MU may be after Femi John now

[billfan4life]

http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=2&c=6307...d2%26c%3d630724

[Majerus Magic]

Well, we can't say SLU wasn't there first.

[VTIME]

http://www.billikens.com/dcforum/DCForumID3/11733.html

[VTIME]

McCluer North (Mo.) Guard Gets MU's Attention

By Jeff Ermann

InsideMizzou

Posted Mar 28, 2007

McCluer North shooting guard Femi John entered the season with a few scholarship offers in his back pocket from low-to-mid majors. But after a strong junior year during which the 6-foot-4, 200-pound athlete averaged 16 points and healped lead his team to a state title, a handful of major college programs are giving him a long look – and that list included the Missouri Tigers.

“Melvin Watkins called last week to say they’re going to be recruiting him,†McCluer North coach Randy Reed told InsideMizzou.com. “They have seen him play three times. Mike Anderson watched him play in the state championship against K.C. Rockhurst.â€

The question about John could be a matter of where he wants to go and where he’ll have the best opportunity, Reed said. While schools such as Saint Louis University, Northern Iowa have offered, with a strong summer performance he could end up with the opportunity to play in the Big 12 and Big 10. Reed said UNLV has also been calling recently.

SLU’s Brad Soderberg tendered a very early offer to John and is putting the press on him, while Southern Illinois is interested as well, and has gotten commits from two of his teammates – Torres Roundtree and Anthony Booker.

“You never know about kids, whether they’ll decide to shoot for the stars, or go where they can [definitely] play,†Reed said. John’s recruiting profile “could blow up or he could stay the same [this summer].â€

An all-conference and honorable mention all-state selection, John is a classic athletic 2-guard. He’s not n deadeye outside marksman but has excellent strength, athleticism and an advanced mid-rage game. That’s where he scored the majority of his points, Reed said.

“He has great range and a great pull-up jump shot. Sometimes his shots just barely touch the net, like ‘swoooosh,’†Reed said. “Combine that with his athleticism and that’s what colleges like.

He’s also a good student and has strong character, Reed said. And his body, at 16 years old, is ready-made for Division I hoops.

“He just brings so much to the table,†Reed said.

John will play with the Gateway Athletic Club, alongside sophomore star Tyler Griffey. Griffey’s status is sure to earn John some extra looks from scouts. InsideMizzou

[Griffster]

I will get to watch these guys some this summer. Best part about this team...these are some really good kids. They are good basketball players too. Should have a fun fun summer. I won't go to all the their tourneys..but I'll see them some.

PLAYER'S NAME NO. POS. HT. WT. GRAD. YR. GPA ACT HOMETOWN HIGH SCHOOL

Anthony Booker 4, 5 6' 8" 220 2008 3 19 St. Louis McCluer North

Kyle Cassity 1, 2 6' 5" 180 2008 21 Tamaroa, IL Pickneyville

Spencer Goodman 3, 2 6' 6" 175 2008 4.1 24 Jackson Jackson

Tyler Griffey 4, 5 6' 8" 210 2009 3.1 St. Louis Lafayette

Deon Hemphill 2 5' 10" 140 2008 2.5 St. Louis McCluer North

Femi John 2 6' 4" 195 2008 3.4 19 St. Louis McCluer North

Dallis Johnson 5 6' 5" 235 2008 2.7 St. Louis Lafayette

John Simon 2, 1 5' 10" 175 2008 4 St. Louis Chaminade

Jason Smith 4, 3 6' 6" 225 2008 3.8 19 St. Louis Vianney

Ryan Willen 3, 4 6' 8" 190 2008 4 Cape Girardeau Notre Dame

[brianstl]

Make sure that the Willen kid has some big meals over the summer. 6'8 190! Besides being lean what else can you tell me about him? I have not seen him play before.

[VTIME]

Tell me more about Dallis Johnson. 6'5 235. He was listed on stltoday.com as a 2007 senior. What year is he really? I see he avearged 3.3 ppg. Is he supposed to be a breakout player next year or something or did he have a great Gateway tryout?

[Nate Latsch]

I know Melvin Watkins was at the Hazelwood Central-McCluer North game, along with several other college coaches.

Mike Anderson was at Mizzou Arena for the McCluer North-Rockhurst Class 5 championship game. His daughter was playing the same night.

- Nate

[SLUDrew]

It seems everyone we pursue wants to wait to see if something better comes along. Lowery got TWO commits from Femi's teammates a couple of months ago. I think it is pretty clear that Brad doesn't wow anybody. We seem to be everyone's fallback.

[Schasz]

SLUDrew,

You are correct in D-1 hoops it is imperative that you have a HC who can close the deal on the key recruits. The next 2 signing periods for the Bills are critical to not only the team, but also to Coach Soderberg's tenure. If he lays an egg then it should mean sayanora.

