Throwin' a little love Shane's way, and Brent Scott, who seems to be LSU's main recruiter. He gets mention here in this article. NetScouts Basketball » Search Results » shane hammink "College Coaches of the Day for your dedication and perseverance: Chad Dollar (Georgia Tech), Brent Scott (LSU) and Akbar Waheed (Boston College)." Way to geaux, Brent!
I can never remember how basketball recruiting works. How many scholarships can we give this year, and how many are we likely to sign?
Thirteen total scholarships on a team. Because Andrew Del Piero is a walk-on, we have actually up to 5 scholarships we could give... three seniors (White, Warren & Bass) graduate this year, and we actually right now only have 11 players on scholarship. I'm not sure how many folks Trent wants to sign, but he could sign as many as 5. I think he's alluded that he'd likely sign one or two more players in the spring, so he'd have another year of signing just 3 kids. I'd actually almost open it to 4, if he found the right players (and leaving 4 for 2013). He is going to have another 3 kids graduate next year, so he could load up in 2013, assuming he only uses 3 in 2012. I think that's his strategy... trying to land Jarrell Martin and a good number of other recruits, locally or otherwise. 2013 seems to be a deeper class in LA than prior years, so he may want to save those scholarships for next year's class.
I'm not completely sure, because 13 signed in one class seems obviously fictional, but my understanding is that the old "5/8 rule" (can't sign more than 5 kids in one class and 8 in two classes) was repealed some 5-6 years ago. That's why you do see colleges signing 6, 7 kids in a class nowadays. As for recruiting... what o what is this staff up to? A name that has been brought up of late is Orlando Sanchez, an All-Juco PF at Monroe College in NY. Latest lists don't include LSU, but I don't know if that's changed given Gathers' announcement. Orlando Sanchez Remains Wide Open | ZagsBlog.com C'mon Trent! Let's get after these bigs. Sanchez seems to be "wide open." As for other interesting nuggets in this blog... A lot of interest in the 6'9" 2013 kids at Scotlandville. I know LSU has been watching Damian Jones and Jarad Sam a lot lately. Seems like the out of state recruiters are picking up intensity in LA, particularly Mr. Lavin, throwing that NY city lights at these kids. Jones seems like someone we have got to prioritize.
What Coah Johnson needs to recruit is an 6-9" SF to replace Storm Warren because Eddie Ludwig seems to be not as good as Warren in rebounding the ball. A PG to replace Chris Bass, do we have another PG other than Bass and Anthony Hickey? I know Andre Stringer was the PG last year, but he is the OG this year along with Ralston Turner. We also need a back up C because Malcolm White is leaving also. I think we will be in a good position if we only get an SF and a PG like we did last year with PF Johnny O'Bryant and PG Anthony Hickey. We will be hurting a little with the back-up C position with Andrew Del Piero, but if he could give us a little good playing time to rest Justin Hamilton a little we will be ok. LSU is finishing strong this year with O'Bryant and Hickey picking up their game. They don't look like Freshmen anymore.
Yes, if you based it on what's leaving, we have Warren, White and Bass leaving. Warren and White essentially play the same position out there, maybe Warren's more of a 4, and White is more of a 5. But, essentially, you've got two senior posts leaving. Absolutely agree that we'd like to sign at least ONE post. Doesn't have to be 6'9", IMO, as long as he's a solid 6'7"+ (warren is only 6'7" but has often played 4 opposite Hamilton). While I think Bass will be hard to replace for his defense and ball-handling, I think where Trent's heads at is, if in a pinch, Stringer, or Isaac, could play 10 minutes at point, to give Hickey a spell. What scares you though is what if Hickey goes down? Stringer's quicker and stronger than last year, and his shot selection is slightly better, but there's still a little bit of a gap there on ball-handling and at least tendency to pass first. Isaac will be someone interesting to watch--could he pick up the slack at PG? He's played some point in high school and he is a good enough athlete/ball handler to give it a go. Hence, I think where this class ends up is with another wing and a big man (I hope!). The wing candidates really look interesting if you're considering Shane Hammink (a very versatile 6'5-6" guard, with some good skills passing and driving--who's also played some point) and Shavon Coleman (a little more athletic 6'6-7" physically mature kid). I wouldn't be too disappointed frankly, if we signed both Hammink and Coleman, and picked up a big man--even if he was sort of a project.
I am actually excited about who we could potentially sign here in the end. I think for the first time in a few years we will have positive momentum on the recruiting trail and on the court at the same time.
Question: What about Jalen Courtney? I know that he is like 6'8" and around 220-225 but the few times I've seen him play this season it seemed like he played more of the 3 position or SF. Can anyone shed more light on his game? with that kind of frame he could also play some at the 4 if needed. If I remember correctly he was kind of slim kid when he came out of HS so he's really developed over the last two years. Can anyone shed some light on him please?
Courtney is more of a 3. PG (1) --It would be great if Isaac could back up Hickey at PG. It would be nice to have that kind of size at that position. Plus, he doesn't seem to shoot well enough to play the 2/3. Hammink at 6-6 could possibly fill this role as well. He's not that athletic, but he does handle the ball well. SG (2)/SF (3) --Stringer has improved some at shot selection, but somehow has improved significantly at driving the lane and scoring. Still it would be nice to have more size at the 2. Hopefully, Morgan will make it impossible for Trent Johnson not to start him. Turner plays the 3, but is pure SG. His game is strictly perimeter oriented. We definitely run a 3-guard offense. We don't really have that SF that can slash to the rim. PF/C --Once it fully clicks for JOBIII, we will have two studs on the blocks. O'Bryant is physicall impressive and Hamilton is very polished. Unfortunately, we don't have much after that. Ludwig gives you alot of hustle, but shouldn't be the first post player off the bench. We need at least 1 post player in this class. I would really like to sign 2.
