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The 2nd best St. Louis junior is . . .


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Lafayette's Matt Lawrence. He's been shooting the heck out of the ball from mid-range, three point land and the free throw line and also has shown that he can hit the boards a bit at 6'6. Averaging about 17 ppg. So the top three would be:

1. Kevin Lisch

2. Matt Lawrence

3. Arthur Sargent

After a strong early start, Jenning's PF Matt Akins has really been a disappointment the last month. He's 6'8 but just isn't strong enough to finish around the basket or hold onto a rebound when guards hack at him.

Coach is going to have to go outside of St. Louis to find a big man. I haven't been down to Cape Girardeau this season to see him play but 6'8 Scott Chestnutt has certainly been putting up some impressive numbers.

http://www.semissourian.com/story.html$rec=128296

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I've heard rumblings that we are going after JUCO 4s for the final schollie this year. That would make sense, considering we need instant help there and because I believe Drejaj is as of now the only junior for next year. Anybody hear any names on who we're looking at in the spring?

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nick kern.......j/k no idea. one of the frustrating things of following coach soderberg is how close he plays his cards to his vest. rarely do we know what is up. but if that insures he gets his man, i can live with it.

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I would have to disagree with you 3 star. I think the 2nd best prospect is Alex Barnett of Cardinal Ritter. He has been in the shadow of some great players such as Ken Burke and Terry Evens. But with Burke going to college and Terrys injury he's been able to step up his game. He will be a nice player if he adds weight.... with a nice jumper and long arms i wouldnt mind seeing him in the bill blue.

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i will defer to 3 star as i have seen no missouri high school games this year except the shootout. but if there are juniors in the class with lisch and sargent we should get on it. they are my two favorites.

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Interesting list by 3Star.

Lisch is head and shoulders better than everyone else. After him, it's tough. I've seen Matt Lawrence several times this year. He's had a great year but he's still got a lot of things to work on. I see him being a Missouri Valley/Division II type player right now. Same thing with his teammate, point guard Landen Shipley.

Sargent has played really well this year. I know he is considered one of the area's top football players in the junior class, so he might have an interesting decision to make this summer. His size (6-4) is much better for football than it is for hoops.

I saw Barnett play once, against Lafayette early in the season. In the first half I was wondering why he has been hyped up so much because I just didn't see it; but then in the second half he started knocking down long jumpers -- almost 3-point range -- and looked a lot better.

Outside of Lisch, I don't see any solid Division I recruits in the junior class right now. Maybe it's because the senior class is so loaded this year, but the junior class is weak.

- Nate

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nate, i see your point about arthur and football. however, he is tremendously underused as a wide receiver on the west football team and probably wont be seen much due to that. some big time program would really be taking a flyer based on the athleticism they see in basketball rather than football as west hands the ball off about 99% of the time.

as to basketball, look at it this way. he plays on a west team with 3 outstanding seniors in mcpeak, price and jones. yet still finds opps to standout. i think he has a chance to just be a fantastic wing guard. not only does he shoot well, he jumps through the roof and he plays pretty darn good defense.

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i have not seen leonard, but i like tyus a lot. i think he is going to really be a good one. remember when you watch a high school sophomore, most sophomores arent even dressing jv let alone varsity, starting and contributing big. add to that alex's obvious athletic talent and size, you have a lot of potential. but i was saying the same about xaiver price 3 years ago and he hasnt improved much since. so who knows.

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Coachstyles,

Agree with you on the Barnett/Tyus comparisons. Tyus has a college basketball body already and can jump out of the gym, but he hasn't shown very much this year. I think you have to give him the benefit of the doubt now because he's only a sophomore.

I've seen Jarod Leonard play a couple times this year and came away impressed more times than not. He's a 6-foot-4 sophomore, which means he's already big enough to play the wing in college, and he's a decent shooter. I've only seen Cardinal Ritter once this year, but it seems like Barnett and Leonard have very similar games. The only difference is Barnett should be establishing himself as a prospect now -- as a junior -- while Leonard still has a year before he'll be counted on to do much.

I was reminded of this yesterday when Blake Ahearn was on one of Frank Cusumano's morning shows. Blake talked about how he couldn't even get on the court before his junior year -- kind of like Arthur Sargent at Belleville West -- and hasn't really had much of a chance to show what he can do. If you think about it, the kid had two years of high school varsity basketball and now he is playing very well as a freshman at Southwest Missouri State.

- Nate

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"I've only seen Cardinal Ritter once this year, but it seems like Barnett and Leonard have very similar games."

I don't really see this comparison at all. They're both about the same size but they go about their business differently. Barnett is a shooter who doesn't play much defense and Leonard is a slasher who is developing into a defensive stopper.

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desmet vs vianny? bad choice nate. you need to bribe kenny roberts to switch stations and head over to belleville east. west vs centralia tonite and althoff vs o'fallon and east vs carbondale.

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I beg to differ. The kid shoots about 20% from three point range. If he was merely settling for jump shots, he would almost never score. Now I'll admit Jared settled for a lot of jumpshots in the last two games of the Meramec tournament but he wasn't hitting them either. In the games where Jared scores in double digits, he slashes.

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