KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

Willy Kouassi - Center
From: Dibokro, Cote D'Ivoire
School: Central Park Christian
Travel/AAU:

Ht: 6'10"
Wt: 230

RANKINGS:
Rivals: 4 Stars, #66 in 2011, #7 C

Stats: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... ly-kouassi



http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball ... ssi-106016

I am more excited about that DPOY. This kid could be the perfect 1 year stop gap we need. Unfortunately it looks like 30 other schools agree.

adam914 wrote:I am more excited about that DPOY. This kid could be the perfect 1 year stop gap we need. Unfortunately it looks like 30 other schools agree.

Well, if you are recruiting against nobody that isn't a good sign. This kid would be a great solution for us assuming '16 bears fruit on a four year big man. Hopefully he realizes it would be a good opportunity for him too.

He is a perfect fit for this team, shoots 42% from the line.

I'll take him, at this point.
Finally, someone taking an official visit here!

He would fit the bill as a 1 year stop gap. 5 pts, 5 rebounds and 1+blocks in 20 min...that, and Earl will do.

http://www.auburntigers.com/sports/m-ba ... lly00.html

Having a genuine rim-protector would allow Hassan flourish more offensively.

Why are his minutes/numbers so low??

I find it interesting that we finally get some word on a big man taking an official visit here and outside of a few people nobody seems to really be posting or care all that much about it. Yet anytime there is even a tweet about any other guy over 6'8" maybe visiting somewhere else everybody loses their shit. Kinda strange...

For me, without knowing a ton about this kid, he seems like he could be a perfect fit. A guy to protect the rim and do some work inside. DPOY in any conference is worth noting. We definitely don't need him to score much.

When positive things happen for us on the court or in the off-season I hold my breath, which means no post.

I'm with seawrightspostgame...... checking this site with one eye closed. but as always GO RHODY

adam914 wrote: For me, without knowing a ton about this kid, he seems like he could be a perfect fit. A guy to protect the rim and do some work inside. DPOY in any conference is worth noting. We definitely don't need him to score much.

That's why its a pretty great option for a grad transfer. Can step right into a good team and basically can have as big of a role as he can handle, but no pressure on him to be a star. I feel like we have a good chance for kids we get on campus, so hopefully we are his next visit and we can wrap it up before he goes on a prolonged tour.

Tom98 wrote:Why are his minutes/numbers so low??

Fouls. He averaged 2.9 per game, in 19.3 minutes, in lower conference play. If he managed to play closer to 30 MPG, his rebounds are more in the 7.5 per game range, along with probably 2 blocks per game. Some combination of him, Watson and Butts could probably man the 4 or 5 each game, but you'd be holding your breath about getting 30+ minutes from Martin per night.

Some video from when he was at Auburn a couple of years ago.....#50.

Rhody74 wrote:Having a genuine rim-protector would allow Hassan flourish more offensively.

sorry i'm not following, how would Willy's defensive abilities help Hassan's offensive ones? no matter who we get Hassan is likely preseason favorite for DPOY in the A10...the argument for Hassan to move away from the basket more on offense does not mean he do the same on defense IMO, regardless of his height he is one of the best inside defenders in the league and he belongs there for long stretches of the game. if this guy can be a robin to his bat man on defensive end it will make him that much more effective. its on Hassan to develop a game out to 15-18 feet on offense.

Willy sure would help! I'll take him!
Could maybe use one more big fella.
Lookin like Willy is our only real chance at this point.

Sorry, I just can't get too excited about Willy. Or, to express it another way, I hope there's another big coming. That video must have his every basket at Auburn because he didn't play much there before transferring out after his freshman season.

Willy is slow, foul prone and coming off of a wrist injury which bothered him all last season and subsequent wrist surgery. The put back is his best offensive move.

If you're concerned about Four McGlynn stepping up a level from the CAA to the A10, this is a jump from the American Sun conference to the A10.

I'm glad we are getting an official visit, but I was hoping for more than Willy Kouassi. Go Rhody.

reckless jake wrote:Sorry, I just can't get too excited about Willy. Or, to express it another way, I hope there's another big coming. That video must have his every basket at Auburn because he didn't play much there before transferring out after his freshman season.

Willy is slow, foul prone and coming off of a wrist injury which bothered him all last season and subsequent wrist surgery. The put back is his best offensive move.

If you're concerned about Four McGlynn stepping up a level from the CAA to the A10, this is a jump from the American Sun conference to the A10.

I'm glad we are getting an official visit, but I was hoping for more than Willy Kouassi. Go Rhody.

Ditto.

At this point in the year, you're looking for a tall guy. If you're expecting that we are going to bring in Hakeem Olajuwon, you're delusional. I think a guy like this would fill a need.

It's just sad how we're dumpster diving, now.
I thought Murray was supposed to be looking at 2015s
last year.
They had such a small pool of four bigs offered in the fall,
and no plan B players.
This is easily the worst of Hurley's three recruiting years,
barring a miracle.

