Taj79

Why? Being first don't mean nothing. Right now, who knows where thi skid coul dend up. I suspect that if Mizzou and Haith were this quick, the upper-level BCS schools won't be far behind.

Good for Kevin. Great kid, one of the best representatives of a Saint Louis University athlete I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Despite reading the article, I don't see a dollar figure. Anyone know what he got? Just curious. Best wishes for a productive career.

I have taken enough crap over the years for being born on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor (oooh, were you one of the bombs dropped that day?) even though it was sixteen years after the 1941 fact. I live with that (so I guess I ain't 10 years older than skip!) so let me live in peace on that one. Old bonowich and I did go to school and graduate together but he did do time at Wisconsin before that I seem to recall. So he might be a little older but I swear it was 1957 and it ain't me in that picture. Unless I was playing guitar on a return from Aruba or Mexico but I am a pure white guy and don't tan like that!!! But if you all are goign to insist, how about sending money and really making it my birthday!! P.S. -- thanks to courtside for not taking "pissy" the wrong way in a different thread.

Great --- bonowich ---- dealing in reality and fact always throws me off.

Gee ---- thanks courtside for that full circle thing. Didn't know I needed it. A little pissy today? My apologies for helping set that off. I did enjoy the rant, because i enjoyed the information. I was just talking about Gibbs and trying to hopefully connect some dots .... and explain a little why we might have been in Bruenig's top three pre-Maryland, but likely ain't so in the post-Maryland era. If Nark beats me in this game, I'm all for it because if Nark is right, we get Bruenig. I just don't see it happening. Wally Judge: never heard of him. Bladensburg is to DC what U City is to St. Louis. I'm about 90 miles north of that so I don't hear much about down there except for really big names that make national covers --- a Carmelo, a Mayo, an Irving, LeBron, Kobe, a Rivers. Names I get for us small fry comes from spots on ESPN and blurbs like Hearthisblog and other like-minded sources. What you are saying is that kids that sign one place and end up elsewhere are due to AAU coaches? Having the DC Assault coach at Rutgers gets Judge? So I guess you are telling me Faust is headed to Rutgers then? But I don't or can't draw the Rosario line to a connection? Did his AAU coach end up at Florida? Did he and Beal have the same AAU coach? i don't see thelogic you're tossing about here. Isaiah Philmore I know -- now he was local here at The John Carroll School in Bel Air. Didn't impress me at Towson but did not know he was transferring. Given the AAU logic you make, what or where's the Mizzou/Xavier connection? Ooooh .. juicy. Please tell on the SLU/G-town rumor. Look, if you're trying to tell me kids transfer all the time, I get it. That I knew. I also know that Roy seems correct to point out that SLU's instances of transfers has increased significantly in the Majerus era, even when you throw out the four kids he inherited from Brad. I'll give him that because they weren't his groceries to cook his stew. But still, he's got more on the books for now, or so it seems, than anyone I remember. It seems like a revolving door -- try them out, they don't work, I get them to transfer. That's somewhat cold-hearted but the reality of today's basketball world. All I'm saying is given who we are up against now then where we before in the Bruenig sweepstakes does not look good for uS. Because of who we are and because of who they are considering they have expanded. It's pretty amazing that in comparison, a school like Maryland loses Gibbs and reloads with another 6'2" guard just like that. We plod along. I did enjoy the information on who's going where so keep that coming. Philmore was pretty lame at Towson under Pat Kennedy. I don't think he'd be more than a practice body at either Mixzou or Xavier.

Taj who? My profile lists my birthdate correctly --- in December. And the birth year is 1957 so whomever is doing the math is wrong also. Where are you guys coming from? What did I miss?

Looks like Turgeon's hiring at Maryland did not do enough to keep one of Maryland's three Gary Williams recruits in the fold. Sterling Gibbs announced via Twitter he is going to Texas. http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/30983/texas-adds-another-guard-to-recruiting-class That still leaves big recruit Nick Faust out there. As we all know, Bruenig went to see LoRo last night. I don't recall Washington being in Bruenig's original mix/list. But "courtside" said it best in a post on the Smith thread, things change ands suitors change. the Gibbs story confirms that -- Texas lost four or so guards, two to graduation and anotheer two stayed in the draft. So Rick Barnes wa sfaced with having some heavy lifting to do late in the recruiting period. Same goes for our Bruenig possibility. Given this, I do NOT see us in the hunt for Bruenig at all now.

