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Recruiting - 2022


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7 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

IF Kellen commits to SLU, I'm calling it early that the Mizzou trolls online will claim that Mizzou's offer to Kellen wasn't really a committable offer / only given to him bc of his dad, MIZ wasn't really recruiting him, and that MIZ already has/will get better players with their open scholarships.  

Snelling is already setting the stage with this thread.

The claims most certainly will not be in the tongue in cheek / joke variety of "we stopped recruiting him" posts on this board.

Speaking of that tweet by Snelling, can anybody tell me who Christian Jones is and how he compares to other local kids?  I saw he committed to Mizzou and was shocked when I noticed it was a basketball recruit from East St. Louis on BBE that wasn't even on Pistol's list that we were interested in.  The only other offer he had that I saw was DePaul.  

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2 minutes ago, Bills_06 said:

Speaking of that tweet by Snelling, can anybody tell me who Christian Jones is and how he compares to other local kids?  I saw he committed to Mizzou and was shocked when I noticed it was a basketball recruit from East St. Louis on BBE that wasn't even on Pistol's list that we were interested in.  The only other offer he had that I saw was DePaul.  

The folks on the Tigerboard were not very excited about the Christian Jones commitment, that is for sure.

Time will tell who is better between him, Kramer, Thames and Hughes. I recognize they are all different types of players but they are all local guards that either we or Mizzou are/were recruiting so comparisons are natural.  

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19 minutes ago, WVBilliken said:

Question.  I see Thames has offers from three reasonably high profile schools ..... Mizzary, Georgetown, SLU.  SEMO also offered. 

Given the profile of three of his four offers, why do I not see other offers on the recruiting sites?

And why is he not rated? 

Certainly he has the pedigree, son of a D1 star.  He has size and athleticism.  He plays for a high profile AAU team.  What am a I missing?

Random guesses / thoughts:

  • Thames does not appear to be a top 100 type recruit.  Info on offers / interest among guys at his level isn't as good as the higher level guys.
  • Kelly Thames is well known locally, but had his career cut short by his knee injuries / never played in the NBA.  Mizzou was a #1 seed his freshman year in 93-94, he missed 94-95 and Mizzou failed to make the NCAAs any of his remaining years.  Kelly being his dad is not helping make him a national name.
  • Pattonville isn't historically a great basketball program that has been churning out high level talent ala Chaminade or CBC
  • COVID wiping out AAU ball last summer made it harder for guys like Kellen to expand their profile.
  • Mizzou, SLU, Georgetown and K-State are really the only reasonably high profile schools recruiting non-nationally recognized / top 100 recruits from the St. Louis area with any regularity.  Not sure why K-State isn't involved, but I think it speaks to his potential that Mizzou and Georgetown are.
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18 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

IF Kellen commits to SLU, I'm calling it early that the Mizzou trolls online will claim that Mizzou's offer to Kellen wasn't really a committable offer / only given to him bc of his dad, MIZ wasn't really recruiting him, and that MIZ already has/will get better players with their open scholarships.  

Snelling is already setting the stage with this thread.

The claims most certainly will not be in the tongue in cheek / joke variety of "we stopped recruiting him" posts on this board.

@RUBillsFan, this isn’t directed at you (because you’re exactly right), but at the Mizzou basketball fan base. I honestly couldn’t care less what Mizzou fans say. Mizzou is a bottom tier SEC team who’s fans like to pretend is a blueblood. Their new, expensive arena is perpetually empty. They’re so concerned about the optics and how other people perceive them that they quite literally judge the quality of the recruit by how many other Power 6 teams have offered the kid. If they want to pretend like Thames’ offer wasn’t committable, great, we’ll all be happy to have him. What Mizzou fans have to say about him couldn’t mean any less to me.

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Christian Jones grew 3 inches over the last year.  His numbers were pretty pedestrian during the season.  Reportedly, he played well at the Missouri team camp.  Looks like a reach to me but Cuonzo must have seen something he liked.

Like I said in another post, Thames plays like a slightly taller Davell Roby, with similar offers to match.

