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ESPN.com Top 150 for 2008


brianstl

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Guest BillikenReport

Thompson at 106. Mitchell at 150. The big suprise for me Conklin at 139. This is going to be one hell of a class.

Brian,

I don't know if you have an Insider subscription, but this is from the Bob Gibbons story on the top 13 recruiting classes:

Other top early recruiting classes: Wisconsin, Indiana, Cincinnati, North Carolina, Xavier, Dayton, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Oregon, Maryland, Gonzaga, Syracuse, Rutgers, Missouri, New Mexico, Clemson, N.C. State, Georgia, Stanford, Southern Illinois, Santa Clara and TCU.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting...&id=2994499

- Nate

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I believe this is the highest ranked class acccording to the pundits since the Larry the Legend, Roland Gray, Matt Baniek, etc. class recruited by Rich Grawer. Does anyone remember how the pundits ranked that particular class?

Conklin is also considered one of the top 10 sleeper prospects:

"6-8 F Brian Conklin (Eugene, Ore.)

ESPN 150 rank: 139

This tough low-post player is excellent sealing his man in the low block and scoring. Conklin takes a warrior-like approach to practices and games. Winning is most important to him. He's committed to St. Louis. "

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting...&id=2994399

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Notes on Thompson and Mitchell from ESPN's top 150 list:

Thompson:

"Evaluation: Thompson has great skill level, and a tremendous upside. Lots of potential, great hands, he can score around the basket and is strong on the boards. St. Louis grabbed him before everyone knew about him. Good IQ for the game. Good around the basket, good skill for a young kid. He has a slow reaction to the basket and quick athletes bother him around the hoop. If he works at the game he will get better and better. Cannot get it off the glass right now in high level competition. Great passer out of double team , finds teammates, know hows to play and there's a real purpose to his play."

Mitchell:

"Evaluation: Mitchell was one the most prolific scorers of the summer AAU circuit. He is a combo guard, but he is much more of a scoring guard. He is not a true point guard at all. Mitchell has a good body, good speed and is very athletic. Kwamain thinks scoring! He can penetrate, create his own shot and really fill it up. He can get to the rim or shoot the ball from the perimeter. He will need to concentrate a lot more on defense and stopping his own man at the next level."

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I believe this is the highest ranked class acccording to the pundits since the Larry the Legend, Roland Gray, Matt Baniek, etc. class recruited by Rich Grawer. Does anyone remember how the pundits ranked that particular class?

Wasn't the Edwin, Pulley class pretty high ranked too?

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Notes on Thompson and Mitchell from ESPN's top 150 list:

Thompson:

"Evaluation: Thompson has great skill level, and a tremendous upside. Lots of potential, great hands, he can score around the basket and is strong on the boards. St. Louis grabbed him before everyone knew about him. Good IQ for the game. Good around the basket, good skill for a young kid. He has a slow reaction to the basket and quick athletes bother him around the hoop. If he works at the game he will get better and better. Cannot get it off the glass right now in high level competition. Great passer out of double team , finds teammates, know hows to play and there's a real purpose to his play."

Mitchell:

"Evaluation: Mitchell was one the most prolific scorers of the summer AAU circuit. He is a combo guard, but he is much more of a scoring guard. He is not a true point guard at all. Mitchell has a good body, good speed and is very athletic. Kwamain thinks scoring! He can penetrate, create his own shot and really fill it up. He can get to the rim or shoot the ball from the perimeter. He will need to concentrate a lot more on defense and stopping his own man at the next level."

Getting real excited at the prospect of Marque Perry (the Remix)...

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Notes on Thompson and Mitchell from ESPN's top 150 list:

Thompson:

"Evaluation: Thompson has great skill level, and a tremendous upside. Lots of potential, great hands, he can score around the basket and is strong on the boards. St. Louis grabbed him before everyone knew about him. Good IQ for the game. Good around the basket, good skill for a young kid. He has a slow reaction to the basket and quick athletes bother him around the hoop. If he works at the game he will get better and better. Cannot get it off the glass right now in high level competition. Great passer out of double team , finds teammates, know hows to play and there's a real purpose to his play."

