Recruiting - 2017

[SLU_Nick]

I really want French to be a Billiken.  2017 should be fun if we keep this trajectory on recruiting.

I long for the Soderberg days when I could line up the rest of the schedule in January and think to myself, "okay, if we just go 11-3 from here on out, we will be a tourney team"...sad.

I think that Thomas Allen would be a great addition as well.  I am curious if those on here think that he would immediately be a better player than a "junior Jermaine Bishop".

 

 

[Ibruce]

16 hours ago, slusam said:

Anthony Mack will be visiting 10/6 according to an article on Rivals. Coming the same weekend as his teammate Matt Turner as speculated by Pistol.

Anthony Mack is blowing up. There is a pay article on Rivals about interest from Florida, Georgia, GT and Indiana.  So far he is visiting Wyoming, Us and Georgia.

[Pistol]

On paper right now, SLU and UNLV have the most minutes to offer French. Marquette has those other forwards who committed and UMass has no available scholarships left. Obviously there are transfers and other moving pieces, but you have to like where we stand with this one.

Other 2017 notes:

Elijah Childs has visited Indiana State and Central Arkansas and plans to visit Bradley and NKU.

Nojel Eastern was at Michigan State this weekend. Mizzou is coming on strong, as it had appeared that it was coming down to MSU, Ohio State, and Purdue.

Tavieon Hollingsworth picked up offers from La Salle and UAB.

As @Ibruce says, Anthony Mack's recruitment is indeed blowing up. Georgia and St. Bonaventure offered. Georgia Tech is coming on strong. Florida, Indiana, and Tennessee are suddenly very involved. Duquesne, Wyoming, Memphis, and SLU have been highly involved for a few months now. He has visited Wyoming with his only official visit so far. SLU is next (October 6), then Georgia (October 15), and then he has two still to use. There's no leader at this point, and certainly things have gotten more complicated here. Florida and Indiana have offered his Blair teammate Deng Gak, so playing together is attractive to them. He likes Coach Fox at Georgia and Pastner at GT. It's a good thing we got on his calendar when we did.

Mack's teammate Matt Turner will visit SLU with him; Deng Gak is the biggest prospect at Blair right now, so maybe playing with him at the next level is more attractive, but SLU is the only school to offer both Mack and Turner at this point. Granted, both project as shooting guards at the next level, so that's another reason they probably won't go as a package. Turner recently met with Pitt's staff and said it went well.

Speaking of Pitt, Aaron Wheeler is going to take an official visit there. Arkansas is now in the mix, and he's also hearing from Purdue and Creighton a lot.

[Pistol]

Other notes, from the interest list:

Christian Negron's final five are DePaul, Oregon State, Bradley, Loyola-Chicago, and UAB. Different than I'd have projected a few months ago, but these are the five after him the hardest right now. SLU was never really in it, and he was a Crews recruit, anyway.

Oral Roberts and CMU were out to see Daniel Farris at Vashon.

Ra Kpedi just visited Vermont.

Jamal Nixon is getting interest from and visiting lower-division schools. I'm taking him off the interest list.

Xavier was out last week to see Levi Stockard at Vashon (and 2019 G Mario McKinney). He visited XU a few weeks ago along with Jared Ridder, who has already committed.

Looks like Alonzo Verge is attending Thornton HS this year, his senior year. Not sure if he's been cleared for eligibility yet.

[RiseAndGrind]

2 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Other notes, from the interest list:

Christian Negron's final five are DePaul, Oregon State, Bradley, Loyola-Chicago, and UAB. Different than I'd have projected a few months ago, but these are the five after him the hardest right now. SLU was never really in it, and he was a Crews recruit, anyway.

Oral Roberts and CMU were out to see Daniel Farris at Vashon.

Ra Kpedi just visited Vermont.

Jamal Nixon is getting interest from and visiting lower-division schools. I'm taking him off the interest list.

Xavier was out last week to see Levi Stockard at Vashon (and 2019 G Mario McKinney). He visited XU a few weeks ago along with Jared Ridder, who has already committed.

