Alex Tyus Update

[kshoe]

I saw this on Tigerboard.

Rivals.com

Tyus is hoping to visit KU in December

Alex Tyus, the 6-foot-8, 210-pound combo forward from Harmony Community School has established himself as one of the truly elite players in the class of 2007. Aside from the Jayhawks, the St. Louis native has been receiving a great deal of interest from the likes of Arizona Washington, Miami-FL, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas and others.

Nothing has been officially scheduled yet, but there is a good chance that Tyus will be taking a visit to Kansas during the month of December.

"It has been talked about, but nothing has been confirmed yet," said Harmony Community head coach Travis McAvene. "He and his father might take in a game over Christmas break, but I know that nothing has been set yet. Its no secret that we like Kansas a lot. I know that it would be a good fit for Alex. Kansas is right up there at the top of his list."

According to McAvene, four schools have emerged as the teams to beat for Tyus. Look for the No. 36 ranked player in the class to take some visits before making a decision about his future.

"Kansas, Illinois, Arizona and Washington are the top schools for Alex," said McAvene. "Miami-FL and UNLV are also in the mix. UNLV is responsible for sending Alex to Harmony, but they did so knowing that he was going to keep all of his options open.

"Obviously, Alex will take some official visits before he picks a school," he added. "He also plans to take some unofficial visits this summer. He will be traveling to some elite campus this summer, so he would like to visit some of the schools during that time."

After spending a little time with Coach Bill Self this past summer, McAvene indicated that there is no doubt that Kansas would be a good fit for Tyus. Not only does he like their style of play, but with his family still living in St. Louis, they would be able to make it to several games throughout the year.

"I met Coach Self this past summer and had a great conversation with him," he said. "I have a great amount of respect for what he is doing at Kansas and what he has done in the past. I think that Alex might want to play close to home in college, so Lawrence is not that far from St. Louis. He wants to be able to have his family around to see him play.

"Alex also likes the idea of playing in the Big 12," he added. "He likes playing up-tempo basketball and is a great open court player. Kansas is a good fit for Alex."

Alex Tyus Scouting Report: With a reach of 8-foot-10 and loads of athletic ability, Tyus is not really an undersized power forward, and he does have the ability to put the ball on the floor like a small forward and to guard on the perimeter. His high release jumper only extends to the free throw line, however. -Jerry Meyer

[Cowboy]

let's hope that close to home line means real close to home and we (SLU) continue the up tempo not just for him, but for the program at large

[cheeseman]

Not sure what to make of this - doesn't sound good but who knows.

[Nate Latsch]

>"UNLV is responsible for sending Alex to Harmony" ...

Hmmm.

Interesting.

- Nate

[TheGoat]

love the part about "we really like..." and "we are going to do whats best.." as if the coach was part of the frickin family.

Is it just me or are elite high school athletes becoming more and more bastardized by the day?!

[cheeseman]

Goat - funny you mentioned the coach's comments, I was thinking the same thing when I read it. He also needs a geography lesson - Lawrence is a hard 5 hours from here - so if the family only wants to go to weekend home games and pay to spend the night out and then drive back thus losing the entire weekend then I guess you could say they can easily get there to watch him play. ILL is closer than KU.

[StLouBlue]

I noticed that also. I just wonder if this high school coach is looking for an assistant coaching position and which school will step up and hire him to get Tyus. That is what I thought when I read the coaches comments.

I still think it is a good idea to keep on recruiting Tyus even at this point even though we don't rate a mention in this article. We should be able to make contacts with some coaches in Cinncinati area and maybe open a new market to us.

[slu72]

The comment "we" just jumped off the page. This guy has been his coach for what all of two months and suddenly he's part of the family? I don't get KU. Self's got like a fab 3 class this year and another one on the way as I understand it. AT gets there he's got Juniors and Soph's to beat out for playing time. The fact that we weren't even mentioned is not promising though. I think our much needed PF is going to have to be an under the radar kid like Smith at BC.

[Sheltiedave]

Guys, settle down. This guy has a known spin that favors Kansas, AND noone else was there for the interview. A few people may have even noticed the Kansas Kansas Kansas slant.

The other thing this reporter likes to do is to write ONLY about other top 10 programs Kansas is competing with over recruits, which tends to skew reality. It is akin to asking Triangle and Too who will the new SLU coach is. You may get an answer, but 2/3 of it will be spin, slant, and posing.

[slu72]

True enough, Sheltie, but he's a 16-17 year old kid. If he mumbles something like, I kind of like SLU, those who have influence are going to say "are you crazy?! SLU couldn't carry KU's jock." Now, admittedly most of us, if any, have no idea what this kid is thinking. But if you look at how top recruits are treated by the big names and how attractive those schools are to both the recruit and those around him, this would be a miracle recruit for UB.

