Adam Knollmeyer Signs

[kshoe]

after next season we have only one PF on the team, Obi. We need a PF. There are no hidden meanings as almost every team needs more than one player at any given position.

Gee, I can't imagine a coach ever promising a recruit potential playing time.

I don't get your "recruiting over" comment at all. DM was brought in as a guard. Stemmler would potentially be a SF/PF.

[jjray]

Great news! He just might beat out one of JJ or Obi for playing time next season. But it really helps us for the years thereafter. Going forward, our only bigs were Bryce and Obi. Now we'll have 3 experienced bigs for 2007-2008 to go along with whoever we land in the next recruiting class (Brandenburg from DeSmet? Powell from Vashon?).

[Sheltiedave]

If I were Luke, grad school for free at SLU looks pretty attractive.

Adam is listed at 6'8" and 230. Nate, Three Star, or others that have seen him play- does he have solid footwork and decent low post moves, or is he going to need a redshirt year?

[BradFan]

I would think Walls is a good candidate as the mysterious third player. No particular inside information, but I can't imagine the staff isn't still hot on his trail.

Funny how the wind blew again, this time favorably, and my boy UB is a darn genius!! Just like watching the shifting CW in Washington DC.

I think Luke is getting trashed too much. We forget that the team went on a pretty good run when Luke moved into the starting rotation, often in overmatched situations. He is a heady ballplayer who may have some offensive limitations, but still has two years to go and I expect will be a big contributor. And as stated above, JJ better get his butt in gear or it will stay firmly entrenched on the pines. He still has an opportunity to make a difference. A summer of hard work is the key.

Congrats to Brad and staff on their hard work. LS would really be nice. And he should think long and hard about the potential for him and the team if he made the commitment. Could be two really great years to bring the West Pine era to a close!

[bauman]

I don't see LM being "trashed", but he better re-learn the shot he must have had in high school. I saw him as a Scott H. type of shooter when he was signed, but, at best, he has been an average shooter with little ability to get a shot off unless he is wide open.

[cheeseman]

I don't get it - you make an honest appraisal of a kid's situation and somebody thinks you are trashing the kid. When you point out a kid's limitations you are not trashing him but being objective. If you think LM's level of play is what this team needs then I am sorry you are are a minimalist. For this team to get better, we have to find players who can out perform our average players and LM is one of them. The truth is that if we had had a PF last year, LM would have seen very little playing time. He is overmatched as a PF and he can not shoot consistently enough or get free enough to be a SF. I applaud the kid for doing well in school and providing himself with options that do not require him to sit on the bench his senior year. As far as grad school is concerned, he has 5 years to play 4 which won't be enough to finish a grad program. He can be given some kind of an assistance package to go to grad school and not have to take up a schollie or go through the hassle of playing ball. Now if he wants to stay then by all means he should and enjoy it anyway he can but if he is still playing big minutes next year and the year after, we have not gotten better and that is bad news.

[slufanskip]

What the hell ... who said he was going to step right in and start. UB has kept his word to DM ... I love Luke, but I hope he is not our starting 3. I hope Stemler is ... if not him, I hope DB shows the ability to start. I like Luke off the bench.

Of course we are recruiting people where we have current players. 13 schollarships and 5 positions. All teams have more than 1 player per position. I figured you knew ... but it doesn't seem you did.

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[slufanskip]

I wouldn't count on LM not being here his Sr season and not playing a valuable role for the Bills. Luke is tough, smart, takes the ball to hole and attacks the offensive glass.

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[tseugnekillib]

Mojo,

I think it means SLU is building some long-term post depth. As of today, going into next season the depth for the two post positions looks like this:

IV (4yr), JJ (4yr)

BH (3yr),

OI (1yr), AK (1yr)

Perhaps the mystery fourth scholarship this Spring goes to a freshman (post player) redshirt prospect or to a transfer who would come in as a junior.

Until Obie does it on the floor....we really won't known if he is physically sound or not.

Carry five or six post-players means you have seven or eight perimater players. Seems like a fair mix to me.

[tseugnekillib]

Not sure who it is, but it is not Walls.

[Billikan]

With respect, I do not think that you are properly analyzing what makes a winning team. Luke was playing ridiculously out of positin at the 4 and yet his grit and determination allowed him to compete and the team often played best when he was in the lineup. His defensive tenacity, his hustle and his never say die dive on the floor attitude are exactly what the doctor ordered for a good team player. He is a smart player and although he shot the ball at a lower percentage than we expected, if he is freed up from having to wrestle the bulls under the basket like he did this year I can see him coming on as a shooter as well. I have said since he got here that I think he is just like Chris Sloan and that is a good thing. Just remember that this is a TEAM game and LM is a team player.

[TheGoat]

what makes you say that guest?

[Sheltiedave]

On the offensive side, we were ONLY effective for extended periods of time when Luke was in the game. No one else who played PF could easily, cut, receive a pass, fake a pass, dribble, and quickly swing the ball to the appropriate man with correct spacing.

While we may not be improving at the PF slot, until someone steps up at PF to provide a better offensive continuity than Luke, then Luke will be seeing plenty of PT.

I still hope JJ can get his head screwed on straight and garners the 20 mpg+ his physical skills would dictate. We HAVE to see rebounds, a 5 ppg increase, and a greatly increased physical dimension out of our PF slot to hit the top four in conference play this year.

[jgcurtin]

I agree with you, Luke's definitely a smart,tough team player, and I think his defense has greatly improved over the past 2 years. I believe he'll still get plenty of PT in UBs system.

