The case for recruiting Bobby Hill

[jjray]

>When speaking of players like Bobby Hill and Mike Smith the

>real question is which players has the most upside

>potential? Tough call with these two because they are

>different types of players.

I don't completely agree with that. The bottom line is which player will help the team the most in the long run (with upside potential just being a component of that question). You can't evaluate whether to offer a player in a vacuum without also comparing his skill set / potential against team needs near term / long term.

[3star_recruit]

"Until we get to that status, however, we are not going to be successful in recruiting the Stipo, Sean May, J. White, or David Lee type players that could elevate us to the next level. Players like that want a shot at the Final 4. In the meantime, we need to worry about elevating ourselves to top 50 status before we get to top 15 or 5. How do we do that?"

The players are already on the roster to elevate us to top 50 status. Polk, Lisch, Liddell, a healthy Ikeakor and Vouyoukas all have the potential to be the best players at their respective positions in the last decade. We just have to wait.

In the meantime if you're going to recruit high school tweeners to play power forward, you recruit 6'6 210 lb tweeners not 6'5 190 lb tweeners.

[billiken_roy]

i doubt hill is 6'5" tall and while he might have broad shoulders, there isnt much on those shoulders. i.e. i am betting that weight is less than 190 lbs.

[tseugnekillib]

jj, thanks to AAU ball, SLU's staff has seen Mike Smith and Bobby Hill play a dozen or more times over the past two-three years. I would assume they have a very good understanding of each player's skills and on-the-court personality. imo, the most difficult task is determining how good each player will become when they are juniors and seniors in college.

[jjray]

"vacuum" ... looking solely at one criterion (upside potential of player in question) without reference to other factors such as team needs. How many wings can a team effectively use (espcially one with such depth issues on the front line)? I'd never question Brad and his staff on the issue of doing their homework.

[kevinfootes]

I'm not saying they shouldn't bring in Hill, but you need to have big men in order to compete and be a top-50 program. The small lineup worked for Spoon because he had 4 outstanding shooters. You can't be small AND shoot less than 40% from the floor and still win games.

A lot of good schools bring in a big man project-type regularly and develop them into good players by year 3. Mu hope is that SLU will someday bring in big guys who can contribute right away. Until then, I don't think you can count on winning too many games with the samll lineup unless you drain a lot of 3s. For what it's worth I say bring on the big men.

[VTIME]

Getting Hill will help SLU get Powell. You want to have Irons warming up to SLU so you can get Powell. Having Polk and Hill on campus will do that. Plus you can redshirt Hill so he and Powell can play all four years together. You can never have too many wings! Guards are the life of college basketball and can get you to the tourney singlehandedly. Recruiting low level bigs for the purpose of getting bigger is just wrong. If you just try and close the borders in Saint Louis and keep the talent at home, SLU will be in the tourney every year. If we look at the Saint Louis talent in Div1 college basketball last year, it would've got us to the tourney. David Lee, Curtis Marshall, Mike English, Jermaine Blackburn, Dan Oppland, Darren Brooks, Travis Wallace, Lorenzo Gordon, Ed Glass, Randal Falker. All of those guys wouldnt have been eligible at SLU but if we just continue to recruit our city and state we'll be able to keep the local guys who are eligible at home. Moderate success with STL players will get more top tier STL players to stay. Thats how you build a program. Maybe they can pick up an athletic big like Muse, or maybe even Akins in the future.

[billiken_roy]

nm

[Billiken Rich]

It is October already????

[kevinfootes]

High school coaches play this game where they try to force a lesser player on you with a promise of a better one to follow. It doesn't usually work out that way. If Powell is really good and the big time programs come calling, there's a good chance he'll go to them and not SLU.

Floyd deserves the same respect as any other coach of talented players. As we've proven on here many times, he rarely has players who make an impact on big-time programs.

You can't win without good guard play, but you also can't win with an all 6'5" and under team unless you plan on shooting better than 50% from the floor all season.

[davidlee]

Where is Muse now? I lost track on him. Is he a soph somewhere?

[billiken_roy]

footsy, give v-time time. he is about to tell us the last team to go to the national championship with no players over 6'4" tall.

plus, i am sure he will point out the success that the jillikens had last year with nothing but guards on their roster.

[billiken_roy]

considering the academic success of the typical vashon graduate, i hope he is working on getting more than a welding degree at whatever juco he is at. we were lucky to get the cream of the academic crop with dwayne.

[Scoop]

Muse is starting his second year at Mineral Area College. I did thier team physicals Monday and got to talk some good hoops. Muse is looking at Illinois, Mizzou, and USC among others. He said he will sign before to long but grades are a factor.