Tigerbait had this to report about Mr. Buckner's trip... Hot off the presses. http://lsu.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1001054 Not sure I know what to make of this. Buckner really isn't in a terrible rush, although he did say that LSU made an impression upon him and now he has thoughts of committing earlier. Trent made it clear that he could also sign in the spring. At this point, this offer seems to be a wait and see offer. I think Trent wants to wait and see what may also come available this spring, and be "opportunistic" should someone come along. He would also be able to see how Buckner performs in his sophomore year. What's also interesting is that the kid is listed now more "accurately" as 6'10 1/2" and 205, and reminds Trent of Chris Johnson, who is now playing in Europe. No offense to CJ, but I wonder if we really need to burn another schollie on someone like that? I mean, we do have Dennis Harris there too. Granted, Buckner's almost 6'11" and probably fairly athletic at 205, so he could play true "center". But, I really worry that we don't have a kid that's 235-240 in there to keep folks off the low block. Buckner would probably need to gain another 15 pounds, and keep his hops to really be a tremendous addition, and may be able to do that if he was a redshirt candidate.
Isn't there a center from Yugoslavia, or a power forward from Brazil out there somewhere? I miss Dale Brown, maybe CTJ could enlist him to recruit the Himalayas or something. .
Wow, now that's an interesting prospect (i.e., project). Can't dispute the size, and I would think that if anyone knew how to make a NBA first rounder out of this kid, it'd be Trent. But, you have to really watch kids this big. Texas has a kid named Dexter Pittman, who coming out of high school was like 6'10" 350lb. He's spent the last three years losing weight and developing. He should have a good year this year, and likely play his way into the NBA. Triton's got the frame, but is he really in basketball shape. Here's the fine print: "TRITON (aka TANK) is a mountain of a man in the post. He has a massively thick upper-body with wide hips and broad shoulders. He is impossible to move in the paint once he establishes his position. He is a nice finisher at the rim, catches and gets his shot off well, can push the offense off the low block and creates a defensive road block to the rim. He struggles with his basketball conditioning and has various back pains that keep him out of games in stretches." He's someone Trent should be recruiting, but watching ...
Interestingly, Rivals now has updated its prospect lists and it appears that Trent and the LSU staff have been hitting the JUCO trail hard. Big men, Antonio Cooper (6'10" 235), out of Redlands CC in Oklahoma, and Nick Thompson (6'8" 240) out of Eastern Utah, now show LSU interest (no offers though). Not a lot out there on Cooper or Thompson, although Cooper is a kid from Canada, who like Eric Buckner averaged a handful of points and rbs as a JUCO Frosh. Redlands CC is actually a decent JUCO, so I wonder if a slightly heavier option in Cooper is more desirable than Buckner.... Rivals.com Search Results - Yahoo! Sports
Here's yet another interesting JUCO name. Kervin Bristol, who is a 6'10", 220 lb lb center at a Fort Lauderdale JUCO, Broward College, and originally was from Haiti. He looks like he actually contributed in his freshman year on a pretty balanced squad (over 10 ppg) and this one may be worth watching carefully. He's currently listed only having interest in LSU, Hofstra and Houston, according to Rivals... Kervin Bristol - Yahoo! Sports NJCAA | Colleges | Broward College | Basketball I | Roster Broward College Student Athletes Stand Out Broward College ballers impress at skills camp -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com I'm kind of liking what I see of this kid... :thumb:
As predicted, as some of the "bigger" hoops powerhouses, get their top recruits locked down, the hoops recruiting rankings will shift. LSU moves down one spot to #18 in the latest Rivals' men's college recruiting rankings. Rivals.com Basketball Recruiting - Duke lands at No. 5 in team rankings To the whole conference recruiting debate that has been going on in another thread, here are how the conferences rate: ACC: 7 schools in top 25 Big 10, Big East, and SEC: 4 schools each Big 12, A10: 2 schools Pac 10: 1 school (ironically, Stanford who is having a great class with Johnny Dawkins) As for the SEC, we see that Rivals has them in this order: South Carolina (#11), Florida (#14), Tennessee (#17) and LSU (#18). I'd debate whether LSU should be below Tennessee and arguably Florida, given that both of those schools only have 2 commitments, and Tennessee's class has 2 kids at the same position. LSU fills a need in essentially 4 spots on the floor, and it's a very underrated class, IMO. Horn and Johnson have really made a pretty nice splash at both schools. :bball::geauxtige
Well, I think to be fair, you have to give a coach a full recruiting year to establish his connections before you judge. Grant did start right when last season ended, and he's quietly gotten a few decent recruits in, but in some close recruiting battles with Trent, Grant lost out ('Bamers will say Grant de-prioritized certain guys). You look though, and Grant got commitments out of Releford (PG), Hankerson (SG), but he lost (or pushed out) Shawn Kemp Jr, who's reopened his recruitment. There are still some high profile hoops recruits floating out there considering the Tide, so we'll have to see how the rest of the recruiting year goes. I think kids are still (much like they did with Trent) waiting to see how Grant's system fits with Alabama. At this time, you'd probably say Grant's done an OK job recruiting--arguably a disappointing job considering his "hype". We'll see in a year or two, how it all shakes out. You have to remember that the cupboard isn't bare at Alabama. Grant has some decent Sophomore/Juniors to work with, so recruiting isn't going to be AS key for him as it was for Trent this year. It'll be more key to see if Grant can actually make the kids play defense and smarter than they did under Coach G.
