2015 Recruiting

DD's "4th or 5th hand info about Franks" seems to have been quite accurate -- though not accurate on the prediction that he would wait until April to commit. Twitter is abuzz with news of Franks' commitment to WSU.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:DD's "4th or 5th hand info about Franks" seems to have been quite accurate -- though not accurate on the prediction that he would wait until April to commit. Twitter is abuzz with news of Franks' commitment to WSU.

Like this one.....

@VerbalCommits    1 hour ago  
2015 Evergreen (WA) F Robert Franks has committed to Washington State. @RoBo_22 http://verbalcommits.com/players/robert-franks …

That's sixth hand.

Verbal commits just read DD's post.

Geezaldinho wrote: That's sixth hand.

Verbal commits just read DD's post.  

Zing!

This goes to show that we shouldn't give VerbalCommits too much credence. Wazzu was not even listed as having made a scholarship offer to Franks.

NoPoNeighbor wrote:This goes to show that we shouldn't give VerbalCommits too much credence. Wazzu was not even listed as having made a scholarship offer to Franks.

They hadn't up until tonight, apparently. WSU offered, Franks accepted on the spot.

https://twitter.com/COUGFANcom/status/516803878130835456

Pretty hilarious, with me and DD just talking about Franks likely having to consider other offers with Wazzu getting a three-year JUCO SF last week. So we don't know what we're talking about, whatever.

So... VerbalCommits was spot on. Sorry, VerbalCommits!

Over coffee this morning with another UP grad, we mused about the carnage in UP’s SF recruiting attempts the last three days with Fuller, Thybulle, and Franks committing to Brown, UW, and WSU, respectively.

I don’t think UP really ever had much chance to sign Fuller and Thybulle, but Robert Franks had been on UP’s radar for some time, and I know the staff had been in a full-court press to sign him.  But one has to remember that in Vancouver, USA, WSU is the most popular school in the NW…..and as I’ve written before, when you grow up idolizing a school/team, that’s usually where you want to attend college.

I think the deciding factor for Roberts was probably Ernie Kent.  I’ve liked Kent a lot since first meeting him when he was coaching at St. Mary’s, and I think any young baller would be attracted to play for him.  Last evening, after Franks committed, he said, “Coach Ernie Kent is such a great guy.  Not only a great guy, but a great coach.”  A couple of months ago Franks attended basketball camp at WSU, and had this to say about his experience, “When I walked into Beasley (Coliseum), I kind of fell in love,” he said.  “All the intangibles came together and it came to Wazzu.”

Hmm, the “intangibles.”  I guess that’s something UP needs to work on.

DoubleDipper wrote:A heck of a recruiting class at UW has just added SF Matisse Thybulle.

I saw in the Seattle Times that when Thybulle was asked why he didn't choose to go to Gonzaga, he replied, "......the one thing that I would say I didn’t like about Gonzaga was the WCC."  

Well, OK....at least the young man was honest.

DoubleDipper wrote:I saw in the Seattle Times that when Thybulle was asked why he didn't choose to go to Gonzaga, he replied, "......the one thing that I would say I didn’t like about Gonzaga was the WCC."  

Well, OK....at least the young man was honest.

I'm sure the WCC haters are out in force on the GU message boards in response to that one. I don't dare go look for myself.

GU will not leave any time soon. There is no way that they could compete in all sports in a mostly eastern conference--the travel demands would be too much (nor would a mostly eastern conference want to send it's tennis, volleyball, etc. teams across 3 time zones to compete in Spokane).

The long-time, non-bandwagon fans in Spokane do not have realistic visions of leaving the conference... I do not believe the leadership at GU thinks they would be a good fit institutionally elsewhere, either.

