We've got our big, and he's from Bucknell

Yeah, I'm not as concerned with stateside transfers/Canada high school recruits as I am finding young European players playing in pro leagues that are now eligible to come play college basketball.

For example, Bucknell was able to pull Amon Dorries, a 6'11 C from Germany, who is averaging 17ppg. Even though he's 20 years old and played in the top level German league, he's classified as a Freshman. This is the perfect type of player for us to get. There is no reason why we shouldn't land players like these going forward.


OMG, lets go!!! I'd like to take slight credit for the inspiration in making this happen ;)
 
The rebounding numbers do scare me slightly, but I think we can cover for that a bit if we bring in another forward who can really crash the boards.

We desperately needed a scoring 5 man and now we have it. This is going to be huge for the success and overall flow of our offense next year.
 
Fantastic job by the staff in landing, what looks on paper and highlights, as a great player. With those kinds of numbers he put up and league accolades as a freshman, would scream P4 interest. Especially with how coveted quality big man are. All things considered I think we did a fantastic job here. Great job to the staff! I would say we are 2/2 in landing transfers that look to be A10 level players and day 1 starters. Keep it up!
 
I do wonder whether we will go after another big man this cycle. Not someone with as high of stats but still has good college game experience. We don’t have any returners next season from last year’s team with significant playing time at the 5.
 
Welcome aboard. Definitely think this will be interesting to see if he handles the step up in competition. Not calling the A10 the greatest, but I think the big men are going to be more athletic and physical.

VS Pitt - 1 for 7 FG in 29 minutes
VS St Johns 4 for 9 in 31 minuts
VS Iowa 1 for 3 in 36 minutes

Still, as I noted I think this level is what we could expect with the inflation on big men NIL.

Good news is that was his first year playing college hoops - so expect and hope a second year jump and hopefully add strength. Thin but looks like he has frame to add strength.
 
strong inside big man game, and a threat from outside. looks great offensively. a little turnover prone, but played a ton of minutes for a freshman. no reason he can't rebound more. maybe he's getting pushed around. could use more lower body bulk. highlight film shows a ridiculous number of dunks.

I'm starting to think Mooney was serious about the 2 big guy stuff.
not that the 2nd has to be a true big, but we've been mentioned with a bunch of 6'9" guys and we have Caldwell and Cook coming in. plus JRob.

love what we've done.
 
Nice get. Bucknell probably would have beaten us by 10 this year, so I imagine he'll be fine here. Have to imagine we did beat some P4s for him.
Bucknell was KenPom 331 last year which is about 50 spots worse than the worst A10 team Loyola Chicago. Of course we all know how we performed against Loyola last year so maybe you are right.

Regardless this seems like the kind of big man Mooney likes so hopefully he's ready for the step up even if the A10 isn't what it once was. It appears Bucknell's two other main big men were both injured for parts of the season which probably explains his very high minute count for a freshman but that experience was probably to his and our benefit. The Bucknell message board that I found isn't very active and seems to have understandably disillusioned fans on it, so there isn't really much commentary on his game or play style to be found there.

Credit where it's due, Kaiser and Dorries is probably the most exciting duo on paper we've gotten out of the portal in this era. Hopefully there is still some more to come, maybe a scoring guard or a 4.
 
I do like that he has played for a top team in Germany's top hoops league (from what Google tells me) for 2 years, so coming in with more experience than a typical sophomore from the states.
was looking for his birthday thinking maybe he's older, but he just turned 20.
 
I like the Euro connection. I think that brand of ball is more similar to Mooneyball than what we play in the U.S. Anyone who averages 16 points as a freshman, no less, playing D1 ball, can play some hoops.

Our last big man we took in the portal from a Patriot League school turned out pretty decent for us.
 
Looking him up some more, it appears that lack of rebounding and defense are his biggest weaknesses. Unfortunately those are two areas that Mooney does not emphasize so it’ll be interesting to see how that develops here.

With how crazy the transfer market is and how poorly we’ve played the past 2 years, we can’t be too picky with bigs. Very good bigs are highly sought after. I think all things considered, the staff did a great job in landing him. He has a good frame and will certainly get stronger here. Averaging 16 ppg as a freshman is a great accomplishment no matter the level. He got all league accolades. He has some experience oversees as well. All in all I think this was a very solid recruit to come here and certainly looks the part of being an A10 level player. I’m curious which other programs expressed interest in him.
 
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