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Welcome Fred Thatch Jr.!


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4 minutes ago, bonwich said:

He probably has some sort of undiagnosed injury.

 

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By he, I assume you mean Gillmann? 

Also, we have invested 2 years of scholarships in EW and I don't see much that would suggest that we should invest 3 more years.  The only problem with him transferring is that he has already used his redshirt year.  If he could finish his degree at the end of his 4th year at SLU that would seem to work for all concerned, including him.  If he would stay all 5 years of his eligibility, he would be 24 when he leaves school (remember he spent a year at a prep school after HS and before SLU). 

While I'm not as adamant as Roy about not renewing all scholarships, I do believe that it is wrong (absent grade/conduct issues) to run a player off for their senior year and by that I mean 4th year.  However, I have no problem with not renewing a 5th year of scholarship for a player, such as Welmer.

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10 hours ago, Glorydays2013 said:

Does anyone have a reliable place to look up high school players statistics? Can't find Thatch's and his past few games have been 30 +

Not sure where you can find high school stats, but according to this article, Thatch is averaging 26 points, 12 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.4 steals so far this season. Not too shabby.

The article is really good and goes into detail about why he chose SLU.

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FIREBALL!

Welcome Mr. Thatch.

This is all coming together nicely and as more players like this commit the best chance that the oral commitments stay the course.

Otter of animal house says it best for how I see the  2018-2019 season, "Boy this is gonna be great".

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43 minutes ago, SLURadioBoy said:

Not sure where you can find high school stats, but according to this article, Thatch is averaging 26 points, 12 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.4 steals so far this season. Not too shabby.

The article is really good and goes into detail about why he chose SLU.

That article has me pumped up!

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3 minutes ago, kshoe said:

That article has me pumped up!

im so happy that Ford has his priorities straight.... cancelling practice, thats so awesome. I wish he'd skip games and practices all together this season and just recruited

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I feel about the Bill's like I did when I  saw how the Rams put their team together going into the Super Bowl year, Falk, Timmerman, Green (unfortunately injured, but had completed 90% of his passes in the pre season before he was injured).  SLU is hot right now.  Great article, like the comment that Ford likes to recruit himself, NOT rely on assistants to carry the load. This will definitely be Ford's team going forward.

Hope our anticipation and expectations aren't too high for this team.  I can see how OK St was disappointed when they didnt go as far in the NCAA as they hoped, based on the quality of the players recruited.

mhg

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10 hours ago, bauman said:

Also, we have invested 2 years of scholarships in EW and I don't see much that would suggest that we should invest 3 more years.  The only problem with him transferring is that he has already used his redshirt year.  If he could finish his degree at the end of his 4th year at SLU that would seem to work for all concerned, including him.  If he would stay all 5 years of his eligibility, he would be 24 when he leaves school (remember he spent a year at a prep school after HS and before SLU). 

While I'm not as adamant as Roy about not renewing all scholarships, I do believe that it is wrong (absent grade/conduct issues) to run a player off for their senior year and by that I mean 4th year.  However, I have no problem with not renewing a 5th year of scholarship for a player, such as Welmer.

Not the thread for this but disagree with your comment on Welmer.  I don't think you give up on a 20 year old 6'9" freshman who can shoot from distance and has a frame that can pack on pounds allowing him to play more physically under the basket.  He could end up like John Manning or he could turn into a Frank Kaminsky...either way you let him develop and prove what his ceiling is.  Where's the downside?    

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1 hour ago, kappy96 said:

Not the thread for this but disagree with your comment on Welmer.  I don't think you give up on a 20 year old 6'9" freshman who can shoot from distance and has a frame that can pack on pounds allowing him to play more physically under the basket.  He could end up like John Manning or he could turn into a Frank Kaminsky...either way you let him develop and prove what his ceiling is.  Where's the downside?    

Welmer will be a contributor for the next 3 seasons. He isn't going anywhere.

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13 minutes ago, David King said:

Welmer will be a contributor for the next 3 seasons. He isn't going anywhere.

Welmer will be fine and will continue to be a contributor.  I think it is funny that some MBM's use his 'advanced age' against him, yet in the past have clammered to redshirt guys in order to let them develop.  Athletes 'prime' is typically in the late 20's, early 30's or later.  It is to our advantage that he is older than the other freshmen.

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5 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Welmer will be fine and will continue to be a contributor.  I think it is funny that some MBM's use his 'advanced age' against him, yet in the past have clammered to redshirt guys in order to let them develop.  Athletes 'prime' is typically in the late 20's, early 30's or later.  It is to our advantage that he is older than the other freshmen.

Bingo.

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5 hours ago, Westy03 said:

Best part of the article.  

“We’ve got some killers coming up the next couple of years,” Thatch said.

I saw a video of Thatch from when he was in 8th grade.  Dude asked him what his objective was when he stepped out on the court.

"Demolish my opponent."

-Fred Thatch Junya

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5 hours ago, kappy96 said:

Not the thread for this but disagree with your comment on Welmer.  I don't think you give up on a 20 year old 6'9" freshman who can shoot from distance and has a frame that can pack on pounds allowing him to play more physically under the basket.  He could end up like John Manning or he could turn into a Frank Kaminsky...either way you let him develop and prove what his ceiling is.  Where's the downside?    

Agreed.  EW will be a good 6th-8th man on the floor for this team the next few years. 

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Welcome, Fred!

Well, the rumors are true and we've got another early commit. I think two committed HS juniors is unprecedented for SLU basketball. This is truly a new era.

Thatch is definitely on theme to how Ford is building this roster, in that he's a very tough, very aggressive, highly motivated player who plays really hard on every possession. He's scoring in high volume for Sikeston this year. He plays a lot like a forward, in that he's really phyiscal and his inclination seems to be taking it to the basket rather than creating on the perimeter. He's got a strong build, and even though he's not long-limbed, he's pretty explosive and can get up quickly for dunks, blocks, and rebounds. Most of the highlights you can find on YouTube and Twitter are of him dunking off a half step, or a full step in traffic. He's listed at 6-2 or 6-3 in most places and looks like he's on the shorter end of that to me. A college/NBA comparison I liked for Thatch was Will Bynum.

I think the concerns around Thatch are that he's hard to project in college, partially because of his size. He's a little undersized for his style of play, he's not a big-time shooter, and he's not a primary ballhandler. He just doesn't fit into any of those 1 through 5 roles naturally. The good news is that that's becoming more true of prospects in general as the game evolves. In talking about him with a few others, Roosevelt Jones and Jordan Goodwin were both names that came up. Jones played kind of a power forward for Butler despite his height (6-4) and Goodwin is a guy who doesn't fit neatly into a conventional position. Jones, however, had ridiculous arms. Goodwin also has a couple inches on Thatch and is a player you just want on your team, regardless of where you line him up on a given night because he's so talented. Thatch has another full year to develop his game, though, and hopefully his senior season has him building out his skill set, particularly focusing on his shot.

So he's not a no-doubter like Gordon but I'm pretty optimistic about how he'll fit because he's yet another guy who plays his ass off, seems extremely driven, will do anything to help his team win, and can pile up points on any given night. He'll be a fun player. A guy with his frame and determination and sneaky explosiveness can become a fan favorite. By the way, I'm also seeing that he's an excellent student. That's always nice.

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