p diddy Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 word on the street is that brian cusworth has decided to go back to harvard. bad boyz for life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Would have liked another big body down low though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Harvard was a wise choice unless he had aspirations for the NBA, which he still could have even at Harvard. If the kid can play the NBA certainly doesn't care where he was educated. A Harvard degree is worth a lot of money. Would have been a nice pickup but really never thought he'd be wearing Billiken Blue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Are you telling me that a Harvard Degree is worth more than my SLU Degree? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 If Cusworth went ahead and got a release from Harvard, then talked to Brad (Brad could not talk to him about where he might fit into our program until he got the release), then he decided to go back to Harvard, this indicates he was serious about leaving Harvard for SLU but what Brad told him made him change his mind. I suspect he was told he would be a roll player this year barring injury--10 to 15 minutes per game. He was probably also told that SLU was actively recruiting at PF for next year. I think it would be a tough call to give up a Harvard degree in exchange for 10 to 15 minutes per at SLU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 I don't have many thoughts about the Cusworth situation, but I can't buy this scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 i too have no inside information, but it makes sense to me that brad would be painfully honest and if he thought that cusworth was no better than the existing "bigs" he wouldnt promise him anything or lead him to believe more than the truth. something happened to create the U turn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUMS81 Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 I would like to think that jjray is correct in his theory as to why Cusworth has opted-out of SLU. I guess Brad had nothing to lose by having Cusworth in for a visit. Do we know if Brad offered Cusworth a scholarship? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 one thing, IF jjray's speculation is correct and brad painted a picture that he wouldnt be a major player on the team, it sure makes me wonder who brad is chasing for next year's recruiting class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 >I don't have many thoughts about the Cusworth situation, but >I can't buy this scenario. In case it wasn't obvious from my post, let me confirm this was pure speculation. Don't want to mislead anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 My guess is the Cusworth, after his conversation with Soderberg, saw that his opportuntiy for good minutes (20+) was at Harvard where he is the projected starting center. At SLU he would be in the hunt for minutes with three or four other "bigs" this season. Personally, I would have liked to have added Cusworth, not so much for this season but for 2005-2006 and 2006-2007. Even though Harvard gave Cusworth his release they never removed him from the team 2004-2005 roster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 If we don't come up with a solid PF recruit for the 2005 class, I think we may regret not having added Cusworth. I like the tools JJ brings but cringe at the thought of having to rely on him for extensive minutes. Shuold be interesting how it all plays out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 We have Husak as a freshmen, Ian as a sophomore, JJ as a sophomore, and Newborne as a junior. Why do you assume that Brad is desparate to recruit another big man? Considering that we also have Tom and Izik this season, it seems to me like we have a lot of guys battling for playing time at primarily two spots. The list of quality big men who are looking to go to college and who can contribute immediately is very slim. Developing players like Ian, Bryce, and JJ is a smart strategy. The slim number of four and five star big men who are available aren't like to consider SLU anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 david, while i admit i havent seen cusworth play since off to school at harvard, but considering the stats he put up at harvard, i actually would be surprised if he wasnt at least as good if not better than all of our current inside players except frericks (newborne not considered as he is an unknown) right now. that is why this whole scenario intrigues me. because if he was indeed led to believe he would be in a role playing backup, that would say to me that we really have something in newborne and/or that we really have something strong on the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 David, I agree with your comments. Today, SLU has a spread of post-players across its roster. This year there is a post-player in every class: Bryce=frosh, JJ and Ian=sophs, VN=Junior, TF and Izik=seniors. (The exact quality is yet to be determined.) I would like to recruit at least one post-player every year and have him redshirt his freshman year, as BH and JJ did. This process would keep your roster pretty much balanced in experience with the three veteran players, and presumably your most productive post-players, getting the bulk of the post-playing time. (However, I do think it would be very difficult to redshirt a foreign player like IV.) It would be a nice surprise to see Coach Soderberg recruit a highly regarded post-player that could help immediately. However, I don't see that happening unless the kid is local and really prefers to play close to home. I think most of SLU's post-playing recruits will be players with basic skills that need at least two years of strength development time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guest Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Schuman smells like dead fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Why do you assume that Cusworth has or is capable of making bigger strides than Ian or Bryce? I believe that someone close to the program informed us that Bryce has added a substantial amount of weight and muscle during the last year. At the awards banquet, Coach (who isn't afraid to call a spade a spade) commented that Bryce made enormous progress over the course of last season. By all accounts, the strides Ian must make are much less significant than Bryce or Cusworth. Ian already has the size, weight, and skills. He needs to work on fitness, intensity, and understanding the American game, but those are all very achievable goals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 Cusworth has already been a major contributor on a D-1 team. That alone puts him ahead of Husak and Ian. IMO you can never have too many good centers in the college game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 19, 2004 Share Posted August 19, 2004 as torch said, the difference is that cusworth has already done what we hope ian and bryce and jj get to this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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