Jalensdad2002

Can you whisper in TL's ear to recruit the Johnson kid. He'll start...he'll be welcomed.... From the moment I realized he wasn't committed to Clemson I told Tommie to work on this kids. He doesn't really get the touches at Hargrave due to the dominant play of Sam Young, but he continually does the dirty work. He finishes above the rim and has a frame that would allow him to step right in a play alot. I hope SLU is putting the full court press on him and Hargrave's HC Kevin Keatts.

I would surely make this game. Undefeateds clash in Champions Prep Classic Bob Gibbons RivalsHoops.com Recruiting Analyst The second annual Champions Prep Basketball Classic to be played this weekend at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., will feature over approximately 80 NCAA Division I prospects, and a "dream matchup" of the nation's two best, both undefeated, post-graduate prep school programs, Laurinburg Institute Prep, and Hargrave Military Academy. For more information click on Rivals.com Ultimate Ticket. Tournament director Wayne "World B" Otto has assembled an outstanding collection of talent and teams for his second annual Champions Prep Basketball Classic on Friday, February 25, and Saturday, February 26, at the Holmes Center on the campus of Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. The feature game at 9:00 p.m. on Friday will match undefeated Laurinburg, N.C., Institute Prep with an amazing 39-0 record, against also undefeated Chatham, Va., Hargrave Military Academy, whose season record is now 25-0. Last November, fourteen (count 'em, 14) members of the Laurinburg team signed with Division I programs, plus, three other players are expected to sign in April, meaning that 17 members of Coach Chris Chaney's unbelievably talent-filled prep school program appear to be college bound. Hargrave Military Academy had eight players sign national letters-of-intent last fall, and, according to Coach Kevin Keatts, he has five other players likely to sign with Division I programs in April. In this game alone, which is billed as the United States Prep School National Championship Game, there could be 30 or more future college or NBA players. According to Coach Chaney the top performers for Laurinburg Institute Prep this season have been Memphis signee, 6-foot-8 guard/forward Shawne Williams, 6-foot-10 center/forward Magnum Rolle (L.S.U.), 6-foot-9 power forward Robert Dozier (Memphis), 6-foot-5 guard Antonio Anderson (Memphis), 6-foot-7 forward Mitch Mullis (Charlotte), and 6-foot-10 center Kareem Cooper(Memphis), to name only a few. The top players for Hargrave Military Academy are rugged 6-foot-7 power forward Sam Young (Pittsburgh), 6-foot-7 wing forward Shane Clark (Maryland), 6-foot-5 one/two guard Tommie Liddell (St. Louis U.), the sharpshooter from Puerto Rico, 6-foot-6 A. D. Vassallo (Richmond), one of the top still unsigned big men, 6-foot-8 center/forward Jerome Johnson, and unsigned combo guard, 6-foot-5 Bilal Benn.

The last time I saw him he was a skinny and scared freshmen. I'm sure HSE has something on him.

Everybody's looking for another AB. At this point I'd be happy with another Tatum or Jeff harris type of player. Watched Colorado State a couple of nights ago, CSU had not one, but 2 other highly athletic 7 footers,and all 3 were on the court at the start of the game. These kids are out there, it's simply a matter of finding them. I think SLU needs to stay away from the JUCO kids as the JUCO system is starting to get the 2nd tier kids. JUCO's are no longer producing the top kids like Larry Johnson of UNLV. These kids are by and large choosing to go the prep school route. This is where I would concentrate my recruiting after high school kids.

jalensdad, dont forget that powell is a sophomore. the fact he has "that attitude" to go along with his skills as only a sophomore speaks volumes. that cant be taught. and when it shows up early like it did for tommie and lisch, it is a pretty good clue. That is the probably the most impressive thing about Powell.He carries himself as if he is an upperclassmen. Besides if Powell ends up growing more, he will never stay home. he will then get chased countrywide. You mentioned some similarity between Powell, Tommie, and Kevin on the basketball court. I say he shares one important similarity off the court as well. He is very close to his mother and siblings. He may not want to travel too far away from home.

compare tommie now to sammy mejia, i really like mejia. As I was watching this kid, I was thinking, I would love to see Tommie matched against Mejia defensively. He was getting a lot of shots off due to his size. He is an excellent ballhandler and his shot was almost automatic free throw line extended. Size-wise they are very similar, but Mejia overall game is more polished as he looks to be NBA material after one more year of college. Hopefully following Tommie's freshman year we will be as high on Tommie as we are on Mejia. Imo he won the game for depaul as he pretty much single handedly got them back in the game. I'm in 100% agreement. You take his 1st half production away and SLU possibly goes in the half with a 5-10 point lead.

