Size at the 5?

[FountainOfUte]

Looking at the recruiting targets for the Runnin' Utes (http://www.runninu.com/Basketball_targets.html), I don't see a lot of 6'10" and up size. What is the plan at center? I imagine quality, big centers are hard to come by for just about ANY team, but we've always seemed to get them in the past, and I can't imagine it's harder to draw them to us in the PAC than it was the MWC/WAC.

Not going back too far, we've had:
Michael Doleac, 6'11"
Chris Burgess, 6'10"
Andrew Bogut, 7'0"
Luke Nevill, 7'2"
David Foster, 7'3"
Jason Washburn, 6'10"

Of course there are others who made less impact on the stat sheet, but still did a good job clogging the lane like Chris Jackson (6'11"), Nate Altoff (6'11"), and others. For now, we have Bachynski (7'0") and Kovacevic (6'11") for two more years and Jeremy Olsen (6'10") for three. After that...? I guess Neal Monson (6'10") is walking on?

Again, looking forward, we're hoping we can pull Makol Mawien (6'9") who might be a smallish center and may grow another inch or two?? I see a Jamuni McNease (6'11") as a 2014 target, but I'm guessing he's either not high on our list or not likely to come anyway if we can get Kuzma and a PG.

Anyone have any insight on what we're going to do at center? Does LK have a system that doesn't really depend on some big in the paint? That's hard to imagine in the PAC-12. Are we going to lean on guys like Chapman (6'8") and Mawien to clog the middle three years from now? I seem to remember that Tim Frost played as our 5 and he was only 6'9".

[UBlender]

I have had this conversation on a different forum and I agree with you in that I am surprised that we don't appear to be prioritizing center in this recruiting class. Yes, we do have three good-sized centers on the roster and none of them will be gone after this season (or, more accurately, they all have eligibility remaining after this season).

Still, a year from now we will have two seniors and a junior at the position so taking a center in this class to begin grooming him during 2014-15 so that he can the top backup to Olsen in 2015-16 and then take over after that makes a lot of sense. If we skip a center in this class then we have to go out in each of the next two classes and get a center who can contribute immediately. (That might not be the worst thing in the world as we can then sell the prospect of immediate playing time to perhaps recruit a high quality center...).

One thing that has been mentioned elsewhere is that it's been said that we will go to an offense that mainly uses the center has a screener so it won't be as big of a deal if our center isn't as dynamic. Still, you have to have someone big enough to defend and rebound the position against his PAC 12 counterparts.

I wonder if center won't become more of a priority in the spring signing period if things don't go great with Bachynski this year.

[Jarid in Cedar]

I think they have all the 5's on the roster that they typically want, but are out of balance as far as class distribution. They will likely need to take a juco big and a high school big in the next class (assuming they don't land one in the spring signing period)

[sancho]

Still, you have to have someone big enough to defend and rebound the position against his PAC 12 counterparts.


Yes, you can never have too much size in basketball.

We had offer out to Andrus. I'm sure they would like a 4/5 in this class.