Emmanuel Stephen from Arizona. We recruited him hard out of HS but couldnt get him. He is James Evans AAU teammate and James did a lot of work here.
Finally got him!
- Thread starter Hoopsnstuff
- Start date
Great news. Really need a big man after losing Bear and Pape.
We lost them because of this....
And he's better than both... UA had to many bigs
As fans we are like starving dogs. Begging for a bone but wet ourselves when someone throws is a piece of grizzle.
We beat put Villanova, USC, Syracuse, etc for him...
He was recruited by U of A and Kansas...
If thats grizzle my goodness you're going to be disappointed over and over again
He was recruited by U of A and Kansas...
If thats grizzle my goodness you're going to be disappointed over and over again
He’ll be a double double machine. Great get. We’ve had issues with bigs playing like bigs (getting rebounds and defending).
Maybe in blocks and rebounds lol. Doesn’t look like he has crap for offense based on high school vids and some evaluations written on him. I’ll take a player like him all day long though. If he can develop enough to put 10 points up every night that’d be a huge win… and then he’d transfer next year 😂
Okay then?
You talk about UNLV like we are the destination for stars, you cannot just forget how bad we have been and snap your fingers and we are the top spot for great players? It will be years before we are, so get used to to guys who make you yawn but if you thought Pape was good you need your eyes checked! Lol
"....if you thought Pape was good you need your eyes checked!"
Show me where I said Pape was good. I said I thought Pape was better than this guy.
I’m happy with the recruit. I’m sure he is pretty good. But I’m tired of getting offensively challenged centers. I hope most of this off season work will be offensive moves and scoring around the rim. And also I wish he can hit the three from the top of the key ala David Butler.
He’s not!
I will take the Arizona 7 footer and develop him over the guy you let walk in the portal!
If Pape was on his level, he would be here now, not in the portal!
And you also were trying to crap on the kid from Santa Clara but I you can’t now because he was good enough for Ohio St to ink to NIL money!
247 scouting report:
Adam FinkelsteinDIRECTOR OF SCOUTING
Stephen is one of the best defensive big men in the country. He's a gifted athlete with great size and a cut-up frame that should continue to expand in a college weight room. He runs the floor very well, gets off his feet easily as a leaper, can cover the court, and move laterally. He was the leading shot-blocker in the EYBL with over 3 per game and also a high-volume rebounder who finished among the league's top five in that category as well. His mobility allows him to not only protect the rim from a wide-radius and cover a lot of ground when rotating from the weak-side, but should also allow him to defend pick-and-rolls in different ways. Offensively, he needs to continue to develop both his hands and his fundamental skills, but he is capable of putting pressure on the rim as both a lob-threat and rim-runner in transition.
EVALUATED 07/08/2023
Adam FinkelsteinDIRECTOR OF SCOUTING
Stephen is one of the best defensive big men in the country. He's a gifted athlete with great size and a cut-up frame that should continue to expand in a college weight room. He runs the floor very well, gets off his feet easily as a leaper, can cover the court, and move laterally. He was the leading shot-blocker in the EYBL with over 3 per game and also a high-volume rebounder who finished among the league's top five in that category as well. His mobility allows him to not only protect the rim from a wide-radius and cover a lot of ground when rotating from the weak-side, but should also allow him to defend pick-and-rolls in different ways. Offensively, he needs to continue to develop both his hands and his fundamental skills, but he is capable of putting pressure on the rim as both a lob-threat and rim-runner in transition.
Hopefully people start crying that CJP hasn’t made the dance yet. (CJP has been proving everyone wrong daily.)
He got 6 rebounds and 6 points in 9 minutes of play vs CMU at Arizona. At UNLV he can put up good numbers over 30 minutes of PT.
The doubters can have their moments now, I think they will see soon and then fall back in line!
I would be over the moon if he could consistently put up double doubles. Not saying he couldn’t develop into that. But the score of that game against CMU was 41-94.
