Pitino: Konate is further along than Dieng was as a freshman at Louisville

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Go Gophers!!
 

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Go Gophers!!
 

That's exciting to hear. I'm expecting Morris to have a pretty significant contribution to this year's team, and our limited guard rotation has me hoping that Nate Mason will be able to at least spell one of the Dre's for a little while each game, and many here seem to have pretty high hopes for Martin, with some expecting him to be taking Joey King's minutes by the end of the season. But Konate (and Diedhiou, if he were playing this year) are kind of wild cards. They were both foreign guys who don't seem to know a whole lot about, and with two redshirt seniors in Mo and Elliot up front, I felt like any contribution they provided this year would be a bonus. I wouldn't have been too disappointed and I think the team would have been fine if Konate didn't do much this year because I don't he will really be relied on this year, so anything positive out of him means this team will be better than I expected. Also interesting that they might experiment with him playing the 4, since the board consensus seemed to be that he was strictly a 5. I thought I remembered hearing in the past that he's supposed to be able to shoot a little bit, so I'm eager to see him play and see what he brings to the Gophers.
 

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This was the Pitino quote I was most excited about today. I expect that trend to ramp up even more with future recruiting classes.
 

How much did Dieng play as a freshman at Louisville?
 




SKOOKM said:
Here is a good interview about practice with some footage. You can get what might be your first look at Mr. Konate. Looks like he has good size.

http://kstp.com/sports/stories/S3579662.shtml?cat=7
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Great interview. Rich Pit seems very relaxed and quietly confident. I think he is *very* happy to *not* be in another brand new situation. He likes this team, I think. He likes that he can work on improving the team, rather than installing the culture. I hope I am not wrong, but I would be very surprised if he had his eye on moving up and out ASAP. He will be here for a while, I think.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
Played in 29 of their 35 games. Averaged around 15 minutes.
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IF he can play well for 15 plus minutes that's huge for this team, especially with EE's knack for foul problems. That he might play those minutes will also help give Mo a breather as well.
 



King's arms look significantly bigger this year.
 


Welcome to the bigs Konate! Your coach just placed a load on your shoulders.
 

GopherJake said:
Great interview. Rich Pit seems very relaxed and quietly confident. I think he is *very* happy to *not* be in another brand new situation. He likes this team, I think. He likes that he can work on improving the team, rather than installing the culture. I hope I am not wrong, but I would be very surprised if he had his eye on moving up and out ASAP. He will be here for a while, I think.
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Hope you're right!
 



Buggs sporting the Horace Grant glasses!

I'm pretty psyched to see this team play.
 

Woah... Dont know why, maybe this is racist, but I was expecting Bakary to be much skinnier and lanky looking. Kid is built and looks like he could be a presence in the paint. Completely different expectations now that I've seen him.
 

I was a little disappointed to see no headband for Lofton. Maybe just a game thing?

I didn't think King looked a lot bigger but he looked taller. Maybe just an illusion based on the camera angle, I don't know.
 

BleedGopher said:
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Go Gophers!!
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Its not how you start it is how you finish. Let's hope Konate finishes even 90 percent of Dieng! The future looks very very bright with Mr Pitio in control.
 


Winasota Gopher said:
Woah... Dont know why, maybe this is racist, but I was expecting Bakary to be much skinnier and lanky looking. Kid is built and looks like he could be a presence in the paint. Completely different expectations now that I've seen him.
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This probably sounds racist too, but I didn't realize that he is as dark-sinned as he is. I thought that was Gaston at first.
 


GopherJake said:
Great interview. Rich Pit seems very relaxed and quietly confident. I think he is *very* happy to *not* be in another brand new situation. He likes this team, I think. He likes that he can work on improving the team, rather than installing the culture. I hope I am not wrong, but I would be very surprised if he had his eye on moving up and out ASAP. He will be here for a while, I think.
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He was wearing a powder blue shirt so he is obviously in secret talks to succeed Roy Williams at Carolina. Coach, wear a school color!
 

I hope people take Coach Pitino's comments about Konate with a grain of salt. Dieng averaged 5.7 pts (on over 60% from the floor), 4.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks(!) in 15.6 mpg for a Louisville team that finished 3rd in the Big East and was a 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. This is still a year of firsts for Pitino as it's his first year as the head coach of a team that has expectations. It's entirely possible that he's trying to build up Bakary's confidence and doesn't realize the weight those comments have with fans dreaming of a 3rd real big and a 2nd rim protector to throw at opposing teams. Hopefully, that's not the case and Bakary really can impact this team as a freshman.
 

STrib: Gophers freshman Konate makes speedy leap from project to player

With the season quickly approaching, Konate has established himself as a major asset rather than a slow, long-term venture. The problem is that he sits third in the depth chart at center, behind seniors Elliott Eliason and Mo Walker.

The solution? Perhaps to play the freshman at power forward instead, Pitino said on Friday. “We’ve got to try to make it work,” he said.

The first big test of that experiment came after the news conference, when Pitino inserted Konate at power forward on the first team in practice. Konate played at power forward a couple of times over the summer, but Pitino only ran about 10 percent of the plays he plans to use this fall during that time, he said.

The biggest challenges for Konate would be keeping up with and guarding smaller opponents at power forward, and coming off ball screens.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/278096631.html

Go Gophers!!
 

Never mind that Pitino's shirt had a huge block "M" on it...

Konate is built! Although his time in the video is brief, his build and movement is similar to an athletic big like Garnett (after he had put on some weight in the league). Interested to see how he pans out.

You can also see a significant difference in Morris - shoulders and arms are filled out as well compared to his junior college videos where he looked like he would get snapped in half during Big Ten play. Looks like Nate Mason has been in the weight room as well - looks a lot more cut and athletic.
 

EG#9 said:
It's entirely possible that he's trying to build up Bakary's confidence and doesn't realize the weight those comments have with fans dreaming of a 3rd real big and a 2nd rim protector to throw at opposing teams. Hopefully, that's not the case and Bakary really can impact this team as a freshman.
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There's probably some confidence building intended in those comments, but, in terms of age, Konate isn't the typical freshman as he turns 21 right before the end of 2014. He's only a few months younger than Joey King.
 


I like that we are tinkering with Konate at PF. To me, that says that Pitino already has an eye on how we're going to match up with the Badgers. Their front line will be as good as any in the country with the emergence of Nigel Hayes down the stretch of last season and its a really tough matchup for Joey King, and I would think Martin as well. Konate gives us a whole new dimension defensively and athletically. Making the switch to PF may not come natural to him, so it could be a long road, but I like that we're at least looking at it.

Go Gophers!!
 

Bakary is jacked! I knew he wasn't a twig coming in at 230 but wow, his muscle is so much more defined than Mo or Elliot's.
 

Wow I was surprised too at bakary's build. He is a big strong guy.
 

This is good news. I knew he wouldn't be redshirted, but didn't see how he would get more than 6-8 minutes per game at the 5. Any time he gets will help us in 2015/16 and any value he can add this year is a plus.
 

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