Rivals - St. John's hones in on prime targets
- Thread starter gman
- Start date
It says that SJU staff will be evaluating at various events, and then the article lists a bunch of players that they may/will check out: Jaren Sina, Rysheed Jordan, Jarell Martin, Jermaine Lawrence, and Kentan Facey. The article describes each of the players with a couple of sentences. There is not much more than that to the article.
...and, unfortunately, only one Moose!
Jakaar Sampson and Branch are rated a million times higher than any player Norm Brought in.
Bourgault and Sanchez are rated as high as Hardy and Brownlee.
Darrick Wood is rated as high as Mason Jr. who was probably the highest ranked high school player Norm brought in.
Felix Belamou appears to have Paris Horne written all over his game and is ranked comparably.
Other than those slight differences Coach Lavin brought in 6 role players in this class and may still get Chandler which would mean he brought in 3 top 50 players in the class of 2011 who had a year to get bigger , stronger and better.
This is an excellent class on paper.
prjohnnies
Member
I believe JB was the highest ranked player Norm ever brought in (not counting Rob Thomas pre-injury -- don't know where he was ranked, and Kitchen).
Actually, Sanchez was an Hm AA and recent rated a 4-star recruit which is higher than Brownlee/Hardy I believe. Sanchez was recently also ranked as the #1 impact JC player in a recent linked article. We have 3 recruits that are 4-star kids. These are not role players.
It's been said many times before but 2,3,4,5 stars mean absolutely nothing. You can only speculate on how good a class is at this stage and realistically the best barometer will come down the line in 2 years. Right now everyone's opinions are mere guesses in my opinion. Some say it's excellent, others say its comparable to a class Norm wouldve pulled in (pretty funny), I personally believe its neither. I think Its s very good class at this stage but until everybody goes to class and starts fall practice we have absolutely no idea. Additionally it's important to realize that the development of the players we already have(mainly Pointer and Amir) will play a huge role in how good these newcomers can be. Collectively everyone has to be playing to their potential otherwise we may unfortunately wind up with a few duds.
Recruiting always comes down to predictions. There will always be kids that weren't even given three-stars that outperform top 20 recruits. It's a pretty safe bet to load up on as many top 100 RSCI kids as you can and I think the formula for success as a high-major is Top 100 RSCI talent x experience = success.
Last year there were only three or four teams that started a top 75 RSCI kid at every position. Two of those teams, Kentucky and Kansas, reached the championship game. I know UNC also started five five top 75 RSCI guys, and there were other teams had five or more top 100 RSCI guy but did not start all of them.
St. John's could be one of thos few teams next year if Lavin rolls out what I believe will be the starting lineup. If we land Chandler, that's one more added to the fold. I think Lav did a great job adding to the extremely talented base we have in place by adding guys that fill much needed roles. He also got some studs like Branch, Sampson, and Wood.
I believe in Lavin's formula. I'll add that we absolutely need a few "role players". Guys like Bourgault and Hooper are shooting specialists that IMO all really successful teams have. In general, spots 11-13 on the roster by nature have to be role players. We can run a rotation to about 10 guys with essentially two teams playing most of the game. I think that is what we have. Spots 11-13 will generally be guys that come in for special purposes like shooting, defense etc. Nearly impossible to keep a team happy that has top 70 kids packed at all 13 spots. Lavinncan realistically keep up to 10 really good players happy with PT considering the style we play where a lot of kids get time.
I think Lavin grabbed kids like Bourgault, Hooper and Balamou because I think they can likely be happy in that role and provide depth. Balamou is a bit better than I thought. Bourgault is best friends with Sanchez and Hooper is best friends with Sampson. Hooper is also a kid that is wanton for nothing in terms of his future. Kids like Bourgault and Hooper certainly will help. Anybody who can hit 450 of 500 treys on the shot counter consistently, will have to be guarded very, very closely.Those types add depth, play an important role and add to the chemistry.
