CptCrunch wrote:But realistically, how much can we blame Penny for Duren's troubles?
Or does he simply suck? Feast on the mid and low majors, plays like crap against even lower end of the P5 teams?
I mean I think its a mixture of both.
1st. People tend to get too hyped off of big men who have "perimeter skills" when in high school. Most of the time its just off of highlights and they actually dont play like that game to game and the majority of the time you see them pulling perimeter moves off of players that will never play a minute in college. I saw a lot of people thinking Duren was some skilled big man coming into college. He wasn't, he is just an energy big on the offensive end. You see this the last few games. Ya he doesnt get the ball in great spots, but when he has got the ball he has nothing when going against players with actual size. My biggest eye opening thing with him so far is how horrible of a rebounder he has been. He's averaging 5 rebounds per game over the last 4 games (all against power conference schools). He doesnt play the ball in the air, he doesnt get good positioning for rebounds. He looks like someone who has only ever gotten rebounds because he has been so much bigger than everyone else.
2nd. Ya Penny is a horrible coach. He isn't doing anything to help these guys. You would think you would see more PnR will Lomax and Duren, but Duren kind of just floats around all game long. Its been clear from day 1 that Penny was over his head. He has been trying to coach Memphis like he coached his AAU team and college ball is very different than AAU.
With all that said dont get me wrong, Im not saying Duren isn't draft able or anything. Ya you draft him because he is young, he is already strong as hell and is a great athlete. But he's one of those raw athletic bigs you can get later in the draft.
Ill just ask this for anyone that is still very high on Duren. What are the major differences between Durn and Jericho Sims either than age? Same size, same build, Sims is the better athlete in my opinion though. What is the big difference between Duren this year and Sims last year for Texas? You can say blocked shots, but Duren is down to 1.8 blocks per game over the last 4 games. Im also not saying Duren should go super late 2nd like Sims because I think the age difference is significant. But again this will go back to what Clyde and I were saying last week. You take a player like Duren late 1st or in the 2nd.
