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Mike Crawford


3Bill

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If you're wanting to follow Indiana HS basketball here's the website I like best.

http://indianahsbasketball.homestead.com/boys.html

John Harrell is out of the Fort Wayne area but he really covers things well for the whole state.

Here's the schedule for Tipton:

http://indianahsbasketball.homestead.com/files/boyslogs334.htm

There are only 4 classes in Indiana in basketball and they are divided evenly every 2 years. So if a high school goes from being independent to joining the IHSAA (Indiana HS Athletic Association) and class A, then another school goes from A to 2A, another school goes from 2A to 3A and another school goes from 3A to 4A. The reason I mention this is Tipton will be the next school to get moved up from 2A to 3A.

http://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa/documents/News%20Media/2010-11/Reclassification%20-%20Four%20Classes%202011-12%20&%202012-13.pdf

The sports authorities are fairly prevalent in downtown Indy. The NCAA headquarters are next door to the NFHS (National Federation of HS Athletic Associations) which is a block down from the IHSAA. The NJCAA (junior colleges) headquarters are in Colorado Springs.

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I for one will reserve judgment until I see him play at the college level. I've seen a lot of great looking 6'5" high school centers and forwards.

The question is, can he turn himself into a good ball-handling 2 guard/small forward. If he has the ball-handling skills and shooting skills then yes, he might be a steal. If not, he is a very under-sized front court player. Here's hoping he has the quickness, ball-handling and shooting skills to make it at the D-1 level.

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I for one will reserve judgment until I see him play at the college level. I've seen a lot of great looking 6'5" high school centers and forwards.

The question is, can he turn himself into a good ball-handling 2 guard/small forward. If he has the ball-handling skills and shooting skills then yes, he might be a steal. If not, he is a very under-sized front court player. Here's hoping he has the quickness, ball-handling and shooting skills to make it at the D-1 level.

.....just stop.

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Sorry F05, but WV has a legitimate question based on years of Billiken experience that sadly has become the norm. I second the question.

If you read the article, he was playing against a very good team which lost 57-56 to Crawford's team. He had 35 points! You know he had special defenses geared to stopping him employed all over the floor. The article says he is a candidate for Mr Basketball in the state of Indiana and he is the type of player who hustles constantly and dives on the floor for loose balls. Why not give the young man credit and welcome him to the Bills with open arms. No one knows for sure how he will fit in long term but why be negative at this early point?

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Sorry F05, but WV has a legitimate question based on years of Billiken experience that sadly has become the norm. I second the question.

If you read the article, he was playing against a very good team which lost 57-56 to Crawford's team. He had 35 points! You know he had special defenses geared to stopping him employed all over the floor. The article says he is a candidate for Mr Basketball in the state of Indiana and he is the type of player who hustles constantly and dives on the floor for loose balls. Why not give the young man credit and welcome him to the Bills with open arms. No one knows for sure how he will fit in long term but why be negative at this early point?

I don't think its being "negative" to be a realist. This kid was ranked as the 27th or so in the state of Indiana and we beat out some VERY underwhelming programs for his services. Thats not meant as a knock on the kid. I would be proud as hell if he were my son. I do think it is is smart to keep your expectations low and maybe be pleasantly surprised.

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@Billikan ---- nowhere did I say anything about the kid. I was talking our history. I can do a litany of names starting with Tony Brown (33 ppg in high school) but with F05 on so many Zima's, I don't want to get blamed for him going off his ledge.

Let me say this .... if we had Rick, I'd be excited more. This sounds like the kind of kid that would be his kind of player. If we hire Shaka, then I'm going the other way in my feelings (not that we are or will or that I want Shaka --- as a coach he plays the opposite style of Rick, that's all).

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WV's question seems to be THE question to ask about the kid's transition to D-1 ball. From the limited highlights I watched, the kid looks like a dang good high school player, has the ability to put the ball on the floor a little and hits the mid-to-deep range shots. However, his success in D-1 will likely depend on his ability to be an effective guard in college. In addition to playing sound D, to be an effective guard, he will have to handle the ball some and create some shots off the dribble. We won't have an answer to this question for a while, but it's a fair question. I don't think WV was being negative or taking a shot at the kid.