Ummmmm .... I got to side with WVBilliken here. Have the recruits improved? Yes. Did I expect more? Yes. I think the talent level is better including those who've left. Cotto could have been a great player, who knows. The kid might have had the talent, but the head wasn't there. Willie Reed had the talent, but the head wasn't thdre either. Anybody who believes Willie will go from stringbean to NBA player and put on weight playing five games in eight nights is more of a betting man than I am. John Smith had talent, no head for putting up with Majerus. Again, Majerus is a dinosaur ----- not many of today's "press conference kids" are going to accept Rick's all-for-the-gsme style. Coaches nowadays seem to be more psychologists and shrinks over and above X and o men. Coach K and Duke had more four year men than not until Magette and Deng started the one=and=done in Durham followed more recently by Irving and others. Our cupboard remains mostly bare. I can see Rick finishing out this year and if Mitchell has a big year and declares, I can see Rick hitting the road with this his irst real class graduating. Face it .... we root for a seemingly cursed program. I hope the other kid is Bruenig. Just because we need inside help. Haven't heard officially that he is out of his LOI at UMd but Turgeon jsut signed a kid to replace the three class losses according to today's Sun. To me, it sounds like Turgeon has moved on. I am gueessing that is true for all three with hopes Faust stays in the fold. I think Gibbs is gone because the kid signed is a 6'2" guard as Gibbs was. Heres STILL hoping we land Bruenig over the other BCS players.

Ha ....ha .... ha. In today's over-indulgent, self-created, look-at-me world, you think a kid is going to NOT have a press confernce? Here in America anyway? He'd get on ESPNews or the scroll at the bottom of the CBS SC channels. Hell, the big guys even have ESPNU running and setting up the row of cameras in front of the big name kids on signing day ala some really important item like bin Ladne's death. Sadly, for some, it ends up being their last minute in the sun but it's still their minute. If Turgeon/Maryland released both Faust and Gibbs the release of Bruenig should come shortly, provided Bruenig is still pushing it. Faust and Gibbs are supposedly big time talents; Bruenig was just a "nice" spring signing period get. The real focus in College Park is Faust. Question is will Turgeon re-recruit all three? I say yes for the first two .. Bruening I think will go elsewhere. And I hope it's us.

Reference WVBilliken's comments on Gary Williams .... the final straw that broke Williams' back is the loss of Jordan Williams to the draft. According to good Terrapin club sources, Williams wanted one more season and believed quite strongly that he had it for the coming year. But that all rode on the back of Jordan Williams. To me, that's a pretty long-odds gamble. But Gary really thought Jordan's foray into the NBA waters was experimental --- to find out what he needed to improve on and use that this year in what WOULD be his final year (barring injury) at UMd. If you look at the Twerps roster, they are now extremely light along the front line with this loss. That took Gary back to ground zero, making this year, as he called it, "another learning year." And in Gary's mind, "learning years," while necessary, mean no Big Dance, which is how they measure success in College Park. And Gary's national title luster of 2002 is long gone. That is ancient history in today's game and memory set (that's why talking about the Bills in the 40's and 50's is ludicrous!). Both bigger recruits, Nick Faust of Baltimore City and Sterling Gibbs of Seton Hal lPrep (NJ), are in today's Sun annoucning they are re-opening their recruitment. Both have been granted their LOI releases. The article goes on to say "Maryland's third class of 2011 signee, German forward Martin Bruenig, requested to be released .... Wednesday, according to InsideMDSports.com." Article is at: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/recruiting/2011/05/nick_faust_sterling_gibbs_reopen_recruitments.html Both "top" recruits say Mayland is still an option and Faust is saying the Twerps are still #1. When asked about possible other schools, Faust, a 6'5" swingman and all-metro Baltimore player said "whoever calls first." Yikes! Gibbs was similarly kind, saying "Maryland is still his top priority, but the more interesting quote was "I signed with Gary Williams." He is reopening his recruitment mentioning Dayton, Louisville, Notre Dame, Providence, Seton Hall and Texas as already calling. Dayton! Yeah, like they belong in that list. Not a peep on Bruenig other that the pulled quote above.

