfers, Souf is not a glue guy.
Actually, everything you wrote about him is the opposite of a glue guy.