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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Billikan" data-cid="338242" data-time="1359305653"><p>

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Taj79" data-cid="338223" data-time="1359302003"><p>Sorry F05, but WV has a legitimate question based on years of Billiken experience that sadly has become the norm. I second the question.</p></blockquote>

If you read the article, he was playing against a very good team which lost 57-56 to Crawford's team. He had 35 points! You know he had special defenses geared to stopping him employed all over the floor. The article says he is a candidate for Mr Basketball in the state of Indiana and he is the type of player who hustles constantly and dives on the floor for loose balls. Why not give the young man credit and welcome him to the Bills with open arms. No one knows for sure how he will fit in long term but why be negative at this early point?</p></blockquote>

Wasn't Diener Mr Basketball in Wisconsin? Nough said.

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Absolutely not taking a shot at the kid. At 6'5" he has just got to be able to defend and handle the ball because in college he will be a 2/3 perimeter player. Think of Dustin Maguire. Great HS player about the same height as Crawford. Wasn't quick enough and couldn't handle the ball well enough to play D1. But one heck of a HS and pretty good D2 player. Never panned out at SLU. And if I remember, Dustin was a 2 or 3 star player by the national recruiting gurus. Just hoping Mike can adapt.

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Absolutely not taking a shot at the kid. At 6'5" he has just got to be able to defend and handle the ball because in college he will be a 2/3 perimeter player. Think of Dustin Maguire. Great HS player about the same height as Crawford. Wasn't quick enough and couldn't handle the ball well enough to play D1. But one heck of a HS and pretty good D2 player. Never panned out at SLU. And if I remember, Dustin was a 2 or 3 star player by the national recruiting gurus. Just hoping Mike can adapt.

I don't know where you get this idea that Maguire was a 3-star recruit nationally. I don't even think he made the 1st or 2nd All-Metro team. I remember following him after we signed him and his numbers seemed very ordinary. I know numbers don't always tell the story, but Crawford is putting up much bigger numbers than Maguire ever did. I wasn't overly impressed with this signing when I saw the level of schools recruiting him, but maybe a bunch of schools missed on him. I also don't recall a real strong list of schools recruiting Dwayne Evans either, so you you never know. I've been reading a lot about Crawford since we signed him and you have to be encouraged that he is putting up some huge numbers and often doing it against quality competition. He has done a lot more than Maguire ever did his senior season. I understand your reasons for being cautious, but I also think there are some reasons to be optimistic.Maybe he is more like Scott Highmark and less like Dustin Maguire.

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Absolutely not taking a shot at the kid. At 6'5" he has just got to be able to defend and handle the ball because in college he will be a 2/3 perimeter player. Think of Dustin Maguire. Great HS player about the same height as Crawford. Wasn't quick enough and couldn't handle the ball well enough to play D1. But one heck of a HS and pretty good D2 player. Never panned out at SLU. And if I remember, Dustin was a 2 or 3 star player by the national recruiting gurus. Just hoping Mike can adapt.

I don't know where you get this idea that Maguire was a 3-star recruit nationally. I don't even think he made the 1st or 2nd All-Metro team. I remember following him after we signed him and his numbers seemed very ordinary. I know numbers don't always tell the story, but Crawford is putting up much bigger numbers than Maguire ever did. I wasn't overly impressed with this signing when I saw the level of schools recruiting him, but maybe a bunch of schools missed on him. I also don't recall a real strong list of schools recruiting Dwayne Evans either, so you you never know. I've been reading a lot about Crawford since we signed him and you have to be encouraged that he is putting up some huge numbers and often doing it against quality competition. He has done a lot more than Maguire ever did his senior season. I understand your reasons for being cautious, but I also think there are some reasons to be optimistic.Maybe he is more like Scott Highmark and less like Dustin Maguire.

Agree. McGuire was not a highly rated recruit.

We all understand the issues this existing staff is going to have recruiting. Nobody wants to commit to an interim coach that likely won't be there next season. That being said and given that we have 4 scholarships to give this year and 5 next year, Crawford is about the best we could have hoped for and we should all hope that he truly is the diamond in the rough that we need. I for one am very happy he's in the fold.

