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Fantasy Land


slu72

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Take the last two years of hs talent in the st.louis area add in this year's class and next years, what would that team look like for the 2005-06 season?

D.Lee, McKinney, Kern (if he qualified), Price, Grimes, Lidell, Polk, Lisch, Hansborough, Shaw, Meyers, the tall junior from Vashon (name escapes me)....who else? I think you'd be talking final 4.

So if the Bills could land one of the top 3 area/state recruits every year and supplement with local underrated talents like Meyers and Shaw, add in a Drejaj or two, a foreign player or two, you would have a pretty solid team.

I would hope one of Brad's objectives would be to land one of the area's top 3 every year.

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>>the tall junior from Vashon (name escapes me)<<

I suppose you are referring to Muse. In order for SLU to be in a position to take the cream of the local talent year in and year out, we have to win. Success breeds success. Larry took us to the 2nd round of the NCAA ... then left for the NBA and balloon slowly deflated. Brad is not looking for another Larry. He wants to raise the ship through a system rather than individual talent. I believe in what he is doing. We already have 2 solid recruits in the box for 2004 and stand a very good chance of landing solid talent with the other 2 available scholarships--maybe Liddell.

If we get Liddell, then SLU will have recruited a top player from both Vashon and East St. Louis in the same year! I don't ever remember that happening. Considering where Brad started at 16 months ago with the program, I'm very pleased with the progress he has made and the current position we find ourselves in--scholarships in hand with lots of talent still available for the coming year.

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You thread subject is appropriate .. because this would be "fantasy land." As jjray notes, until we win, we ain't getting these kids. Top three players in a large metro area like St. Louis are more than likely going to draw national program attention. Carrawell for Duke. White for Georgetown. Lee for Florida. Ellis for Notre Dame. The list will go on. These are schools and programs that have more of a chance to go deeper and further each year than we do. Until we as a program go deeper and further, our chances for swaying these kids will be slight.

I think setting ones sights there is a good platform, provided its balanced in reality. What if LeBron James were from Vashon, should we have wasted one iota of time on that kid? I think your sentiment and hearts in the right place, I don't think you can set such a policy carte blanche, however.

I've got to beleive that Brad and any other coach would have a war room of sorts buried in the bowles of West Pine. He has a chart with this year's team, next year's team and maybe another year. He's plotting the second and third charts by seeing who graduates or leaves or (heaven forbid) even might early entry. He is identifying his needs based on what he knows, and is ranking who his priorities are in filling his needs. Identifying the talent is probably the hardest part. Yet, he has a plan ... seems he has a system with certain types of players to fill it. He stop-gapped to me to this point what with the late hire and all, but with the Polk and Meyer signings and given who we seem to believe he's after, he looks like a pretty good recruiting strategist.

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I don't think it's unrealistic for SLU to land one of the top 3 or 4 area recruits every year. By area I would say a 150 mile radius around St.Louis. It should be the goal of UB, and am sure it is, that SLU is an attractive stay close to home option. Not every kid in this area wants to go far away. McKinney and Grimes are basically stay at homes. The reason for the local talent is it will attract more local talent to SLU. These kids all know one another from AAU and their normal HS competitions.

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An 150 mile radius would encompass Springfield and Peoria on the Illinois side. I don't believe we've ever gotten players from those areas before, but better late than never. Richard McBride, Andre Iguadola and Marcus Heard hail from Springfield while Shaun Livingston, Marcellus Sommerville, Frank Williams and Sergio McClain are Peoria kids.

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i seem to recall that ryan grant, who might have been the best recruit in the claggett class, was from central illinois. for those of you that dont remember ryan, he had a nice freshman season as a forward for the billikens, but suffered a career ending knee injury near the end of the season.

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According to a 92-93 SLU media guide, Ryan Grant 6-8 220 was from Effingham High School, Illinois. A Rich Grawer recruit.

Ryan had a serious knee injury in high school, but was still considered a top 100 prepster by the recruiting gurus at Cage Scoop magazine. (A Purdue recruit before the injury.) Also was a McDonald All-Star game nominee.

Ryan scored 24 points and had 10 boards in the opening game against Bradley his freshman season. Played in 16 games before another serious knee injury ended his freshman year.

Was on Spoon's first squad the following year, but that year also was injury marred, possibly a back injury as someone else note.

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I really loved Grant, he was a heckuva player. I remember watching the game on TV that he got hurt in. No doubt in my mind he would have rivaled Claggs for the best player on those teams and may have taken us a little farther in the tourney. Would have liked to see him lineup next to Dobbs on the frontline.

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He dated a friend of my sisters and was a high school teammate of a law school friend of mine. My sources are second and third hand, but it was my understanding that after his injury at SLU, he lost a lot of his focus and interest and his academics fell apart. I should not claim that he "flunked out" because I don't know exact details, but I have heard that he had some academic struggles post-injury.

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