Is There Any Football Player Basketball Ready ?

[NYC Duke Fan]

I think that some teams employ a football player to give them a few minutes a game, one who is strong and can rebound. Two that come to mind were Reggie Love and Julius Peppers.

Does anyone know of a football player who had played basketball in high school who might have fit the bill this year ?

[allenmurray]

I have no idea if he can play basketball or not. However, if I was driving the lane and saw Vincent Oghabaase standing there, I would respond by saying, "here you go Mr. Oghabaase, would you like this?" as I politely handed him the ball and stepped aside.

[pfrduke]

I think that some teams employ a football player to give them a few minutes a game, one who is strong and can rebound. Two that come to mind were Reggie Love and Julius Peppers.

Does anyone know of a football player who had played basketball in high school who might have fit the bill this year ?

Clemson game aside, this is a good to very good rebounding team. It's the best rebounding team Duke has put on the court in quite some time (interestingly enough, when we had Shelden Williams, we were terrible as a team on the defensive glass). Miami, one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the conference, picked up just 7 offensive boards (out of 30 opportunities) on Saturday.

Given our struggles on offense, the last thing we need right now is another non-threat on the offensive end whose sole purpose is to be strong and rebound, particularly when rebounding is very far from the biggest problem we have.

[geraldsneighbor]

I don't know about Duke, but at Ohio State Terrell Pryor was a top 20 recruit in basketball. He led his HS to a state championship his Senior season in both sports. He was more of a Small Forward though with slashing ability.

[Diddy]

Our football team is begining to resemble an actual FOOTBALL team. It is not a feeder program for our hoops squad.

Reggie Love was an anomaly, and one that was driven by true desperation. As mediocre as our post options are this year, they looked like gods compared to our options after Battier and Boozer in 2001, and only Boozer in 2002. We needed anything resembling a post option back then. I mean, god bless Casey Saunders, who gave it his all, but he needed a redshirt year in the weightroom that he never got, and he just never seemed to get it on the court.

Peppers was different. Vince may look the part, but Peppers WAS the part of a stud hoopster. He was a more athletic version of Dajuan Blair from Pitt. Had Peppers concentrated on hoops, he would probably be earning a check in the NBA this year.

Peppers played Hoops because he liked it, and because it drove his price up in the NFL. Way back in the Day, Todd Helton of the Rockies was pulling double duty at Tennessee as a QB. He suffered a mild injury, though season ending, and was replaced by a frosh named Peyton Manning. But when he was the starting QB, an announcer stated that every game he started as UT's QB added another 100,000 to his starting yearly salary in MLB.

Peppers playing hoops drove up his NFL salary.

Unfortunately, I don't really know of any footballers that fit the bill for hoops. It would have to be a lineman or linebacker, and those postions take a tremendous toll on the body. I want them getting ready for their own season next year, not helping out a hoops team that failed to adequately provide for itself. K has taken steps to rectify the situation for next year, but we have made our bed as far as this season is concerned. It is time to lay in it.

[CDu]

Clemson game aside, this is a good to very good rebounding team. It's the best rebounding team Duke has put on the court in quite some time (interestingly enough, when we had Shelden Williams, we were terrible as a team on the defensive glass). Miami, one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the conference, picked up just 7 offensive boards (out of 30 opportunities) on Saturday.

Given our struggles on offense, the last thing we need right now is another non-threat on the offensive end whose sole purpose is to be strong and rebound, particularly when rebounding is very far from the biggest problem we have.

The interesting thing to me is that we're a better rebounding team this year than LAST year's team, and that team had a great rebounder in Nelson.

But yeah, McClure basically fills the strong rebounding presence that a football player would bring. Singler brings a pretty darn strong rebounding presence as well. The weaknesses of this team, amazingly, do not include rebounding.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

I have no idea if he can play basketball or not. However, if I was driving the lane and saw Vincent Oghabaase standing there, I would respond by saying, "here you go Mr. Oghabaase, would you like this?" as I politely handed him the ball and stepped aside.

According to Vince himself, he was an outstanding tuba player before focusing exclusively on football.

[pfrduke]

The interesting thing to me is that we're a better rebounding team this year than LAST year's team, and that team had a great rebounder in Nelson.

But yeah, McClure basically fills the strong rebounding presence that a football player would bring. Singler brings a pretty darn strong rebounding presence as well. The weaknesses of this team, amazingly, do not include rebounding.

The three big differences are Singler (whose rebounding numbers are vastly improved from a year ago), more minutes for McClure (whose numbers are also improved from a year ago), and more minutes for Zoubek. Singler last season got 7.8% of offensive boards and 14.4% of defensive ones - that's up to 10.7%/19.0% this year. McClure played just 8mpg last year - this year he's at 16 and posting 7.4%/19.5%. Zoubek's minutes have also jumped from ~8 to ~15, and he rebounds at 16.1%/18.6%. Singler's improvement and the increased minutes for two of our three best rebounders have more than offset the loss of Nelson. (Actually, if you add Elliot's and Miles' combined 18 mpg and corresponding strong rebounding numbers to the increased Zoubek/McClure minutes, there's your 33 mpg of better rebounding performance to replace DeMarcus's already strong performance last season).

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

Vandy's CB/RB/WR Jamie Graham is has been playing 2 sports, but recently decided to leave the bball team and fully focus on football.

[killerleft]

Paulus fits the bill.

[JBDuke]

That's enough silliness for this thread. This thread is CLOSED.