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Because it's never too early to start obsessing... We have made a 2013 offer to Broad Run junior point guard Nigel Johnson. Johnson is a fast, fast guard who's averaging 29 a game in the AAA Virginia Northwest Region. HC and Bucknell have offered him as well; ESPN says Cornell has offered, too.
Because it's never too early to start obsessing... We have made a 2013 offer to Broad Run junior point guard Nigel Johnson. Johnson is a fast, fast guard who's averaging 29 a game in the AAA Virginia Northwest Region. HC and Bucknell have offered him as well; ESPN says Cornell has offered, too.
Per Rivals, we have made a 2013 offer to another local guard: Nick Griffin, a 6-2 junior out of Magruder, currently ranked #3 in the D.C. area by the Post. Griffin is an emerging talent; he's on the "Bubble Watch" for All-Met by the Post. Bucknell, HC, GW have also offered and Rivals says VCU has interest. If that's true, can't imagine he's not going to be a Ram. But keep in mind the kid often is recruiting the school in this instance more than the other way around. ESPN does not list VCU as having made a 2013 offer to Griffin, but then again, ESPN still doesn't have us having signed Zach Elcano.
FWIW, just found a link from December in which Griffin says he's leaning toward VCU. Here it is:
Rivals also has us making an offer to Jaylon Brown, a 5'11 PG out of Indiana. He is listed as a three star recruit. Other offers have come from Evansville, Ohio and Toledo.
If you really want to go beyond, we are interested in a 6'5 SF out of Baltimore named Kyle Doran for 2014. I lose sleep at night worrying about that 2014 recruiting class. I am sure all of you feel the same way so I felt morally obligated to share.
Posted by Haywood on Feb 22, 2012, 3:16pm
At the rate turtleguts is going, this millennium will be over before we know it!
But, all kidding aside, these offers to post class of 2012 kids look very interesting, let's hope we land some of them . . .
This is...interesting. From ESPN draft guy Chad Ford's column on the 2012 NBA draft, written on Tuesday:
Sleeper
• Lehigh's C.J. McCollum isn't a stranger to college basketball fans and NBA scouts. They've been watching him closely since his breakout freshman season at Lehigh. But, over the course of the past six weeks, with word coming that McCollum might declare for the draft, teams are taking a closer look and liking what they see.
McCollum is a 6-foot-3 scoring machine who can light it up from anywhere on the floor. He's quick with the basketball, an elite rebounder for a guard and racks up steals. The biggest question for McCollum was whether he could work his magic against the elite teams in college basketball.
In the past seasons, he has struggled. This year was an improvement. Against St. John's, Iowa State and Michigan State, McCollum got his points but didn't shoot well from the field against relentless pressure.
Still, if he does declare for the draft, he has a shot at making the second round, even the late first round, according to a handful of NBA scouts.
Check out this story from Lehigh Valley Live about JJ giving some praise to McCollum:
"In the last three weeks, probably, I've had maybe half a dozen NBA scouts or personnel calling me and asking about him," Jones said. "The thing I tell them is there's no question in my mind when he finishes his career here at Lehigh, he will go to the NBA and help some team win. He can and absolutely will play at that level when the time comes.
The question is, will that time be next season? I frankly hope so. It looks good for the PL, and it gets CJ out of our hair. In my personal opinion he is not a terribly classy player, no matter how good he is. From what I hear, Mike Muscala is a good guy. CJ, from what I've observed, is a bit of a jerk. That's irrelevant to the NBA question, though.
Posted by Bottom Line Boots on Mar 5, 2012, 10:03pm
We'd all be happy to see McCollum go, just like the other PL teams were happy to see Lump's unexpected exit. With Lump in the lineup this season we have the inside game we lacked most of the time. But this AU team gave us a better season than anyone expected. Who among us expected Hinkle to be a top scorer in the league ? Blake to be an effective 6th man, and Munoz to grow into capable point guard. In early November there was no way i expected AU to be able to strongly challenge Lehigh and Bucknell. Good coaching, tough defense, and solid team play were the best parts of this year's team.
