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Post by Glory Days on Feb 21, 2009 19:20:40 GMT -5
I'm curious what everyone thinks about next year's team. Do you think we are truly done recruiting for next year or are we going to see a few more new faces? The reason I ask is that there have been a few recent articles that discuss 2009 recruits with scholarship offers from WSU. Is someone leaving? Is one of our recruits not going to make grades? Is Darkwa not going to make it through the NCAA clearinghouse for freshman?
What does everyone think?
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Post by Raider Rowdies on Feb 21, 2009 19:25:37 GMT -5
Both Cartharn and Koch were at the Butler game so I doubt either one is having second thoughts and I believe both are good students so they shouldn't have any problems qualifying. I don't know about Darkwa.
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Post by Sixth Man on Feb 21, 2009 19:33:45 GMT -5
I wouldn't be surprised if Kyle Pressley doesn't come back. The kid barely sniffs the court. I could see him transferring somewhere he might be able to play more.
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Post by rock70 on Feb 21, 2009 19:40:22 GMT -5
It also wouldn't surprise me to see JDG call it quits if his chronic hip, feet, and back prevent him from competing. This might be especially true if he is able to earn his bachelors degree this Spring or Summer.
I agree with Sixth Man that Kyle might bolt if he doesn't see his situation improve. I hope not but you never know.
All I know is that if Gardner isn't able to play next year we have no/zero/nada point guards on our roster. N'Gai isn't a true point and from what coach Brownell has said about Carthian he isn't a true point either so if JD can't go we are in a world of hurt at the point. Vaughn may be the point by default next year.
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Post by Raider Alumni on Feb 21, 2009 19:40:24 GMT -5
Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if JD Gardner or Ronnie Thomas decided to not come back. They are both 4th year juniors that have battled injury problems their entire careers. I could see one or even both of them deciding to graduate this year and give up basketball.
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Post by Nutt House on Feb 21, 2009 19:44:57 GMT -5
Katz threw out the idea in his blog that Darkwa may be able to attend WSU without taking up a scholarship since he was in the Navy. I don't know the differences between the armed services, but I know UWM had a former Army guy play for them a few years ago that went to school on a GI scholarship. So we might still have that scholarship available.
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Post by OG Raiderfan on Feb 21, 2009 19:56:13 GMT -5
Honestly, there are several guys that have reason to leave, but I don't know if any of them will. The team is supposed to be pretty tight off the court and some of these guys might be content in their role on the team.
I could see JD or Ronnie give up ball due to their injuries, especially if they are ready to graduate. I could see Kyle leave because he seldomly sees the court. I could also see Cooper or Troy leave. Cooper is 1/2 way across the country from his home. He is a backup player behind Cory and he knows he has little chance of moving ahead of Cory in the depth chart next year. If he's homesick or wants more significant playing time, he might decide to play closer to home at a smaller level of ball. Troy knows that his playing time is going to drastically decrease next year. Troy will be stuck behind Vaughn on the depth chart the rest of his career now that Vaughn redshirted. He also faces a further decline in his minutes with Koch coming in as our highest rated recruit in some time.
I'm not wishing that any of these guys transfer, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they do.
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Post by Wolf on Feb 21, 2009 22:27:18 GMT -5
I would like to bring in another post player and point guard, but unless someone is leaving we don't have the scholarships. JD needs to eat his Wheaties this off season.
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Post by Bomber on Feb 21, 2009 22:42:21 GMT -5
I like JD and hope that he can go next year but I'm worried that he won't be able to stay healthy. I like what I have seen of Cartharn so far but he will be a freshman and all freshman play inconsistently. I have no real faith in Evans. He has been here almost 2 full years and hasn't become the floor leader we need him to be as a point guard.
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Post by 86grad on Feb 22, 2009 8:54:37 GMT -5
I saw Cartharn play once this season, and wasn't impressed with his ball handling. I hope that with more time running the point this year, he has become more confident in his abilities.
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Post by Class of '83 on Feb 22, 2009 9:36:44 GMT -5
Cartharn will be just fine at PG. I've seen him play 8-9 times this year. Everyone has to remember that our "point guard" doesn't really run the show all of the time in our offense. JD ran the show most of the time this year and he was never our PG. He was always on the court with either Will or Evans. Last year Vaughn ran the offense most of the time even though Will was our PG. Our offense is really set up so that our guards are interchangeable.
Ideally, we have Vaughn and JD back. Even if JD is healthy next year, his minutes will go way down. We won't try to play him 35+ minutes a game. We will hopefully try to play him around 25 minutes so that we can give Cartharn some minutes to prepare him to take over the starting PG spot as a sophomore.
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Post by riceownz2 on Feb 22, 2009 11:07:23 GMT -5
Next year is going to be tough. We are going to have 13-14 legit players who deserve minutes or play significant minutes this year. I think N'gai should get shuffled out of the rotation next year. I see Troy only playing a few minutes a game. Its just so hard to see who will play. Koch is a high recruit i want him to play.
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Post by Glory Days on Feb 22, 2009 12:17:39 GMT -5
Next year is going to be tough. We are going to have 13-14 legit players who deserve minutes or play significant minutes this year. Just because some played significant minutes this year doesn't mean they deserved it. We played several guys major minutes this year out of shear desperation. We have a few guys that I think are going to move to the end of the bench next year and see next to no minutes. Tabler is first on that list. His defense is severely lacking due to his limited quickness. He also cannot create his own shot on offense and is a turnover machine. Unless he makes dramatic improvement in the off season, he is going to move behind Duggins and Koch on the depth chart. When you consider that Vaughn is a 35+ minute a game type of guy by himself, Tabler isn't going to be seeing the court very much if at all. Evans is next on that list. He is a point guard with 39 assists compared to 48 TOs. He shoots 33% from the floor and 23% from three. If JD can start and Cartharn shows that he can create for his teammates, I doubt Evans will play much either. If JD is unable to go next year, I think we will go with Vaughn at point guard before we go with Evans. I think Kyle is on his way out. If he couldn't get onto the court with our poor post pay this year, I don't see why we should expect anything different next year. I hope I'm wrong and the light switch flips on for him. We need a consistent post presence to go along with Cooperwood.
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Post by riceownz2 on Feb 22, 2009 14:53:14 GMT -5
Next year is going to be tough. We are going to have 13-14 legit players who deserve minutes or play significant minutes this year. Just because some played significant minutes this year doesn't mean they deserved it. We played several guys major minutes this year out of shear desperation. I agree with you. I was just saying it will be hard for Brownell as a coach. I would feel bad for someone who played 25+ min a game thigs year and then none next year. But i agree Both Troy and N'gai should get shuffled to the end. Totally agree with Troy is bad on defense. That is my one big issue with him. When he is in our defense is like 4 on 5. But I would have thought N'gai would not have played this year, but at the begining of the year when we were healthy he was getting minutes.
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Post by fizztharaider on Feb 22, 2009 15:38:49 GMT -5
N'gai is still growing physically. I think he will surprise some people next year. Again, Physically, he has matured even since the early weeks of the season to now. He looks stronger every game and he was said to be a "late bloomer" when we signed him and someone said that we were originally planning to redshirt him his freshman year but were unable to do so due to other injuries on the team. If he gains confidence in his natural scoring abilities he will be a real asset off the bench. The kid has good penetrating skills when he tries, its just his lack of confidence holding him back. Defensively he is doing just fine, and he even grabbed some rebounds on Saturday when the situation was a must. We out rebounded Northeastern, I was impressed by that stat.
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