[Taj79]

That's the part that jumped out at me as well Nate. While others are focusing on the coaching comments (which I find interesting as much as they do) I find this little tidbit more disturbing. How can a Division 1 school "be responsible" for sending any kid to a prep school? What does that responsibility entail? Are they paying for this kid to go there? While I doubt that, it would still seem to be an indictment if some interested booster for the Rebels is footing the bill ... something like that guy from Kansas did for a couple of the Rushs a few years back. I know this, the local private school here is $10K per year. That's a significant chunk of change for a middle classer like myself but I have to wonder where some of these others come up with the cash. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree and SLU did it for TL at Hargrave but I doubt it. But it raises the question just what "responsible" means and why there is such common knowledge out there on this practice (if it goes on) and the NCAA does nothing about it?

The NCAA won't let kids gt a living stipend while in school or hold down a minor job but it looks the other way on things like this and athletes taking their housing allowance in cash each month to pay for off-campus apartmetns? Seems like the trivial is regulated while the larger offenses are ignored. Giving promotional clothing is taboo but getting 24 credit hours over a summer is not investigated? I guess I just don't get it.

[TheGoat]

Yes, something is definately "rotten in denmark" with all that situation. Hate to think that we would lose out on a kid b/c we didn't hire his coach as an assistant.

[Schasz]

In this case seeing the schools on his short list, I am not sure I believe in this miracle happening for SLU.

[billiken_roy]

i've been saying it all along schasz. if the kid doesnt have the guts to tell the recruiter gurus we are on his list, that doesnt speak well for his true intentions. move along before we miss out on the next matt shaw.

[Box and Won]

Is Lucas O'Rear the next Matt Shaw? I noticed that he had a big game the other night.

[slu72]

We really don't know squat about his interest in SLU. It all came from his being at MM, a sighting of his dad at practice, and a mystery trip UB took to Cinn by car. Think a lot of this speculation was brought on by our wishful thinking. Still.....

[cheeseman]

Taj - normally when a school is said to have sent the kid to a prep school what they mean is that they arranged for the prep school to give a scholarship and they pointed the kid to a school that would be open to encouraging the kid to go to their college. What is interesting about the comment is that Kruger continues to try to worm his way back into the St. Louis area. The truth is UNLV is no better of a program than SLU from a competetion stand point.

[cheeseman]

72- more than that - OJ reported that there was more than simply a passing interest expressed by the Tyus and the family.

[billiken_roy]

i like lucas o'rear a lot. shaw was probably a more explosive leaper in high school, but imo o'rear has more ball skills than shaw had as a junior in high school. o'rear at this time is at least an mvc recruit imo and i bet siu is recruiting him.

[Taj79]

... I can see where that might happen. But is that then not illegal? Which is my main question to begin with. If what you say is true, and in this case UNLV brokered --- for lack of a better term --- a scholarship (i.e. money, tuition, room and board, etc.) for some kid isn't that something under the terms of added benefits or something like that? Isn't this what sort of happened with all sorts of guys from Myron Piggie on down.

I know it happens like this .... Milt Wagner gets a job so his kid can enroll at Memphis .... Jackson Wheeler gets hired at SLU to bring his two JUCOs with him .... Ed Manning gets hired on at Kansas and Danny and national title follow .... Quin hires Barton CC coach to work through 24 credit hours and so on. It just looks, walks and talks like a sleazy fish and from first indications appears to be really investigatable. Not that it should happen to some poor kid like Tyus .... it should be impartial across the board.

I agree with you on the Kruger thing ..... I think it would behoove BS and others to keep an eye on him ... bad enough we have to fight the border raiders (UofI) and in house pests (MU) but now to have him targeting the area just seems interesting to say the least.

And I can't believe for a minute that the coach there shouldn't be investigated also ... saying something like that just smacks of impropriety and of a deal being cut between the various parties.

[billiken_roy]

what do you all expect from the school that just named their court after their convicted cheating former coach.

[cheeseman]

Taj - sorry I did not express myself very clearly - I did not mean to say that they in anyway gave the money or in kind donations to the prep school - what I meant was that a school can develop relationships with prep schools and recommend to the kid that he look at this prep school. If the prep school is interested, they will offer the schollie. Normally they are interested because this is a way for them to get good players. This is no different then what they do in football when a school recommends a JC for kid that won't academically qualify. No need to investigate anybody since it is all legal under the rules. By the way, the kid has no obligation to the school that recommended him - can't under NCAA rules.

[bills16]

roy,

it's been reported on the siu board that the salukis are after him hard and i believe he was down for a football game this fall,