Recruiting - 2021

[WVBilliken]

Anyone know the status of Sekou Gassama injury wise?  Is SLU still interested or have they backed off due to his injury status?  Reports a year ago had Sekou as the higher level prospect of the two DeSmet bigs ..... well at least until his injury.

Beyond Sekou Gassama, is there any prospect on Pistol's 2021 recruiting list that anyone thinks is still a possibility? I've not heard any name on Pistol's list as a target anymore, but God knows, I'm not in the know.

I get the impression based on board postings that recruiting is wide open and that immediately eligible transfers and possibly grad transfers are the greater likelihood come this Spring. 

Assuming none of our three seniors return, my wish list is a versatile big, a PG or combo guard, and yes, another wing player.

 

 

 

 

[bauman]

WV, I know I'm not supposed to tell anyone except Santa (and my parents so they know what to buy for me) but I gave the Jolly Old Man an alternative list.

First choice is for everyone to return in which case we would have no openings;  or

Second choice is your list.  I like it. 

In either case, I specified that I want Travis and his staff to all return. 

Shirley I will get what I asked for since I have been a good boy (but not by choice).

[3star_recruit]

4 hours ago, WVBilliken said:

Anyone know the status of Sekou Gassama injury wise?  Is SLU still interested or have they backed off due to his injury status?  Reports a year ago had Sekou as the higher level prospect of the two DeSmet bigs ..... well at least until his injury.

Beyond Sekou Gassama, is there any prospect on Pistol's 2021 recruiting list that anyone thinks is still a possibility? I've not heard any name on Pistol's list as a target anymore, but God knows, I'm not in the know.

I get the impression based on board postings that recruiting is wide open and that immediately eligible transfers and possibly grad transfers are the greater likelihood come this Spring. 

Assuming none of our three seniors return, my wish list is a versatile big, a PG or combo guard, and yes, another wing player.

 

 

 

 

I think the Sekou Gassama ship has sailed.  De Smet still doesn't have a point guard and Gassama is an afterthought on offense.  His development has stalled since his sophomore year.

There's a 6'8 face-up four named Robert Lewis in the 2022 class that has a chance to be something.  He scored 12 points in the first quarter against De Smet last night and chipped in here and there for Cardinal Ritter throughout the rest of the game.  Hope he can build on that. Other than Tarris Reed, the local big man pickings are pretty slim.

[Compton]

16 hours ago, bauman said:

WV, I know I'm not supposed to tell anyone except Santa (and my parents so they know what to buy for me) but I gave the Jolly Old Man an alternative list.

Brett Jolly? 

[Pistol]

Is Gassama hurt? His teammate Yaya Keita is out for the season with a knee injury.

[3star_recruit]

12 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Is Gassama hurt? His teammate Yaya Keita is out for the season with a knee injury.

No, he's just ineffective.

[ACE]

20 hours ago, WVBilliken said:

Anyone know the status of Sekou Gassama injury wise?  Is SLU still interested or have they backed off due to his injury status?  Reports a year ago had Sekou as the higher level prospect of the two DeSmet bigs ..... well at least until his injury.

Beyond Sekou Gassama, is there any prospect on Pistol's 2021 recruiting list that anyone thinks is still a possibility? I've not heard any name on Pistol's list as a target anymore, but God knows, I'm not in the know.

I get the impression based on board postings that recruiting is wide open and that immediately eligible transfers and possibly grad transfers are the greater likelihood come this Spring. 

Assuming none of our three seniors return, my wish list is a versatile big, a PG or combo guard, and yes, another wing player.

 

 

 

 

Assuming all three seniors move on, my top priority is a shot blocker/rebounder. Those are two elite skills Has brings. Okoro should certainly help in a lot of areas, but having a great rim protector is so important. With the way Ford can recruit and coming off what figures to be a very strong season, I think landing a freshman the caliber of Willie Reed - without his knucklehead tendencies - would be ideal. Second priority is a proven scorer to fill the void by Perkins - we would most likely have to find this on the transfer/grad transfer route. With the third spot, get the best high school player you can find regardless of position. We still figure to be very deep next year and there will be opportunities for several talented players to take on bigger roles - Hargrove, Thatch, Jacobs, Stickland.

