Nate Latsch

This argument about basketball players staying home and "owning" St. Louis is funny. Next time I see the Maplewood High varsity boys basketball coaching staff (inc. Corey Frazier, John Redden and Matt Baniak) and McCluer coach Erwin Claggett, I'll have to ask those guys how much they enjoy owning the St. Louis area. Roy, You know I like you and have the utmost respect for your devotion to all things Billiken, but your post about Drejaj and Newborne getting a job interview over Tyus or Swopshire is just dumb. Do you think Drejaj or Newborne cared about the St. Louis at all before coming to school here? It's probably likely that neither had ever been to St. Louis before making a recruiting visit here. Staying and playing basketball here can certainly open up some doors, but are those same doors not open for kids who go to bigger and better basketball programs to find success? How many people can really hold it against a kid if Scott Suggs chooses to play his college basketball at North Carolina? Or John Brandenburg at Missouri? Or Jared Swopshire at Florida? Or Tyler Griffey at Kansas? I know one of those kids wants to go to a school where he can compete for national championships ... not just compete for Atlantic 10 titles and the chance to make the tournament once in his four years of college. - Nate

>Per Nate's description of 6'3" and needs some work on his >jump shot....I'm not going lose a lot of sleep over this >one. Yeah, you're right. That description sounds a lot like Tommie Liddell. No, Waller isn't the prospect Liddell was at the same stage. But he does a lot of things well and could develop into a nice player in college. - Nate

Ron Waller was getting some looks by St. Louis U. I think he could have been an interesting fallback option for when the top players in that class choose to go elsewhere. I like the kid's game. He's about 6-3 with good strength. His best asset is his overall feel for the game. His jumper needed work last time I watched him play, but when I spoke with him last week he said he's really been working on it. The kid hasn't even played a game in his junior year, so there's still plenty of time for him to get better. Waller also earned some points in my book when he told me one of the reasons he chose Western Kentucky was because he loved basketball too much to go somewhere else and possibly not play right away. - Nate

Don't forget to check out the "About Earl" section of the site, to see an old picture of EAJ. http://earlaustinjr.com/aboutearl.htm - Nate

I also posted this on the STL Today prep sports forum... Earl Austin Jr. put together a tabloid-style book I think a lot of people here would be interested in. Earl looks back at the last 20 years of covering high school basketball in the St. Louis area and also previews the upcoming season. He also has his top 15 moments as the color analyst of the Billikens. I've heard about this project for a while now and can't wait to check it out. Check out http://earlaustinjr.com/ for more info. - Nate

>Dont flatter yourself. Me pretend to be you? Not likely. >Does his site even have a message board? In all >seriousness, i wouldnt do that. I respect you Nate. This >board, tigerboard and realgm.com are the only boards I've >been posting on. I tried the semissourian for a sec, but >its confusing. Nov 8th, SLU vs Harris-Stowe, be there. Let's see, someone goes on a message board using my name and e-mail address (which not many people know) and posts about Vashon's fringe players. No, that doesn't sound like something you would do. Especially not on a message board you claim not to know about. - Nate

I was at the press conference on Monday. Anthony Bonner did everything he could to downplay the basketball coaching position and highlight his position with the school district. The district is going to use Bonner as an example of what St. Louis city schools can become. Apparently, they are paying him a lot of money for this. Despite having some good players returning, if they all return, Bonner will probably struggle some as the Wolverines' coach. At the press conference he admitted he hadn't talked to any of the players and had not been to Vashon yet. He has basically no coaching experience. If Bonner is the stand-up, hard-working class act that a lot of people say he is, I think he'll be good for the district and the school. It may take some time, but he can be a good role model there. - Nate

>Nate laughed at me last summer because he was coming off a >JV season, but he kept growing and showed a lot of potential >in AAU this past summer. I was one of the first people on this board to mention Terrance Williams and post about him. Now, you're saying I was laughing at you about him? You need to quit making up stuff to try to discredit me. And while you're at it, you need to stop pretending to be me on Ramey's website. - Nate

>Nate, I think he has a chance to be a really good D-1 player >with a year or two in a college lifting program. I don't >think he is an instant impact player. Brian, I agree with you, for the most part. The strength thing is huge, but I think he's also got to get into the right program that best maximizes his ability to run up and down the floor. If he's standing around in the post, matched up with bigger bodies, I don't see him being very productive — at least not without a couple years of developing physcially. Get him in the right type of system, work on improving his strength and his perimeter game and in a couple years it will be interesting to see what he can do. - Nate

