Bills_06

Jordan Barnes ‏@JBtoocold 12m12 minutes ago Thanks to all the coaches that recruited me and I am excited to say that I am committing to Indiana State University. #GoSycamores

He looks to be 2016 recruit from his profile on Verbal Commits.

Yea here is Earl's thoughts on Zeke. Calls him one of "most talented offensive players in St. Louis Metropolitan area" but says he needs to work on his strength to develop into a factor in the A10. http://earlaustinjr.com/?p=8339

See I don't think it's the recruits because as was stated in the other thread, these are the types of recruits you have to win with for years before you can get the 4 and maybe an occasional 5 star kid. My question would be can Crews assemble the right kids needed to run the system he wants to implement and coach them up to run the system. I am willing to give him this year to see what changes or improvements he has made. If it's another terrible season though, I hope May will look to spend money on a new coach.

Are we talking about 3star mentioning Zeke Moore before because from the link he posted in the 2016 recruiting thread, he pulled up a post he had in March where he said he would take Zeke Moore over any of the other local kids, including Sneed. When looking at guard position. http://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26450

I will search a combination of SLU/Saint Louis with offer/offered as well. A lot of recruits will tweet when they get an offer or somebody else with them may tweet it.

Obviously impossible to know the future but I still do think that the Big East will expand in the next few years. I go back to the Xavier AD saying it a couple years ago that he thinks they will expand in the next 5 years and then there was the post dispatch article this February with Chris May which gave the impression he thinks it will happen (the question regarding realignment below). Could be wrong and don't know when but I think it will happen. Q: People are always wondering about the possibility of further conference realignment. Is there anything happening in that area? A: There will most likely be another wave of conversation about that, but first and foremost we are proud members of the Atlantic 10. When you look at leagues, you look at institutions that are like-minded with similar values, goals and objectives as you have. I feel good about the Atlantic 10. We have a top-20 media market, competitive programs and good corporate support in St. Louis. We bring significant value to our league and feel good about that. Any program will look at how do we best promote our institution. The thought is how can athletics best represent a great institution? So, as you look at leagues, who are the like-minded institutions that have similar goals and objectives? No one knows where conference realignment is going, but I feel strong about our position today and opportunities in the future.

There had to be something else going on with TL. He looked promising his first year and even got minutes in the tournament. Last year he looked to lose confidence and the only reason I can think of why he isn't at another school that I've heard of is he doesn't want to be so he must have just lost the motivation to play. RA shows the skills at times but he has only been playing organized basketball for a few years. Bigs take time normally so it makes sense he is taking even more time. As bonwich posted in the other thread, this is the big year for Crews in my opinion. Another terrible year and he should be gone. It'll be interesting to see.

Another name to add to the list of interest is Tim Finke from Champaign. Jason Thompson tweeted that coaches from SLU, NW, Wisconsin were there watching him the other day.

No Timberlake is a hometown kid, he would only go to Memphis.

See that would be a top 5 recruit I wouldn't want the coaches to waste time on. From Columbia and his dad works at Mizzou so that would be the hometown angle plus going up against the elites. 17! That's crazy. I would think he would have a 5 he is most interested in with a few other schools so why not go to 10. I understand trimming your list otherwise offers and coaches would just keep calling but that's leaving a lot of schools left.

Looks to be JUCO with an offer from VCU from looking at Verbal Commits. http://jucoreport.com/jucoreportelite150-cortez-mitchell-pearl-river/

Ran across this. Anybody know much about him? Cortez Mitchell ‏@SniperTez2 Jul 12 Got offered by SLU yesterday

Yea that team was a top 20 team and our current team is, well, let's just say isn't at that level. I do think though it is great for the current team to practice against those guys and hopefully learn from them too. Much better practice during the summer playing against an actual strong team like that than just shooting the ball around all the time. Especially to try and improve their offense, they won't run into many defensive teams better than those guys.

Zeke Moore. Crews was watching him tonight.

Guess we know where Crews is. Who would be the main target? Yahoo shows us having interest in Zeke Moore who is on team Ramey. Trevor Andershock ‏@INBBallSource 21m21 minutes ago Marty Simmons, Jim Crews, Greg Lansing, Porter Moser, Phil Martelli are all watching Team Ramey vs. Pumas Basketball. #NY2LASummerJam2K15

I agree in general but for local kids, I say go after them. We will be able to get a better gauge after seeing the recruiting class we get this year but I don't think going after Tatum killed us. And that was being in his top 4 and looked like down to the final 2. When you can drive to their games and there are other kids on the team or teams they will be playing against that we can also recruit, no reason not to try and see if the top 25 kid may be interested. If not, I'm sure they would pick up on it early and don't have to spend more time but I'd much rather have the coaches try on all local kids. Who knows, I am still hoping by 2018 we may get into the Big East.

Here is the article that mentions SLU is interested in Dru Smith with the paragraph below. Also mentions we are in contact with 2017 kid Cooper Neese. Smith has offers from Ball State, Evansville, Indiana State, Northern Kentucky and South Alabama. Bradley, Loyola (Ill.) and Saint Louis have also been in contact and all had coaches at his game with Pocket City on Wednesday night at North Central. Butler's Lewis also watched his game before watching Gordon. Evansville coach Marty Simmons and Ball State coach James Whitford were also in attendance. http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2015/07/08/eron-gordon-says-will-look-lsu/29895025/ Edit: Just realized this was already mentioned on here but didn't see the name on Pistols list when I looked.

Dru Smith is one name I read before that SLU has been watching. Ben Weixlmann replied to a tweet that linked to a Indy star article.

Yea I do wonder how big of a shock for him it will be when he realizes he will no longer be treated and known as a "hometown, St. Louis" kid but just another guy around town. Oh well. Will we be able to find out where the coaches will be during this evaluation period starting tomorrow? That should hopefully clarify who their main targets are.

I saw that. Talk about of all pictures to pick for a kid picking Duke over St. Louis, this was the worst. He's a Duke kid now, not a son of Saint Louis.

Wasn't sure if this was talked about before but looks like SLU is looking to close another part of Laclede by the Campus. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/nick-pistor/st-louis-university-seeks-to-close-laclede-avenue-west-of/article_7312c36f-e7bb-594c-81fb-88aa578bd698.html

Trae Young. We would have to hire his dad away from Mizzou as I believe he's an assistant on the women's team there. Wonder if that recruitment is going to be for Mizzou like that one recent recruit was for us except they already hired the kids dad. Thanks for the work Pistol. Interested to find out who we are going to be interested in from Indiana since that should be the big area of recruiting for CC.

Can you talk to recruits yet? I know you mentioned you need to make sure you aren't violating any NCAA and are associated with a website or something? I would like to hear from him and/or Sneed since I haven't heard much about if he has favorites other than Mizzou.

Yea I agree. Tatum has just become another typical top recruit that follows the crowd going to the same schools. I think somebody posted Beal said that it takes a special talent to stay home and play because you will have the extra pressure from the hometown crowd. Moving on though, looking at the recruiting calendar there is evaluation period the 15th-19th this week. What are the tournaments and where are we thinking/hoping the coaches may be at?