the streets

[p diddy]

i'm doing a little travelling through the south and the word on the street is that jared swopshire of fort zumwalt west may be the next player to get a scholarship offer. the eagles are currently at the peach jam in georgia. stay tuned.

bad boyz for life

[billiken_roy]

p diddy, please refresh our memory on the particulars about young mr shopshire. class, size, stats, observations on your part, etc.

[Majerus Magic]

Jared Swopshire:

6'6 170, Class of 2008

Averaged about 14 points a game, shot 48% from the field. Shot 28% from three but only took 63.

Athletic as can be though.

[billiken_roy]

and apparently very skinny (6'6" and 170 lbs)!! larry hughes is 6'5" and 190 lbs and looks starved.

[VTIME]

he's more than 170. Richard Hamilton of the Pistons was 6'7 175 when the Pistons won the title. So weight doesnt have to hold you back. Shaun Livingston entered the NBA at 6'7 170, so if you can get paid millions to play in the nba at that size you can play for SLU. swopshire is 6'7 by the way. He's taller than his teammate Elliott Berry who is 6'6. I saw them side by side at the Midwest Shootout.

[Majerus Magic]

Sorry, I was just posting what I thought was accurate information. Maybe Elliot Berry is shorter than 6'6. You know, sometimes people lie about there height.lol.

Vtime, whata you think about Waller? I also heard that Suggs might be transferring to FZW?

[pompeytir]

So the kid only shot 63 3pt shots?, in approximately 20 games. So 3 a game-that's a lot for high school. Terrible average for a high school shooter. I'm sure his coach was more than encouraging him to jack it up. He must be on the high 'upside'/athleticism.

[VTIME]

that's not a lot. Check out Dustin's totals. Especially junior year. They are developing him as a wing. The fact that he's 6'7 and can knock some down is encouraging. He becomes more of a legit threat every day. Its just something else you have to guard.

[Box and Won]

This is good, right? I seem to remember you guys being high on Swopshire in the past. Is he on the Eagles with Kramer Soderberg?

[Nate Latsch]

Jarod Swopshire and Scott Suggs look alike. They are about the same size and have similar looking afros (unless they've cut them lately). Some people call them "the twins."

Swopshire is an interesting prospect. He's had some schools on him, including Mizzou (which may or may not have offered), so he's not flying under the radar by any means. I think he's still playing with the Eagles 16s, with Suggs, Brandenburg, Soderberg and other juniors-to-be playing up with the 17s.

Swopshire may be at his best when he's motivated to show people he's not Charmin soft, which is definitely applicable at times. When he wants to, Swopshire can be a very tough matchup inside. Or, he can hang around on the perimeter and become less effective.

You could make this same complaint about several tall high school post players.

I don't know if Swopshire's perimeter skills are good enough to play the small forward spot in college. Otherwise, he's another one of those undersized power forwards who would rather be a shooting guard.

Swopshire could lead his high school team to big things this winter. Depending on which kids have transferred, Zumwalt West has a talented group with Swopshire, junior-to-be Ron Waller (who I really like) and 6-foot-9/10 sophomore-to-be Gavin Wiss (who apparently transferred away from Tyler Griffey and Lafayette). If players like Courtney Belger and Ramone Fischer stay at West, and don't transfer, the Jaguars will be tough.

(In interest of full disclosure, Fischer, a 6-4 power forward, did dunk on me twice in a pick-up game a couple months ago).

- Nate

[davidnark]

Nate - You shouldln't be hoopin with kids. You will get hurt. I can hook you up in an informal church league with a bunch of 30-somethings like myself who are definitely on the downswing.

[VTIME]

i keep hearing that the 6'5 fischer is gone to mccluer north, but keith davis from lutheran north is in to replace him. belger is undecided. with irons gone they are in the conversation for state.

C 6'9 Wiss

PF 6'4 Davis

SF 6'7 Swopshire

SG 6'3 Waller

PG 6'0 Belger

[slufanskip]

or you can go with the 40 somethings like Roy and I who have already hit rock bottom.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman and loyal subject of Billsboy and all ex D1 players and coaches everywhere. You da man Billsboy

[3star_recruit]

Swopshire and his Zumwalt teammate, 6'3 PG Ron Waller, play on the Eagles 16s. The Eagles 16s have been playing at the Nike Peach Jam the last couple of days. For this event, Suggs and Brandenburg are also playing on the 16s. Swopshire is leading the squad in scoring through two games.

http://www.aroundmedia.com/stats/peachjam1...0001000158.html

Swopshire is an interesting player. He's got Chris Sloan level athleticism and skill level but has a longer wingspan than Sloan. He's also got quick hands on defense like Chris. VTime is right about his size -- Swopshire is 6'7 and probably about 180 lb now. He's grown about 4 inches in a little over 18 months and is still getting comfortable with his body. We could be looking at a long 6'8 kid who handles the ball like a 2 guard in another 12 months.