Mitchell:

"Evaluation: Mitchell was one the most prolific scorers of the summer AAU circuit. He is a combo guard, but he is much more of a scoring guard. He is not a true point guard at all. Mitchell has a good body, good speed and is very athletic. Kwamain thinks scoring! He can penetrate, create his own shot and really fill it up. He can get to the rim or shoot the ball from the perimeter. He will need to concentrate a lot more on defense and stopping his own man at the next level."

Courside, you out there? What's this about "He is not a true point gaurd at all"? I thought KM was a true pg and he would be given the reigns for the next 4 years. I would love to have a pass first pg on this team. I've been watching the FIBA championships this week and i'm am absolutely amazed at how much better the team is with Jason Kidd on the floor. It's a completetly different ball game when he's running the show. When they sub Billups in there, they are not nearly as effective.

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Courside, you out there? What's this about "He is not a true point gaurd at all"? I thought KM was a true pg and he would be given the reigns for the next 4 years. I would love to have a pass first pg on this team. I've been watching the FIBA championships this week and i'm am absolutely amazed at how much better the team is with Jason Kidd on the floor. It's a completetly different ball game when he's running the show. When they sub Billups in there, they are not nearly as effective.

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Roland Gray was not in the class of Hughes and Bainek. They were years apart/

Yeah they were way apart, not to mention Charlie was the one who recruited Hughes, Baniak, and Tatum.

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Does anybody wonder why Conklin has only 2 stars?

I am guessing the stars may have came before the summer AAU season and his recruitment by RM.

This is a nice change, do you remember when players committed to SLU and the player's status regarding ranking went down.

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Yeah they were way apart, not to mention Charlie was the one who recruited Hughes, Baniak, and Tatum.

Thank you for that. I was about to go off on that poster and revoke his Billiken Card for such a blatantly wrong reference to a recruting class.

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in response to pistolactually charlie didnt really "recruit" Hughes. Hughes wanted to stay at home even though he could have gone to a powerhouse and there aren't any other D1 programs in st louis Hughes wanted to come to slu and charlie couldnt say no

so you dont think that derrick thomas ever asked larry to come to slu? it was larry that approached thomas?

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Actually I heard Larry did approach Derek first and was told they had to watch him 9 more times. For clarification Larry then called Spoon who informed him the correct number of times they had to watch him play was 7. I understand Derek continued getting 7 and 9 mixed up throughout his career as a Bills asst and that is a major reason why he had to move on.

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Actually I heard Larry did approach Derek first and was told they had to watch him 9 more times. For clarification Larry then called Spoon who informed him the correct number of times they had to watch him play was 7. I understand Derek continued getting 7 and 9 mixed up throughout his career as a Bills asst and that is a major reason why he had to move on.

wahhahahahaha.

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in response to pistolactually charlie didnt really "recruit" Hughes. Hughes wanted to stay at home even though he could have gone to a powerhouse and there aren't any other D1 programs in st louis Hughes wanted to come to slu and charlie couldnt say no

Don't be ridiculous. "Recruiting" encompasses quite a bit, and if in Larry's case that means being the only D1 school in his home city so he can stay close to his family, I'll take it.

I'm sure Spoon and his assistants didn't sit in their offices all day thinking, "Gee, I wish Larry weren't one of the best players in the country. Maybe if he were a little worse then we could actually recruit him. Oh well."

Geography is a major factor for a lot of kids, and we were in the right place for Hughes. Spoon still had to convince him that SLU was a program that could offer major exposure for him and sell the staying home aspect. To say, "Charlie couldn't say no" is asinine; Charlie, like every other coach in the country, would have welcomed Hughes with open arms under any circumstances. He didn't just sit there idly and accept the fact that Larry had to come to SLU.

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anyone knows i am not the biggest spoon fan and pretty much because he was about the laziest recruiter we have ever had. but to say slu didnt recruit hughes is nuts.

it was very obvious that spoon put derrick thomas on the slu staff for one reason and one reason only. sign larry hughes. division one colleges dont promote high school coaches with no college recruiting experience to lead recruiters for the hell of it. now there is no denying that derrick ended up being a very good recruiter, but that would have been viewed as a silly move if not for the obvious target of larry hughes.

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