Spots 1-8 we will have
1 D'Lo (top 60)
2 Jakarr (top 40)
3 Amir (top 70)
4 Sir'Dom (top 60)
5 Sanchez (HM JC AA)
6 Branch (top 60)
7 Gift (JC AA)
8 Green (top 125)
We could also add Chandler would put another top 50 player to the first 9 players on the roster. Don't forget we also have Darrick Wood, a top 100 kid committed and waiting for his SAT's. When you see it written out like that, it doesn't really make sense to be bitching about too many role- players when we have almost 2 full lineups of top players. All of this in Lavin's first two recruiting classes and he spent the last season recovering from cancer. I'd say we're in phenomenal shape heading forward.
Thanks for your post.
I am as optimistic as you are for the current recruiting class except I feel that Michael Chandler is more vital, to us, than you seem to feel, although you acknowledge his importance.
I have one more deep concern.
Jamal Branch was an highly regarded recruit two years ago. Then, this past season, he had a down year at Texas A & M.
Everyone seems so sure that he will surface again and play commensurately with his top # 60 rating.
Why do most feel so sure that the real Branch is the top 60 guy and not last year's Texas A&M's player ?
Thanks, in advance, for your comments,
ALLNET
I am as optimistic as you are for the current recruiting class except I feel that Michael Chandler is more vital, to us, than you seem to feel, although you acknowledge his importance.
I have one more deep concern.
Jamal Branch was an highly regarded recruit two years ago. Then, this past season, he had a down year at Texas A & M.
Everyone seems so sure that he will surface again and play commensurately with his top # 60 rating.
Why do most feel so sure that the real Branch is the top 60 guy and not last year's Texas A&M's player ?
Thanks, in advance, for your comments,
ALLNET
You are correct RUSS Sanchez is ranked higher than Brownlee and Hardy were. Additionally, Bourgault has 3 years left as a result of his injury and notwithstanding was ranked as high as JB2 and Hardy.
Great coaching that he will get at SJU plus he will be playing against Phil every day in practice who had a very good freshman season after he stepped into his role as the starting pg after Nuri left. We are in very good shape at the pg position with PG and JB.
Moose
Well-known member
Branch played what? 10 games? Our kids weren't the same in the first 10 games as they were after that. Look at Garrett as an example as the season went along.
Also remember Branch signed to play for Turgeon and he left and went to Maryland. Gave it a shot for a semester then decided to move on because it wasn't right.
I'm not arguing that Lavin can out recruit Norm in his sleep and that he already has. I'm also not arguing that we have a bunch of star players on this team and we needed some role players. I just don't like when we start over-hyping everyone we bring in. I hope Sanchez is better than Hardy and Brownlee but I would be surprised if he is. I hope Bourgault is more than a reliable shooter off the bench but I would be surprised if he is. Again neither has to be because the overall talent level on the team is far superior than what he had under Norm so these two really only need to contribute and let Harrison and Jakar handle the scoring load. Let's not forget that Hardy and Brownlee were our 2 best players on a 20 + win NCAA tourney team. I just dont want everyone to expect that these two JUCOs will have the same impact. I hope they do but we dont need them to because we already have a star in DeAngelo and potential stars in Jakar, Branch, Pointer, Garrett, etc.
Here's a JUCO ranking I found online. Brownlee is # 4 and Hardy is # 10.
http://bigwest.yuku.com/topic/4844
Below is from restormsports profile of Hardy:
At Indian Hills: Led Indian Hills to an incredible 58-13 record over the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons ... started a combined 70 career games and scored 1,163 points in two years ... a NJCAA All-Region 11 first team selection in 2007-08 as a freshman and 2008-09 as a sophomore ... finished his career as the school's single-season and career leader in 3-point field goals and 3-point attempts ... connected on a record 102 long-distance shots as a freshman in 2007-08, totaling 173 3-pointers in two seasons ... a NJCAA all-tournament selection in 2008 after scoring at a 30.3 ppg clip across four games.http://www.redstormsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/hardy_dwight00.html
If someone can show me where Sanchez is ranked higher than # 4 and Bourgault is ranked anywhere, I would appreciate it. Regardless I don't think anyone can agrue that either player put up the numbers Hardy did. Let's just agree that we're much more talented and hope all our recruits meet or exceed expectations.
Thanks.