Earlier this year I described Swopshire as a skinny jump shooter who doesn't shoot it that well which unfortunately is still true. But 6'8 (potentially) small forwards with good athleticism don't grow on trees. And he's got another 2 years to improve the consistency on his jumper.

[Taj79]

As has been pointed out many times, I no longer live in the St. Louis area and am out-of-touch with local comings and goings (expcept Floyd who I don't think one person on the planet now doesn't know about!). But what is it with all these kids "transferring" from high school to high school? Is it that all these kids and their families are up and moving and relocating? Around here, outside of the local county vo-tech shcool, which has no real sports program outside of boy's wrestling (they have them, they're just not good) and the local Catholic High School (better girsl teams than boys teams) that is the only way to go to a different school ... physically moving. Sure there are boundary exemptions and my kids could have went to a different school because their mother teaches at it, and up until recently, day care needs ahd some pull (for the elementary schools only). But you guys are talking about what seems to be some well-known kids changing school like its changing your wardrobe. Is it that easy? Whats the skinny?

[slu72]

Taj Mahal '79 where you been, son? This transferring crap's been going on for quite some time now in HS sports. If a kid and his parents think his fame will grow at another school, it's time to call Century 21 and Broy types because they're moving. I know a guy here whose kid is a pretty good QB prospect. Problem is he was playing for a lousy program. After his sophomore year, they pull up stakes and move 15 miles up the road to one of the best FB programs in the South. There's been countless others who've done the same. Loyalty to a high school's a thing of the past.

[Taj79]

... 72 .. and the question remains, around these here parts the only to transfer is to physically move .. unless you're so good that the parents enroll you in one of the big Catholic or independent schools like Boy's Latin, Calvert Hall, Loyola, Towson Cathlic and so on. The only way tou move from public school to pubic school is physically moving ... picking up stakes and reestablishing a permanent address by the physical move.

Around here, they caught on to post office boxes as permanent address and stopped that. They pulled out all the boundary exemption cases ...unless you were going from a "desirable" high school to a "lower achieving" one. Of course, we are not inner city as some of the Baltimore schools of course are so we don't really see kids "living with their grandparents" and claiming one, two or three mailing addresses. But last I checked, Fort Zumwalt West and McCluer North and others all had district boundaries. I understand the moving, I am asking if there is something else available in Missouri that allows this to happen because Vee and others have kids gong all over the place ala college.

If I were moving, it takes some time and planning and selling my house and all that jazz. It just sounds so commonplace in discussion on here that I'm asking what, if anything, is different.

Berwick (Pa.) football is like that .... with the Berwick Nuclear Plant, engineers were getting transferred in and out like crazy. It was always amazing that the ones transferred in just happen to come with 6'6". 380 pound lineman sons and the ones going out just had their last high school male graduate. That I know about.

[slufanskip]

but if you are an inner city mom or dad and your kid is pretty good .... maybe you rent or you have a grandma or another relative that lives in the district that will enable your son or daughter to have a better chance to get a college scholarship, what woulf you do? If it was me ... either we'd move or he'd go live with grandma.

Whatever it takes.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman and loyal subject of Billsboy and all ex D1 players and coaches everywhere. You da man Billsboy

[Taj79]

... "whatever it takes" seems to be a philosophy that we beat Vtime up about and to apply that logic in either direction selectively does not seem right. I can specualte with the best of them as to "WWJD" if it were in my case but until we all live in that shoe, its all speculation just the same.

Inner city is inner city ... Carmelo Anthony was shipped out of Baltimore in order to play basketball and more likely stay alive. The entourage here had gotten so out of hand that even when he came back after his first year of pro ball, he was seen hanging with the guys in the old hood. They were video taping stuff and he probably thought nothing of it. Later, these video tapes were turned into "Stop Snitching" videos and hand delivered throughout Baltimore by the drug lords using Carmelo's image from these hanging out instances as visible proof that a star like Carmelo endorsed not snitching. I'll give the kid credit, he's trying his darnedest to rework that misstep here in Baltimore.

