Jacob Pullen

[kshoe]

As I watched Mizzou lay an egg against K-State I notice Jacob Pullen (we were supposedly one of his finalists last year) was playing a lot of minutes for K-State. Turns out he's averaging 10 points a game and getting 20+ minutes per game for a top 25 team. Sure would have been nice to have him.

[brianstl]

As I watched Mizzou lay an egg against K-State I notice Jacob Pullen (we were supposedly one of his finalists last year) was playing a lot of minutes for K-State. Turns out he's averaging 10 points a game and getting 20+ minutes per game for a top 25 team. Sure would have been nice to have him.

Last few weeks he has been playing even more. He might be the second most important player for K-State after Beasley down the stretch and for their tournament hopes. He has been outstanding recently.

[Pistol]

Last few weeks he has been playing even more. He might be the second most important player for K-State after Beasley down the stretch and for their tournament hopes. He has been outstanding recently.

I watched him play against Texas Tech last week, and he looked great. Had a few long 3's (one was a bank shot) and a few very nice drives and finishes in traffic. He's more athletic than I thought he'd be, and knows how to compensate for his slightly smaller size.

[TheChosenOne]

Pullen has been playing very well for K-State. I think calling him the second most important player on their team is a little much, but he has really stepped up his game. In order for K-State to advance far in the NCAA tournament it will all be on their two stars Micheal Beasley and Bill Walker. When those two guys are on they are a tough team to beat. That is two NBA forwards (Beasley will be the #1 pick) who can score inside as well as outside.

[billiken_roy]

huggy and his magical recruiting tricks did a wonderful job setting the kstate program up imo. amazing how a program can about face so quickly.

[ACE]

A lot of good schools were after Pullen and we didn't really have a shot. The other guy we did have a decent shot at was Jeff Peterson. Leads the team in assists and gets about 6 ppg. We definitely could have used him this year - a point guard with good size and skill.

[billiken_roy]

A lot of good schools were after Pullen and we didn't really have a shot. The other guy we did have a decent shot at was Jeff Peterson. Leads the team in assists and gets about 6 ppg. We definitely could have used him this year - a point guard with good size and skill.

interesting pullen would waste one of his alotted on campus official visits if we didnt have a shot at him. soderberg was really feeling good about him until huggins joined the race in the fall.

[ACE]

Personal: Jacob Everse Pullen was born November 10, 1989 in Maywood, Ill. ... Parents are Jerome Pullen and Charlotte Pullen... Has two sisters, Katrina (29) and Jennifer (23), and one brother, Joseph (20)... Received interest from a number of schools, including scholarship offers from Iowa State, Marquette, Miami (Fla.), Notre Dame, Purdue, South Carolina and Xavier... Major is undecided.

This is straight from the K-State website. The kid had a lot of options.

[NashvilleBilliken]

Personal: Jacob Everse Pullen was born November 10, 1989 in Maywood, Ill. ... Parents are Jerome Pullen and Charlotte Pullen... Has two sisters, Katrina (29) and Jennifer (23), and one brother, Joseph (20)... Received interest from a number of schools, including scholarship offers from Iowa State, Marquette, Miami (Fla.), Notre Dame, Purdue, South Carolina and Xavier... Major is undecided.

This is straight from the K-State website. The kid had a lot of options.

I have to agree with Roy. If he took a visit here, we had a chance. We spent a lot of time talking about this kid if I remember correctly. He had options, but so did Lisch and Liddell. Nobody is saying Brad was a great...even good...recruiter, but it seems you try to throw some sort of backhanded Soderberg rip in there whenever possible. Let it go, man.

[billiken_roy]

ace, the truth is he took a visit here and soderberg was very confident of his position with him until huggins got involved in the fall.

if a kstate site doenst want to recognize us as a suitor that doesnt mean much to me. when kevin was being recruited, there were plenty of recruiting sites that didnt recognize us as well, but the truth was we were in very good position all along with really only illinois as any competition.

[ACE]

I have to agree with Roy. If he took a visit here, we had a chance. We spent a lot of time talking about this kid if I remember correctly. He had options, but so did Lisch and Liddell. Nobody is saying Brad was a great...even good...recruiter, but it seems you try to throw some sort of backhanded Soderberg rip in there whenever possible. Let it go, man.

Give me a break. Roy takes "backhanded" rips at our current coach all the time, while continuing to defend Sodie, but I don't see you getting worked up about that. I also remember Pullen's name mentioned, but if you can find a source that says we were close or a serious finalist - then I will believe it. That's a big difference than taking a visit. The kid's stock rose and he had a lot of suitors. To present it like we were going to wrap him up until Huggins swooped in is disingenuous. To be fair, I gave Sodie some credit for being in on the Peterson kid. Now in that instance, we did get reports that we were in it until the end with Iowa. I don't remember seeing those kind of reports with Pullen.

[NashvilleBilliken]

Give me a break. Roy takes "backhanded" rips at our current coach all the time, while continuing to defend Sodie, but I don't see you getting worked up about that.

Then you haven't been paying attention. I've disagreed with Roy more in that last 6 months than in the last 6 years.

If you compare the list of schools that you posted to those that actually offered the kid a scholarship, you will see several inconsistencies (using scout.com). We all know Sodie didn't just hand scholarships out. We also know that we didn't have tons of kids beating down the doors to visit SLU when Brad was coach (it seems RM has had more visits in his tenure here than the entire Soderberg era). Given all that, I think saying we had a shot at the kid is a pretty reasonable statement. Saying we didn't really have a shot with the kid is completley out of left field and, to me, seemed like an unsolicited Soderberg attack.

[ACE]

According to rivals, it came down to Dayton and KState as his final two. That confirms my recollection that we didn't come down to the wire with him the way we did Peterson. Pullen dropped us prior to that. If you want me to clarify, I will say it didn't seem we had a very good shot, I won't say "no shot." To suggest that Huggins somehow swooped in and did something underhanded to take him for us is inaccurate. Maybe Dayton could make that claim, I don't know, but he wasn't coming here even if KState hadn't entered the picture.

[Guest BillikenReport]

First of all, up until last summer no one was really covering SLU's recruiting.

Soderberg did recruit Pullen and Pullen made a visit here. It wasn't until later when Huggins got involved, and other big schools, that SLU was pushed out of the picture.

BS went after a couple kids in that recruiting class that ended up going to bigger name schools — like Pullen, Peterson and the guard at Georgia.

- Nate

[billiken_roy]

First of all, up until last summer no one was really covering SLU's recruiting.

Soderberg did recruit Pullen and Pullen made a visit here. It wasn't until later when Huggins got involved, and other big schools, that SLU was pushed out of the picture.

- Nate

that was all i was trying to say to ace. but his hardon for soderberg is amazing. let it go ace. he isnt here anymore.

[cheeseman]

Give me a break. Roy takes "backhanded" rips at our current coach all the time, while continuing to defend Sodie, but I don't see you getting worked up about that. I also remember Pullen's name mentioned, but if you can find a source that says we were close or a serious finalist - then I will believe it. That's a big difference than taking a visit. The kid's stock rose and he had a lot of suitors. To present it like we were going to wrap him up until Huggins swooped in is disingenuous. To be fair, I gave Sodie some credit for being in on the Peterson kid. Now in that instance, we did get reports that we were in it until the end with Iowa. I don't remember seeing those kind of reports with Pullen.

We did talk about Pullen but it was Peterson that we discussed a lot more. Not saying we did not work hard to get Pullen but we were jilted before the signing period if memory serves me.

[Guest BillikenReport]

We did talk about Pullen but it was Peterson that we discussed a lot more. Not saying we did not work hard to get Pullen but we were jilted before the signing period if memory serves me.

The Billikens lost out on Pullen long before missing out on Peterson.

Peterson was likely a back-up plan for not getting Pullen and his recruitment took a lot longer.

SLU is still missing out on some guys — Matt Roth, Scott Wood, Tyler Griffey — with Majerus in charge now, but it doesn't hurt the program as much because he's already got a big number signed and looks to be in good shape with Cotto and Cassity.

- Nate

[NH]

The Billikens lost out on Pullen long before missing out on Peterson.

Peterson was likely a back-up plan for not getting Pullen and his recruitment took a lot longer.

SLU is still missing out on some guys — Matt Roth, Scott Wood, Tyler Griffey — with Majerus in charge now, but it doesn't hurt the program as much because he's already got a big number signed and looks to be in good shape with Cotto and Cassity.

- Nate

nate, if cotto qualifies who comes first cassity or cotto or both?

[james]

nate, if cotto qualifies who comes first cassity or cotto or both?

Nate, have you heard anything recently about his attempt to qualify?

Someone on his high school team was telling me that he might be getting some extensions as an English as a second language student.

[moytoy12]

With hindsight being 20/20, my biggest issue with Soderberg's recruiting was his seeming unwillingness to let go of his #1 option to get option #2 or #3 instead. I think this issue is implicated with Pullen. Again with the aid of hindsight, I think Soderberg probably should have known that we we were not going to get Pullen and probably should have directed his attention to the #2 or #3 person at that position (and not wait until the spring signing period to shift his attention to Peterson).

[ACE]

We did talk about Pullen but it was Peterson that we discussed a lot more. Not saying we did not work hard to get Pullen but we were jilted before the signing period if memory serves me.

That's consistent with my recollection. By Aug. 2006, we were already out of the running for Pullen and by the end of the month, it was down to Dayton and KState, so we never really got that close. I try to deal in facts and not roymors, so here are the sources...

Aug. 1, 2006

http://bigeastbasketball.blogspot.com/2006...01_archive.html

"The Dayton Daily News reports on Notre dame target Jacob Pullen of Proviso East High school near Chicago is ready to get down to the business of recruiting after a busy summer across the country in the world of AAU hoops: Dayton Still an Option for Pullen. Pullen seems to be concentrating on the Flyers and Irish, as well as USC and Kansas St."

Several weeks later, according to scout it was down to KState and Dayton

http://kansasstate.scout.com/a.z?s=173&amp...307819&pg=2

As for Roy's desperate accustaion that I have a "hard on" for Soderberg, follow the thread. I never mentioned his name and what I said was hardly a slam at Soderberg. Roy was the first one to mention Soderberg in the thread. He just can't let it go. We've seen Roy spread these Roymors before in an attempt to prop up Soderberg - Harrellson and the whole Corey Frazier fiasco. If Roy is going to try to present it that we were in great shape with Pullen until big bad Bob Huggins got involved, that's simply not true and my links support that. Roy has supplied nothing to back up his claim.

The strange thing about all of this is that the thrust of the thread was about "one that got away." My point simply was that we got a lot closer with the Peterson kid than we did Pullen. Roy took this as a shot directed at Saint Sodie. Talk about making a leap. In fact, even though I didn't mention the coach or his recruiting, the fact that we made the final two for a kid like Peterson, is a credit to Soderberg. I have seen the kid play a few times and I cited some of his stats to support that he would have been a really nice catch for us. He's leading a Big 10 team in assists as a freshman. So to set the record straight, let me say great job by Sodeberg for ALMOST landing Peterson.