Hill does need to improve his ballhandling, as do 99.9 percent of kids in high school. Poor ballhandling skills is why 99.9% of high school kids don't get offered High-Mid Division 1 scholarships. SLU has to get away from this mode of thinking. If he can't get it done on the high school level I just don't see it happening at college. Bobby still has a lot to improve on, but he's got a lot of potential. Now that I'm no longer confusing Bobby with Johnny, I need to retract my statement that Bobby is the better shooter in relation to Liddell. In fact I don't see anything that Bobby would bring to SLU that they don't already have in Luke or Danny. As far as local big man prospects go, Leon Powell is as good as you'll probably get. After watching his performance vs East Side I don't consider Powell as a "big man" at all, however he is in my opinion the only bonafide High-Mid Division 1 prospect that is currently starting for Vashon.

I agree Brehms, he seemed to get position at will, however he lacked the explosion to convert. Ian's next challenge will be committing to an off-season conditioning program. The outcome of that will determine Ian being a very solid player or a mediocre player.

Bobby still has another year to hone his skills. I thought Bobby was senior this year. Now I know this is really early in the recruiting process for Leon Powell, but someone in his family told me that SLU is one of Powell's early favorites. Again this is really early but hopefully something for the staff to build on.

Hill, who is 6-4 or 6-5 and looks strong, has Tommie Liddell-like athleticism and a better outside shot. The Billikens could use someone with his athletic ability at the shooting guard or small forward slot. Are you sure about that Nate, granted Hill is the better shooter, but his athleticism doesn't approaches Tommie. Has Hill really improved that much, specifically his ballhandling? Maybe I'll send you a game disc of Tommie so you'll re-evaluate that thought.

You assume correctly.:-)

Jalen'sdad, what is a typical Hargrave practice? I read a report at scout.com prior to the start of the year and the story mentioned how intense Coach Keatts ran his practices. It was so intense that Keatts took an elbow to the head which required stiches. I love Coach Keatts, he has been a godsend as far as the development of Tommie not only as a bball player, but also a student. Do they have Tommie working on his shooting, and what kind of lifting regime are they pushing? I would hope so, although judging by his stats and the 2 times I have seen him play, Tommie is not taking more than 5 shots per game. With that being said, his overall game has improved by leaps and bounds. Tommie has always been a tremendous penetrator(which may have hindered his long range shooting), but he did not always apply himself and dominate until his team really needed it. Now he looks to attack everytime down and dish off to one of his teammates. So I don't have anything new to offer as far as his jumpshooting, but Keatts mentions that Tommie plays dominate in practices. I have requested some game tapes however. As far as his body, Tommie now packs at least 190lbs on a 6'6 inch frame. He has not lost anything in terms of agility or quickness. Whatever they are doing at Hargrave they should bottle it as all of their players are well developed. Again I hope SLU are cultivating a relationship with this program. I don't know how to link, any help would be greatly appreciated, but they have photos at Hargrave's website at http://www.hargrave.edu/photos/gallery_det...9&gallery_id=80 notice the size of his neck in the 1st picture-3 row far left corner. I've seen Kevin now, and am curious if Tommie has grown at all, and how his offensive skills set is maturing. Lord knows we will be needing whatever he can bring next year... I think these two will do some special things for SLU. They have dissimilar games, but I think their talents will mesh. I believe things happen for a reason. When Tommie and Kevin were youngster, people, I included, were always debating who were the better player.Kevin and Tommie have always stayed above the nonsense. I have a video game tape of these 2 as 8th graders and 9th graders competing at the Belleville Rec Center. They just kept attacking and attacking one another. These two were meant to be teammates as Tommie's competiveness burns under the surface and Lisch's is seen on the sleeve. Tommie will bring things to SLU as a player that they have not had in awhile. He may never approach the scoring numbers of Hughes as a freshman,but he will impact the boxscore in many ways. A lot of people question Tommie's ability to knock down 3's consistently, but I'm of the opinion that Tommie's staying on the perimeter shooting 3's would be to SLU disadvantage. Allow him some freedom to penetrate and elevate within the 3 point line as he has always been 50% shooter from the field overall.

>we dont actually know who jalensdad is, but it is my belief >that jalensdad is a coach, just not the e st louis >basketball coach. not anyone has the access to such a >nomination form and system. I thought this was the worst kept secret, but Tommie is my nephew. As far as the nomination process, it is pretty much simple to nominate a fictional player. I doubt they do any investigation until they pare down to about 500 players. I nominated Tommie due to my perception that no one on the coaching staff would do so. I don't know how far he made it before being cut.

Yes, ole Jalensdad pretended to be his high school coach and nominated him.