TruePoint wrote:At this point in the year, you're looking for a tall guy. If you're expecting that we are going to bring in Hakeem Olajuwon, you're delusional. I think a guy like this would fill a need.

I agree. We need somebody. And whomever it is doesn't need to score. Give me a big to play defense and rebound. That seems to be what Willy does. I don't care if he averages 3 points a game for us. The disappointing thing for me is that we don't seem to be involved with any high school bigs to develop and be ready for their sophomore year. This puts us in the same position after next season with bigs.

Hearkening back to Borzello's initial tweet... "Over 30 schools" were interested in Kouassi's services, including Wichita St., Arkansas, and Kansas State. Not exactly small time institutions. He's not Olajuwon for sure, but based on that list, I'm not ready to paint this one as a Hail Mary just yet.

Hadn't heard about the wrist injury he was allegedly dealing with last year. If anything, that makes him sound better. Good rebounder/defender even while injured? Get that wrist healed up and he may be even better.

rodfromcranston wrote:It's just sad how we're dumpster diving, now.
I thought Murray was supposed to be looking at 2015s
last year.
They had such a small pool of four bigs offered in the fall,
and no plan B players.
This is easily the worst of Hurley's three recruiting years,
barring a miracle.

keep moving those goalposts...

"we need a big!" ... team brings in a true big for a visit ... "no, a different one!"

If the kid was a stiff, teams like K State, Wichita and Arkansas wouldn't even be giving him the time of day.

Blah, blah, blah.
Now tell us who actually OFFERED him?

Ok, so let's review. Everybody has been dying for any sort of news regarding a big since literally the day the season ended. Now we have the word on a visit from this...

Ht: 6'10"
Wt: 230

RANKINGS:
Rivals: 4 Stars, #66 in 2011, #7 C
DPOY in his conference

Over 30 schools sniffing around.

And now it's not good enough. I honestly don't get it.

I said earlier, I'd take him as an alternative to a whiff.
It's sad that we're down to looking for 5th year players,
because they invested in such a tiny pool of bigs in the fall,
with no plan B.
Now, they're scrambling to get in late on jucos and 5th year guys.

adam914 wrote: And now it's not good enough. I honestly don't get it.

Many of our fans are not happy unless they are miserable about something.

The worst recruiting year in the Dan Hurley era (Rod's words, not mine) has brought:

-- Two freshmen, one a top-150 player (Butts) for some scouts and former Big Ten recruit
-- One transfer who was a top-60 player out of high school (the first at URI since.....?)
-- One transfer who was a former Rookie of the Year in his conference and fills a need

Sign me up. And +1 to Da_Process man. He sees the truth.

rodfromcranston wrote:I said earlier, I'd take him as an alternative to a whiff.
It's sad that we're down to looking for 5th year players,
because they invested in such a tiny pool of bigs in the fall,
with no plan B.
Now, they're scrambling to get in late on jucos and 5th year guys.

Sure, I get that point definitely. It'd be nice to be in a better position at this point. But I think this kid could be a really solid 1 year solution to the problem that's come up. And we've already seen they are focusing on plenty of bigs for '16 so I feel pretty good about the plan the staff seems to have in place at this point.

Love all the clowns and their little bitch slaps.
Iverson contacted URI. Dan's own words.
How is that recruiting?
Butts' in the words of one of our staff, "may be serviceable".
Where'd you get a top 150 ranking from?
Did it occur to any of you beauties, that Dan's BEST recruiting
class happened before he ever coached a single game here?
The window is closing on EC and Hassan.
Think Big. YOU DON'T!

Honestly I am fine going into battle next year with the team we currently have assembled.

A starting 5 of Jarvis, Jared, EC, Iverson, Hass with McGlynn, Earl, Thompson, and Butts off the bench can win the A10. Certainly won't finish lower than 3rd.

Any big that comes in to add to that is gravy.

This board gets borderline unreadable at times in the off season. Let's crawl before we can walk and run and sprint. Winning the A10 is the goal right now. Worry about building for deep NCAA runs after we can actually win the conference.

I honestly feel like we could win a national title and someone would come and complain on here about how we won it.

Who gives a shit about winning the A-10?
Why is that a goal?
Our Elite 8 and Sweet 16 teams didn't win the A-10.
The goal, should be making the NCAAs and not going out in the
first round.
Maybe you think going into the next year with a 6'7" center. backed up by
a 6'6" guy, is going to win against good teams, I don't.
THINK BIG!

Winning the conference is definitely a goal. Even if we were a program that was going to the tournament every year, winning the conference would still be a goal.

rodfromcranston wrote:Who gives a shit about winning the A-10?
Why is that a goal?
Our Elite 8 and Sweet 16 teams didn't win the A-10.
The goal, should be making the NCAAs and not going out in the
first round.
Maybe you think going into the next year with a 6'7" center. backed up by
a 6'6" guy, is going to win against good teams, I don't.
THINK BIG!