[Griffster]

Ryan Willin.. great kid... tall Cape Notre Dame .. .finished second in state 4A. Yes he's got the same problem Tyler.. he needs to work on his body some.. but he's very long and the body thing can easily be corrected too. Interesting thing..he is still growing. Tyler is still taller but barely and Ryan is taller then Booker too.. so either Tyler is 6'9" now and Ryan is 6'8" and Booker...more 6'7" but you know how listing height's goes. Last year for us he was more of a shooter and supposedly he did that more in high school too. Kid can stroke it.. but summer ball will help him out a lot too. It's perfect for a kid like him.. Smart kid athletic. Good thing for him.. he shot up an inch or two from last year.. so he IS still growing.. little bit of a knee issue because of the growth spurt..but he'll be fine.. the weight thing will come but I would let him finish growing first, (just my opinion) before you seriously address that.

Dallas Johnson.. interesting kid. had some trouble the first 3 years at LHS but really got his act together for his Sr/Jr year. acedemically he is a jr.. has another semester left after this year. Kid has an incredible body.. big and strong.. and some skill too. But what's even better is how he turned things around. Seems to have really turned the corner. Just a great great story too. Possible the state could rule him elegible again next year? Maybe? Probably not.. he's only gotten to play one year. Man he is a big big kid though.

Couple others I like.. Spencer Goodman.. starting to get some attention...and Jason Smith from Vianney.. he's slimmed down some and really serious about playing hard this year. The kid from Pinckneyville looks prettty interesting too.. Playing the pt @ 6'4" ish.. Like what I have seen from him so far.. shoots it and has some nice hops too.

Like I said all these kids are good kids. They all play hard.

They have had some "spirited" practices so far.. they all get along well too.

From this weekend until Aug 15th.. TG will be home 4 weekends. I have to address that. That's too much bball...

Cg

[Nate Latsch]

>It seems everyone we pursue wants to wait to see if

>something better comes along. Lowery got TWO commits from

>Femi's teammates a couple of months ago. I think it is

>pretty clear that Brad doesn't wow anybody. We seem to be

>everyone's fallback.

Drew,

I'm going to get ripped for this, but I'll give you an answer.

There are kids in the St. Louis area who have wanted to play at SLU, but SLU didn't want them. Instead SLU goes after players from other areas who, in many cases, already have schools in mind that they'd like to play for.

To be successful in the long term, SLU needs to build its program with kids from the St. Louis area. That gets more people excited about the program in general, but specifically it gets more local recruits excited about possibly playing for the home town team.

The Billikens made strides in this department with recruiting Dwayne Polk, Luke Meyer, Tommie Liddell and Kevin Lisch, but haven't been able to build on that.

- Nate

[brianstl]

>From this weekend until Aug 15th.. TG will be home 4

>weekends. I have to address that. That's too much bball...

>

>

>Cg

That is the kind of attitude I wish more parents had. Bball is great but these kids need a chance to be kids.

Thank you for the info on the players

[satrap]

>It seems everyone we pursue wants to wait to see if

>something better comes along. Lowery got TWO commits from

>Femi's teammates a couple of months ago. I think it is

>pretty clear that Brad doesn't wow anybody. We seem to be

>everyone's fallback.

We definitely don't have the recruiting juice that SIU has, but that's not unexpected. I don't expect Torres Roundtree to ever set foot on the court for SIU, though, not with Lowery long gone...

[billiken_roy]

nate said,

"The Billikens made strides in this department with recruiting Dwayne Polk, Luke Meyer, Tommie Liddell and Kevin Lisch, but haven't been able to build on that."

that insinutates that since we signed those four former all metro players, that we have passed on local players that wanted to play here. what local players that wanted to play here in the last two years did we pass on that would have bettered this team?

[Cowboy]

i do not see it as you do

i see it that since we signed Tommie and Kevin we have not signed or gotten orals from other local kids who are generating excitement like Tommie and Kevin have.

[billiken_roy]

so who are those local kids in the last two classes that would have generated excitement like tommie and kevin and wanted to come to slu but slu ignored them?

[SLUDrew]

Brad seems to lose out both when he offers early, and when we waits to evaluate and then offers. I get the feeling he just isn't that insprining and/or saying things kids want to hear.

It seems like a lot of mothers like Brad as we have heard this about several visits he has had with kids and their families. Why are the kids themselves not buying what he is selling? I have the feeling he is very serious and all business which is appealing to parents but not to kids, but that is pure conjecture.

Whatever he is doing isn't working, and this holds true for local players as well. Do you hear anything about him personally that is turning all these kids off?