Looks like Alonzo Verge is attending Thornton HS this year, his senior year. Not sure if he's been cleared for eligibility yet.

didn't x just get a big man commit for 17? think that has any impact with stockard?

[Pistol]

1 minute ago, RiseAndGrind said:

didn't x just get a big man commit for 17? think that has any impact with stockard?

Yes, Kentrevious Jones, who stands 6-11, 280 right now. He's supposedly committed to shedding some more weight before college, but he's a pure center. XU might see Stockard as more of a PF in college. They still have two scholarships to give for 2017, looking at a potential 6-man class.

They only have 11 scholarships used right now after the Eddie Ekiyor sudden transfer, and might be down to 10 scholarship players this season if Myles Davis doesn't play (suspension). Jalen Reynolds left early, and Larry Austin, Brandon Randolph, and Makinde London all transferred elsewhere for more minutes, and Kamall Richards, a JUCO transfer, left before ever playing.

[Box and Won]

I was so close to naming Box Jr. Kentrevious.  So close.

[prebilliken]

 

[Franchise_08]

37 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Yes, Kentrevious Jones, who stands 6-11, 280 right now. He's supposedly committed to shedding some more weight before college, but he's a pure center. XU might see Stockard as more of a PF in college. They still have two scholarships to give for 2017, looking at a potential 6-man class.

They only have 11 scholarships used right now after the Eddie Ekiyor sudden transfer, and might be down to 10 scholarship players this season if Myles Davis doesn't play (suspension). Jalen Reynolds left early, and Larry Austin, Brandon Randolph, and Makinde London all transferred elsewhere for more minutes, and Kamall Richards, a JUCO transfer, left before ever playing.

Just infuriating to know we were at X level just a few years ago and now they are getting top recruits. Thanks Biondi and Crews!!!

[prebilliken]

2 hours ago, SLU_Nick said:

I really want French to be a Billiken.  2017 should be fun if we keep this trajectory on recruiting.

 

 

I have become attached to the idea of French becoming a Bill... He plays physical and fun basketball, he would make the Chaifetz explode and serve as a great compliment to Goodwin.

Remember all the reasons we loved Conklin? This kid is Conklin x10... I'd love to see him in white and blue.

[Franchise_08]

French is in this weekend and I haven't seen any other visits scheduled for him. Seal the deal TF!!!

[Old guy]

12 minutes ago, Franchise_08 said:

Just infuriating to know we were at X level just a few years ago and now they are getting top recruits. Thanks Biondi and Crews!!!

Hey Franchise, life has ups and downs. You  were not responsible for choosing either of these characters. Don't waste your time feeling victimized by this, look forward. The future looks good for us, for a change.

[TheChosenOne]

2 minutes ago, Franchise_08 said:

French is in this weekend and I haven't seen any other visits scheduled for him. Seal the deal TF!!!

Things have lined up perfectly for us on this one, so I think we can put him on commitment watch next weekend. Its almost like we are going to win his services by default at this point. If we get a commitment from French, the physical difference between the team Ford inherited and the team next season could not be much more different.

[Westy03]

1 minute ago, TheChosenOne said:

Things have lined up perfectly for us on this one, so I think we can put him on commitment watch next weekend. Its almost like we are going to win his services by default at this point. If we get a commitment from French, the physical difference between the team Ford inherited and the team next season could not be much more different.

We have been in a good position with French for a while.  Hoping we can finally seal the deal..  

[ACE]

5 minutes ago, Westy03 said:

We have been in a good position with French for a while.  Hoping we can finally seal the deal..  

How about Allen? If twitter is any indication, doesn't seem like the kid said anything about his SLU visit... as opposed to his visit to Nebraska. Plus the kid is scheduled to visit NC State. Would be nice if our beat writer would do a Q&A with Allen regarding his visit. Instead, he's sending out tweets about drag racing.

[Franchise_08]

Allen took an unofficial visit last month so what more could he expect? Looks like campus was spirited with homecoming events all weekend.