Hate to hear that, but it's a testament to his character that he not only played through the injury, but played exceptionally well. Hopefully he will be back sooner than later.

that said, i have said time and time again, unless the >inside is athletically improved, we aint changing. right >now i am hoping jalensdad is on to something and palmer is >considering slu. that would be quite the ray of sunshine >imo. All the info I posted was via Hoopmasters.com. I have been somewhat following Palmer on the illiniboard and most posters were 50/50 as if he would make an impact at Illinois. If what posters are posting on the illiniboard is true, Illinois may have been looking for a way to back out of their scholarship offer for some time now. That being said doesn't mean Palmer wouldn't make a huge impact at SLU. I look at the struggles of McKinney at Missouri and wonder if his career would have turned out differently had he came to SLU. At one time Tennessee, Illinois and a host of other high major programs were chasing Palmer but now it seems it would take a standout performance vs New Jersey's St Patrick High on ESPN2 11 Feb at 7:30pm to boost his stock again.

Jerome Johnson a 6'8 230lb rebounding machine who originally committed to Clemson. I think rivals had Penn State now as his frontrunner.

"If Tommie brought us an under-recruited PF from Oak Hill, it would be a huge coup". Actually Tommie is schooling at Hargrave Military Academy. The way to this youngster I believe is through his mom. I think I read somewhere they are very close and there were reports she attending most if not all of his AAU games and possibly moved to Va. to be close to him.

David Palmer Antioch, TN Ht: 6-8 Wt: 230 PPG: 14.0 Position: PF, C Projected as: PF, C Position Rank: NR Class: 2005 Senior AAU Team: Tennessee Travelers High School: Oak Hill Academy (Mouth Of Wilson, VA) Biography: Was an all-tournament selection at the 2002 Tournament of Champions. His dad is 6-9 and his mom is 6-2. Played at the 2003 Nike Hoop Jamboree and earned his way into the 2003 Nike All-American Camp. Palmer makes his decision Date: Jan 9, 2004 On Monday, David Palmer gave a verbal commitment to Illinois, choosing the Illini over several great basketball schools including Kansas. Palmer had received offers from Oklahoma, Kentucky, Purdue, Notre Dame and Tennessee, but listed Kansas as his second choice even though the Jayhawks had yet to offer him a scholarship. Palmer says potential playing time played a key role in his decision. “I picked Illinois because of the possibility for a lot of playing time as a freshman. Kansas was right up there though, in second place.†Palmer says he decided when he did because he was ready to end the long recruiting process. “It’s a big process with all the coaches calling and everything. I was ready to be done with it and I really feel good about my decision. It’s a strong commitment.â€

I was reading on Hoopmasters.com that according to Oak Hill Academy's coach Steve Smith, SLU has been calling about former Illini recruit David Palmer. The other schools listed are Tennessee Tech, James Madison, and East Tennessee State. Not exactly power programs. Palmer at one time was listed in the Top 100 and was considered a steal by the Illini. He fell out of the top 100 after some reports of uninspired play. Illinois recently pulled their scholarship after Palmer did not meet some academic goals set by Illinois. He has rectified those concerns according to Oak Hill's head coach. The article also mentioned that Illinois is still calling but they don't know where they stand. I believe Palmer is a 6'9 inch 220lb big forward. I hear he is not getting much playing time due to the talent at Oak Hill, hopefully the coaching staff will sell him on the available pt at SLU as opposed to Illinois.

"You guys are stuck in the mentality that liddell is going to be the small forward. I personally, after watching Polk this year believe jalensdad. Liddell is going to be the point guard". It just makes too much sense to run Tommie at the pg. Every since he started to play the game he has had that rare ablility of seeing things 2-3 steps ahead. Couple that with his ability to breakdown defenders as I have never seen anyone stay in front of him and his unselfishness you can't go wrong. As far as any questions about Tommie running the point, he has really improved his playmaking skills at Hargrave. Tommie has had the opportunity to not only play against elite prep school talent, but also some junior college players as well. He has upcoming games scheduled against UNC's & The US Naval Academy JV teams. He will be more than ready to step in and play at a level one would not expect from a freshman. You put a guy with his skill set with perimeter shooters like Meyer and an improved Polk, matched with the assassin like scoring of Kevin Lisch you've got something that most teams would kill for. Now it is very important that Johnson enters his junior season prepared and for Soderberg and staff to land that 6'8-6'10 inch monster of the future to guarantee multiple trips to the NCAA. On another note with the loss by Laurinburg Prep to a Chicago team this weekend, the Tommie Liddell led team at Hargrave should move into the top spot of Scout.com prep school poll.

