It is highly unlikely that reserve center Enosch Wolf will return for his senior season.

[Brochacho]

Exactly. My point was we had barely any front court going into 2011. Didn't los e a single tournament game. Again, we had Kemba...

But we didn't know we had Kemba until we realized we had Kemba. Who knows, next year at this time we may be talking out Bazz, Boat, DD, etc this way.

 

[Chief00]

Wolf was our best low post defender last season and he played much tougher than Tyler.

 

[CL82]

Good point. All those ex-players who called him a father figure when he retired had me LMAO too.

Really. Why?

 

[aceboon]

Wolf was our best low post defender last season and he played much tougher than Tyler.

Niels played better post D than Tyler and actually rotated on weakside D and defended shots at the rim. same for Nolan during the stretch when the game slowed down for him. UConn basketball will somehow survive the loss of Enosch Wolf.

 

[intlzncster]

Really. Why?

Couldn't be cause they all still close to JC, hang out with him and go to him for advice. Hard to figure from this corner.

 

[Inyatkin]

Really. Why?

Sorry, forgot to hit the "sarcasm" button

 

[PRHusky]

The only reason Wolf even played at all last season was because there wasn't anyone else. He had his moments but his suspension had no impact on the team. By December nobody will even remember he still could have been a part of the team, much like Majok.

 

[BearJWS]

I personally will miss Wolf. He made himself into a productive role player last year. His importance to the team is under estimated. He would be a Senior on this team... which means he came in with Shabazz, Olander & Giffey. From what it seemed, they were all very good friends. If you don't think losing a friend is important to a team, then you don't know what it means to be a teammate. While only a role player, he did put in some solid games for UConn last year. He was a cog in the machine and fans were excited when he came into the game because he played hard & gave us a few exciting moments, much more productive than any of us were expecting. I feel his one misjudgment will define his career. He seemed to take the appropriate steps afterwards to show us his character. I'm not one to want to kick him to the curb.

While I like Phil Nolan & excited about his improvement... We need to remember, Nolan still played behind Olander & Wolf at Center... and even 6'6" Giffey played more minutes at Center last year. Phil averaged 1.4 ppg & 2.1 rpg at the end of the day. I expect Wolf kind of production this year.

 

[pj]

Wolf would have been an important piece, the physically imposing defender around the rim. Most games his absence won't matter. But in the tourney, when matchups are key, lacking that post defender could mean the difference between a Final Four trip and a loss in the Sweet Sixteen.

Maybe Facey/Brimah/Nolan will develop enough that we won't miss Wolf. But you often need two bigs and freshman bigs typically aren't ready for elite college ball. They improve a lot after a year's experience and a summer to build on it.

I think we'll be "OK" but I am really hoping for a Dream Season that will embarrass all the critics and naysayers. I'd prefer to have a 7-foot senior on the roster.

 

[scrappy2.0]

Strong words. Heard this from a few sources also..

http://www.theday.com/article/20130623/SPORT05/306239912/-1/SPORT#.UcbuPKMpDFo

End of the article. The old calhoun ways are over...

Anyone who says anything holier than tho regarding JC is an arse. JC is/was one of the best men in the state of CT history. He didn't just transform a basketball team--he transformed a state imho.

Regading Wolf--I pegged us as a top 8 program with Wolf with a very solid chance as anyone else to win it all. I kind of saw our 5 man position as a three headed monster--we would have a little tats of everything--we could bring the big guy 7-1 260 (Wolf) the energy guy(Nolan) and the kid shot blocker. To me Wolf was 1A losing 1 A and 7-1 260 pounds is a hit and knocks us back 10-15% as a team. He might not give us 20-10 but thats not his role. His role was to block the middle give us occasional 11-7 games and play as a guy who was a instrumental head of a 3 piece position important to the team. Losing him is not devastating--but it made this team not quite as good.

 

[kyle]

I dunno, going into the season with possible titles hopes I'd much rather depend on bigs who shoot an embarrassing 45 and 43%, can't rebound or block out for crap and two unproven freshman instead of a 7 footer with a nice jumper, good hands, and the ability to block and alter shots.

 

[RS9999X]

Uconn was criticized and Herbst particularly after the green witch posted her undergrad diatribe.

 

[huskiesnyc]

The number of games last year where Wolf was a true difference maker was not that much more than that.

Seriously. 3 points and 3 rebounds per game. You need to stop with this Wolf nonsense. We were a terrible rebounding team last year even with Wolf on the floor. We beat Syracuse without Wolf. We had the Georgetown game won with Niels Giffey at center. It's not that big a deal.

I'm with you on this. Our two best wins last year were MSU and Cuse, and Wolf didn't play in either. He had a golden opportunity to play ball at UConn and blew it. Good luck to the young man, but lets not act as if this has any major impact on next seasons potential.

 

[champs99and04]

There is a reason Wolf played less than 14 minutes a game last season despite some of the coaching prodiges on the boneyard calling for him to play more. Enosch Wolf is more appealing in theory than he is in reality - he's appealing because he's seven feet, he has a wide body, and his touch around the rim is unusually soft for a man of his size. Granted, he did some nice things for UConn last year, but the reality is anything he brought to the table in terms of rebounding and rim protection was negated and then some by his poor pick and roll defense. He was slow-footed and inattentive, which is not a good combination for your anchor and last line of defense. He also fouled at an extremely high rate which put us in the penalty sooner in games than we would have liked.

For those of you wondering how we'll hold centers under 30 points, provide me a list of centers in college basketball who are supposedly going to eviscerate us next year. There aren't any. And if teams do decide to pound us down low, they're really doing us a favor because they're deviating from their strengths, which for the vast majority of college basketball teams is strong guard and wing play. Believe it or not, post defense wasn't a huge problem for this team last year - the problem was rebounding. A guy who is going to grab 3 or 4 a game is expendable.

Look - the difference at this stage between guys like Wolf, Nolan, Facey, and Brimah is slim. They range from "serviceable" to "under-developed" to "massive project". The difference is Nolan and Facey, anyway, appear to have higher ceilings than a mechanical seven footer who does more harm than good on defense and often can't get out of his own way. Ultimately, this may be a blessing in disguise because the young bigs will be forced into duty early in the season. Sure, they'll take their lumps, but my hope is they're all viable (or at least two of them) options in the frontcourt when the games start to really matter.

I wish Enosch luck. He seemed like a nice enough kid aside from the incident, and he could have contributed next year. But we'll move on.

 

[Waquoit]

Three long paragraphs ripping a guy, then you wish him luck? Why bother?

 

[champs99and04]

Three long paragraphs ripping a guy, then you wish him luck? Why bother?

If you can't handle a fair critique of somebody's game, then maybe this isn't the place for you. I never questioned his character or work ethic, I simply pointed out the flaws in his game. Apparently, Kevin Ollie shares my view given his low minute total, somebody that knows more about basketball than both of us combined. I conceeded the fact that he would have contributed next season, and I'd much rather have him on the roster than not. Unfortunately, he acted selfishly and compromised his teammates when they needed him most, and the consequence was a loss of a scholarship. It would have been honorable for him to stick it out next year, but the money I'm sure was a major issue and that's understandable.

 

[CL82]

Sorry, forgot to hit the "sarcasm" button

Ah no problem apparently I needed new batteries in this: