We're selling ourselves short!

[The Truth]

I know everyone is excited about players committing early in the year, given what we've gone through the last two years. However, I'm expecting higher rated recruits under Rick. It's clear Porter is calling the recruiting shots, which I suppose is at it should be since he's the head assistant. But why in the world should we settling for a bunch of Illinois St recruits? - The Truth

[p diddy]

thompson was recruited by indiana, notre dame, alabama, iowa state (All BCS Conference schools).

mitchell and reed are starting to emerge after strong springs on the aau circuit. reed had two or three great tournaments (gibbons and pulley) while reed is emerging by the sheer fact that he has grown about eight inches since he entered high school and he still may be growing. those are two young men who are starting to blow up heading into the summer recruiting season. it's important to get commitments from players like them this early. or else, you would be fighting a slew of new suitors in the fall before the signing period.

just watch harrellson from st. charles. he had little interest, thus he signed with western illinois. had he waited, he would have some large offers. If he has a big freshman year at swic, watch how his recruiting goes.

just of word of caution to you. at utah, RM did not get a bunch of McDonald's All-Americans and highly-rated players. Like he is doing now, he recruited a lot of guys who were lightly regarded by the scouting gurus, but were good players who were just beginning to come into their own when they signed. with his ability to develop players and their natural progression, voila, you have lottery picks such as Van Horn, Miller and Doleac.

bad boyz for life

bad boyz for life

[DeSmetBilliken]

pdiddy's right. I've been reading Majerus' book, My Life on a Napkin, as of late. So far I've found it to be very enjoyable and would recommend it. It seems to be out of print, but I was able to find a new copy on Amazon through a book closeout place. Anyway, last night I read a chapter that covered Majerus' recruiting while at Utah. It especially focused on the recruitment of Michael Doleac, Andre Miller, and Drew Hansen, but did include some other players as well. Van Horn's recruitment was mentioned earlier in the book.

Van Horn was a kid that Majerus knew was good, but he wasn't necessarily highly ranked. Majerus got one McDonald's All-American (Britton Johnsen), and many people assumed that Van Horn was it, but apparently that would be very far from the truth.

Majerus watched Doleac play for the first time because a good friend of RM's from Wisconsin was an old Army/West Point friend of Michael's father. Doleac got cut from the basketball team his freshman year and barely made it his sophomore year. RM offered Doleac a scholarship the summer before his junior year after he convinced Doleac's dad to send Michale to his camp at Utah. When Rick sat Michael down to offer him a scholarship, Doleac didn't know what a basketball scholarship was. He was so focused on his academics, as he was an excellent student, that he never even thought that he'd be good enough to play basketball beyond high school. Majerus said that Doleac doesn't have the obsession that Majerus or Andre Miller have.

Andre Miller had talent, but had the low test scores. He was a good student in school, but still had to sit out a year as a Prop 48 player. While he was known, he wasn't a top recruit either.

There were also a bunch of players that Rick signed that even his assistants didn't understand why he wanted to sign the kids. I think Drew Hansen was one of those.

[slu72]

Truth would expect RM to come in and sign what, 6 top 100 recruits? I'm not sure even Roy Williams or Coach K could do that. Also, for SLU to make the dance a regular annual event we don't need all top 100's. Look at how many teams make it and make nice runs with teams that play together for 3-4 years. Yes, Matta at OSU was the exception this year as he had a freshman class that rivaled Wooden like freshman talent back in '65. But it ends up being a one and done class basically. DeSmet and P'diddy are dead on, and RM's track record bears them out. Also, there are three more scholies out there, so let's not put a mid major label just yet on this class. Even more than recruiting gains over the previous HC, I think we're all expecting player development to take a major leap forward as well.

[BIG BILL FAN]

just because Porter recruited some of these kids at Illinois State doesn't mean that he would have signed them at ISU. In fact he probably wouldn't have signed any of them if had been retained. RM is the key factor. Soderberg has recruited top players too but signed very few of them.

[Guest BillikenReport]

With the exception of Kwamain Mitchell, so far the main guys SLU is recruiting for the Class of 2008 are the same people Brad Soderberg was targeting.