[billiken_roy]

As for Roy's desperate accustaion that I have a "hard on" for Soderberg, follow the thread. I never mentioned his name and what I said was hardly a slam at Soderberg. Roy was the first one to mention Soderberg in the thread. He just can't let it go. We've seen Roy spread these Roymors before in an attempt to prop up Soderberg - Harrellson and the whole Corey Frazier fiasco. If Roy is going to try to present it that we were in great shape with Pullen until big bad Bob Huggins got involved, that's simply not true and my links support that. Roy has supplied nothing to back up his claim.

i never said we were in great shape. i said we were definitely in the running as an official visit would demonstrate. no one denies that there was indeed an official visit taken by pullen to slu. that backs up my claim that we were definitely in the running.

and nate has backed up my claim that huggins got involved late. those were my only two points we indeed were one of the true finalists and that huggins got involved late and turned the whole pullen recruiting around.

i fail to see any cheering for soderberg in this thread by me. only defending the real position of what happened.

it almost appears that for some horrible reason, all soderberg haters wont let it die until anyone that respected coach soderberg screams out he is the devil. why cant you all just let it go? i can assure you i dont bring it up, but when you do inaccurately as you did again in this thread, i will defend him as i did to the romar haters before that.

[ACE]

What Nate said is not inconsistent with what I said at all... Nate said this, "SLU was pushed out of the picture."

That was my point. I know the kid took a visit, so we were in the running on some level at some point. But I also know as the recruiting process was winding down, we were no longer among his finalists... here's the source...

Aug. 1, 2006

http://bigeastbasketball.blogspot.com/2006...01_archive.html

"The Dayton Daily News reports on Notre dame target Jacob Pullen of Proviso East High school near Chicago is ready to get down to the business of recruiting after a busy summer across the country in the world of AAU hoops: Dayton Still an Option for Pullen. Pullen seems to be concentrating on the Flyers and Irish, as well as USC and Kansas St."

I cited another source saying it was down to Dayton and K-State for his final two. You on the other hand said this, "soderberg was really feeling good about him until huggins joined the race in the fall." That implies that it was between us and KState. That's simply not true. By Aug. 1, Pullen still had other schools in play and SLU was not one of them, so he wasn't coming here whether KState was involved or not. Dayton was really the school that can claim him as one that got away. What I said is accurate with sources to back it up. You are armed with Roymors.

[billiken_roy]

What Nate said is not inconsistent with what I said at all... Nate said this, "SLU was pushed out of the picture."

That was my point. I know the kid took a visit, so we were in the running on some level at some point. But I also know as the recruiting process was winding down, we were no longer among his finalists... here's the source...

Aug. 1, 2006

http://bigeastbasketball.blogspot.com/2006...01_archive.html

"The Dayton Daily News reports on Notre dame target Jacob Pullen of Proviso East High school near Chicago is ready to get down to the business of recruiting after a busy summer across the country in the world of AAU hoops: Dayton Still an Option for Pullen. Pullen seems to be concentrating on the Flyers and Irish, as well as USC and Kansas St."

I cited another source saying it was down to Dayton and K-State for his final two. You on the other hand said this, "soderberg was really feeling good about him until huggins joined the race in the fall." That implies that it was between us and KState. That's simply not true. By Aug. 1, Pullen still had other schools in play and SLU was not one of them, so he wasn't coming here whether KState was involved or not. Dayton was really the school that can claim him as one that got away. What I said is accurate with sources to back it up. You are armed with Roymors.

ace show me where i said on the second wednesday of november coach soderberg sat by the fax machine anxiously awaiting pullen's signed loi or something to that sort. i never said it inferred anything of the sort. you made that leap. i said we were a finalist as each recruit is limited to the number of official visits they can make before selecting a school. to me those schools visited are all finalists. you are the one making more out of this than what i ever said.

you prefer to believe some recruiting site that covered one of the other finalists and really knew nothing about slu. your choice. i prefer to call all the schools that got to the point of an official visit as a finalist that was a serious contender for pullen's college choice.

[NextYearBill]

Who could pass up after a shoot around in west pine and a leisurely ride through campus on the golf cart with Brad? I thought he was gonna land Scott Suggs after that photo shop edit recruitment letter featuring Brad with an afro.