Recruiting - 2020 Class (Optimal Vision Class)

[Cowboy]

13 minutes ago, brianstl said:

I forgot to add Collins for some reason, but Hargrove is in my post.

-and I meant to say Perkins as you did mention Hargrove, okay, so explain how all of this proves Weber and Lowery own StL right now

[brianstl]

4 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-and I meant to say Perkins as you did mention Hargrove, okay, so explain how all of this proves Weber and Lowery own StL right now

Three out of the last five years KSU has landed the player they considered their top priority in the area.  Sneed, Stockard and now Kasubke. The two years they didn't, they weren't really actively recruiting anyone in those classes from the area.  Williams ending up at KSU was different than a normal recruitment.

My guess is that because of multiple reasons they are probably the leader for Bradford at this point.  

[ACE]

5 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Three out of the last five years KSU has landed the player they considered their top priority in the area.  Sneed, Stockard and now Kasubke. The two years they didn't, they weren't really actively recruiting anyone in those classes from the area.  Williams ending up at KSU was different than a normal recruitment.

My guess is that because of multiple reasons they are probably the leader for Bradford at this point.  

Who cares about Stockard. The kid averaged 1 ppg and 1rpg last year. 

[CBFan]

As much as I wanted Kasubke to announce SLU this morning if SLU signs a good outside shooting guard that will soften the blow.

Weaver will be graduating and I think you cannot have enough guards.

Hopefully Bradford is still in play and if SLU can sign Bradford and one of his high school teammates then it will be a good 2020 class.

In Ford I trust, the coach will pull a rabbit out of his hat.

[TheChosenOne]

1 hour ago, billikenbill said:

K-State, Power 5 conference, big-time football, easier academics. You’re on a recruiting visit and all that is in front of you? Easy choice. Now, let’s find some diamonds in the rough and get commitments before they draw attention to themselves.

Big ol' cornfed gals who look like Grimace come game day. I don't see any positive in Kansas State for a kid from St. Louis.

I am a big fan of Luke, but I am not sure he fills a primary need for us. I see the need for a scoring guard (more combo guard type, Caleb Love would have been perfect) and some sort of a stretch power forward. I hope we have the 3 covered in Jimerson and Hargrove and then Perkins in addition to some guards who certainly have the muscle to play the 3. Candidly, while I really like Kalkbrenner, I thought signing the two bigs in the 2019 class kind of ended our chances with him and Bradford since those guys don't seem to be versatile 4/5 big men and are more pure 5s.

[bauman]

5 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

Big ol' cornfed gals who look like Grimace come game day. I don't see any positive in Kansas State for a kid from St. Louis.

He doesn't have to play behind Jimerson for 3 years!  I look forward to comparing their careers in 3 years.

I would have liked to get LK, but primarily because he was a local and I wanted to keep the string of local recruits intact.  Also would have been nice to get a kid from Chaminade.

Not that it makes any difference in this year's recruiting, but I hope we kick their @$$e$ when we play this year.

[Major Majerus]

1 hour ago, cheeseman said:

Are not Hargrove, Jimmerson, and Yuri bridge players?

I’ve never seen them at a tournament but college is a great time to take up the game.  

[Pistol]

Local scholarship players on each roster or committed:

SLU
Goodwin
Perkins
Collins
Hargrove

K-State
Sneed
Stockard
Williams
Kasubke

Mizzou
Smith
Tilmon
Pickett
Watson
McKinney

This is a pretty even race. And SLU didn't heavily recruit Sneed, Stockard, or Williams. K-State identified STL guys who would fit there and Sneed and Williams in particular have been better than I realized they were. They weren't the top players from STL in their years, and they chose wisely in terms of finding the highest-level program possible for themselves, and one that would be a mutually beneficial fit.

All is not lost. Refer to my post above about our other options. Kasubke and Bradford would've been a really nice two-man class, but even if we don't land Bradford (and TheChosenOne makes a good point), we have other bigs as options, as well.

[wgstl]

12 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Local scholarship players on each roster or committed:

SLU
Goodwin
Perkins
Collins
Hargrove

K-State
Sneed
Stockard
Williams
Kasubke

Mizzou
Smith
Tilmon
Pickett
Watson
McKinney

This is a pretty even race. And SLU didn't heavily recruit Sneed, Stockard, or Williams. K-State identified STL guys who would fit there and Sneed and Williams in particular have been better than I realized they were. They weren't the top players from STL in their years, and they chose wisely in terms of finding the highest-level program possible for themselves, and one that would be a mutually beneficial fit.

All is not lost. Refer to my post above about our other options. Kasubke and Bradford would've been a really nice two-man class, but even if we don't land Bradford (and TheChosenOne makes a good point), we have other bigs as options, as well.

I guess I always considered thatch as local.

[Pistol]

7 minutes ago, wgstl said:

I guess I always considered thatch as local.

Feel free to do so, if you must. It just strengthens SLU's position.

[Cowboy]

1 hour ago, brianstl said:

Three out of the last five years KSU has landed the player they considered their top priority in the area.  Sneed, Stockard and now Kasubke. The two years they didn't, they weren't really actively recruiting anyone in those classes from the area.  Williams ending up at KSU was different than a normal recruitment.

