Cyclones add post transfer Isnelle Natabou
- Thread starter Connor_Ferguson
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She may be a point guard in terms of her passing abilities, but that doesn't mean that she can guard ones and twos. Royce White was a point guard offensively, but he was guarding the opponent's five more often than not. From the highlights I've seen, I doubt that Brown is guarding twos in the Big 12. Diew and/or Bristow may be able to, but I still think it's pretty unlikely that the three of them would be on the court at the same time in the 2-4 spots. Honestly, I think it's more likely that they'd occupy the 3-5 spots if all three were on the court at the same time.
I agree with this. On offense Addy seems more natural on the wing as a three and Jalynn a more natural 4 right now. On defense I could see Addy guarding the 4 and Jalynn the 3 depending on the matchups. Addy is very skilled for 6’2”, so I think we can run a lot of offense through her.
Brown has a strong handle she's more likely to play the 3 when she's paired with Bristow or Diew.
Right, I think that's probably true offensively. I'm just saying that defense seems like a different story. I think both Diew and Bristow probably have better lateral quickness than Brown, and Brown has a bit more bulk. Maybe that's not right and it obviously depends a lot on matchups, but I just don't think that Brown can or should be called a 2 without quite a few caveats.
Zingaro seemed really slow on defense but seemed to handle the offensive end a little better. Just worried, quickness is hard to develop.
She had some solid defensive moments this year like a pair of blocks in the 1st win over Texas.
Diew typically has played either inside as post or outside as a shooter. The depth at post likely means there won’t be a need there. The three available will take the minutes at that position. As far as shooters…she is streaky and that means she would be a second option after the other guards/forwards on the team. Her other downside is she is a liability on defense. She will still get minutes and when she’s hot from outside she will get all the minutes in the world. But until she gains some consistency the new additions have potentially moved her down the list
I don't really disagree but when I watched her play I thought she ran the floor pretty well.
I agree. As has been my position over and over, she conserved energy as much as possible to stay on the court 100% of the time, so she frequently took her time getting down the court on offense. But when she had reason to run, she looked pretty agile out there.
I don't really disagree in general with what @CYdTracked and @Aclone are saying. I think it's reasonable to believe she'll likely be somewhat limited as a freshman as she adjusts to a faster game and higher level of competition. I don't expect her to play more than ~15 mpg in 23-24 unless injuries to other players force her to play more. I think we're better off getting 10-15 minutes of full-effort Audi vs. 30 minutes of what we saw in her high school games. And with time, hopefully that 10-15 minutes turns into 20-25 minutes.
I really don't know what kind of minutes we'll see out of her to be honest. Here's a legit question though do you think she plays more minutes than Zingaro in 23-24? Izzi couldn't even carve out consistent minutes when Soares got hurt. Occasionally would get 10+ minutes but a lot of games where she didn't get much at all. Factor in the minutes that will be up for grabs at the 4/5 spots between Natabou, Diew, Brown, Zingaro, Izzi already has 2 years in of development and took a lot just to get her more than garbage minutes this past season so unless Audi comes in and just looks ready for the part I don't see where she is going to find 10-15 minutes consistently. Bill also doesn't mind playing small at times too so can't even say for certain some of the 40 minutes at the 4 spot won't go to a guard or wing player too. Again this is no knock on Audi but I would no be shocked if her minutes are sparse unless she just plays too well to keep off the floor.
I really don't know. I think early in the season we'll see plenty of minutes spread out for everyone, but we all know how Bill tightens down the rotation once we get toward conference play. If he's not confident in Audi or Izzi, we could see a lot of Brown/Bristow/Diew playing at the same time when Issy Natabou is on the bench. I think a lot depends on what Bill sees in October, November, and December.
I agree with mred. The thing we saw from Zingaro after Soares went down (and the coaches verified this) was she spent a lot of time with the coaching staff outside of practice working to get better and it showed. I never felt like she was a liability in there. I think her minutes were limited due to a proven presence in Kane and the experience of Diew. Her biggest liability was fouling (i.e. defense). I'm hopeful she will continue to improve and we won't see Diew in the post mix at all. I also think that Crooks will surprise a lot of people who haven't seen her play AAU ball.
I agree with this as she is not a 5 and really can not defend someone with size. She is a 3/4 and as you have noted needs to be more consistent when on the floor. Has been very good at times coming off the bench and when she is on is an asset but when she is not is a liability.
My summary - we better hope Natabou is really good and can play 30 minutes when needed.
Unless she is crazy overrated she could play 25-30. I don't think she needs to be "really good", moderately good will do the job and be a win. I know you're not a fan of Zingaro but she did improve quite a bit this season. She is at least as good a backup at post as most teams have considering the overall dearth of post talent in WBB.
Heck, Jordao was a career 3 pts and 3 rebounds a game at South Florida and did much better that that at ISU.
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Natabou played 35 minutes per game last year. Obviously will be a pretty sizable step up and makes those numbers likely drop a fair bit, but it's good the record is there for heavy minutes. I'm fairly high on Natabou and pretty excited to see how she does.
Same here. She has only been in the US for a short time but you can tell she is learning fast . She posts up aggressively and asks for the ball with the correct hand. Watch the UCLA game highlights and you will see her constantly shifting from low post and then reposting, sealing off her opponent. She has unreal hands and snatches the ball out of the air and turns to shoot with ball held high. Defensively she will learn help defense and to move her feet correctly to close out driving opponents. Should be a fun year with the newcomers coming in and we have the perfect floor general in Ryan.