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brianstl

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far be it for me to defend hardball, but i would assume that hardball is going to ask you who else had offered mr alexander a scholarship?

the couple of links that anyone came up with only says that wisconsin was "tracking" him and lists no other teams. excuse me if i am not overly impressed with his freshmen juco stats.

i like the fact that a few note his size and consider him a national juco recruit, but there are no national schools listed with those quotes. i like the fact that a couple of years ago he was a first team all state player in a nice state like michigan.

pardon me if i understand the naysayers not being impressed. i am thrilled we apparently have a target somewhat verballed, i am thrilled with the physical dimensions being quoted especially since he apparently has gained some serious muscle in the last two seasons. but still there is a lot of unknown associated with this player at this time. far too much to be crowing about.

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I just posted on another thread where I congratulated the staff. Jamal "sounds" like a good committment. I am interested in who else offered the young man? I do wonder what this says about our current fours on the roster but at least there will be competition for the minutes and that is always good. So the answer to your question is yes I do feel better we got a committment. Don't you? But I also expect more. SLU basketball can be a great place to play we just need our staff to do a better job convincing players of that.

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Understood Roy. Somebody gave the impression on this board that he was visiting Wisconsin the week after visiting us, that would make me think the Badgers had a little more than just a passing interest in him. I know nothing about this kid and honestly I am too lazy to read the links. I am not jumping for joy, but if people (not saying you) are going to constantly call Soderberg out for not landing recruits then people need to at least applaud him when he finally does get a recruit to verbal with us. One thing I can say about JUCO stats is that they often times do not look impressive in the least bit. The top JUCOs will have up to nine or ten guys who will end up signing with Division I programs, so minutes are spread out and guys usually dont put up gaudy individual stats. I just want a pf who has the body and athleticism to compete at a high level.

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cajun said,

" just want a pf who has the body and athleticism to compete at a high level."

well if pictures and physical dimensions are true, that appears to be the case.

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I have to admit that I am surprised at this verbal. I do not recall ever seeing the name on here before. I was under the impression that the four was not a sore spot just right now .. my thinking that with three new fours in camp, it would take some time to determine if a stop gap was needed. Maybe I am off and the plan is to put this kid at a more conventional three-spot. I am neither here not there when it comes to knowing if this kid will or won't be good. Only time tells for most of that.

I am somewhat relieved that we actually do have an early verbal. I am surprised that we went the JUCO route once again ... knowing what problems we have had in the past most recently with Brandon Morris. Maybe getting this kid now means we can get more involved in massaging the transcript and helping with class selections so that he does get what's needed to come in to the SLU atmosphere. The fact that he was all state from Michigan seems to bode better than some but I have to admit that there wasn't a lot of recognizable names on that all state list as far as I was concerned.

Overall I think its some good news and relieves some of the tension that we all tend to feel this time of year.

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>I was under

>the impression that the four was not a sore spot just right

>now .. my thinking that with three new fours in camp, it

>would take some time to determine if a stop gap was needed.

>Maybe I am off and the plan is to put this kid at a more

>conventional three-spot.

College frontcourts are dominated by power forwards now, Taj. It's pretty rare these days for a team to carry two true centers. Xavier doesn't even have one. There just aren't many good centers to go around.

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i agree with 3 star. this signals that after this ian year, the billikens will likely be a 2 pf frontcourt with no center for a couple of years at least.

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3 star and Brianstl both gave valid excuses/reasons for not landing the kids we lost to KSU, GA, and Creighton. Following your logic though, why pursue these players beyond an initial contact or two? It's like a real estate agent wasting their time selling an east side home to someone who says they want to buy on the west side.

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It also sends a message to Mr. Brandenburg that we are not going to bring in a center in the class ahead of him + Alexander will be a senior when Brandenburg is a freshman. Sounds like Alexander is a 3/4, much like Obi, but slightly smaller with more athleticism (plays bigger than his size). Who is the 3 that we are recruiting in 2008? Swopeshire? Same message goes to him. Luke & Danny will be gone, only Alexander (senior) and DM (junior) at his spot.

I think it's a good pickup

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"3 star and Brianstl both gave valid excuses/reasons for not landing the kids we lost to KSU, GA, and Creighton. Following your logic though, why pursue these players beyond an initial contact or two?"

Because there are no strong point guard or big man recruits available locally. Either you go after these longshots in the fall or you sit on your hands in hopes that a late bloomer/qualifier emerges.

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