Hoops Recruiting (2007-2008)

Unless he has grown up over the last few months I don't expect he will get along with Brady. If we are on the bubble in regards to losing schlarships because of players transferring, I wonder if it's worth the risk. If we have offered hopefully Brady knows more than we do. I wonder why USC dropped him.

 

USC dropped him because they didnt think he was going to qualify. But after summer school he has and now is back on the market for the time being.

 

id be happy for cjb to get another good player, but cant La grow a few more PGs? it must be the petrochem industry.

 

ryan francis, may his soul rest in eternal peace
chris duhon
tweety
josh white

these are simply recruiting failures.

and TGer, don't try to sell me the crap that Darrell, GT and Bo Spencer are points, because they aren't.

 

For the record, I've never been on here saying that Darrell, GT and Bo were true point guards. In fact, I've been the first on here criticizing Brady for missing out on guards in LA. I was on boards talking up Ryan Francis before USC signed him, and I would have liked an offer to Hank Thorns over Bo. So, I'll be the first to acknowledge (as is Brady) that he hasn't done a great job recruiting PGs.

But, in his defense, let's let time play itself out on Josh White and Tweety before we bash Bo and GT. Josh White signed with UNT and Bo got like 20 offers to schools ranging from LSU to Oklahoma. Tweety has done alright at Baylor, but Baylor isn't lighting the Big 12 up and going to the tournament (although, I'll agree with you that losing out on both DJ A and Tweety is a tough one to swallow for LSU).

And, I would say that Tommy Mason Griffin is a good pick up. As we all know, this year with Bo, GT, Marcus Thornton, and Terry Martin at guard, will be telling.

 

So what's the latest with Leonard Washington?

 

It's one of those funny things. While we'd love to bash Brady for not being able to land an impact PG, we have to remember it's been somewhat slim pickin's for PGs in top LA talent for some time now. Most of the top players have been wing players or forwards. The most notable PGs in most recent memory, DJ Augustin and Demond Carter, also came up in the same year. Before that, it was Duhon. You have to make a recruiting decision, do you take a gamble on a top 150 LA-bred PG (like Darrell Mitchell or Torris Bright), or do you go out of state and compete for a better option?

You saw that this year when LSU had folks like Bo Spencer and Josh White in their backyard, but instead went hard after Keegan Bell a PG out of Alabama. They ended up with Bo, and losing out on Bell, so they ended up "going with LA". In hindsight, that may not be all that bad a thing (we'll see when LSU plays Vandy).

In the 2008 class, again, you've got potentially 4 or 5 top 75-100 players in LA, all forwards (Monroe, Henry, Moore, Warren, plus one or so more). The top Louisiana (or those with LA ties) PGs seem to be Chris Bass (yes, brother of Brandon Bass), Evan Turkish and Jamal Nixon, according to ESPN. All listed as point guards from LA, but more or less not on the national, high-major recruiting radar. At some point you have to ask yourself, do you reach down for a mid-major talent, when you could sign high-major talent? I personally have never seen any of these guys play, but I don't think it's too bad an idea to give the best LA PG an offer every year even if they'd be a little bit of a "reach."

 

There was an article in "The Advocate" last week indicating that LSU is not interested in Washington.
There better and much more dependable recruits in the 08 class. Wiser to keep the scholarship available, IMO.

 

So, my initial guess was right. It's unlikely that Washington is really considering LSU, according to Rosetta at the Advocate:

http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/8313972.html

Although Scout reports that a decision was coming last Friday, no announcement has been made although it's most likely that Leonard ends up at UK or a Miss school.

Lastly, some nice tidbits in this article (which I missed somehow). First, some positive reports on how Bo Spencer's playing on campus. Second, Ben Voogd may be after all getting a schollie from Oregon (the school he probably wanted in the first place). It's the plus and minus of "summer ball". I remember reading about how Voogd impressed folks at the AAU summer camp in Vegas to get his schollie from LSU, then about how good he looked at LSU playin' pick up ball, now he's impressed folks enough in pick up games to get an offer from Oregon. I guess there are those that are just "gym rat" players. I hope Voogd can prove us all wrong, and likewise Bo Spencer does the same...

:geauxtige :bball: :champs: LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. BE A FAN.

 

For what it's worth, with the exception of D. Mason and Alex Farrer (and with the departure of Voogd), it just dawned upon me that we're relying on an All-LA backcourt. So, now we can see what a LA pool of guards can do for us. Bo comes out of both the Southern Lab and Glen Oaks hoops breeding ground, Temple we all know what that looks like, Martin come out of a rich Monroe pool and will have the opportunity to show what he can do after a year in the system, and Thornton is another BR product who has caught the attention of the NBA for his scoring.

In a short period, Brady has completely retooled his backcourt with LA players after many of us have been complaining about it...