Mark Turgeon was introduced as UMd's coach yesterday in a grand, DC-esque news conference. Overall, it was rather blase. The news guys are trying their best to play it up, create sparks where there seems to be none (Baltimore columnist Kevin Cowherd again referred to Maryland as "one of the top 10 college coaching jobs in the country"), with little if any student oomph, and with only former players and radio guys being the most excited and having good things to day. Yop Ten? Cowherd claims it is because it "pays $2.5 million," is in "one of thbe top conferences in the country," and is "in a Top TV market just minutes from the nation's Capitol." I guess Karl Hobbs wasn't getting $2.5 million. Top Ten? Let's see .. Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan State, Syracuse, Kansas, Texas .... well, that's nine without really trying. If you leave it at thatm, I guess the tenth spot is in the eye of the beholder and Cowherd's eye is as good as any other. Jeff Barker of the Sun did the "news" piece. In it, he said one of the things Turgeon said at the conference as his current priorities was "keeping Maryland's incoming, three-member recruiting class intact .... coaches were still talking with the families of lead recruits Nick Faust (City) and Sterling Gibbs over their status." I immediately noticed no Bruenig. Maybe by this time he knew the kid was opting out and just let it go. Maybe he didn't want to cloud the good feeling of the dya with what some might htink is bad news. In any case, Bruenig's absence or lack o fmention is interesting. Who knows. Maybe we can still get him. If us an dmaryland were two of his top three, what was the third option? Who we up against? Don't get me wrong --- Gary has missed on many more recruits than he's hit on in recent years so I am not saying Bruenig is "the answer" to our current dearth of usable big men. But it wouldn't hurt, would it?

UMd folks not too happy, not too sad .... From Kevin Cowherd of the Sun ...."Let's acknowledge the obvious .... The hiring of Mark Turgeon won't have Maryland basketball fans dancing in the streets" and "It's a solid choice, sure." http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/bs-sp-cowherd-column-0510-20110509-13,0,5938305.column However, Jeff Barker likes it and gets his quotes on Maryland as one of the best jobs in the country from Turgeon's first mentor, Larry Brown who recruited and then hired him at Kansas. http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/bs-sp-terps-mark-turgeon-0510-20110509,0,1169244.story New AD Kevin Anderson has underwhelmed Twerp nation .. first in the hiring of football coach Randy Edsall from Uconn and now Turgeon from Texas A&M for the basketball program. No offense but I really don't believe the Twerps are as important as they seem to think they are. Then again, who really is?

Show of hands .... anyone on here consider Maryland to be "one of the choicest jobs in all of college basketball?" Just curious ... this was the statement made in Sunday's Baltimore Sun by one of my favorite columnists Peter (the) Schmuck. Maybe back when it was the "UCLA of the East" but I don't see it as such anymore. Competing against Duke and UNC in the ACC is tough; then against locals Georgetown and (somewhat) Villanova to include the likes of Mason and others that seem to come and go. Plus Pitt and Syracuse have established pipelines into the area. I just don't see it. Other thoughts? Haven't heard the local backlash on Turgeon -- and I'm sure there will be some. The choices were supposed to be Miller, Stevens, Dixon, Wright and Brey. I suspect Turgeon won't get too many raises from the locals on the hire. But there was no "Garyland" tie --- Williams didn't really develop much in terms of assistants into the ranks outside of Jimmy Patos at Loyola of Maryland. And that ain't too good to begin with.

This should lock up X as the pre-season favorite. Holloway and Lyons make for a tough backcourt. Relford should be bak gunning after his ACL repair. While purely one-dimensional, you have to guard him no matter where he is mesning no second guard help on either of the other guards driving. I'd still challenge Lyons to see if he has a consistent jump shot. Frease might finally be the dominant horse in the middle he was supposed to be as a freshman. Repacing Jackson might be tough on the intangible side. McLean was pretty solid down low but Taylor and the freshman big from last year showed signs. Plus they will likely have another two or three studs from the recruiting trail in tow. This is now the model program for the high mid-major to follow. Plus, don't they have a transfer ready to go? A kid from Manhatten or somewhere in the NYC area? Xavier will be tops.