My guess is that because of multiple reasons they are probably the leader for Bradford at this point.  

-did they recruit other StL kids during this time?

[hmart23]

31 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Local scholarship players on each roster or committed:

SLU
Goodwin
Perkins
Collins
Hargrove

K-State
Sneed
Stockard
Williams
Kasubke

Mizzou
Smith
Tilmon
Pickett
Watson
McKinney

This is a pretty even race. And SLU didn't heavily recruit Sneed, Stockard, or Williams. K-State identified STL guys who would fit there and Sneed and Williams in particular have been better than I realized they were. They weren't the top players from STL in their years, and they chose wisely in terms of finding the highest-level program possible for themselves, and one that would be a mutually beneficial fit.

All is not lost. Refer to my post above about our other options. Kasubke and Bradford would've been a really nice two-man class, but even if we don't land Bradford (and TheChosenOne makes a good point), we have other bigs as options, as well.

It might have been my connection to North County, but I was pretty bummed when we didn't recruit Sneed hard. Kid's a baller.  

[brianstl]

25 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Local scholarship players on each roster or committed:

SLU
Goodwin
Perkins
Collins
Hargrove

K-State
Sneed
Stockard
Williams
Kasubke

Mizzou
Smith
Tilmon
Pickett
Watson
McKinney

This is a pretty even race. And SLU didn't heavily recruit Sneed, Stockard, or Williams. K-State identified STL guys who would fit there and Sneed and Williams in particular have been better than I realized they were. They weren't the top players from STL in their years, and they chose wisely in terms of finding the highest-level program possible for themselves, and one that would be a mutually beneficial fit.

All is not lost. Refer to my post above about our other options. Kasubke and Bradford would've been a really nice two-man class, but even if we don't land Bradford (and TheChosenOne makes a good point), we have other bigs as options, as well.

Sneed was a 4 star top 100 player according to Rivals and top 150 according 247 composite.  Stockard at one time had offers from Marquette, Cincinnati and X.  I think academic concerns hurt Stockard's stock later with those programs.

[brianstl]

6 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-did they recruit other StL kids during this time?

Until this year, not really.  They did an excellent job of choosing their targets.  This year is different.  They have offers out to Bradford and Kalkbrenner in addition to Kasubke.

[Pistol]

16 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Sneed was a 4 star top 100 player according to Rivals and top 150 according 247 composite.  Stockard at one time had offers from Marquette, Cincinnati and X.  I think academic concerns hurt Stockard's stock later with those programs.

Sneed was in the class of 2016 along with Jayson Tatum and Tyler Cook. I didn't mean that he wasn't worthy of SLU, just that K-State has done a good job of identifying and prioritizing good fits in the second tier.

Stockard was class of 2017 - Tilmon, Goodwin, Smith, Pickett. Williams was 2018 - Ramey, Gordon, Hellems, Watson.

Edit: Just wanted to add that K-State has also found a lot of success in the STL area in times of coaching transitions at Mizzou, Illinois, and SLU. Landing Kasubke shows that they're able to sustain this, and that they're not a temporary player in the region. They're going to keep picking off 3- and 4-star kids as long as they keep finding success there.

[RiseAndGrind]

Bradford isn’t coming to SLU. He’s not even sure he’s going to take an official to SLU. 

 

[billiken_roy]

19 minutes ago, hmart23 said:

It might have been my connection to North County, but I was pretty bummed when we didn't recruit Sneed hard. Kid's a baller.  

im pretty sure we did strongly go after sneed initially, however it is my understanding sneed made it known he didnt want to be a billiken.   likely an example of just wanting to get out of town.  

[3star_recruit]

11 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Until this year, not really.  They did an excellent job of choosing their targets.  This year is different.  They have offers out to Bradford and Kalkbrenner in addition to Kasubke.

KState was the first school to call Mario McKinney during the summer of 2017.  He had an official visit lined up with them in September 2018 but opted to visit Mizzou instead.  Torrence Watson made an unofficial visit to KState but he  chose Ohio State before switching to Mizzou.  So Weber's missed on a couple of his primary targets.  Like Pistol said, it's been pretty even between the three schools.  

 

 

[Pistol]

1 minute ago, RiseAndGrind said:

Bradford isn’t coming to SLU. He’s not even sure he’s going to take an official to SLU. 

I'm not writing him off yet, but let's assume that this is definitely the case. Just as with Kasubke, it's a bummer, but I'm not worried.

We're a finalist for both Keon Ambrose-Hylton and Donte Houston. Yes, both of them have long lists and we're not even assured of official visits from either. But both are more versatile PF types, whereas Bradford is a more traditional post player. If Bell and/or Diarra pan out, someone with a PF skill set might be more valuable on our roster.

That includes other guys we've offered, like Reece Brown (I really like his game), Seryee Lewis (we've been in the mix from very early on), or Martice Mitchell (he's currently blowing up). We also have an offer out to Graham Ike, who is more of a center in the A10. I'd like to see us go hard after those first three right now. We may have missed our chance with Mitchell but I bet we could get an OV from Lewis, who I think is underrated.