[Billikan]

I went on the internet and tried to find as much as I could about AK and it was very interesting.

1. His coach recently referred to the fact that he is 6'9" and 250 pounds in one article!

2. When he verballed to Missouri there were a lot of gurus around the country saying very nice things about him.

3. None of the gurus seem to understand that he played for Linn this year, not Jeff City Helias.

4. He moved back to Linn after his junior year at Helias because his family's house burned down!

5. It appears that, in terms of national rankings, he is by far the highest ranked high school big man in the state of Missouri.

6. He is one of the highest ranked big men that was qualified and still unsigned in the entire country.

7. It sounds like he is a pretty tough hombre. practice next year should be a war inside!

[cheeseman]

I have no interest in seeing LM not prosper but to think his little engine that could or sometimes couldn't will provide this team with what it has been missing the past 2 years - you are not being realistic. No one questions his grit but he has not shown a good shooting touch, an ability to create his own shot, and a capacity to rebound against bigger players. Those of you who want to compare him to Chris Sloan are missing the point that Chris was 6'7" and weighed more than LM does. You also seem to forget that when LM played against a bigger and stronger man - you saw him get beat repeatedly not because he wasn't trying but that he was simply overmatched. How many times did you see Brad have to go to a VN and JJ tandem just put a body on the man since LM could not stay with him? If LM can do what AD did for his shot this year than maybe LM can play some 3 but his shot has a lot of developing to do for that to happen. We have been crying for a PF body and a consistent shot from the outside for 2 years - now we just might have them and all I hear is staying with what we had before. This makes no sense to me.

[slufanskip]

Who said they thought LM was the answer to what we were missing. You hinted that LM should just skip his Sr season. We said don't discount him he is not a star ... but he ... kind of like AD brings intangible things to the table. I also think he is the type kid that will work hard and improve.

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[HenryB]

http://images.google.com/images?q=adam+knollmeyer&hl=en

[Billikan]

LM was not recruited to be a power forward! The fact that he played it and played it well at times is a tribute to his grit and determination. You seem to forget the first game against Xavier where he was matched up against Dolmann and he outplayed him badly even though Dolmann is much bigger. Later in the year he had trouble against the 6'8 235 pound guys which is understandable. If JJ would ever live up to his potential Luke would never had needed toplay against those guys. Every good team needs team players who hustle. Luke is just that. Why rip the young man? He still has two years left. By the way he may be the best guy we have on the break other than Tommie in terms of taking the ball to the basket and making good decisions. he has two years left--let's not write him off!

[Basketbill]

Is it Reggie Larry? Isn't he the one who has a visit scheduled in the first week of may.

[slufanskip]

That is what I was wanting ... another post player. If we signed one this year we could redshirt him this year ... he could back up Bryce his freshman year then hopefully be good enough to start. We need them this year though

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[tseugnekillib]

I don't know who the 3rd mystery recruit might be, but it is not the juco Reggie Larry.

[DeSmetBilliken]

I got all excited when I heard Rammer announce the signing on his show today.

The more I think about it, this could be a really big signing a couple years down the road. For the most part, SLU doesn't get Missouri kids that aren't from the St. Louis area. We've gotten some from Washington, MO(Meyer), but we really don't get players from elsewhere in Missouri if they're available. Knollmeyer initially verballed to Mizzou and really liked the idea of playing for his home state school. This is probably a commonly held thought for a lot of players around the state of Missouri, including those in St. Louis. Hopefully, in the future, Knollmeyer can tell recruits from around here something to the effect of "Hey, I'm from Missouri, I thought going to Mizzou was what I wanted, but I love playing at SLU!"

Anyway, I'm excited about this signing. He seems like just what we need right now, as well as being a good kid.

[StLouBlue]

I agree that I don't think either JUCO of Larry or Kaba is the 3rd recruit. I think these were only fallbacks if Knollmeyer and/or Stemler didn't sign on. I think we would only be looking at them if there is a yet unannounced transfer out of our program where the coaches thought our depth would be short.

The only person that I have heard mentioned in the past would be George Fotso at Piney Woods HS in MS. He is originally from Cameroon and has only been playing basketball for 3 or 4 years. Offensively he is limited, but is supposed to be a rebounding beast as well as tough defense. The only time I have even heard a reference to him was on Rammer's show back in Feb when he was asked about recruiting. After talking about Stemler and other JUCOs he then said that SLU is also recruiting a high school 4 from the deep south--I took this to mean Fotso.

Honestly, this is just a guess. I figured since there was really no news about him being recruited by any schools, I figured he was going to prep school or JUCO. It has been a while since I looked up his stats from his senior year but I think it was around 8 pts and 10 rebounds a game. Piney Woods is a private black high school with what sounds like rigorous academic standards, so selling him on getting a good education at SLU might by the key point. I see him as similar to Obi, in that if he goes JUCO or prep he could become a big name recruit or if it doesn't pan out he could be at a small time school. I guess if SLU were offering it would be awfully tempting to jump on it. With Knollmeyer on board, if Fotso is the mystery recruit he would certainly be in line for a redshirt, unless there is an unknown transfer out happening.

[slu72]

way to go UB. Is this kid our Matt Shaw? As for LM, can't believe he will not have a spot on this team and playing time for the next two years. LM's a gamer and a true team player who brings maturity, smarts, desire. If he works on his game and his shot, I can see him at the 3 if we don't land LS.