But Leon Powell led the Nike Hoop Jamboree in scoring a couple years ago, so surely he must have offers from Duke, North Carolina, UConn and Kentucky to think about before considering a school like SLU. On a serious note, some people think Powell is really good and some people think he's a good high school player who is a tweener at the next level. That's fine. But it is interesting that apparently only one or two schools have offered so far. I still think he'd be a good fit at Southern Illinois or possibly even Missouri, but those two schools have different circumstances with recruiting with SIU already having a bunch of commitments and Missouri not having scholarships available. - Nate

While I don't completely agree with OJ about the players he would take before Powell, some of those guys are more intriguing college prospects than Powell. If you believe VTime's hype about Leon Powell's game over the last however many months, you'd think Powell is like a combination of Jimmy McKinney, Nick Kern and Anthony Bonner. Powell is a good high school basketball player, but he's not the blue chip prospect that some people have been trying to sell you. He's got OK height (anywhere from 6 feet 4 to 6-7) and he can run and jump, but he still needs to get stronger and develop his all-around game to make an impact at a mid-major college program. Scott Suggs, John Brandenburg and Tyler Griffey are on another level as prospects compared to Powell. No, those three haven't achieved the success Powell has so far. But big-time colleges look at those three kids and can see what they could turn out to be down the road. Powell could be a nice player in college in a few years, but he's got to get stronger and improve both around the basket and out on the perimeter. And people, please stop asking VTime why Powell hasn't committed. Except for going to college a short drive from Vashon, VTime doesn't know anymore about Powell than probably a few other posters here. - Nate

Impressive list. I like Rakers, but I can't imagine he's got a better future on the basketball court than on the football field. Big 10 and Big 12 football programs should be all over him already. - Nate

I know I saw Romar at Borgia games when Luke and Sky played together. I'm not sure how much Soderberg recruited Frazier. Sky always had good skills. He was never very athletic — running and jumping — because he was always weighing more than he should have. I just found a story I wrote about him. Frazier said he weighed as much as 290 as a junior, but was around 250 at the beginning of his senior season. He had scholarship offers from Northwestern, Northern Iowa, Evansville, Long Beach State and Lamar University in Texas. - Nate

I like Eckerle and I like his potential. I wasn't sold on Alex Moosmann as a junior, but he had an incredible senior season and removed all doubts. I think Eckerle can have a similar jump this year, though he won't have much of a supporting cast around him. I'm not sure where Eckerle would best fit in college hoops. D-1 or D-2? SLU or Missouri Valley or a SEMO/Miami (Ohio) type of school? If SLU can get Paul Eckerle without using a basketball scholarship, that would be a great pick-up. Eckerle is the kind of person you want going to your school. He also has the potential to contribute to the team down the line. - Nate

Taj, I responded to your PM. - Nate

The good thing about these recruiting misses is that the coaching staff has been going after kids who ended up getting looks from schools in major conferences. It seems like most of these kids have blown up after the Billikens went after them. That tells me from an evaluation standpoint, SLU is doing a good job. The bad thing is the Billikens have yet to get a commitment from one of these kids. I'm sure the staff has invested plenty of time in recruiting these kids. Now, they have to look further down the list of kids they like. I really like Eckerle. He's a good kid, great student and has good skills. I don't know if Eckerle has an offer from SLU. I doubt he does. I think he's the kind of kid, like Moosmann, that SLU will try to get to walk on with the potential for a scholarship in a year or two (like the Matt Lawrence plan at Mizzou, which ended up with Lawrence getting a scholarship right away). I've heard of kids similar to Eckerle being recruited by SLU as walk ons, but then those kids have ended up taking scholarship offers elsewhere. - Nate

Sorry if this has been posted already. Rivals.com has a story on Zac Swansey commiting to Georgia. http://mosports.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=591018 - Nate

When was Alex Moosmann offered a scholarship by SLU? This is the first I've heard about this. From what I remember, SLU was interested in bringing Moosmann in as a walk-on and having him redshirt for a year. I would think Moosmann would have picked SLU had the Billikens offered a scholarship. - Nate

Something I forgot to add: Suggs was at the University of Missouri last weekend and scrimmaged with the Tigers and several high school recruits in for unofficial visits (including KC's blue chip recruit Travis Releford). From what I've been told, Suggs held his own. One of my sources who watched the game said Suggs was the best high school player there. Releford is highly-regarded, and at one point was considered a top five prospect in his class (same as Scott's class). - Nate