Because B.S. had poor recruiting results, that doesn't mean these guys will turn out to be bad players. Soderberg went after higher level kids, but couldn't convince them to come to Saint Louis U. Last summer, B.S. went after a couple kids who ended up having really strong summers, raising their reputations and going to higher-level schools.

The poor recruiting results for B.S. came after missing on those targets and then ending up with some of the guys he ended up with very late in the process. Or not being able to fill all of the scholarships and then not having enough depth on the roster to spell the starting five and even practice a full five-on-five without using assistant coaches.

What I see with this process is Rick Majerus bringing in kids he thinks fit his system. He's a good enough coach that he doesn't need McDonald's All-Americans to win and frankly, he's probably not going to win recruiting battles for those type of kids if they also have offers from North Carolina and Duke.

What you are also going to see possibly is recruits coming in and redshirting their first year to get bigger/stronger/better and more ready to play college basketball. I'm not saying that is going to happen with every kid they bring in, but there will be a recruit or two who they like but may not think is ready.

B.S. couldn't afford to do that with some kids because the team didn't have the depth. For example, maybe he wanted to redshirt Maguire last season but had no other choice but to play him a little bit.

Majerus will be fine. He'll get some of the same type of kids that Southern Illinois has used to become a top 20 team and NCAA tournament team and he'll also draw better recruits than that because of his name and reputation and connections.

And, based on his reputation, he'll also probably lose recruits after they get to SLU, the guys who can't handle being pushed or don't mesh with his style of coaching. That happens everywhere.

- Nate

[slu72]

Frankly, I don't think he has anyone to apologize for with the 3 he's inked so far. It would be a homerun class if he lands Suggs, which is going to be a battle royal. Both BT and WR said SLU was high on their list prior to RM, but you have to wonder with the way UB's recruiting went, if they would not have strung this out until the fall to see if anything better came along. Only AT and the two players are able to answer that one.

[mcglotherirvin]

keep reading that boook - he had more than 1 mcdonald's all american. i think he had 3, maybe even 4. britton johnson (name?) and chris burgess were both mcd's all american's. i believe the big fella who was the first pick in the nba draft was also a mcd's all american.

[jjray]

>i believe the big fella who was the first pick in the nba

>draft was also a mcd's all american.

Bogut ... but he only played for RM one year at Utah before Rick left the team. I think it's fair to say Rick's success at Ball State and Utah was built on having an eye for players who were rising but hadn't yet gotten offers from the majors then developing those guys. I'm thrilled with Mitchell, Thompson and Reed. And you know what, the rich get richer. These three players will help us recruit others.

[cheeseman]

I have sat back and purposefully not commented on the 3 early committs to date but I do think that something is being lost in the threads regarding RM's recruiting to date. Nate is correct - just because Brad recruited 2 of the 3 who have committed, really means nothing. Brad did recruit a number of top players from around the country but never was able to get them to sign for probably a number of reasons. Thompson said that he always liked SLU but there was enough rumblings that made you have to wonder if he would actually come here - afterall the kid from SWIC last year liked SLU supposedly but ended up at IU. Reed says he liked SLU also but once again liking a place and actually going there are 2 different things. When every kid decide where to go to school, they all have 2 or 3 schools they like but they can only go to one. Brad's involvement on these 2 recruits only meant that RM did not have to sell the school and AT's retainment kept a connection to them until they could meet RM and Posser. At this point anybody who wants to say that these 2 kids were already in the corral by Brad is forgetting that being in the race at the 2/3 mark does not translate in to winning it. These two kids are RM's accomplishment. Mitchell - all RM. I look forward to the other early committments to come - can somebody please explain if we have 2 or 3 open schollies for the 2008 class?

[bauman]

We have beaten this horse till it is way past just dead.

We have 2 scholarships left to give for 08 given the normal course of action-recruits coming in and retaining their scholarship for 4/5 years depending on if they take a redshirt year.

The confusion arises in that we gave an athletic scholarship to Paul E., who apparently had an academic scholarship in hand. IF we go to him at some point and tell him we don't have an available sch. for 08 then we would have 3 available. It is certainly possible that we have already had that discussion with him and that that is the plan, however no one seems to actually know if that is the plan or if such a discussion has, in fact, taken place. TT of the P-D is writing as if it is a normal situation, while Nate on Billiken Report is assuming that it is a 1 year only scholarship

From what I can tell neither of them, nor any of us, really know-we are all just speculating.

