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Recruiting - 2019


Pistol

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Qudus Wahab - C, 6-11, 235 - Lagos, Nigeria (Flint Hill School, VA) - Twitter: @bola_dee_baller

Offers: SLU, Rhode Island, VCU, St. Joe's, UMass, George Mason, St. Bonaventure, Seton Hall, St. John's, Louisville, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Pitt, Rutgers, LSU, UConn, Temple, Northern Illinois, Old Dominion, Bucknell, Colgate.

Interest: Xavier, Virginia, Florida State, K-State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Florida, South Carolina, Mizzou, USC, SMU, Princeton.

Latest News: Wahab received an offer from SLU. He's waiting until after the July live period to see where he stands and will cut down his list and plan visits in August. (7/9/18)

Scouting Report: Wahab was initially known as a springy rim protector with a mostly defensive game, but he has developed a solid low-post game on the offensive end. He has a high motor and good work ethic, and is an unselfish player who's not afraid of doing the dirty work. He's an excellent shot blocker and strong rebounder at both ends, using his tremendous size and length. He runs the floor well, has pretty nice handles for his size, and has a good jumper out to the perimeter. Rankings: Rivals - 103, Prep Hoops - 80, 247sports - 72, Future150 - 94, ESPN - 81.

-Really interesting when we extend an offer relatively late in the game to a more established recruit with a lot of high-level programs going after him. This is one of those cases. He's a solid 4-star, top-100 player, a big man with some serious upside. Right now, he says Pitt, Virginia Tech, VCU, Syracuse, UConn, LSU, and Louisville are recruiting him the hardest. The first three have been in it for a long time and Louisville and LSU are the more recent entrants; he was just on campus at Louisville. UMass, St. Bonaventure, Temple, Rhode Island, Rutgers, and St. John's are also in the mix as schools that I can verify have been recruiting him actively recently, so we're in a group of about 15 here. He's going to wait until after the July evaluation periods to sit down and consider his options and then start scheduling official visits.

As for his game, I happen to think the 75-100 range that he's ranked in might be a little low. He's been 6-11 (maybe 6-10) since his freshman year, when he came over from Nigeria. He played originally for Virginia Academy before transferring to Flint Hill before last season. He's obviously huge, with great length, but he runs the floor like crazy and moves well in the half court. He can put it on the floor and shoot it out to 18-20 feet. He looks great on video. NBA frame and that potential is certainly there if he polishes up his game and develops some more.

Again, interesting offer at this point in the game, but I trust Ford knows what he's doing.

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On 7/8/2018 at 8:24 AM, slu72 said:

Travis Ford is fearless when it comes to recruiting. I guess the policy is even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then. Works for me and all they can say is no thanks plus it  doesn't cost anything to extend an offer. 

-you really think that is the policy? I give the staff much more credit than that.

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1 hour ago, Pistol said:

Qudus Wahab - C, 6-11, 235 - Lagos, Nigeria (Flint Hill School, VA) - Twitter: @bola_dee_baller

Offers: SLU, Rhode Island, VCU, St. Joe's, UMass, George Mason, St. Bonaventure, Seton Hall, St. John's, Louisville, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Pitt, Rutgers, LSU, UConn, Temple, Northern Illinois, Old Dominion, Bucknell, Colgate.

Interest: Xavier, Virginia, Florida State, K-State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Florida, South Carolina, Mizzou, USC, SMU, Princeton.

Latest News: Wahab received an offer from SLU. He's waiting until after the July live period to see where he stands and will cut down his list and plan visits in August. (7/9/18)

Scouting Report: Wahab was initially known as a springy rim protector with a mostly defensive game, but he has developed a solid low-post game on the offensive end. He has a high motor and good work ethic, and is an unselfish player who's not afraid of doing the dirty work. He's an excellent shot blocker and strong rebounder at both ends, using his tremendous size and length. He runs the floor well, has pretty nice handles for his size, and has a good jumper out to the perimeter. Rankings: Rivals - 103, Prep Hoops - 80, 247sports - 72, Future150 - 94, ESPN - 81.