"Next year will herald a trioka of PGs on the floor. I tag TL as the SF because either he or KL will have to play the 3 on defense, which is how I grade out a three guard offense for positions". I think these guys will be starters in name only. I think all three will warrant a lot of PT with Liddell playing more due to his ability to play from the 1 to the 3. I personally see Tommie triggering the offense in a half court game, because I would always default to the tallest PG to allow for him to look and pass over the opposing defender. It creates better angles for passes, and allows DP the opportunity to use his speed w/o the ball for layups, etc. I like that scenario with the exception of Polk slashing to the basket. He is far too small and as we have seen this year Polk gets into trouble when slashing from the baseline. I could live with Tommie at the 3 defensively due to his struggles with smaller, quicker pgs, but offensively he is too streaky 3 point wise. He may have improved his shooting but I have no evidence as he only takes about 5 shots per game at Hargrave. This thread was originally about Luke Meyer so my comments about him is that I would not write him off this early. I think college ball will always have a need for a zone-busting shooter. I don't think anyone expected Meyer to come to SLU and be Lebron-like. He seems to me to be the type of player that will thrive off opportunities created by others. Unfortunately for Meyer no one is really created opportunities this year. The future is bright and I can't wait to see Tommie, Kevin, Luke, and Polk play a hand in turning the program around.

"Sam Young (going to Pitt and he was the most impressive of Tommie's teammates) who dunked hard." First off, great report, you and I pretty much watch the game of basketball with the same eye. I came away with similar remarks after watching Hargrave play at Vashon against a Chicago area high school. Sam Young is the closest thing I have seen to Larry Johnson of UNLV fame in a high schooler. I think he will make an immediate impact at Pitt. "Somewhat less noted by the fans but appreciated by those around me was Tommie's sweet touch pass to (I think) Shane Clark (going to Maryland and this guy has a sweet touch but played pretty lackidaisically today)". It seems Shane Clark played the same type of game in Ma. as he did in Mo. This guy has a nice touch and is freakishly long. I saw him continually pick the pockets of a guard despite being at least 5 ft off the guard. He initially signed with Villanova, but upgraded to Maryland after a summer of strong play. He was hyped as the best player on the roster by scout.com prior to the season. I disagree. I would rate him as the 4th best behind Sam Young, Tommie, and AD Vassallo. "I think Tommie was 1-3 from the field so I cannot say anything about his shooting (his two points were on a nice drive to the hole). I will say he saw the court very well (and he would have scored about a dozen if his teammates did). His team is quite powerful and they do not need him to score". I was somewhat disappointed that I did not get the chance to see if Tommie improved his long range shooting when he played in Mo. He simply has taken on the mindset of a point guard. This team is loaded with players who can score and who score better with a pass first guard who creates opportunities for them. I think Tommie realizes this and plays accordingly. When he visited St Louis over the Xmas break he took in a game at Savvis and noted most of the players for SLU were looking for someone to pass it to, as opposed to scoring. He realizes he will have to take on a different role at SLU. I have spoken with Hargrave's head coach on different occasions and he states Tommie plays really well in practices. "The only other teammate I will mention is AD Vassallo who is going to Richmond. We will be seeing this guy in the A10. He was very selfish when he got the ball but he can shoot". Yes, he is a 6'6 wing who shoots lights out. He and Tommie are roommates and should have some nice battles in the upcoming years. "Shane Clark probably had the best looking shot but today his game was limited". He was the most highly rated of all of Hargrave's players. It goes to show you how inaccurate some rankings are as I have him as the 4th best talent on the team. "Today Dentmon and Liddell were better today". I think this statement will hold true on most occasions. I think Tommie in particular was dismissed to easily by national scouts as a point. Dave Telep in his assessment of Hargrave stated that the success of Hargrave would hinge on Liddell's ability to play the point. "A position transition that Liddell was in the midst of making". Anyone who had seen Liddell in HS knew he had the capability to run the point as he was his team's de facto point. "While I'd take Hargrave's Sam Young right now I am happy SLU has Tommie". Apples and Oranges. What was your impression of Jerome Johnson(Hargrave's 6'9 inch pf/c). I have been on Liddell to really try to lure him to SLU. He works hard and like Liddell doesn't really get his touches. I told Tommie to sell this fact on him. Let him know that his touches would increase at SLU.

I see Althoff went down by 7 to Carbondale despite Kevin's heroics. 34 points against one of the top Class AA teams in the state. I have been fighting a little war over at Chicagohoops.com about Lisch being underrated in their player of the year rankings. They have him tied for 10th with 2 other players. Absolutely crazy. I thought Kevin would need at least a year to adjust at the next level, but he seems to have the poise and moxie to make an immediate impact.

I talk to young inner city kids all the time ... they know who Bonner is and everyone loves him ... I can talk about Billiken basketball with people ... nothing, but if I bring up AB ... everyone has something good to say. I think that is due in large part to the Anthony Bonner League. All the top kids in Metro-St Louis compete in that league, I can only see positives in relation to AB being involved with SLU.