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Cordell Pemsl

Other than the knee issues in HS what was his story in HS? Was he a three star or four star? He is a big body who knows how to use it.
Had knee issues starting soph year (I believe). Played thru that in to senior year at Wahlert, then hurt again. Played thru that thru state tourney, then docs from UIHC decided "was better to break the lower leg bone" so they could re-alaign his knees/leg. Spent many hours doing rehab.
As you can imagine, not a pretty prospect when they told him about this "surgery". But he went thru it & had great support both from family & UI family.
Sure glad he is a HAWK!!!!!!
 
For somebody that has had so many injuries and time away from the game it's incredible how polished his low post offense is. Imagine what he could do given more time to develop. Cant wait to see
 
You guys might hate me for this, but his game kind of reminds me of Niang but less fat.

He does in a way that he plays below the rim, uses his feet and looks for assists. But he does not have an outside shot.
 
I like that he has an attitude and plays physical. Hawks need more guys that are very competitive and don't back down. He will develop his outside shooting. Needs to make ft's too.
 
Had knee issues starting soph year (I believe). Played thru that in to senior year at Wahlert, then hurt again. Played thru that thru state tourney, then docs from UIHC decided "was better to break the lower leg bone" so they could re-alaign his knees/leg. Spent many hours doing rehab.
As you can imagine, not a pretty prospect when they told him about this "surgery". But he went thru it & had great support both from family & UI family.
Sure glad he is a HAWK!!!!!!
I have had the very same surgery, and I can't believe how well he is playing. I did it in my 30s, but I can't imagine someone playing at that level after that (and the underlying problems that led to it). Needless to say, I hope he can get through his career without it resurfacing. As a sidenote, I had multiple other ones in subsequent years, and now have a replacement at a relatively young age after everything else failed.
 
He does have some ball handling skills that have yet to be shown much, not as good as tits Niang but theres allot of highschool footage of him leading the break with ball.
 
I said this when I first saw him play this year. Poor man's Niang IF he can add an outside shot.
There were videos out last summer showing Pemsl knocking down threes in what looked like a pick up type atmosphere. I think he's just staying with what he's most comfortable with but we'll see him expand his game/range as he gets older.

They have much different games but I think of the progression Adrian Payne made at MSU with his outside shot. He said he was a guy that was comfortable shooting in high school and practice but it didn't translate to games until he was an upperclassmen. As is Pemsl is a productive player but you add an outside shot and his quickness and ball handling will be that much more of a weapon.
 
He was ranked in the top 150 before all the injuries happened by rivals. I believe 131 so high 3 star?

I can't think of a player like him to compare I think he's his own type of player. He doesn't show any fear too for having all those injuries which amazes me i just wish him great health from now on.
 
Cordell reminds me of Wes Unseld. Hope he turns out to play like Wes did.

Two Wes Unseld references in one thread. Right on! The best 6'7" center of all time. Also overlooked, Wes could fire those outlet passes, two hands over the head, to mid court faster than anyone but Bill Walton and Wilt, and those three are close. If I had a big kid with some talent, from about age 9 he'd be watching old school video and Wes Unseld would be part of it. No one ever blocked out like Unseld, and perfecting the block out would get the average starting big man 6 or 7 boards a game. None of Wes Unseld's rebounds were above the rim.

OK.....that made me feel like junior high again....plus the great old man teams with the Big E, an the original and aging Bobby D, Kevin Porter, one legged Phil Chenier in HS and college. Guess we're playing some Led Zep tonight at my house in the way back machine.
 
If Cordell can limit his fouls, he can do a lot on the court. If he gets two or three fouls, Fran shuts him down by severely limiting his minutes. Same happened in spades with Ryan Kriener last game. If those two guys can keep away from silly/bad/avoidable fouls, they can really help us.
 
The FT is perplexing, because he looks like he is putting good spin and arc on the ball. "Looks" like a good shot, but misses half of them. He is clearly going to get fouled a lot. Needs to improve at the charity stripe.
He does have good form but it looks like he is putting to much english on his release
 
If Cordell can limit his fouls, he can do a lot on the court. If he gets two or three fouls, Fran shuts him down by severely limiting his minutes. Same happened in spades with Ryan Kriener last game. If those two guys can keep away from silly/bad/avoidable fouls, they can really help us.

They all need to limit bad fouls but protect the rim with no fear of fouling.

We have 5 guys that can play the five plus baer can play the 4 so I say dont worry about fouls.

On any given night a couple will get into foul trouble but we have plenty of depth.
 
Pemsl reminds me of Sean May from UNC. He has a good looking shot and pretty good skills for a 4, so I would be surprised if he can't at least develop a reliable mid-range shot like Basabe did by the time he graduated.
 
I have had the very same surgery, and I can't believe how well he is playing. I did it in my 30s, but I can't imagine someone playing at that level after that (and the underlying problems that led to it). Needless to say, I hope he can get through his career without it resurfacing. As a sidenote, I had multiple other ones in subsequent years, and now have a replacement at a relatively young age after everything else failed.

Do you think he injury is limiting him now?
 
Two Wes Unseld references in one thread. Right on! The best 6'7" center of all time. Also overlooked, Wes could fire those outlet passes, two hands over the head, to mid court faster than anyone but Bill Walton and Wilt, and those three are close. If I had a big kid with some talent, from about age 9 he'd be watching old school video and Wes Unseld would be part of it. No one ever blocked out like Unseld, and perfecting the block out would get the average starting big man 6 or 7 boards a game. None of Wes Unseld's rebounds were above the rim.

OK.....that made me feel like junior high again....plus the great old man teams with the Big E, an the original and aging Bobby D, Kevin Porter, one legged Phil Chenier in HS and college. Guess we're playing some Led Zep tonight at my house in the way back machine.
If I remember correctly ,Wes had a huge caboose that kept the taller players off him.
 
To answer hawk_it-- In high school, he played pretty much like now, except that before his last leg surgery, he couldn't run nearly as well as he can now. He was always quite quick under the basket. He was on such a loaded team that he didn't get as many touches as one would think. He had those same moves he has now ever since he started as a freshman in high school, although they got more powerful. He shot about 68%- 70% from the field and was a little better with free throws than he is now. He rarely shot from outside, but did bring the ball up court at times. I guess you can check Quik Stats Iowa. He was 1st team all-state three times, and won two state championships and finished runner-up in another. Wahlert had losing records before and after his class came through, including this year's current 4-11 record. His class was just loaded. I think they beat Iowa City West twice while he played, including last year. I always wonder even how much better his team would have been if four key front-line players (Pemsl, Till (back), Maier (severe high ankle sprain) and Timmerman (broken wrist) wouldn't have had all the major injuries they had. Till was even out once after being attacked by a dog! They also had a foreign-exchange student who didn't play much because he was learning how to play basketball, but if you ever want to see an absolutely amazing video, go Google David Iwowari and look at his highlights film. He'd block on one end and dunk on the other, time after time after time the whole video in an AAU game- and this kid couldn't start for Pemsl's team. I wish somebody could link the video on this thread. I just wish Cordell could avid fouls at Iowa. I think he fouled out only once in his four years in high school.
 
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