-Really interesting when we extend an offer relatively late in the game to a more established recruit with a lot of high-level programs going after him. This is one of those cases. He's a solid 4-star, top-100 player, a big man with some serious upside. Right now, he says Pitt, Virginia Tech, VCU, Syracuse, UConn, LSU, and Louisville are recruiting him the hardest. The first three have been in it for a long time and Louisville and LSU are the more recent entrants; he was just on campus at Louisville. UMass, St. Bonaventure, Temple, Rhode Island, Rutgers, and St. John's are also in the mix as schools that I can verify have been recruiting him actively recently, so we're in a group of about 15 here. He's going to wait until after the July evaluation periods to sit down and consider his options and then start scheduling official visits.

As for his game, I happen to think the 75-100 range that he's ranked in might be a little low. He's been 6-11 (maybe 6-10) since his freshman year, when he came over from Nigeria. He played originally for Virginia Academy before transferring to Flint Hill before last season. He's obviously huge, with great length, but he runs the floor like crazy and moves well in the half court. He can put it on the floor and shoot it out to 18-20 feet. He looks great on video. NBA frame and that potential is certainly there if he polishes up his game and develops some more.

Again, interesting offer at this point in the game, but I trust Ford knows what he's doing.

A taller version of French? Sign me up. 

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2 hours ago, Cowboy said:

-you really think that is the policy? I give the staff much more credit than that.

When you see the other big time offers for a guy who's 6'11", I think that's a stretch, no pun intended. I've got absolutely no problem w/ Ford and staff's recruiting. Far exceeded anything I expected. But some kids, and the # 5 ranked C in the country fall into this category, are miracle recruits if they land someplace other than an elite P5 program. Hence, the blind squirrel analogy. I don't have any problem with him offering the best player in the nation but it would be a miracle if the kid chose SLU.

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10 minutes ago, slu72 said:

When you see the other big time offers for a guy who's 6'11", I think that's a stretch, no pun intended. I've got absolutely no problem w/ Ford and staff's recruiting. Far exceeded anything I expected. But some kids, and the # 5 ranked C in the country fall into this category, are miracle recruits if they land someplace other than an elite P5 program. Hence, the blind squirrel analogy. I don't have any problem with him offering the best player in the nation but it would be a miracle if the kid chose SLU.

it makes me think we have a relationship there.

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1 hour ago, RiseAndGrind said:

A taller version of French? Sign me up. 

Not exactly. This kid is huge and has always been huge. French was also an early bloomer physically, but four inches is a huge difference. This kid is a big, athletic post player. They have a bit of skill overlap but that's not the comparison I'd make.

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Terrence Shannon update: 

He talks about the schools recruiting him the hardest right now and mentions Illinois, Florida State, Louisville, Loyola, and DePaul.

Later, he's asked about where he's going to take his official visits. He's already been to the first four of those recently, so he said DePaul is definitely getting one, and "probably" Georgetown, Wake Forest, and SLU. He made it sound like not all of them will get an official, so maybe 2/3 and then some combo of the first four mentioned above. It might also be a couple of his other offers that he didn't mention.

It's pretty cool that as this kid's stock has absolutely exploded in the past couple months, SLU is in the thick of it and might get an official visit.

He has no timetable on trimming his list or making a decision. He says he wants to see what happens.

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I'm rather confident that Ford has a reason and plan behind every offer that he or his staff makes.  Sometimes it is because they think we have a legit chance for a kid.  Sometimes it may be because they want to show a certain AAU coach that we want to be in on their future players.  Sometimes it might just be to put SLU's name on lists next to Illinois, Florida State, Georgetown, and Wake Forest.  The more we are out there associated with higher level recruits, the more kids see that we are and change their perception about SLU.  I'm willing to bet that kids that are current recruits or that are a year or two away from having to make a decision follow these recruiting websites much more intently than do fans like us.

I completely trust the staff on recruiting decisions.  I hope getting in on a high level guy late means that we really have a shot.  Even if it doesn't, I'm confident that the offer is serving some purpose for our program.

