3star_recruit

The MVC is a solid basketball conference. But it has to be considered option no. 3 for SLU after 1) a league composed of Big East and CUSA schools and 2) a league composed of Midwest Catholic schools

No doubt Monroe is good enough to secure a Div 1 scholarship. He doesn't need to walk on anywhere.

First, Mr. Ahearn and now Mrs. Douglass. This is getting kinda eerie.

If you're only 5'9, you must be an outstanding player to start at the Division 1 level. Kids that small have been fighting an uphill battle their entire basketball career so they're used to rising to the challenge. Over the last 10 years, Tyus Edney, Cordell Henry and Dante Swanson have all been fine players at the D-1 level. Earl Boykins averaged 20 ppg in college despite standing only 5'5. So there are a number of guys Polk can look to for inspiration.

Wow. It doesn't look like Alden is willing to go down with the ship if the USS Mizzou happened to spring a leak.

There were 185 players at Nike Camp according to the roster: http://www.hoopsfuture.com/aac/2003roster.xls How many of them are point guards I don't know. Since most high school basketball players are under 6'6, I suspect there are more guards and small forwards than there are power forwards and centers. At 6'6 1/2, I don't think Matt Shaw will ever get a fair shake by recruiting gurus. They think he's a tweener.

How can Hansbrough and Pargo both be ranked the 8th best junior? Francis thought Polk, who is only 80% healthy, was the 9th best point guard there? Wow.

I believe Romar could have gotten better players but he went after too many big fish and came up empty. He virtually ignored Midwest talents like Derek Winans (SEMO), Jamar Howard (Wichita St.), Clint Cuffle (Evansville), Jitim Young (Northwestern) and didn't recruit local star Phillip Gilbert at all. It's no accident that these guys led their teams in various statistical categories as underclassmen. They can play.

I admit to being a hypocrite because I'd take a top 20 player in a minute. But in hindsight I would rather have had Kent Williams and Jermaine Dearman than Larry Hughes. Of course Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter would have been even better.

I'd take 4 years of Kent Williams and Jermaine Dearman over one year of Larry.

"they choose to not meet the standard of public universities in making records available to local media." Since when do private institutions make their business public? They're called private for a reason.

Ian has more than held his own in the warm-up tourney and now this game when he has been given real minutes. That's good enough for me.

"that leads me to think we dont know the names of the real recruiting targets." I think Brad likes it that way. I'm a fan of high school basketball so I will always give the board my honest opinion of the local talent. But just because I'm high on a kid - Justin Dentman, Cameron Murkey, etc. - doesn't mean SLU is high on them. The coaching staff has their own evaluation process and they seem to like strong-bodied wings who can shoot and defend - Clarke, Meyer, Lisch -- and frontcourt players over 6'8 who can rebound and score in the post -- Frericks, Vouyoukas. If you're expecting a 6'2 170 lb shooting guard or a 6'7 post player to get a scholarship offer, it probably isn't going to happen.

"The great StLouis area recruiting class of 2003-4, is slowly being whittled away and we don't have anything to show for it. Price to Purdue, Grimes to Mizzery." The great St. Louis class of 2004 is great because there is a lot of depth, not because the players are great. Kevin Lisch is the best player in the St. Louis area regardless of class, and he doesn't graduate until 2005. Only two kids have committed so far and only fans looking through rose-colored glasses thought they was any chance they were coming to SLU. If Brad signs two kids from St. Louis and another from out of state, that will be just about what I expected.

I saw the list of Nike Camp participants before the kids started playing and Evans wasn't on it. As far as I know, he didn't make the trip and isn't cleared to play until September. Evans will definitely slip to somebody, be it us or the Valley. He has been hobbling around for 7 months now and no top 25 program is going to burn a scholarship on a run-and-jump athlete who may not be able to run and jump. Based on his comments from 2 months ago I would have thought Carlton Reed, a very athletic 6'3 wing from Iowa, would have committed to the Hawkeyes or the Cyclones by now. But the Hawkeyes have their eye on bigger fish and the Cyclones program is in chaos right now. Steven Neal is a 6'4 ultra-athletic wing from Minnesota who is no longer getting love from his state school or Oklahoma, which are focusing on other positions. He will fall to somebody. How the Taj Gray recruitment shapes up really depends on whether Louisville and Oklahoma still have open scholarships when the juco season is over. I'm betting they don't and we'll be up against the likes of Wichita St., Kansas St. and Texas Tech for his services.

I just get this feeling that another Darren Clarke-level player is going to fall into Brad's lap. There are a number of kids like Terry Evans, Steven Neal (MN), Carlton Reed (IA) and Taj Gray that are listing similar schools. The thing is, Oklahoma, Louisville, Iowa, Wisconsin etc. appear to be going after higher profile players and at least one of these kids will have to go elsewhere.

Isn't Sargent class of 2005? I'm sure the staff will get a snootful of him next year at the Belleville Tournament.

>What prompted this comment 3star? Nothing hysterical in my >post. I just thought this statement was a little over the top. "The deal is, if can't beat the Tenn-Martins of the world, why bother padding the record with cupcake wins as we have no chance of an at-large NCAA bid in any event?" Teams improve. St. Joe's lost to Pacific early in the season. BYU lost to San Francisco. Those things happen.

Pitt's non-conference Duquesne St. Francis (PA) Ark Pine Bluff Norfolk St. SE Louisiana Robert Morris UConn's non-conference Quinnipiac Sacred Heart George Washington UNC Ashville Central Conn St.

>But all "patsies" are not created equal. You seem to >include Tenn-Martin as a patsie (I would not) Why not? They finished with an RPI of 229. If Eastern Kentucky wins two more games than they did last year, I'm sure they could accomplish a similar RPI.

The Bills have been to 4 NCAAs the last 10 years. Three of those years the non-conference schedule was no better than this one. Just thought I'd point that out.

Pull yourself together man. There's only one more patsy than there was on last year's schedule.

Hopefully he can get his grades together at the juco level.

Cincinnati sorely needs some consistent outside shooting and a big man who can stay out of trouble. Instead Huggie Bear brought in James White (Brickmaster Supreme) and Robert Whaley (Lawbreaker Supreme). White has a reputation for being a primadonna. Both players should do wonders for team chemistry. Good luck to the the Bearcats. Marquette has some frontcourt and backcourt issues they need to address. Wade and Robert Jackson are gone. Marcus Jackson, Robert's replacment, averaged less than 8 pppg at his juco. Novak, despite being 6'9/6'10 averaged a Braun-like 2.2 rpg last year. Wade was a powerful 6'4 210 lb man, Dameon Mason is a skinny high school kid. Mike Davis and Larry Eustachy can testify that it's hard to keep the ball rolling after losing a do-everything All-American.

You can rest easy about Frericks' weight. I saw him last week talking with a trainer outside of the Simon Rec center. He's a solid 260 lb at the most.