Hoops BBall Recruiting (2006-7)

While some of past history would back this statement, I don't think it's fair to say this so definitively. After all Ole Miss was a slow down school, with slow down personnel, and as far as I can remember about how Cincy played, it wasn't exactly a UAB style team that scored in the 70s and 80s... When Brady didn't have Lloreda or another obvious first post option, he actually had his guys running a little bit (the year before last for example). Remember also that you play to your personnel. Big Baby who necessitates a halfcourt game is gone after this year, and assuming Magnum Rolle doesn't have a break out year, if and when Bell comes here, he's got Rolle and Johnson (who plays swing), two lean running big men, inside with a bunch of wings and guards. Not a slow down team if you've got Tas', Mason, Martin, Minor, etc. as your scoring options. Add to this, Anthony Randolph is more of a swing forward and DJ Wright is an outside bomber, and only Adams or Koshwal would be your "true bigs". So, I don't see this as pure post kind of team in a year or two.

There are legitimate horses to play an uptempo game, and Bell would have plenty of options to pass to. I agree he seemed complementary of the other schools, so who knows what he's thinking. At this point, we've also got Tommy Mason-Griffin committed for 2009, when Tack has graduated, so that may be another item Bell's considering...

:geauxtige :bball: :champs: LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. PACK THE PMAC.

 

Mike S. from tigerbait.com is saying that we have pulled the offer from Keegan Bell. He also says that we are going after 3 big men. He notes that Adams and Koshwal have some serious interest in LSU. Anthony Randolph shouldn't be too far a shot, either. But pulling Keegan's offer was not only a waste of 2 weeks, but it put down Jai Lucas's interest in us. And adding 3 big men might lower Monroe's interest in us.

 

It seems Koshwal trimmed his list to 3 schools, excluding LSU, though.

 

Yeah, I saw that too... Interesting year certainly. We were on SEVERAL more primetime candidates' lists, so you say, LSU is getting more national looks. But, it's been hard to close and that's frustrating.

We have Anthony Randolph and Martavius Adams who both have us among 2 others left to visit. And we have DJ Wright committed so that could be your three signees there. That's a wing shooter (Wright), classic low post guy (Adams) and an athletic slashing forward (Randolph).

If what is said about Bell is true, it's a little annoying, b/c as you said Jai has dropped us down a notch, but my guess is that the staff was beginning to get the sense that Jai was cooling off some time ago and that's when they pursued Bell. Who knows.

But, let's remember that we have Tack two more years, and we have Voogd for three more years, and then we have a PG coming in 2009. When you look at our roster, we do need bigs for the future when Chris Johnson and Rolle are our only bigs. While I understand that Greg Monroe might view some of these guys as competition, I don't think he'll have a problem competing. And, as Brady has shown again and again, if you have two effective and complementary big guys in the paint, it makes both of them look that much better.

:geauxtige :bball: :champs: LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. PACK THE PMAC.

 

Rivals reports late yesterday that Keegan Bell verbaled with Vanderbilt. Not entirely surprising given it was his last visit and he seemed to praise the campus.

What is surprising is if he wants to score a lot of points, not sure Vandy's the system (I may be wrong, but LSU actually averaged more than Vandy last year), and their personnel is not a run and gun personnel.

In adding to my last post, forgot to mention Desmond Hendrix again in that mix--so we have Randolph, Adams and Hendrix--so, sure enough, it's big guys on the target list and some good ones.

:geauxtige :bball: :champs: LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. SIX NBA LOTTERY PICKS.

 

Might as well add Tracy Smith to that list, no?

 

Not too many big names on that list (What is Bruce Weber going to do long term at Illinois), and he's a NR player, so I don't know what to think about this pickup.

I'll be positive for a change.

 

Maybe he was not ranked, because he is coming from a junior college. Was he ranked coming out of high school??:geauxtige

 

Well, wow! I don't know if Deek is being sarcastic or not. Another commit, regardless, is a nice thing. Never seen this kid, but If he's another JUCO kid like Lloreda (in playing ability not mindset), I'll be happy. If he truly got offered from Illinois, Ok State, Purdue, etc. that's all you got to say for me. For me the rankings is less important than what schools were on these kids. Let's remember DJ Wright was offered by Pitt, Syracuse among others. So both of our kids got offers from some solid basketball schools.

We have to wait until this season is over to see if Hendrix lands on a JUCO A-American team. As I said, however, you get a 6'10" 260 kid (which is a NBA body already), and you add not only girth, but height to our team. If we land an athletic Randolph to this mix, we have a very solid class of complementary players. I'm assuming that Adams is thinking twice after this commit, although he may not necessarily be too bad off committing since Hendrix only has two years of eligibility...

So, a commit from Canada and another from IL. I guess we can't seem to land from out of LA, eh?

:geauxtige :bball: :champs: LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. SIX NBA LOTTERY PICKS... AND COUNTING.