Apples dont' fall far from trees, or so I'm told and if one inner city parent lives inner city, it is more than likely grandma does as well. But Fort Zumwalt is whitebread St. Charles county, is it not? I owuld guess that homes out there go for more than inner city brownstones. Inner city ot inner city is one thing .. my confusion is how all these kids are moving pretty much anywhere they want out there.

[slufanskip]

there is a difference when you are talking about a basketball team and the future of your kid ... especially when moving or having him live with grandma is within the rules.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman and loyal subject of Billsboy and all ex D1 players and coaches everywhere. You da man Billsboy

[VTIME]

>Sorry, I was just posting what I thought was accurate

>information. Maybe Elliot Berry is shorter than 6'6. You

>know, sometimes people lie about there height.lol.

>Vtime, whata you think about Waller? I also heard that Suggs

>might be transferring to FZW?

I really like Waller. I knew he could shoot, but he's very powerfully built and gets to the whole a lot better than I thought. I dont think he's a pg, simply for the fact that I think he needs to shed some weight/speed to be the best player he can be from the pg position. Not sure what kind of vertical he has, but he knows how to get his shot off. Liddell isnt the fastest guy in the world, so I'm not gonna say his lack of speed will keep him from excelling. He reminds me of former Webster Groves guard Daron Harris.

[Taj79]

.. and trust me, if it came down to the safety of my family or my child and it involved moving out of a particular area or even home-schooling the kid to keep them out of such an environment, I'd do all that I could do to make that happen. If that's the motivator, then I'm all for it. But to move a kid to grandma's because the great Lloyd Tireirons is the coach at Vandy High School clouds the issue greatly, don't you think?

Whether or not something is "within the rules" does not make the end justified in my book. I would think that in high school, you wouldn't want to go to a team, oh like Vandy High, where the aplomb of the individual is restricted to benefit the good of the team to the point that the individual's worth is not that evident. If a kid is good, he'll be good, don't you think? Besides, aren't all the scouts and coaches going through the great AAU circuit now so much so that high school is diminished to say the least? I digress ..

Again, the question is how come it seems that so many kids can transfer so easily in and around the st. Louis area.

[VTIME]

Being good on a bad team can drown you. Ask Lance Stemler. Kids on bad teams usually dont get picked for AAU teams either. There are some exceptions like a Kenny Harris, but excluding the freshman level, the AAU teams pretty much have their squad in my mind before the tryouts. If Jonathan Griffin or Cameron Murkey attended more high profile schools they would've been division 1. So would Melvin Dale, Anthony Jones, JB Jones, and Arthur Sargent. If Keon Griffin played for Lafayette or Desmet he would have 3 division 1 offers right now.

[billiken_roy]

jb jones could have went to a couple of missouri valley schools. he chose to go where he knew he could play immediately he could have been division one. arthur sargent didnt qualify plus got in trouble a couple of times before he graduated.

btw, belleville west advanced to the state tourney in jones' senior season so not sure how he and sargent could have been more "high profile".

[Taj79]

Some interesting points you've voiced here ....

I think in the end, going to a Big 10 school worked out well for Lance Stemler. In that regard, I don't see how Stemler "drowned." Now, if you are saying that he got a two-year late start, well, I would think that it probably helped him in the long run because he's out of the Valley and into the big time with the Big 10, yes? The kid, no matter how good he was on a bad team, is making hay now. Even he did come out good on a good team, if he's not readily capable of competeing, the competition woul dhave worn him down in some way. Being good on a good team hasn't gotten the Vandy High School kids that far anyway. Six of one, half a dozen of th eother. Its a crap shoot.

My second point is this in regards to the AAU statement "AAU teams pretty much have their squad in mind before the tryouts." Is that fair? Not that I know much about AAU and the fairness of all things but isn't that a little bit biased (insert other word when needed) if things are a lock? Aren't tryouts facetious and farcical at that point? Why "try out' if the decisions have already been made?

As for your listing of names and players ... once again you make wide, broad-ranging statements that are pure opinion and areno way based in any fact. That's like saying if you had gone to a high profile school, you'd be eating strawberries and cream in London instead of chasing balls on St. Louis blacktops. Is its possible? Sure .. anyhting is. Probable? Each and every one has an opinion ... shula/couda/woodda is out there to be had. They make movies about it every day.

Who are Griffin and Murkey by the way? Same thing on Dale, Sargent and the Jones boys? Remember I'm not STL savvy. Did they play St. Louis metro ball? Where did they end up?