We've also started to show interest in a couple late blooming bigs. Plus, I think there's still room for a stretch big if we want to go that route. I would be thrilled to land Bradford but I don't think he's a necessity.

[Cowboy]

27 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Until this year, not really.  They did an excellent job of choosing their targets.  This year is different.  They have offers out to Bradford and Kalkbrenner in addition to Kasubke.

-thank you for the reasonable q&a, I will still disagree with them "owning StL right now" but they have had much more success here than I would like from such a school or any school not named SLU

[brianstl]

1 minute ago, Cowboy said:

-thank you for the reasonable q&a, I will still disagree with them "owning StL right now" but they have had much more success here than I would like from such a school or any school not named SLU

My post may have been a little hot takish. 

[Coach314]

38 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Sneed was a 4 star top 100 player according to Rivals and top 150 according 247 composite.  Stockard at one time had offers from Marquette, Cincinnati and X.  I think academic concerns hurt Stockard's stock later with those programs.

Stockard didn't have any academic concerns.  His top 2 were K State and Xavier.  K State recruited him the hardest.

[RiseAndGrind]

15 minutes ago, Pistol said:

I'm not writing him off yet, but let's assume that this is definitely the case. Just as with Kasubke, it's a bummer, but I'm not worried.

We're a finalist for both Keon Ambrose-Hylton and Donte Houston. Yes, both of them have long lists and we're not even assured of official visits from either. But both are more versatile PF types, whereas Bradford is a more traditional post player. If Bell and/or Diarra pan out, someone with a PF skill set might be more valuable on our roster.

That includes other guys we've offered, like Reece Brown (I really like his game), Seryee Lewis (we've been in the mix from very early on), or Martice Mitchell (he's currently blowing up). We also have an offer out to Graham Ike, who is more of a center in the A10. I'd like to see us go hard after those first three right now. We may have missed our chance with Mitchell but I bet we could get an OV from Lewis, who I think is underrated.

We've also started to show interest in a couple late blooming bigs. Plus, I think there's still room for a stretch big if we want to go that route. I would be thrilled to land Bradford but I don't think he's a necessity.

This is true. My post sounded much more negative than intended. If I’m Kasubke and Bradford I’m probably making the same choices. Like you said - these are definitely “nice to get” recruits and not completely devastating when you don’t land them. Bradford would have Diarra and Bell in front of him for 3 years. Obviously he’s more highly rated than either of them but I think Coach Ford is very high on both of them. 

I’m alright with SLU missing on both of these guys. I‘m just always in the camp of getting the local guys, but 3Star has pretty much laid out why it’s becoming more difficult to recruit the locals for this class.

if Bradford goes to Kstate and Love goes to UNC, the highly anticipated local class of 2020 will have really put a hurting on all 3 local schools - Illinois being the 3rd 

 

[Pistol]

9 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:

This is true. My post sounded much more negative than intended. If I’m Kasubke and Bradford I’m probably making the same choices. Like you said - these are definitely “nice to get” recruits and not completely devastating when you don’t land them. Bradford would have Diarra and Bell in front of him for 3 years. Obviously he’s more highly rated than either of them but I think Coach Ford is very high on both of them. 

I’m alright with SLU missing on both of these guys. I‘m just always in the camp of getting the local guys, but 3Star has pretty much laid out why it’s becoming more difficult to recruit the locals for this class.

if Bradford goes to Kstate and Love goes to UNC, the highly anticipated local class of 2020 will have really put a hurting on all 3 local schools - Illinois being the 3rd 

3star's point about "bridge recruits" is an important one. These are the guys we never seem to land, which makes sustaining success both in Tournament appearances and consecutive classes of local recruits really difficult. So if we miss out on Bradford, too, we're left with the next tier of local recruits.

There are plenty of D-I players yet but if we take chances on guys who don't pan out, we're doing ourselves no favors with disgruntled local kids riding the bench. And if we let offers go stale, or don't offer, or miss a late bloomer, we risk more "could've had so and so" narratives. We're getting close to the lose-lose tier of higher risk players. Like I said before, I'm still not sure about guys like Branson, Daughtery, or Clark - I just need to see more from each before saying one way or another. One of these guys or someone else entirely could be the next Mark Smith, who goes into his senior year mostly overlooked and emerges a high-major spring recruit. My guess is we're pretty much looking outside STL, though, to build a more surefire "bridge" class for 2020.

It could very well be an empty year for SLU, Mizzou, and Illinois locally. SEMO just got a commitment from Phillip Russell (Vashon), though, and they're every bit as local as Illinois or Mizzou.

[Bills_06]

48 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:

Bradford isn’t coming to SLU. He’s not even sure he’s going to take an official to SLU. 

 

While I don't think we are going to get him anymore either, wasn't he just on campus over the summer?  I just don't consider "official" visits from local kids a big deal since they usually have visited several times anyways so that is more how I take the unsure if he will take an official here.