About 45 seconds of Jarrel Marshall highlights from the weekend. Palm Beach State opened their 2014-15 season with a few exhibition games in Tallahassee....if I did this right, it should link right to the correct time, or zoom to 2:10 or so -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=WtZUKdiuo1k&list=UUWZNsRMFQvTKH_BiLibtgfQ#t=133

DeanMurdoch wrote:About 45 seconds of Jarrel Marshall highlights from the weekend. Palm Beach State opened their 2014-15 season with a few exhibition games in Tallahassee....if I did this right, it should link right to the correct time, or zoom to 2:10 or so -

Kennesaw St., from the Atlantic Sun Conference, must have liked the video....they apparently offered Marshall today (along with 4 other JUCO SFs, one of whom has committed).

PilotNut wrote:
The long-time, non-bandwagon fans in Spokane  

Better luck finding bigfoot!

DoubleDipper wrote:Kennesaw St., from the Atlantic Sun Conference, must have liked the video....they apparently offered Marshall today (along with 4 other JUCO SFs, one of whom has committed).

Kennesaw State - 40 open offers for 2015?

Interesting to see how different schools approach this whole recruiting thing.

DTLegend wrote:the possibilities are endless and the speculation is most of the fun anyway....

Agreed, and with just over 4 weeks to go until the beginning of the LOI period, I would expect UP will sign Russell and Johnson and one mystery recruit from Europe (or Australia), probably a SF/Wing….(and perhaps one more recruit we know nothing about…Total: 3 or 4).  And as Max Livingston will garner another of the five (or six) available scholarships, that leaves UP with only 1 or 2 scholarships available in April…..depending on David Carr’s status.

IMO, David needs to make a decision on his future before then.  It would appear the coaching staff is (for now) willing to keep him on scholarship if he wants to come back…but there are some key spots that need to be filled before next season.

David would probably have an even more diminished role with the Pilots next year with all the newcomers arriving…..and if he’s going to graduate next May or July he might find it more advantageous to get on with his life and earn an income to support his family.  On the other hand, if he’s healthy he could contribute to the overall depth of the team if either Alec or Jazz were to go down with injuries.

If after another signing (or 2) in the spring there are no 2015 scholarships left, and a really good D-1 transfer comes along, or Voldy gets a last minute reprieve from the NCAA…….David may have to take one for the team, again.

Some may have noted that Verbal Commits was reporting that UW had received a verbal commitment from Devenir Duruisseau.....indicating also that he had been a target of UP.  I believe I can write with 99% certainty that Duruisseau was NOT on UP's list.

Duruisseau originally committed to San Jose St. for 2014, but decided to spend a year at prep school after his high school graduation and after the Spartans were put on academic probation.

Our pal Jarrel Marshall is ranked #45 on this list of top Juco players in the country. Impressive!

http://nextuprecruits.com/2014-2015-2/

DeanMurdoch wrote:Our pal Jarrel Marshall is ranked #45 on this list of top Juco players in the country. Impressive!

It is an impressive list of basketball players, but too often these JUCO lists are also lists of young men who are unable to academically qualify to attend UP and many other academically rigorous D-1 institutions.

I have no idea how good a student Marshall is, but if UP has made him an offer, the folks in the admissions office must consider him a viable candidate to graduate.  If that is the case....there chould be plenty more "picky" universities looking to grab him up too.

I'd heard that Marshall would like to play on the West Coast, but whether he'd like to play in the West Coast Conference may not be answered until next April.  

NoPoNeighbor wrote:Based on DD's analysis, which makes a lot of sense to me, I doubt we will see another commitment this fall. I expect we will sign Johnson, Russell, and MAYBE an Australian during the week of November 12.....

Not sure, but it looks like this was the young man that some saw walking around campus a week ago or so.  Looked to be about 6-9 with tender knees.

I give up....what's a Warrnambool?

DeanMurdoch wrote:I give up....what's a Warrnambool?

Warrnambool is a bucolic coastal town in Victoria.....

It's 99km East of Portland by road and 27 km east of Port Fairy.

It would seem our young friend from Warrnambool has knees that are not only "tender," as I suggested in an earlier post, but might just be at too much of a risk in the tough play of D1 basketball.

He's got great size and skill.....unfortunately he doesn't appear to have the knees to support it all.  It appears to me he'd be a great walk-on candidate (somewhere) so he can prove his knees are capable of playing D1 ball.