Bottom line---as of now we have 2 to give unless one opens up either via PE going on academic scholarship after his FR year or a player leaving the program, e.g. DM transferring, in which case we would then, AND ONLY THEN, have a 3rd available.

[billiken_roy]

so it is nothing more than a coincidence that our two first verbal commits both said they were likely coming to slu anyway and that majerus was just the icing on the cake and the soderberg regime should get absolutely no props for at least setting the table?

yes, they are majerus recruits, but anyone that is being that bullheaded to not also recognize how important the initial work of coach soderberg's staff is just not being fair.

there is a reason angres thorpe was kept as an assistant.

[Guest BillikenReport]

The coaching staff is operating like it has three scholarships to give.

I'm not sure why TT wrote that he thought Eckerle would be on athletic scholarship for all four years, but everyone I've talked to, including Eckerle, indicates that only the first year is assured of being on athletic scholarship.

I don't think the team would have given Eckerle a scholarship for four years.

The way the staff is recruiting, if they only had two scholarships to give, they would have to take an offer away from one of the three kids they are targeting. I wouldn't be surprised if Matt Roth commits soon, so then either Scott Suggs or Jesse Perry would have their offer taken away.

- Nate

[Billikan]

Our three orally committed recruits, according to Scout.com are rated as follows:

Thompson--4 stars and the 17th rated player in the country at his position 6'11" and soon to be a seven footer--255 pounds and still growing! Excellent inside out skills--perfect for the Majerus system and he will benefit greatly from the style and coaching of Rick.

Reed--3 stars and the 29th rated player in the country at his position. Soon to be a seven footer with skill and the ability to shoot away from the basket. Still young and thin, but an excellent athlete who can block shots and another player who should benefit greatly from working with Rick. Everyone says this young man has a lot of upside potential.

Mitchell--3 stars and the 32nd rated player in the country. Super quick point guard who can score and defend and has held his own against the very best in his class all over the country in AAU ball. He is just what the doctor ordered for this team and my bet is that he will make an impact in his first year.

We are still recruiting a number of other excellent players who could make this one of the best, if not the best, recruiting classes in the history of Billiken basketball.

I suspect that you may not be a Billiken fan. It is astounding to me that anyone who is a Bills fan can be negative about these terrific new recruits and all that is happening on this team.

[Billikan]

I agree that the previous work done by Brad and Angres were very important and several of these players may have signed with the Bills even if we did not have a new coach. I know that Brad was extremely optimistic when he talked to me, just a day before he was fired, about the recruiting prospects for the coming year.

My guess is that if two or three of those players had committed before he was fired that Brad would still be our coach. Unfortunately, he could not get these players to commit while he was coach so it cost him his job.

I was as big a fan of Brad as anyone but I do think that the name and reputation of Majerus had a major role in getting these young men to commit early. We will never know what might have happened if Brad had stayed and it seems to me that we need to move on. Just my opinion.

[Pistol]

Those ratings for Mitchell and Reed could actually be low, and they could move up because both were late bloomers from a recruiting standpoint. I don't think we're selling ourselves short at all. I know these were all guys that SLU was after before Majerus, but he sealed the deal and he's brought Suggs back into reach. This could very well be our biggest recruiting class ever. It may not be loaded with McDonald's All-Americans, but we're not going to explode as a program that fast less than two months after hiring a big-name coach.

[billiken_roy]

billiken, i only comment as such when those that continue to post the opposite.

as soon as the rest of the board let's it go from the negative standpoint, i will be more than happy to do the same.

[DoctorB]

I cannot believe there is rumblings of complaint about our recruits so far.

Personally I am ECSTATIC about the 3 commits. It is a core of what may be the greatest class of freshmen ever.

The pressure is on all the other recruits considering SLU, to decide whather they want to come and play for Majerus--including Suggs, the wild-card. He may or may not be serious about SLU, but actually with or without Suggs how can any of us doubt that this is a superb class?

