I can’t help but think that he is out of here next year. I mean, Nance and EJ have clearly become the 5th guys out there while Iti continues to dog it out there. He plays with zero confidence, and sits on the bench and looks like he wants to leave right away.
My only concern is that Iti provides depth. I know that this is something that we’ll need come tourney time so I hope that Iti can get 15-20 minutes/game from here on out (as long as he’s playing decently). As for next year, I know that he is gone. Heck, the guy tried the NBA last year!!! He will either transfer or try the NBA again…ROFL!!
[i]Originally posted by cltniners @ Posted on Feb 20 2005[/i]@ 01:42 PM
[b]clt is the devils advocate on iti. clt thinks he will stay and get better. clt says he is tall and can emerge as a productive player. [/b]
Let's hope you're correct. I do believe that Iti would have been more productive this year had he stayed on campus and not worried about his NBA career. LOL!
[i]Originally posted by cltniners[/i]@Feb 20 2005, 01:42 PM
[b] clt is the devils advocate on iti. clt thinks he will stay and get better. clt says he is tall and can emerge as a productive player. [/b]
Over40 can remember this and it is my hope that this will happen with Iti. After the 1977 season, a recruit was signed by the name of Roland VanDenBergh. He was one of 3 6-9 players signed that spring and quite honestly, the biggest project of the three. He played in almost every game for four seasons and was what I termed a Zero; for every good thing he did on the cour, he did something equally as bad. The Bird’s career averages were minimal at best, but he became the starting center for the 49ers after Christmas of the 1980-81 season and became a beast over the final 10 games of his career, averaging something like 15 pts and 8-9 rebounds during that stretch.
By playing well when it counted, VanDenBergh ended up playing pro basketball in Holland for several seasons.
Sometimes, big centers just do not have what it takes until late in a career. Is this the case with Iti, I don’t know, but the team is surviving without him producing.
I also recalled Jermaine Parker spent all 4 years with us and only became a beast in his senior year. And, he was way worse than ITI in his sophomore year.
Centers, because of their height, are usually the last ones to develop their true basketball skills. Cornbread did not start his freshman year, Tom Burleson was very clumsy early in his career at State, and even Tim Duncan was only so-so his freshman & half of his sophmore year. He wasn’t even a projected starter his freshman year but moved into the starting lineup when Wake lost Ninjyah (that spelling is not correct) because of “recruiting contradictions”.
Like NLP said, a summer of hanging around town could do wonders for Iti.
Imagine how good Jermaine Williams could’ve been if he’d had just one more year. Big guys can improve in a hurry. I just hope Iti improves eventually. I don’t think he can get much worse at this point.
Where’s he going? The NBA is not going to want him unless he gets his skills up and at the rate of his last 3 games, he’ll NEVER play a minute of NBA ball. He needs 2 more years of HARD WORK here and we’ll see. Sad.