Yep could also be confidence issues. I would still take him though.
Most definitely. He's also gotten better every year so no reason to think that would stop.
Him, Bilau, Brown and Foumena is a very solid group of bigs.
Would any of these be able to play the 4? Do any of them have a good mid range or 3 pt game? Or playing two of them at the same time will clog up everything inside and not work very well.
Bilau made a number of jumpshots in his 7 games.
Iggy said something about us being surprised at Foumena's outside shot. Not sure about Brown, but he does look a little more athletic than the others. I'm sure there will be instances where we need two of these guys on the floor. We'll see if they can keep the lane from getting too clogged, or throwing out two solid bigs could easily be a problem for a lot of A-10 teams to handle.
I do think it's good to have four bigs like them. They get in foul trouble often and injuries happen.
Also how often in our history have we been down to like two guys that are just 6'8 or last year by the end of the season we only had Tchikou or Rory back there.
Our best rebounder will have to be on the floor most of the time. A lot of these guys are good offensively close to the basket. Have the baby hooks, and 5-6 foot jumpers, and put backs, etc. But defense and rebounding on the one hand, shooting on the other. This team needs to have it's best rebounder out there and there will be plenty of times it has it's two best rebounders out there.
In the pack line defense, the two post players have to defend either side of the box. It's not ideal for one of those players to be undersized.
In the NIT Ousmane played only 11 minutes in the 1st round game vs Alcorn State.
He did not play in any of the remaining 4 games as UNT won the NIT.
Talk on the UNT Board is that there were words exchanged in the Alcorn Stste game between Ousmane and some of the UNT players and UNT Coaches. Multiple posters believe Ousmane was beaten out for the starter role.
Ousmane left the team to tend to personal family matters after the Alcorn State game. He never returned to the team. Then entered portal.
No. 2 North Texas 69, Alcorn 53 @ UNT
No. 2 North Texas 75, No. 3 Sam Houston 55 @UNT
No. 2 North Texas 65, No. 1 Oklahoma State 59, OT @ OSU
No. 2 North Texas 56, No. 2 WISC 54 @ Las Vegas
No. 2 North Texas 68, No. 4 UAB 62 @ Las Vegas
Final NET
30 - North Texas
39 - Alabama Birmingham
42 - Oklahoma State
69 - Sam Houston
72 - Wisconsin
245 - Alcorn State
If you ask me, it is because he saw them giving minutes to Sissoku and saw the writing on the wall. Sorry, but when you hide the information from the fans you get speculation. They always knew he was going portal and threw up a smokescreen.
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That's OK. The team didn't need that type of distraction during the tournament.
Agreed. I must say that I was really disappointed in how he handled Sissoko’s development. I do appreciate how he and the program kept it from being a distraction.
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Oh well. I’ve lost a bit of respect for him because of the past few weeks, but it’s not like it altered how we played because we played better without him.
I said how I wouldn’t mind if he transferred during the season, and got a ton of shit for it. Well I think, especially after this NIT stuff, that Sissoko is a lot better than Abou.
He was super close with Reem because he recruited him, and while I don’t think he goes to K State, possibly being near home would make sense. Like a Rutgers or something in that area.
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He was kind of soft anyway. Loved to miss an easy layup and we can clearly win without him. It'll be fine. Good luck to him.
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Best of luck to Abou. Nothing personal against the guy, but I think we will be fine. I liked how our offense flowed for much of the last four games. Sissoko doesn't take as many shots as Abou, but he knows when to it appears.
It is tough for our offense to get easy/open shots, and Abou blew a lot of them.
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The disconnect between him and the staff must have been ugly. Trying to put myself on his shoes and understand why you would not want to be a part of this run with your bball fam.
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Yeah, initially I assumed it was a family illness but since he didn't quickly return and no details were mentioned (along with no "shout outs" from the coach/team after wins), I suspected it was something other than medical. It never occurred to me that he had quit. This is really bizarre.
I thought it was pretty evident by the 11 minutes he played against Alcorn state and started jawing with the other bigs and staff. When he didn’t show up against Sam Houston State I assumed he quit or was told to not come back.
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Abou was one of my favorite players. I loved when the announcer would drag the “EWWWWW” sound in his first and last name when he scored. A-BOOO EWWWWWSMAN…!!!
He certainly deserves a ring if it really was a family emergency.
If he just quit the team then he deserves no ring and the lifetime of regret that he will certainly have for missing a shot at experiencing something really special.
77,
I followed the NIT closely as I know some grads from North Texas and from UAB. Ousmane actually got beaten out in his position towards the very end of the season and the Alcorn State game in which he only played 11 minutes. He was not likely to start and his minutes would have been less but he chose to leave the team after the 1st NIT game.
There were also some mentions that Ousmane left the team for Ramadan. None confirmed by Ousmane.
Just information.
Not sure Miller will land either guy. I don't always believe all these player twitter lists of interested schools. Doubt we land either guy.
ramster wrote: ↑1 year ago
77,
I followed the NIT closely as I know some grads from North Texas and from UAB. Ousmane actually got beaten out in his position towards the very end of the season and the Alcorn State game in which he only played 11 minutes. He was not likely to start and his minutes would have been less but he chose to leave the team after the 1st NIT game.
There were also some mentions that Ousmane left the team for Ramadan. None confirmed by Ousmane.
Just information.
Not sure Miller will land either guy. I don't always believe all these player twitter lists of interested schools. Doubt we land either guy.
Yeah, hard to tell what actually went on there with Ousmane.
But McCasland ran a good program at North Texas, he will probably trade up very soon.
ramster wrote: ↑1 year ago
77,
I followed the NIT closely as I know some grads from North Texas and from UAB. Ousmane actually got beaten out in his position towards the very end of the season and the Alcorn State game in which he only played 11 minutes. He was not likely to start and his minutes would have been less but he chose to leave the team after the 1st NIT game.
There were also some mentions that Ousmane left the team for Ramadan. None confirmed by Ousmane.
Just information.
Not sure Miller will land either guy. I don't always believe all these player twitter lists of interested schools. Doubt we land either guy.
Yeah, hard to tell what actually went on there with Ousmane.
But McCasland ran a good program at North Texas, he will probably trade up very soon.
ramster wrote: ↑1 year ago
77,
I followed the NIT closely as I know some grads from North Texas and from UAB. Ousmane actually got beaten out in his position towards the very end of the season and the Alcorn State game in which he only played 11 minutes. He was not likely to start and his minutes would have been less but he chose to leave the team after the 1st NIT game.
There were also some mentions that Ousmane left the team for Ramadan. None confirmed by Ousmane.
Just information.
Not sure Miller will land either guy. I don't always believe all these player twitter lists of interested schools. Doubt we land either guy.
Yeah, hard to tell what actually went on there with Ousmane.
But McCasland ran a good program at North Texas, he will probably trade up very soon.
Unfortunately, the NBE is adapting very nicely to the new cbb landscape, so far. It is basketball centric, it has good coaching, good marketing of coaches and programs, only one (DePaul) or maybe two bottom feeders, enough NIL money to attract good talent vs the P5, some minor leagues to grab talent from and only eleven teams to avoid polluting the conference gene pool and watering down the on court product, so to speak. I am sure there are other aspects I have overlooked.
I am not a fan of the NBE conference but I respect the way they operate and brand their league.