My how quickly people change! A few months back everyone would have been just as ecstatic as I am --now people expect 5 guys on the top 100 list --a ridiculous goal for any coach, let alone a new coach of a team hardly ever in the tournament for many years (one appearance in the last 9, I believe).

These are great recruits, and my guess is Suggs and Griffey both have SLU back on their radars because of them. What star would not want to have those 3 freshmen around him? It is actually a perfect class so far FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF ENTICING A STAR!

Get real and embrace the accomplishments so far -- you do not build a class program in 7 weeks.

[MrKnowItAll]

i hear what you are saying, but you have to be patient. i think a few years from now with the new arena being built and all, and hopefully some ncaa tourney appearances strung together... is when we can hope for some 5 star, mcdonald all americans to consider slu. it will always be a long shot when competing with the likes of unc, duke, ku, etc... but, slu has alot to offer that those schools dont.. for example, urban campus, big city, only bball team within the city... so, top level recruits who are clear nba prospects would be wise to consider slu, because in my eyes it would be a superb 'stepping stone' to the nba.

[MrKnowItAll]

playing in the A10 will be great east coast exposure for these young ball players.. and i think that can prove to be an important factor.

[provos528]

The Truth may be from the enemy.. Trying a last ditch attempt to put down an obvious progress..

[DeSmetBilliken]

Let me start out by saying that the book was published in 2000, so any McD's All-Americans he recruited after then would have been omitted from the book.

I mentioned Britton Johnson being the one McD's All-American.

Andrew Bogut is from Australia, and never played high school basketball in the United States, so he couldn't have been a McD's All-American.

Chris Burgess was a McD's All-American, but he didn't go to Utah immediately out of high school. He went to Duke, where he had Shane Battier and Elton Brand in his class and couldn't play over them. He would've been at Utah in time for the book to be written, but as of yet I haven't come across a mention of him, or at least a significant one.

Just went to the McD's AA site. It looks like Britton Johnsen and Chris Burgess were Majerus' two McD's All-Americans, and Burgess came in as a transfer, so RM likely didn't have to fend off as much in the way of suitors in Burgess' recruitment.

Anyway, Majerus' greatest successes at Utah came for the most part with players who weren't hugely recruited.

[cheeseman]

Roy, reread my post - I gave Brad credit for selling the school and AT credit for keeping the line connected until RM could close the deal. My post clearly supports the retention of AT and the benefit because of it but, to assume that Brad closes the deal on these kids is not supported by his past performance. With the exception of Tommie and Kevin what deals had he closed as of late? The purpose of my post was simply to point out that those who are giving Brad credit for these two are making one giant leap.

Billikan - you post is probably very accurate and I would not disagree with your analysis. The problem still stands that Brad did not get the kids to committ while he was coach - timing is everything.

[huzzah]

I have had chance encounters with both coaches, each twice. Their personalities are 190 degree apart. I ran into Sode on campus last year. He avoided eye contact and did not offer any type of greeting. I then ran into Sode at Union Station 2 days prior to his dismissal. We were on escalators going opposite directions. Again Sode avoided eye contact and communication. I bumped into Rick on campus with a recruit. His eyes bore into my soul. I responded with a greeting which he promptly returned and I got the impression we would have conversed except Rick was im the middle of recruiting. I then ran into Rick on camput about a week later. He was in a cart taking Mitchell down to the arena. Again the fierce stare, again the greeting. Infact, I became fearful Rick might fall out of the cart while engaging in the salutation. I am not sure Sode would have ever closed the deal. Rick is being paid a million for a good reason. He can produce. We have never seen this type of recruiting before. He indicated the SLU job was attractive, in part, because St. Louis is a hub city for this region. This is also why Mrs. Lee bought the Post. Rick is proving the point with recruits from KC, Wisc., and southern Illinois so far. When was the last time we recruited with success out of KC? They send players all over the nation each year. Our only showing for Wisc was Drew Diener. Sode did not take advantage of our hub city status. Lets enjoy these good times. Ticket prices look cheap. The recruits look good plus they will probably improve given Rick's past history.

[MrKnowItAll]

this goes back to my offering a few months ago that soderberg has the mentality of a football coach... and that we needed a 'nice'/personable coach in order to recruit at slu.