>Nate, >I would venture to say that you and I have prob seen Suggs >play the most in high school, so I come to you with this >question. Is it just me or does Suggs play no where near the >top 30 Mcdonalds All American level that this schollies >merit. The kid has awsome potential and he works his butt >off, but it doesn't seem to click at Washington. Now from >what I hear he tears it up on the AAU circut. Have you seen >him for the Eagles? It's tough to evaluate Suggs on his high school play. He's obviously the best player on his team, and his team does not have much talent around him. I didn't see many Washington games last year, but there were definitely times when it looked like Suggs' teammates didn't even want to shoot the ball. Instead, the offense became a series of Suggs running through screens to get mid-range jumpers. The two knocks I had on Scott last year was that he needed to get stronger/develop his body and he needed to be more explosive. He's been going to a personal trainer for a couple months now, and even though he's still skinny he's been able to gain weight and get stronger and should be more explosive this year. Suggs was a sophomore last year and averaged 19 points per game on a team that really struggled. He was the focus of every defense Washington came up against, and didn't have much help. I would call that a successful season, even though I see you're point about him not looking like a top 30-type player. I haven't seen him much with the Eagles, but he's definitely surrounded with a lot of talent there. He played with a 7-footer (Mike Tisdale), a 6-11 kid getting a lot of attention (John Brandenberg) and several other Division I players. That team was young too, with basically half of their players playing up a year in age. I think you'll see a different Scott Suggs this year. From what I've heard, he's got a lot more confidence in himself, he's gained weight and gotten stronger. Now, instead of going to open gyms and just playing pickup games, he's going out there to dominate. Suggs has all the natural ability to be a great player and he has the work ethic to become that player. - Nate

3star, I think one of the reasons Suggs is ranked as low as he is was because he doesn't talk much about his recruitment, who is recruiting him and who has offered. If Rivals or Scout had all the info, he'd be ranked a lot higher. If he gets offers from Kansas, UNC and Duke, he'll shoot up the charts. If he signs with one of those schools, he could be a McDonald's All-American. - Nate

Suggs now has 10 scholarship offers. Virginia said today they were going to offer. The list of D-1 coaches visiting Washington recently and in the next week or so is very long. Kansas is supposed to be close to offering, with Bill Self coming in soon. - Nate

Washington junior combo guard Scott Suggs picked up a scholarship from a big-time school last night. There is supposed to be a story posted on STL Today.com's site about this soon, so I can't tell you any more about it right now. But Scott's father, Ron Suggs, said St. Louis University has been recruiting Scott hard. “SLU has done an excellent job recruiting Scott," Ron Suggs said. "They’ve done everything they can possibly due to let Scott know they are interested in him.†Ron Suggs said Brad Soderberg even sent an interesting piece of mail, where the coach claimed he would grow out his hair if Scott came to SLU — and it had a picture of Soderberg with an afro like Scott's. - Nate

My sources tell me North Carolina was in the St. Louis area recently to check out Scott Suggs and John Brandenberg. SLU's chances have probably always been the same with Suggs. If he wants to stay close to home, the Billikens have a chance. If he wants to play major college basketball, he'll have several strong options. - Nate

I consider this year's freshman class a missed opportunity to improve the team after pulling in a great recruiting class with Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell. I think the three kids SLU brought in will all contribute at some point in their careers, but right now I don't see any of them as the missing piece on a team that figures to be one of the best the Billikens has had in several years. Horace Dixon or Adam Knollmeyer might be in the mix at the power forward spot this year, but whichever of those two isn't getting minutes will probably join Dustin Maguire on the end of the bench. I think this year's team could be very good, but I don't think the coaching staff did a good job of making it better through recruiting. They basically brought in three guys who might be better fits playing in the Missouri Valley Conference, which are the kind of players who are regularly regarded as not being able to play at a school like SLU. Down the line all three could contribute, but I think the staff lost the momentum they gained with Lisch and Liddell. So far this year it looks like the Billikens have gone after some good players, but missed on those kids after bigger schools came along. I don't have a problem with that, as long as you have other kids on your recruiting board that you are still going after. There isn't much locally, but one of the top guys (Josh Harrellson) has already committed somewhere else. Right now, this looks like one of those recruiting classes that gets thrown together late in the process — like last year's. If that's the case, you're again running the risk of not improving your team as much as you could have with building around two cornerstone players (Lisch and Liddell) and with the momentum of a new building finally in sight. SLU has done a good job getting on the Class of 2008 and Class of 2009 guys early, but if the Billikens miss on most of those players what are they going to be left with? Kramer Soderberg will be a Billiken, but the recruitment of Scott Suggs, John Brandenberg, Jared Swopshire and Tyler Griffey could be a make-or-break situation for SLU. How will the fans/administration feel if all of those guys choose to play their college basketball in the ACC or SEC? Will people expect those kids to leave the St. Louis area for the greener pastures of college basketball hotbeds ... or will people be mad that the Billikens have a beautiful shiny new arena and the same mediocre program while some of the best local prospects in years are flying out of St. Louis to make NCAA tournament runs somewhere else? This program has a lot of potential — the potential to establish itself as an NCAA tournament team on a year-to-year basis or the potential to continue to be the fourth-best program (Illinois, Missouri, Southern Illinois) in a couple hundred mile area. - Nate