[Pistol]

The bottom line for 2021 appears to be that we're sitting on our hands until the spring and then making moves in the transfer/late commitment market. It was Nesbitt or bust in the fall. There's no one close to his level in the 2021 class who is interested in SLU right now, we didn't get enough quality looks at 2021 sleepers/late bloomers over the summer, we don't know which seniors (if any) will be staying, and if they all wind up leaving, we probably need to look harder at instant-impact transfers than long-term projects.

If some combination of Perkins, Goodwin, and French return and if we don't end up with other significant outgoing transfers, then we could snap up a longer-term project big like Gassama or Ola Ajiboye (Evanston HS, IL) or another who we aren't recruiting yet. Or not. We might not want to bloat the roster and see guys leave. It makes sense to wait, and in the meantime, I'm only keeping a pretty casual focus on this class and keeping a closer eye on 2022 and beyond.

[Clocktoweraccords2004]

Top 25 could help us with recruiting right?

[slufanskip]

10 minutes ago, Clocktoweraccords2004 said:

Top 25 could help us with recruiting right?

Unless Jim Crews is the coach. Then, it apparently hurts recruiting

[courtside]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

Is Gassama hurt? His teammate Yaya Keita is out for the season with a knee injury.

I thought I had previously posted this but perhaps I didn't.

DeSmet will play this season without Yaya Keita (injury), without Mac Markway (injury), and without guard Thomas Redmond (was previously being recruited by Moser at Loyola etc..) Redmond had an elite 1st Team All State soccer season, and he has chosen to sit out basketball for club soccer this year).

Gassama had 8 rebounds for DeSmet v Cardinal Ritter.

2022 SLU offer combo guard Brian Taylor had 16 for DeSmet v Cardinal Ritter. He had 23 in a win at Columbia Hickman, and 19 in a 28 point win over Lafayette.

2023 Justin Duff, son of SLU alum John Duff, had 11 for DeSmet v Cardinal Ritter.

For persepctive, preseason Cardinal Ritter was #1 ranked area small school. DeSmet was #4 large school (without the three players.) They played a 2 OT game at Ritter.

 

 

 

[WVBilliken]

6 hours ago, Pistol said:

Is Gassama hurt? His teammate Yaya Keita is out for the season with a knee injury.

My bad.  Maybe got him mixed up with his teammate. 

So why has this guy been trending down?  I keep reading DeSmet doesn't have the guards to feed him.  But an athletic guy his size, the coach would push his guards to feed the "monster" near the basket.  Just seems odd ..... but other than highlight tape, never seen the kid play.

[HoosierPal]

4 hours ago, Pistol said:

The bottom line for 2021 appears to be that we're sitting on our hands until the spring and then making moves in the transfer/late commitment market. It was Nesbitt or bust in the fall. There's no one close to his level in the 2021 class who is interested in SLU right now, we didn't get enough quality looks at 2021 sleepers/late bloomers over the summer, we don't know which seniors (if any) will be staying, and if they all wind up leaving, we probably need to look harder at instant-impact transfers than long-term projects.

I assume Kelvin Lee Jr has also fallen off the list.  He had a good game against Jackson, 23 pts and 6 boards.  6'7" shooter.

[Coach314]

1 hour ago, WVBilliken said:

My bad.  Maybe got him mixed up with his teammate. 

So why has this guy been trending down?  I keep reading DeSmet doesn't have the guards to feed him.  But an athletic guy his size, the coach would push his guards to feed the "monster" near the basket.  Just seems odd ..... but other than highlight tape, never seen the kid play.

I saw them a couple years ago.  I thought they had big potential.  But they aren't being developed there offensively.   Kind of sad really.  They just use them to rebound and set screens.

[brianstl]

Has Jameal Goines grown at all? 

[courtside]

46 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Has Jameal Goines grown at all? 

6'5. Jemeal had 21 and 12 in the game against Cardinal Ritter.

[Pistol]

16 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

I assume Kelvin Lee Jr has also fallen off the list.  He had a good game against Jackson, 23 pts and 6 boards.  6'7" shooter.

I always got the impression he was a heavily conditional offer. Others have made the comparison to Zeke Moore, and that's about as good a comp as I can come up with. He can be a nice role player at the right place. I'm not sure SLU is it, though. He'd have a tough time getting any minutes for at least a couple years.

[Pistol]

15 hours ago, Coach314 said:

I saw them a couple years ago.  I thought they had big potential.  But they aren't being developed there offensively.   Kind of sad really.  They just use them to rebound and set screens.