Talk here is Williams just got married. Now, I know he was seen with some hot, younger chick on his arm lately so maybe he parlayed Larry Eustachy-like panderings into an Ekker-like situtation for himself and that is from one person tightly connected to the Terrapin Club so he might have gone through some middle-age craziness. That's on the personal side. On the professional side, Steve Bisciotti and he are tights. Bisciotti owns the Ravens. Steve told him to retire last year, after he came out of nowhere to tie for the ACC regular season title. But he wanted to ride Jordan Williams and company back to the NCAAs. This was a teaching year for Williams and next year was supposed to be the reaping of that sown side when Jordan was a junior. Now that he's left, Gary Williams has to literally start over ewith no front line. That's really why he bolted. He has a nice class led by Nick Faust but he's too tired to do the "teaching" thing again. That's what's being said here. I hear both Faust and the other guard are thinking about their commits. Have heard the Bruening is overseas and unavailable for comment. Brey has been mentioned as the lead but his reps are currently renegotiating an ND extension. The UMd interest comes at a great time. The second named dropped is Miller at Zona. Secondary names are Dixon at Pitt (a big Baltimore/DC recruiter) and Wright at Nova. Then the usual hot names like Smart, the Butler guy, and few others. This a really comes at a grossly bad time. It's really bad to be at this point in a program at this time of year. The Friedgen hire was only stealing Edsall from Uconn --- Most wanted Leach from texas tech --- and Twerp nation was not happy. Going to be interesting.

Coaches leave (Gregory) and recruits de-committ (Henson). I never thought of it but it couldfbe the case with Bruening as well. Hmmmmmmm .... never thought of that.

Sitting here in the DC metroplex, I did not see this coming. There have been signs, dating back to Gary's ongoing fall out with the AD Debbie Yow and some of her minions. But when she left, all seemed fine despite sniping from both camps at the other even after she went to NC State. Two things seemed to have changed recently ....1) the new AD (who canned alum Ralph Friedgen even after an okay year) and now the Jordan Williams awkward entry into the NBA draft. The Williams defection seemed to really catch Gary and his staff unawares. Gary is also a dinosaur ... ala Majerus, Knight, and a couple others of that age group. I got the feeling Gary was growing weary of the ass kissing that has become college recruiting. His planets all aligned for his one and only NCAA title back in the early 2000s and he could not regain that success in the ten years past. He got a lot of second tier players in Mosley, Strawberry, Caner-Medley, Gregory and then some. His run was fueled by four-year guys like Baxter, Dixon, Blake and Booth but he wasn't seeing many blossom as they had. I expect this timing is about as bad as it can get for the Twerps .... their incoming class is again a bunch of suspects right noiw, including the Bruening kid. They got nothing on hand that can knock heads with the Plumlee twins or the Zeller-Henson UNC front line. Gary is cooked.

Ya think? When has Huggy Bear developed a three in a five's body? This is the Big East Aaric ..... you going inside to knock with the real BIG boys. Night after night after night. I for one can't wait to see if he throws a hissy fit on Big Bob like he did on Dr. John. If you believe that kids commit to coaches much more than they do schools (as I do), this is a strnage fit. I can't wait to see how it pans out but Murray left La Salle for the same reason Staten left Dayton. By the way, everbody knows Staten committed to Penn State, right?

No ... I disagree and that was not my point of the spear ---- what I meant was I don't discount any kid declaring early. I just think that if (more likely when) you do it, you go to the camps and evaluations and find out if you've got what it takes. Likely, you will not (save for the chosen few) but you take what the experts have given you, and you improve upon that for future use. Chris Wright had to have been told "look son, at 6'7" well everyone is 6'7" in the NBA. You rebound well and have a super motor but in the NBA, you're a small forward. You need a game from 8 feet out to 17 feet. Develop a jumper and come see us again." Wright had three years to do that and did not. Now the problem here becomes thes camps. If the NCAA tournament ends on April 4 as it did this year, and early signing day began on April 18 or 19, then the kid has essentially two weeks to get his reviews in to make his decision. Isn't the kid an undergard and isn't he supposed to be in school at this time???? Are mid-terms going on around this time or what? Is it Spring Break time? The shorter window presnets some problems for the kid looking at it from that angle, yes? What might be fair to the school may not be fair to the kid so on whose side do you err? Looks like the NCAA is leaning more towards the name on the front of the jersey and not the back. As for a Dayton degree, give it up, will ya? The only degree that matters is the one you are working. Sure, some schools names on the paper mean something (Penn's Warton School of Business) but mostly, its you selling yourself. Kind of self-ho-ing. How's that working for you, Bobby?