 

It is vital to get commitments before recruits see this current team play. Kinda kidding.

[Pistol]

We'll never compete with the Big Ten in terms of how much presence their fans and media people have. Never. Villanova just won a national championship but if he visited there and Nebraska or any Big Ten school back-to-back, Nebraska would show more social media "love" for Allen and it wouldn't even be close. If that's what a recruit cares about, then Nebraska is going to be more attractive than SLU.

Allen definitely likes to engage on Twitter. How important that feedback is to him remains to be seen. He would be the perfect third piece in a class with Goodwin and French, assuming we can land the latter. If not, though, both Anthony Mack and Matt Turner are solid options and we're in the mix on both.

It's about six weeks before the fall signing period. It's heating up. I love it.

[Cowboy]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

Other notes, from the interest list:

Xavier was out last week to see Levi Stockard at Vashon (and 2019 G Mario McKinney). He visited XU a few weeks ago along with Jared Ridder, who has already committed.

 

-any relation to Jimmy McKinney? 

[wgstl]

13 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-any relation to Jimmy McKinney? 

Cousin 

[billikenfan05]

46 minutes ago, ACE said:

How about Allen? If twitter is any indication, doesn't seem like the kid said anything about his SLU visit... as opposed to his visit to Nebraska. Plus the kid is scheduled to visit NC State. Would be nice if our beat writer would do a Q&A with Allen regarding his visit. Instead, he's sending out tweets about drag racing.

Could be that he was enjoying himself so much he didn't even care about Twitter 

[DeSmetBilliken]

3 hours ago, Pistol said:

Xavier was out last week to see Levi Stockard at Vashon (and 2019 G Mario McKinney). He visited XU a few weeks ago along with Jared Ridder, who has already committed.

I was wondering who Chris Mack was going to visit when this happened last week: 

 

[doowop]

2 hours ago, Pistol said:

We'll never compete with the Big Ten in terms of how much presence their fans and media people have. Never. Villanova just won a national championship but if he visited there and Nebraska or any Big Ten school back-to-back, Nebraska would show more social media "love" for Allen and it wouldn't even be close. If that's what a recruit cares about, then Nebraska is going to be more attractive than SLU.

Allen definitely likes to engage on Twitter. How important that feedback is to him remains to be seen. He would be the perfect third piece in a class with Goodwin and French, assuming we can land the latter. If not, though, both Anthony Mack and Matt Turner are solid options and we're in the mix on both.

It's about six weeks before the fall signing period. It's heating up. I love it.

Do any of the transfers fit the roll Allen would play? 

[Pistol]

19 minutes ago, doowop said:

Do any of the transfers fit the roll Allen would play? 

Henriquez is a shooter; he attempted 302 three-pointers in his two UCF seasons, making 114 (37.7%) of them. His percentage rose from 35.8% to 39.4%, so that's a good trend. He's a fearless player and can do more than just shoot, especially given his 6-6, 210-lb. frame. Three-pointers accounted for about 2/3 of his shot attempts.

Bess is not much of a shooter. He gets his points going to the basket. He attempted 11 total three-pointers in two seasons at MSU, connecting on 2 of them. Even though he's slightly smaller than Henriquez (6-5, 205), he's much more likely to go to the rim to score or dish whereas AH will create from the perimeter.

Foreman is a traditional college power forward banger type, so he's nothing like Allen.

Allen is maybe a bit more of a pure shooter than Henriquez, and he's much smaller (6-2).

If we're really going to use Goodwin as a PG (or point forward), then we will need multiple perimeter threats. Henriquez is a great start and I'm hoping Moore pans out as another tall shooter who will spread the floor and create matchup issues at both ends. Bishop will be a useful role player on this team, and Bartley might have found a role for himself had he stayed, but I guess the potential of losing minutes was too great for him.

[Coach314]

Xavier views Stockard as a PF.  Travis Ford and Tate are at Vashon as we speak.  

[3star_recruit]

Kansas State, one of Stockard's offers, just got a verbal from Nigel Shadd, a 6'9 225lb power forward out of Arizona.