Yeah, and @3star_recruit has also said this about them. De Smet just doesn't get them involved in the offense other than as you point out. Both still have good long-term potential and I hope they pan out. Seems like their development has been at least somewhat stunted there, though.

[Pistol]

We've been chatting about Georgetown's recruiting recently and here's an interesting case: 5-star Aminu Mohammed just committed as a 2021 player, with the option of enrolling at the semester break being discussed. Born in Nigeria, he was in D.C. for a while before transferring to Greenwood Lab School in Springfield, MO. So Ewing is recruiting both Missouri and D.C. in this case.

[courtside]

8 minutes ago, Pistol said:

We've been chatting about Georgetown's recruiting recently and here's an interesting case: 5-star Aminu Mohammed just committed as a 2021 player, with the option of enrolling at the semester break being discussed. Born in Nigeria, he was in D.C. for a while before transferring to Greenwood Lab School in Springfield, MO. So Ewing is recruiting both Missouri and D.C. in this case.

It's a huge get for Georgetown. He's a top 20 National player. Can play the 2 or 3. 

He spent his Freshman high school season in D.C. playing for Arch Bishop Carroll. He then transferred to Greenwood in Springfield, MO because his brother played at Missouri St. He plays summers with Boo Williams. 

[kshoe]

35 minutes ago, Pistol said:

We've been chatting about Georgetown's recruiting recently and here's an interesting case: 5-star Aminu Mohammed just committed as a 2021 player, with the option of enrolling at the semester break being discussed. Born in Nigeria, he was in D.C. for a while before transferring to Greenwood Lab School in Springfield, MO. So Ewing is recruiting both Missouri and D.C. in this case.

I haven't been following 2021 recruiting all that much, but are a lot of guys enrolling early at semester break this year? 

It seems like if I was in one of those states not playing high school basketball (like Illinois) and I had the chance to graduate now, go to college for the spring semester and know that it won't count against my eligibility since nobody is losing eligibility this year, I'd consider doing it. Even if I'm not going to play much in games, I'd probably get more from practicing with a college team than I would with my high school team that isn't being allowed to play.

Granted it takes a unique circumstance with kids that can graduate early, schools with open scholarships, etc. but if ever there was a year to do this...

[Cowboy]

32 minutes ago, courtside said:

It's a huge get for Georgetown. He's a top 20 National player. Can play the 2 or 3. 

He spent his Freshman high school season in D.C. playing for Arch Bishop Carroll. He then transferred to Greenwood in Springfield, MO because his brother played at Missouri St. He plays summers with Boo Williams. 

-he is very good, a shame he is going to G'twn

5 minutes ago, kshoe said:

I haven't been following 2021 recruiting all that much, but are a lot of guys enrolling early at semester break this year? 

It seems like if I was in one of those states not playing high school basketball (like Illinois) and I had the chance to graduate now, go to college for the spring semester and know that it won't count against my eligibility since nobody is losing eligibility this year, I'd consider doing it. Even if I'm not going to play much in games, I'd probably get more from practicing with a college team than I would with my high school team that isn't being allowed to play.

Granted it takes a unique circumstance with kids that can graduate early, schools with open scholarships, etc. but if ever there was a year to do this...

-not sure I would say there a lot, but some football players do this so they can participate in spring practice, if a bball player can go and play games and not have the time count on how long their career will be, why not?

-although the spring semester of senior year of high school is quite a blast you only have once

[Pistol]

8 minutes ago, kshoe said:

I haven't been following 2021 recruiting all that much, but are a lot of guys enrolling early at semester break this year? 

It does seem to be happening more and I'm not sure if this trend is part of something longer-term or has to do with the unique nature of this COVID season.

I have an acquaintance here in Cincy whose daughter is graduating HS early and enrolling at NC State early for volleyball. I've seen other examples in other sports. So it's not just basketball.

[kshoe]

9 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-he is very good, a shame he is going to G'twn

-not sure I would say there a lot, but some football players do this so they can participate in spring practice, if a bball player can go and play games and not have the time count on how long their career will be, why not?

-although the spring semester of senior year of high school is quite a blast you only have once

Normally. I'm not sure this year's senior class has much to look forward to on the social fun front.

[BilliesBy40]

43 minutes ago, kshoe said:

Normally. I'm not sure this year's senior class has much to look forward to on the social fun front.

That's precisely why Aminu is considering early enrollment, according to his guardian.