The best thing we can hope for going forward is that the next coach, whomever that may be, already has a bunch of talented kids that he is close with. We are going to have to entirely rebuild this roster and the new coach will have the ability to do so very quickly.

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A smart man looks and listens but holds final judgment until enough evidence is in. I have no problem with someone being cautious about any recruit that they do not have a lot of personal data to go by. I hope this kid turns out to be Larry Bird but am not going to go around and tell everybody that he might be. I agree - let it play out.

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I don't remember Drew Deiner being Wisconsin POY. I seem to recall that being his cousin Travis, who went on to a decent point guard career at Marquette. Am I mistaken?

Drew was the Gatorade player of the year his senior season - his cousin was younger. Also, Polk was the POY in MO as I think Highmark was - so who knows what that really means.

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Actually Maguire was indeed a three star recruit. See link to Rivals.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/basketballrecruiting/basketball/recruiting/commitments/2006/SaintLouis-654

And he was also a three star on Scout. See link to Scout.

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=8&cfg=bb&toinid=443&yr=2006

And yes, he was 6'5" HS front court player.

Crawford is a NR. Just waiting to see if he is indeed a D1 player. Hope he is a player for SLU. Wouldn't want anything else.

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Crawford is a NR. Just waiting to see if he is indeed a D1 player. Hope he is a player for SLU. Wouldn't want anything else.

<_< I'm betting that he is indeed a D1 player. We should probably be nuzzling this dude's nutskin for choosing us when we have an interim coach with only a seemingly passing interest in his own team.

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Biggest game Tipton has left before the state tournament is against the Frankfort Hot Dogs (11-4 so far) in Tipton. The Blue Devils fire things up (you know, pep rallies and such) to cook the Hot Dogs.

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Biggest game Tipton has left before the state tournament is against the Frankfort Hot Dogs (11-4 so far) in Tipton. The Blue Devils fire things up (you know, pep rallies and such) to cook the Hot Dogs.

No disrespect to Crawford, but I can't root against a team called the Frankfort Hot Dogs. I just can't.

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Actually Maguire was indeed a three star recruit. See link to Rivals.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/basketballrecruiting/basketball/recruiting/commitments/2006/SaintLouis-654

And he was also a three star on Scout. See link to Scout.

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=8&cfg=bb&toinid=443&yr=2006

And yes, he was 6'5" HS front court player.

Crawford is a NR. Just waiting to see if he is indeed a D1 player. Hope he is a player for SLU. Wouldn't want anything else.

Wow, considering that same site had Horace Dixon at 2 stars, tells you a lot about its credibility. I recall there being some sites where Dwayne (Dwight) Evans was a NR. I think a better test will be where does Crawford rank on the Indiana all-state teams by the end of the season. After we sign players, I follow our recruits and read articles. Maguire had a very unimpressive senior season. In many games, he wasn't even the best player on his team. I don't think he was even in the top ten on the P-D All-Metro team. If you read the articles on Crawford, he is doing a lot more than Maguire ever did. Who knows how it will play out, but I at least think there are some signs for optimism.

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Actually Maguire was indeed a three star recruit. See link to Rivals.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/basketballrecruiting/basketball/recruiting/commitments/2006/SaintLouis-654

And he was also a three star on Scout. See link to Scout.

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=8&cfg=bb&toinid=443&yr=2006

And yes, he was 6'5" HS front court player.

Crawford is a NR. Just waiting to see if he is indeed a D1 player. Hope he is a player for SLU. Wouldn't want anything else.

Wow, considering that same site had Horace Dixon at 2 stars, tells you a lot about its credibility. I recall there being some sites where Dwayne (Dwight) Evans was a NR. I think a better test will be where does Crawford rank on the Indiana all-state teams by the end of the season. After we sign players, I follow our recruits and read articles. Maguire had a very unimpressive senior season. In many games, he wasn't even the best player on his team. I don't think he was even in the top ten on the P-D All-Metro team. If you read the articles on Crawford, he is doing a lot more than Maguire ever did. Who knows how it will play out, but I at least think there are some signs for optimism.

-true dat (in the spirit of the Super Bowl) from games I saw when he was a senior, small sample size, though

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