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3 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:

 I wonder who SLU will be watching at Peach Jam this week. I am assuming they will be following the Beagles rather closely. 

Would have been nice to get a commit from Yuri (or someone else) prior to this week to join Hargrove. 

In rough order of interest:

BBE: Terrence Hargrove, Yuri Collins, E.J. Liddell, Mario McKinney, Zion Harmon

PSA Cardinals: James Bouknight, Joe Toussaint, Richie Springs, Maxwell Lorca-Lloyd, Ismael Massoud

NY Lightning: Dashawn Davis, Jordan Dingle

NY Renaissance: Tyler Bertram, Jalen Lecque, Kofi Cockburn

MeanStreets: Chris Payton

MOKAN: Malik Hall

City Rocks: Symir Torrence

E1T1: C.J. Walker

AOT: John Wright (interest only)

Playaz Club: Al-Amir Dawes (interest only)

So mostly BBE and the NY area programs, in terms of 2019 offers extended (and kids who haven't officially eliminated us). Pool B has BBE, NY Lightning, AOT, Playaz Club, and MeanStreets. PSA Cardinals are in Pool C with MOKAN Elite. City Rocks and NY Rens are in Pool D, and E1T1 is in Pool A.

Torrence is a 2020 offer. I doubt we're still involved with Walker, and we showed interest in Wright and Dawes a year ago. I'm not sure any of the Rens kids are interested but we're one of the better offers for each of the Lightning kids. We've seen confirmation that we'll be watching Hall, and I imagine we'll be watching Payton, too. BBE and PSA Cardinals are the no-brainers, and I'm sure we'll have coaches at all of their games.

Full schedule is here: http://www.nikeeyb.com/games/

BBE plays Wednesday at 6:30, Thursday at 10:30 am and 9:00 pm, and Friday at 10:30 am and 9:00 pm.

PSA plays Wednesday at 5:00, Thursday at 9:00 am and 7:30 pm, and Friday at 9:00 am and 6:00 pm.

Top 2 from each pool play in the quarterfinals on Saturday at noon. Semifinals are that evening at 7:00, and the final is Sunday at 2:00.

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3 minutes ago, Pistol said:

 

Full schedule is here: http://www.nikeeyb.com/games/

BBE plays Wednesday at 6:30, Thursday at 10:30 am and 9:00 pm, and Friday at 10:30 am and 9:00 pm.

PSA plays Wednesday at 5:00, Thursday at 9:00 am and 7:30 pm, and Friday at 9:00 am and 6:00 pm.

Top 2 from each pool play in the quarterfinals on Saturday at noon. Semifinals are that evening at 7:00, and the final is Sunday at 2:00.

-it looks like only the finals are being streamed, is that correct? heck I would much rather watch this than college football from last season or other filler programming

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5 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-it looks like only the finals are being streamed, is that correct? heck I would much rather watch this than college football from last season or other filler programming

You can pay $30 to watch the entire tournament thru FloHoops. $30 is the monthly membership, but you have to remember to cancel your subscription or it will auto renew each month.

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12 minutes ago, Pistol said:

In rough order of interest:

BBE: Terrence Hargrove, Yuri Collins, E.J. Liddell, Mario McKinney, Zion Harmon

PSA Cardinals: James Bouknight, Joe Toussaint, Richie Springs, Maxwell Lorca-Lloyd, Ismael Massoud

NY Lightning: Dashawn Davis, Jordan Dingle

NY Renaissance: Tyler Bertram, Jalen Lecque, Kofi Cockburn

MeanStreets: Chris Payton

MOKAN: Malik Hall

City Rocks: Symir Torrence

E1T1: C.J. Walker

AOT: John Wright (interest only)

Playaz Club: Al-Amir Dawes (interest only)

So mostly BBE and the NY area programs, in terms of 2019 offers extended (and kids who haven't officially eliminated us). Pool B has BBE, NY Lightning, AOT, Playaz Club, and MeanStreets. PSA Cardinals are in Pool C with MOKAN Elite. City Rocks and NY Rens are in Pool D, and E1T1 is in Pool A.