Think big? Your solution when it looked like Hurley might go to St. John's was to hire Preston Murphy as head coach and bring back Antonio Reynolds-Dean and Tyson Wheeler as his assistants. That's about as small -- and uniquely Rhode Island -- as you can get. Let's go with who we know instead of opening up the job to the most qualified candidates in the field.

Winning the A10 is a nice goal sure....

Like Rod I won't be happy with a first round NCAA knockout......not with this group. I expect we will recruit the big.

I don't see it as a difficult sell for recruiting - anybody advising a target recruit can easily see this team is loaded and ready to make a big splash with a strong post player added to the mix. It befuddles me that this has not yet happened....maybe it is done and we just need to wait for the good news. That's the positive position I am going to take but like RodfromCranston my patience is wearing thin. Understanding hoops like I do is a detriment, I can clearly see the way forward. We are soooo close here....it is such a no brainer!

Grrrrr

Winning the A-10 is nice, but hardly a prerequisite to having
an NCAA bound program.
We went three years in a row, never once winning the regular season
crown.
Who won last year? Davidson? After they shit the bed in the NCAAs
everyone wondered if they even belonged in the NCAAs.
Michigan State didn't win the Big 10, but was in the Final Four.

Congrats to 3 Wisemen, who is so obsessed with me, that at least 20 of his posts
mention my name. His crap goes back years.
Pathetic.

If we get Willy, I believe the URI offseason program will help him tremendously. He will be in shape in October.

TruePoint wrote:

adam914 wrote: And now it's not good enough. I honestly don't get it.

Many of our fans are not happy unless they are miserable about something.

If you're calling people nihilists, then you're wrong.
To the point, you don't get it.
There's a projected known need: Targets: Four? Five?
That isn't logical.
The posters addressing the perceived problem are offering -- and have been offering -- their insights/opinions to this lack of aggressive recruiting to NEED for more than two years.
That's okay, they're just being negative for negativity's sake…...

Bressler, let them have their little circle jerk and write +1,
next to each other's posts.
Defense of the status quo is for sheep.

Baa aaa

(Humbug!!!)

I wanna win big and now!!

There is no circle jerk. We haven't even signed anyone, so there is no gloating or celebrating on my part. It's just a strange thing to see people bemoaning the seeming lack of involvement with big men that could help next year, then we hear we are bringing a guy to campus who certainly seems like he would be serviceable based on his resume, and the reaction is just to alter the complaint to so that it isn't lost altogether.

Things are never going to be perfect; if you are committed to complaining about something you will never run out of material. You are confusing attempts at reasonableness with defending the status quo.

Fyi, Kouassi was not the A-Sun 2014/15 Defensive Player of the Year. That award went to North Florida junior forward Demarcus Murray.

As Bressler points out, the need for size isn't just today.
It was an issue last year, too.
Everyone had the big O when they learned Hare was coming back.
The front court has been a problem. Anyone who knows
Basketball 101, knows you need size in basketball to be a consistent winner.
Staff knew when Hare bowed out this fall, that it was a critical need.
Yet, Silva, Aflakpui, Enoch and maybe one or two others all went elsewhere.
Why wasn't there a bigger net thrown out in the summer?
Now, there's attempts to connect with players they did not recruit earlier,
at the juco level,
I understand the 5th year players are largely unknown until they decide to transfer.
That's no fault of the staff that there's a scramble for those players.
So, this is two years of not meeting a need, and to date nothing.
As hrstrat57 said, we're sooooo close to being where we want to be,
which is the main point of frustration for those of us who see the need,
and see it go unanswered to date.

Further just to clarify I never claim to be reasonable when it comes to URI hoops.......

reckless jake wrote:Fyi, Kouassi was not the A-Sun 2014/15 Defensive Player of the Year. That award went to North Florida junior forward Demarcus Murray.

Kouassi was the A-Sun 2014-15 Defensive Player of the Year in the preseason.

I'm all for adding a guy like Willy. But we needed to also add a high school big to develop this year. EC and Hass are the two best players we've had here in the past 15 years. This could be a special team if they are surrounded with more talent, especially a big. Willie is a stop gap. But then what? We're after some good bigs from the '16 class. But now he will be developing during EC and Hass' senior year. For it to be a special team and special season similar to 78, 88, 98, we need to develop one this year. That doesn't appear that it's going to happen. If we got both Willie and a frosh big, then it's a successful recruiting season, imo. The window with two of our best players in years is closing. Do we expect to replace those two guys with similar talent? Who knows. But I want to win while they're still here.

A10? A10 tourney? NCAA games?

Win something. It's fun to win something. Getting in the tourney without the regular season or tournament crown will suck if we don't make it out of the first weekend.

Sweet sixteen banners and beyond are legit things, the A10 crown for season or tourney are the other things.