[brianstl]

None of the kids that have signed or given orals are nearly as good as Tommie or Kevin. Also, this ##### about these kids all wanting to come to SLU is bogus, if they wanted to come here they would have. Every single one of these kids since TL and KL have had offers from SLU. So that argument is BS, flat out. And it is getting tossed around by people on the AAU circuit that don't necessarily want kids going to SLU. Has the staff done enough to combat this? Not yet, but they are working overtime from what I understand to fix it. They should have never let it get this far. This stuff started when they didn't offer BA (which they should have) and it has only grown since then.

[Nate Latsch]

>that insinutates that since we signed those four former all

>metro players, that we have passed on local players that

>wanted to play here. what local players that wanted to play

>here in the last two years did we pass on that would have

>bettered this team?

How about Josh Harrellson, Zack Plackemeier, Alex Moosmann, Matt Lawrence, Landon Shipley, Alex Barnett, Justin Fuehrmeyer, Spencer Stewart, Dane Brumagin, Torres Roundtree and Ron Waller?

Think any of those guys could help the Billikens?

Please save your tired Western Illinois argument re: Harrellson. The kid is 6-feet-9 and 260 pounds and can rebound, pass, block shots and shoot. The chances of the Billikens finding a kid with that size and skill set in this recruiting class are slim.

- Nate

[brianstl]

I am not saying you are not hearing that out there from the kids you are talking to, I know you are. So everybody out there lay off on Nate on this one. These kids our telling him this. It is a fact. It is the thing certain people our trying to drive into thes kids heads when they have the kids ear. If they hear it from enough people all the time the kids start believing it. The staff has to correct this misconception.

[brianstl]

I don't think most of those kids could help the Bills. Two that could have Lawrence and Roundtree you got to be honest about.

Lawrence, from what I took away from a Griffster post on him awhile back, was going to MU no matter what.

Roundtree they were recruiting and had let it be known they wanted him. I addressed the Roundtree topic in a post above.

Moosman they missed on badly, but so did a lot of other programs. They blew it on him, but you can't expect to be right about everybody. Things like Moosman situation is why moves were made to bring in Walker.

[Nate Latsch]

>Brad seems to lose out both when he offers early, and when

>we waits to evaluate and then offers. I get the feeling he

>just isn't that insprining and/or saying things kids want to

>hear.

>

>It seems like a lot of mothers like Brad as we have heard

>this about several visits he has had with kids and their

>families. Why are the kids themselves not buying what he is

>selling? I have the feeling he is very serious and all

>business which is appealing to parents but not to kids, but

>that is pure conjecture.

>

>Whatever he is doing isn't working, and this holds true for

>local players as well. Do you hear anything about him

>personally that is turning all these kids off?

Off the top of my head, I can't recall anything negative that anyone has told me about Brad's personality. I think a lot of people like Brad on a personal level.

The program is a tough sell to kids outside of St. Louis, because of the lack of success (NCAA tourney appearances), facilities (which is being improved) and conference affiliation.

I don't expect SLU to get many kids from outside of the area, unless the coaches can find sleepers who don't have many other options (do Anthony Drejaj, Darren Clarke, Vashun Newborne, Justin Johnson, Bryce Husak, Danny Brown, Obi Ikeakor, Horace Dixon fit that description?)

Even with the local guys, Polk, Dustin Maguire and Anthony Mitchell didn't have many other options. Polk had offers from SLU and Valparaiso when he committed. Maguire committed after receiving his first offer. Mitchell had one or two offers (Eastern Illinois? being the other).

I liked what the staff did early last summer of trying to identify kids from all over that they thought they had a chance with. But then those kids boosted their stock on the summer circuit and started accumulating offers from several schools. It's hard to win recruiting battles for out-of-area kids against schools like Kansas State (Jacob Pullen) and Georgia (Zac Swansey) and Iowa.

- Nate

[Cowboy]

Stemler, Harrelson, Moosman to literally answer your question

roundtree and booker to go to the now

and now we see Femi's stock is rising and we did not secure him

and our in with the aau team is gone as Kramer is not playing

yesterday there was good news as we are listed on some kids that LOOK like they can help, let's hope if they can help we get them and they do help

[billiken_roy]

stemler was offered by slu before anyone but akron. so he doesnt fit the description.

harrelson signed with the 327th team in the country. if we missed so did a lot of teams.

i have commented enough on the roundtree thing. if he truly wanted to come to slu, then why wouldnt he wait until slu could formally initiate contact? why wouldnt he wait until slu could formally have him to campus for an official visit?

john admitted on sports plus that he has indeed gotten a scholarship offer from slu? you say "we did not secure him". again, we arent even allowed to initiate contact with him for 3 more months. what do you suggest we should do to "secure him"?

looking back on this past season and liddell's issues handling the ball, mooseman might have been a nice offer to make.