But let's look at what we don't have. We still do not have a quick point guard. Look at the recent PL champions going back to our Mercer and Abe Badmus before him. All the PL champions had quick PGs. Is Munoz better than the PGs on Lehigh or Bucknell or Lafayette ? No. he is a step or maybe two slower than all of them, and has less offensive skills than all three- mainly because he cannot break down a defender. Not quick enough to penetrate, dish, and create, stay with a quicker opponent on defense. I do not think he could beat any of them out of a starting position if Munoz was hypothetically on their team. Has he improved and become a very good player ? Absolutely and Positively. Better passer, better shooter, and stronger physically than last year. However i am just pointing out the constant thread that runs through league champion teams. Top point guards. In the Lehigh game it was McKnight who was the key in turning that game into a romp in the second half. Danny could not stay with him. So unless we get an outstanding freshman point guard next season, then more of the same against the top teams. I guess Blake was that hoped for quick point guard when he was recruited, but we know now he does not have the point guard skills in him to be a D-1 pg.
I also was very disappointed in Hinkle's output in the big games that ended the season. Bucknell -3 points. Lehigh 15 points, but maybe the last 6 when we were down 20. With Tony playing mostly like the freshman Tony (18 minutes in the Lehigh game) and not playing with discipline- then Hinkle had to step up and give us 22 points. A key to 2013 will be his maturation. We know it is there as we saw it in the Lehigh game at Bender.
I also want to comment on the end of the first half of the Lehigh game. We are down 4 with 40 seconds with the ball and JJ calls timeout. Wouldn't you expect to use up 30 seconds on the shot clock and then take a shot ? So Blake shoots a difficult shot with 20 seconds left and misses. Lehigh calls time, and CJ has the ball. We have a foul to give ! No foul with 10 seconds to make them reset and in bound. How stupid ! CJ dances with the ball- gets a shot, misses but a rebound and tip in at the buzzer to make it +6 with momentum. What were our coaches thinking? Use the foul.
Check out this story from Lehigh Valley Live about JJ giving some praise to McCollum:
"In the last three weeks, probably, I've had maybe half a dozen NBA scouts or personnel calling me and asking about him," Jones said. "The thing I tell them is there's no question in my mind when he finishes his career here at Lehigh, he will go to the NBA and help some team win. He can and absolutely will play at that level when the time comes.
The question is, will that time be next season? I frankly hope so. It looks good for the PL, and it gets CJ out of our hair. In my personal opinion he is not a terribly classy player, no matter how good he is. From what I hear, Mike Muscala is a good guy. CJ, from what I've observed, is a bit of a jerk. That's irrelevant to the NBA question, though.
I for one was not happy to see Lumpkins go. He was CA guy and I root for all of the guys from CA. I was really sad that Tony was not able to complete his season.
According to Joe Davis of Scoutsfocus, class of 2013 power forward Marcus Bryan of Ravenscroft High School (where '12 PG Madison Jones goes) lists offers from AU, Gardner Webb, Army and UNCA. His favorite school is Tennessee and dream school is N.C. State (doubt he'll get offers from either program). On a side note, he and Madison will be playing at the ESPN RISE NHSI starting next Thursday. The tournament features some of the best high school teams in the country and it's very impressive that they got invited. I wonder if JJ will be there since the tournament is in Maryland and we have multiple targets in it.
Per Recruit Scoop, we are interested (don't know if we've offered) in 2013 point guard Nick Coppola from Benedictine Prep in Richmond. Supposedly good ballhandler. Looks like VCU had a brief interest. Now he is listing William & Mary, Army, Navy, GW, Cornell, Radford, UNC Greensboro and us.
Posted by Bottom Line Boots on Mar 22, 2012, 8:27pm
Not exactly elite basketball programs in the recent past.
I'd say Cornell has been very solid in the recent past, and any A10 or CAA school is a notch ahead of us in the recruiting game, so if they're getting looks there but not from the top programs it's a good sign for us, because that's the kind of player who can develop and do quite well in the PL.