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I think it's obvious why he chose SLU. From the group of Mizzou, SLU, Georgetown, and K State we were clearly his best option. 

My understanding is Mizzou wanted him bad but he told Cuonzo he wanted to wait to see if any better offers came in, when one did he committed. 

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1 hour ago, RUBillsFan said:

IF Kellen commits to SLU, I'm calling it early that the Mizzou trolls online will claim that Mizzou's offer to Kellen wasn't really a committable offer / only given to him bc of his dad, MIZ wasn't really recruiting him, and that MIZ already has/will get better players with their open scholarships.  

Snelling is already setting the stage with this thread.

The claims most certainly will not be in the tongue in cheek / joke variety of "we stopped recruiting him" posts on this board.

I think I posted this before the commitment hahaha. But it was mostly to say well, we don’t have to worry about Mizzou. Mizzou certainly wanted Thames at one point, the dynamic just changed when Jones committed (but timing wise they may have offered Jones knowing Thames wasn’t in the cards for them, but once they had Jones you knew they weren't a factor for Thames).

Welcome aboard Kellen Thames!

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11 hours ago, TheChosenOne said:

That would certainly seem plausible as teammates on BBE and future Billiken teammates. I am planning on watching Thames next week and have no real take on him, what do others think of him? Will definitely make watching BBE and him next week along with Kramer more interesting!

-where?

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Outside of a few YouTube videos, I’ve never seen Thames or Kramer play. I admittedly don’t know where they are or should be ranked. 
With that noted, if the staff thinks these kids are what they want and want to lock them down before summer AAU tournaments really get going, I’m all for it. 

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On 1/22/2021 at 1:26 PM, Pistol said:

Here's his bio:

Kellen Thames - G, 6-5, 175 - Maryland Heights, MO (Pattonville) - AAU: Brad Beal Elite (Nike EYBL)
Offers: Saint Louis, Georgetown.

Interest: Missouri, Morehead State.

Latest News: Thames received an offer from SLU. (1/21/21)

Scouting Report: Thames is a growing combo guard who thrives in transition. He has a quick first step, gets to the rim through traffic, and finishes. He can also shoot the three but needs to become more consistent with it. He has nice handles and passing ability. He plays with a high motor and is aggressive at both ends. He was Pattonville's leading scorer as a sophomore and is leading them again as a junior. He is the son of former Mizzou player Kelly Thames.

It's hard to gauge interested schools when he doesn't have much of a social media presence and he doesn't play for a program that's constantly talking about who's recruiting their players. Suffice it to say that his interest list is much longer in reality. I'm just not able to confirm others at the moment.

 

On 1/22/2021 at 7:26 PM, thetorch said:

Reports out of North County are that Thames has really improved. He's grown and developed some skill in the past year. He's gone from a borderline D-1 prospect to a borderline high major prospect. Pattonville has been great this year and he's by far their top player.  He's really under the radar and would have significantly more offers and attention if he had played summer Ball.

Bump

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9 hours ago, Cowboy said:

-where?

The 2021 EYBL regular season begins next week running from July 13th thru the 19th with Peach Jam to follow, July 20th thru the 25th. In the past I have paid for the streaming service to watch games of interest (I ended up having to pay for like a month subscription to whatever site it was). I haven't looked for it yet, but plan to this weekend. If I find it I will pass it along, but in the past every game was streamed on the site including the younger age groups, so it was worth it for a hoops dork like me.

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10 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

The 2021 EYBL regular season begins next week running from July 13th thru the 19th with Peach Jam to follow, July 20th thru the 25th. In the past I have paid for the streaming service to watch games of interest (I ended up having to pay for like a month subscription to whatever site it was). I haven't looked for it yet, but plan to this weekend. If I find it I will pass it along, but in the past every game was streamed on the site including the younger age groups, so it was worth it for a hoops dork like me.