I think this is good in terms of syncing up the holes on your roster as the late signing period kicks in. Of course, sans a few here and there, spring signings are along the "three sides" part of the menu and not the main couse -- msotly. I believe this will make the borderline guys make that decision a little quicker. If I recall, you can declare for the draft I believe its once as an underclassman, go to all the pre-draft camps, get evaluated, see how you measure up, and then come back to school. Someone correct me on this if wrong. So you could declare as a sophomore, go, see what you need and how you currently measure up, and then come back and work on improving your weak areas. If you balloon out of the sky as a junior, you declare and ride the wave. If not, you've still got your senior year and then you're thrown in anyway. Only the Kyrie Irvings and John Walls of the world --- the already annointed -- can mostly ignore this route. I remember Wright at Dayton declaring after his freshman year, which I thought was too soon. Still, he came back but never improved his game over and above what he was as a nice freshman. I think this is a goo dmove for th enCAA and the colleges -- stop being a minor league stop for the big boys to a lesser degree.

Honored. Thank you kid.

Much like "you can't teach height" a lot of any evaluation of a high school kid is speculative at best. And college coaches get 13 bullets in the chmaber over a four-year roster. Some pan out (Bonner), some don't (Johnson). Some exceed expectations (Perry), some don't (Liddell). Again, like clock said, I don't want that part of the prospecting game. Not for me -- weak stomach. Also, bulking up for the sake of bulking up doesn't mean you can play and compete. Roland Gray wasn't a physique chiseled in stone, neither was Donnie Dobbs. Highmark was a runt in the litter --- looking at a young H Waldman, who sees what? Bobby Brannen was a punk at 18; would never have wanted him. Take him over anyone at 22. Chip Hare was a stud at 18. Never seen or heard from again. If Berry is that good ---- if you were that good -- irrespective of ;egact, where would you strat your search for schools? Not at the intersection fo Grand and Lindell. We might count our blessings to even be in the same room with some of these guys.

kshoe -- nothing but love and respect for you on this side. Of course, one man's love and respect is another's calling out. It's all perception which is individualized. Salecich's transfer is ireelevant. Names are immaterial. It just seems hard for me to see a leopard change his spots. And again, I don't think we have seen all the shoes (no pun intended) fall. I know I am not close to the program (physically) so a lot of my stuff is interpretation. But I am telling you, from the national, 50,000 foot view of this program --- irrelevant. The mojo that was Majerus is gone. In the words of the state motte: "Show me --- something --- anything --- Bueller --- Bueller.

Wow! Nate -- well said. Moser's ability and skills as the head coach can be gauged in only one way .... let 'em rip. Only now, he'll be ripping for Loyola. Will it be a success? Don't know, do we. But the long-range toals you mention, coupled with the fact thta Moser was "out there" as the de facto recruiting face is interesting and potentially damaging. Ain't no way in hell some big name BCS dude takes this program once Rick is done. And if Rick goes out on "bad" terms of even hi s own making, Young, Harriman and Jensen and jsut about anyone on that bench faces the same fate. Wow! Also to kshoe -- I was no tthe gloo-n-doom guy with the rampant speculation this time. So take a bite out of Nate's arse fo ronce. I am what I will call a national alum --- I don't have season tickets and can't be there in the trenches with all you other guys. And I suffer for that. But the view from 50,000 feet doesn't look good. Not that it ever did but what Nate narrated here is the view I see. Rick might be a lazy recruiter; he might not. I'm like clock in that I am not kissing the backsides of high school sophomores or maybe even 8th graders as Metz suggests Kiffin does. Thank god. And Rick did have assistant coaches and staffs to look out for and may have been doing damage control there. And yes some high school sophomores do just want to get to the local hot spot and hang after school. But you have to ask why, if Purdue and Florida anre calling, the boys down the street are not. But amybe too he can't commit to a high school sophomore -- he doesn't know if he'll be there. Ah -- such a tangled web. By the way, any immaculate spring signings on the way yet????

Potential shoe-dropping dates: 1) End of semester. 2) Final semester grades. 3) Australian trip date. 4) Fall 2011 Enrollment date. Fact: the Rick Majerus era is rife with transfers. Fact: the Billikens have fielded one of the top ten youngest lineups in the nation the last two years. Fact: Spring signing classes have delivered little in terms of servicable players to the Billiken lineup in the recent past. Fact: Rick Majerus has not won big at Saint Louis University in his five years here. Fact: Kwamain Mitchell and Jake Barnett are "back" next year. Fact: Rick Majerus publicly dissed one of his current roster sophomores. Fact: the only additional recruit to the current roster is a 7-footer some have called "a project." War is jobs; jobs are security, security is peace ergo War = Peace. If that is indeed speculation, which it must be, then GUILTY! I guess I'll just engage in whatever speculation I feel like.