Torrence is a 2020 offer. I doubt we're still involved with Walker, and we showed interest in Wright and Dawes a year ago. I'm not sure any of the Rens kids are interested but we're one of the better offers for each of the Lightning kids. We've seen confirmation that we'll be watching Hall, and I imagine we'll be watching Payton, too. BBE and PSA Cardinals are the no-brainers, and I'm sure we'll have coaches at all of their games.

Full schedule is here: http://www.nikeeyb.com/games/

BBE plays Wednesday at 6:30, Thursday at 10:30 am and 9:00 pm, and Friday at 10:30 am and 9:00 pm.

PSA plays Wednesday at 5:00, Thursday at 9:00 am and 7:30 pm, and Friday at 9:00 am and 6:00 pm.

Top 2 from each pool play in the quarterfinals on Saturday at noon. Semifinals are that evening at 7:00, and the final is Sunday at 2:00.

Very helpful. Thanks, @Pistol!

Hopefully Hargrove shows out (and stays committed) and SLU gets a lot of press from this event. 

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This next recruiting class is going to be very important with 4, and probably 5, sure sure available scholarships.  (The 5th being Welmer)  Some key losses too, Bess, Foreman and Isabell which will open up a fair amount of playing time.

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One down with Hargrove commitment and 4 to go. As of today, the 19'-20 roster would be: Santos, Goodwin, French, Gordon, Thatch, Jacobs, Thor, Hankton, and Hargrove. That's a fairly young team.  Not counting on Wellmer, although next year he could be more of a help than this season. The 4 open scholies and promise of playing time should be appealing to '19 recruits. But would guessTravis won't fill up all the empty slots with incoming FR, unless they're 4 stars. He'll likely hold open one or two for a GT to add some experience. Also, let's hope none of our FR get impatient/upset about playing time this season and decide to transfer.

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55 minutes ago, Pistol said:

BBE team preview for the Peach Jam.

Thanks for posting, this is rather interesting:

Freshman Zion Harmon, already a three-year EYBL veteran, joined BBE after session one. Harmon (ESPN No. 8 ) averaged 8.0 points, 2.8 assists, and 2.2 rebounds in 12 games for BBE, operating as the only member of the backcourt with Peach Jam experience (2017 with Boo Williams).

This kid has been playing in the EYBL since he was in 7th grade?

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46 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

Thanks for posting, this is rather interesting:

Freshman Zion Harmon, already a three-year EYBL veteran, joined BBE after session one. Harmon (ESPN No. 8 ) averaged 8.0 points, 2.8 assists, and 2.2 rebounds in 12 games for BBE, operating as the only member of the backcourt with Peach Jam experience (2017 with Boo Williams).

This kid has been playing in the EYBL since he was in 7th grade?

Yep: https://usatodayhss.com/2016/zion-harmon-is-first-seventh-grader-to-play-in-eybl-and-hes-dominating

He's also been playing varsity basketball in Kentucky since 8th grade, which apparently you're allowed to do in some states. He won a state title with Bowling Green his 8th grade year, went to Adair County last year (losing in the semifinals in the same region as Mickey Pearson's John Hardin team), and announced a transfer to Marshall County for his sophomore season (he was rumored to either be going back to BG, going to MC, McCracken County, or heading to Kentucky powerhouse Scott County).

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1 hour ago, Pistol said:

BBE team preview for the Peach Jam.

 

4 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Yep: https://usatodayhss.com/2016/zion-harmon-is-first-seventh-grader-to-play-in-eybl-and-hes-dominating

He's also been playing varsity basketball in Kentucky since 8th grade, which apparently you're allowed to do in some states. He won a state title with Bowling Green his 8th grade year, went to Adair County last year (losing in the semifinals in the same region as Mickey Pearson's John Hardin team), and announced a transfer to Marshall County for his sophomore season (he was rumored to either be going back to BG, going to MC, McCracken County, or heading to Kentucky powerhouse Scott County).

-Pistol, as always, great stuff, thank you!

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