Hoops Recruiting (2010)

Derenbecker is more of a small forward at 6'7...Turner is a shooting guard.

 

As the summer goes on, the recruiting landscape becomes clearer and clearer, particularly for Ralston Turner.

In addition to K.T. Harrell going to Virginia, Notre Dame recently got a commitment from a 6'6" SG (ND was rumored to be interested in Ralston Turner) and Demarco Cox the 6'8" Big Baby wanna be chose Ole Miss.

With time it seems more and more likely that Ralston Turner is down to LSU if you consider Bama has their SG and moved on, Ole Miss, Auburn and GA not desirable locales in the SEC right now.

Lastly, while Turner in some ways emphasizes skills much like Derenbecker (good jumpshot, not blazingly quick, but "saavy" on the court), blindside is right--presumably Matt at a little taller height will play more 3 and Turner will play 2. Both can really bomb the three and have very smooth mid-range games/jumpshots. The question for me is can Turner get better physically and guard quicker 2s--admittedly, that's an area of his game that needs to improve. CTJ must see some potential in the kid to prioritize him, so we'll see what happens when he gets here. It's also interesting b/c from the looks of things Turner may need to think about John Isaac showing up in 2011. Isaac is probably a better all around player at 6'3" 210 on the perimeter already, that'll be key for Trent as he establishes good foundational recruiting classes. Is he going to continue to convince top kids to come fill in the depth at a place like LSU :thumb:.

 

Some info for you guys on Turner. He may go somewhere else besides LSU, but it won't be Alabama. Alabama is still recruiting him and really likes him but they have managed to screw up during the recruiting process numerous times from what I hear. Personally, if he goes anywhere in the SEC I would be very suprised if it was anywhere but LSU. I would guess Georgia would be the next likely choice instead of Alabama in the SEC behind LSU. Notre Dame is really coming on strong from what I hear. Looks like LSU and them are the top 2 right now but he has never visited ND. That is a long way from home and much different type of people up there than in the south. Looking more and more like LSU and CTJ is the clear-cut favorite from what I am hearing.

 

Thanks for the local insight. It does seem that for whatever reason, Anthony Grant and his arrival at Alabama has not been met with a ton of fanfare. And, his recruiting has not been setting the world on fire. True enough, he's gotten some recent commitments, but several of Bama's high picks are looking elsewhere, and not seemingly "so impressed" with what they're seeing.

Truth be told, 'Bama was beating LSU in recruiting in recent Brady vs. Gottfried years b/c of their facilities, and Gottfried's carefree "Cal" like attitudes. But, with LSU's facilities finally catching up with the SEC upper echelon and Trent at the helm, I see LSU as one of the premier SEC destinations for any recruit from the deep south.

Georgia. That's one that's tough to figure out. Here's a hoops hotbed that really should be better. There are certainly enough recruits in that state for GA Tech and UGA to be good, but they've never been able to really bring in the credible coach. Mark Fox is a Trent Johnson disciple, and probably a decent X-and-Os coach, but is he a SEC caliber recruiter? Not sure how that's going to play out, but it's going to take a long time for them to figure out. Don't see Turner going to GA--he's more likely to take the offer from Ole Miss, Auburn or Miss St before that. Let's hope you're right, though, and it's ALL LSU at this point! :thumb:

 

The reason Georgia is in the mix is mainly because Pearson, Bama's old assistant, is at Georgia now. He was recruiting Turner when at Bama since Turner was in the 9th grade, and keep in mind that Bama was Turner's favorite at that time. MSU, Auburn, and Ole Miss don't have a chance unless something really crazy happens. We will see what happens in the next few months, but for now it appears someone is going to have to beat out LSU to get him.

 

Things are slow right... too slow ... on the hoops recruiting front. But, don't be too alarmed, that's because right now it's a "quiet period" that runs from August 1st to September 5th. Hence, not a lot of news, tourneys and the like during this period.

That said, check out what SLAM Magazine had to say about Andre Stringer... SLAM ONLINE | End of the Road :thumb: Tiger Friends, Mr. Stringer is a must get right now for CTJ. This would be a VERY nice Point Guard signing, and arguably the best PG signing by LSU in a very, very long time. :grin:

I hope Trent is using this time to plot his signing "closing" strategy and party... Right now, we wait for Andre Stringer and Ralston Turner to catch their breaths from summer ball and make their way to Tiger town. We know Andre has a September 11th visit date set, but no visit set yet from Mr. Turner.

:lsup::bball::LSU231::bball: :geauxtige

 

Not any huge jumps, although I want to say that Stringer moved up a dozen or more spots, MD moved up a little bit and Ralston dropped a little bit. For a guy that didn't get a ton of AAU summer pub, Ralston has got to be one of the highest relatively unknown prospects there are! What's also worth mentioning is Shavon Coleman of Thibadeaux LA is now also ranked #127 in Rivals 150. He is a 6-6 SF that could be an interesting prospect if Turner somehow doesn't connect... The kids a scorer.

 

Interesting, bhelm, interesting. I've been saying that a Ralston Turner is an interesting target b/c of his playing profile. 6'5-6'6" ish shooting guard/small forward that has a nice jumpshot, but isn't knock your socks off athletic, and not particularly a defensive stopper. Also when you consider the kind of players Derenbecker/Ludwig are, does Trent lose something by not having an "athlete" in the line up to completely shut down an opposing team's scorer or create mismatches going to the hoop. There's been some speculating that LSU wasn't out of the woods yet with the likes of Williams/Brown given a long recruiting year and the fickle nature of recruits, so this news about Markel is not out of the question.

That said, it's been a long drought for hoops recruiting news, and I'll play in the discussion... Does a Markel Brown fit better with LSU than Ralston Turner? What about a Shavon Coleman for that matter?

For me, I'd much prefer that Trent get this class established and signed (November can't come early enough!). We need Stringer to commit, and I think we have the foundation of a very good class. The shooting guard spot then is gravy.