Remember when Karl Jones went ham on Bethesda? (Had to look that game up, I didn’t actually remember the team off the top of my head). Plus, 30 minutes of PT is a lot to ask of a raw 7 footer.
I’m in a spicy mood right now and I’m only challenging for the hell of it. I’m happy we got him but I just don’t see him putting up consistent points. I’ll jump on board if we are hyping him up for his rebounding and block potential.
I'm sure we will sign another big. This is a start. The coach is looking for length for defense. No 6ft point guards this time.
Disagree, he has the tools to be a double-double big, reminds me a lot of Keba Keita at BYU, CKK whiffed on him hard. You guys don’t see it because he didn’t do anything at Arizona.
It is going to be CJP and Garson to develop him, he’s got insane athleticism and measurements.
Highly recruited 4-star big man looking for bigger role. Getting these kinds of players should be recognized as good wins for our program in the current college basketball climate.
This sounds like history repeating itself. Fans thrilled with the recruiting wins as opposed to the wins on the court.
Truth!
This is who we are at the moment and knowing that Josh has a plan to find and convince these types of guys to come to UNLV when we lack the NIL money is the way it works for us right now.
Recruit guys like this, guys from other lower conferences who get passed over by the P4’s and good D2 types like Drake had is the way we get back to where we want to be.
It’s a start not the “endgame” for UNLV basketball until we start winning again and being a regular in March madness!
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What exactly are we supposed to do at this point... is anyone really saying "I know winning is fun, but aren't we glad we signed a 7ft Center in April instead?"
What's your suggestion for right now, while we are in the midst of portal season and waiting for the current season to end?
My suggestion, thanks for asking, is to wait and see how it turns out on the court. Talking about recruiting wins is like saying your cake is the best tasting cake just by looking at your ingredients. Mixing the ingredients and putting it in the oven to bake doesn't mean you've succeeded either. Sometimes you just have to wait to see how it comes out.
True!My suggestion, thanks for asking, is to wait and see how it turns out on the court. Talking about recruiting wins is like saying your cake is the best tasting cake just by looking at your ingredients. Mixing the ingredients and putting it in the oven to bake doesn't mean you've succeeded either. Sometimes you just have to wait to see how it comes out.
I think some are just relieved that the coach is not Kevin and UNLV recruiting is no longer in his hands, may not be exciting to some but for the rest of us, we are looking forward to see how this roster will be built.
This Stephen kid is a good start, in my opinion!
Stephen and the retention of the freshmen and red shirts. We have a solid young team. 6'8 point guard, Evans from the slot, Stephen on the lob, blocked shots and frenetic defense from a bunch of young guys. We do need some solid vets to get us over the start of the season as Pastner said, they all count.
“We’re never going to sign players that have offers from power 4. We don’t have the NIL”
“Look at who we’re offering? He’s not unlv quality”
Then we sign a 7 foot transfer that Arizona did not want to lose and had very solid offers and now it’s nothing to get excited about? lol listen guys, we have had enough to be miserable about for the past 2 decades. We can be excited by this and still know the season is most likely going to be a failure because that’s how it’s been for forever now.
“Look at who we’re offering? He’s not unlv quality”
Then we sign a 7 foot transfer that Arizona did not want to lose and had very solid offers and now it’s nothing to get excited about? lol listen guys, we have had enough to be miserable about for the past 2 decades. We can be excited by this and still know the season is most likely going to be a failure because that’s how it’s been for forever now.
Gotta start somewhere. Baby steps(Yeah I know, we've been taking baby steps forever...).
Yup!
Absolutely!
We will see, but I think the season will go better than many here expect, because there will be excitement just because Kevin is not here leading the way to nowhere!
I think it’s a prospect from Europe.
I don’t think he’s signed yet though, I could be wrong?
I can't tell you how he will play, but the fact is he is an upgrade over the players Kruger recruited to the team.