Please do. Sounds cool

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39 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

The 2021 EYBL regular season begins next week running from July 13th thru the 19th with Peach Jam to follow, July 20th thru the 25th. In the past I have paid for the streaming service to watch games of interest (I ended up having to pay for like a month subscription to whatever site it was). I haven't looked for it yet, but plan to this weekend. If I find it I will pass it along, but in the past every game was streamed on the site including the younger age groups, so it was worth it for a hoops dork like me.

-ah, thanks, would like to see what you find

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On 7/9/2021 at 9:12 AM, Reinert310 said:

Please do. Sounds cool

The Nike EYBL website has a page for Livestream that has feeds for courts 1 thru 9 without having to subscribe to anything, so I am thinking we might be in luck!

https://nikeeyb.com/livestream/

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On 7/10/2021 at 3:13 PM, TheChosenOne said:

The Nike EYBL website has a page for Livestream that has feeds for courts 1 thru 9 without having to subscribe to anything, so I am thinking we might be in luck!

https://nikeeyb.com/livestream/

The full schedule is linked here. And BBE's schedule (all times Central):
Tu, 7/13 at 1:00 vs. Drive Nation - Court 2
Wed, 7/14 at 2:30 vs. Team Melo - Court 6
Th, 7/15 at 5:30 vs. Mac Irvin Fire - Court 3/4
Fr, 7/16 at 11:30 vs. New Heights Lightning - Court 5
Sa, 7/17 at 10:00 vs. E1T1 - Court 3/4
Sa, 7/17 at 5:30 vs. NJ Scholars - Court 5
Su, 7/18 at 2:30 vs. Team Why Not - Court 3/4

A few of these other teams have SLU recruits on them so there's some added interest there. Nick Smith is back for BBE, so Kramer and Thames might not see quite the minutes they've had in recent appearances. He's a borderline 5-star guy and had Kentucky and everybody else watching him this weekend.

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On 7/8/2021 at 9:06 AM, brianstl said:

This is more directed at recruiting in general than 22 specifically, but it is interesting to watch what is going with the MPJ (Michael Porter Jr. Elite) AAU program.  They appear to have quickly established themselves as a player and I only expect them to grow.  Puma appears to be committed to grass roots through their signed players and MPJ seems to be operated really well so far.  I really can't think of another AAU program that is doing a better job of promoting it's players out there on social media.  It isn't just the the 16U and 17U kids, either.  They are out there effectively hyping up the kids in their program that are class of 2026.

Hats off to @seanwest and the others involved.

Thank you. Social media is a major influence and our traffic allows colleges to see the players more. The program was formed in March so this spring/summer has been a lot of learning on the fly, but we're headed in the right direction. In the next year or two we plan to be the best AAU program in the Midwest. Developing talent, identifying talent, making a positive influence on the youth. I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised at how far we take this!

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5 minutes ago, seanwest said:

Thank you. Social media is a major influence and our traffic allows colleges to see the players more. The program was formed in March so this spring/summer has been a lot of learning on the fly, but we're headed in the right direction. In the next year or two we plan to be the best AAU program in the Midwest. Developing talent, identifying talent, making a positive influence on the youth. I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised at how far we take this!

Awesome! Go get em, Sean! But make sure you send all you’re best players SLU’s way. 😉

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Tyler Bilodeau - PF, 6-8, 190 - Kennewick, WA (Kamiakin) - AAU: Washington Supreme (Under Armour Association) - Twitter: @TylerBilodeau34
Offers: Saint Louis, Boise State.

Interest: Stanford, Utah, Washington State, Colorado State, Loyola-Chicago, Drake, Lafayette, South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe, UC-Davis, Montana, Montana State, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Idaho State, Liberty, Seattle.

Latest News: Bilodeau received an offer from SLU. (7/12/21)

Scouting Report: Bilodeau is a stretch four who runs the floor like a guard. He can shoot it from beyond the three-point line, beat defenders off the dribble, and is effective with his back to the basket. He has great hands and good length, and rebounds well at both ends. He is the son of former NHL first-round draft pick Brent Bilodeau and WNBA player Cass Bauer, and his cousin is 2021 NFL first round draft pick Payton Turner.

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