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Post by mudman on Jan 18, 2015 23:46:19 GMT -5
Billy just loves to recruit guards. Ralph got many good big men even in D 2. You reap what you sew. We will always be thin on underneath personnel as long as Billy is here. Look at next years recruits. No changes.
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Post by Big D on Jan 18, 2015 23:50:47 GMT -5
Next year we have six players underneath: Karena, Ernsthausen, Lett, R Davis, S Davis, Yoho.
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Post by Doliboabros on Jan 18, 2015 23:58:23 GMT -5
Billy just loves to recruit guards. Brownell ran a 3 guard system here. Donlon has followed suit. Are you just now figuring this out?
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Post by uptempo on Jan 19, 2015 1:33:41 GMT -5
Billy just loves to recruit guards. Brownell ran a 3 guard system here. Donlon has followed suit. Are you just now figuring this out? Didn't Brownell have 5 guys taller than 6 foot 9 inch his first year here? After checking looks like BB had 4 guys over 6'8'' in 2007, next years team will be one of the biggest teams ever. Will be interesting to see how it works out.
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Post by dogbert on Jan 19, 2015 9:22:19 GMT -5
Yes 6 tall guys next year... problem, probably 3 projects in that group. I would love to be wrong. Time will tell!
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Post by Big D on Jan 19, 2015 9:54:09 GMT -5
Didn't Brownell have 5 guys taller than 6 foot 9 inch his first year here? . No. Our inside depth his first year was Plieman (6-8), Drew Burleson (6-6 or 6-7) and Scottie Wilson (6-7). That was it. Ronnie Thomas might have been on our roster but he sitting out after transferring. We made the NCAAs that year because we had 3 great guards.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Jan 19, 2015 10:22:06 GMT -5
The real problem is that WSU seems to have a problem recruiting college-ready big men. It's been the typical MO for our staff to take guys that would typically play the 3 or maybe the 4, and put them at the 4 and 5. However, some of the other schools in the league obviously figured out how to draw in big guys, and we are being forced to do what we can. It's promising to see the guys that are bulking up while sitting out this season. I think it also boils down to the increase dominance in basketball across the board...mid major programs are becoming more and more competitive, and you really don't have very many purely dominating teams across college basketball...talent is being spread out better now then ever before...so big guys who want to compete really have a lot of options. Karena had 5 D1 offers, R.Davis had 10...yet somehow were lured to WSU. However, our two big guys sitting out this season had 1 combined other D1 options. I speculate big guys look at our program, and see a guard-based program, and look to play in a program where they will have a better opportunity to succeed. I think this is the real driver why we aren't getting Alec Brown-esque players coming right out of high school. We've been very complacent in dealing with what we have. Hopefully next year we can turn the page.
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Post by mudman on Jan 19, 2015 13:21:12 GMT -5
I certainly couldn't have said it better wsuraider09. Whenever another team comes in with a true big man like George Mason or Cleveland State we are dead meat. We need someone whose sole job is to rebound and block shots and average 5 points a game. Not happening.
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Post by Raider Grad on Jan 19, 2015 13:34:40 GMT -5
The real problem is that WSU seems to have a problem recruiting college-ready big men. It's been the typical MO for our staff to take guys that would typically play the 3 or maybe the 4, and put them at the 4 and 5. However, some of the other schools in the league obviously figured out how to draw in big guys, and we are being forced to do what we can. It's promising to see the guys that are bulking up while sitting out this season. I think it also boils down to the increase dominance in basketball across the board...mid major programs are becoming more and more competitive, and you really don't have very many purely dominating teams across college basketball...talent is being spread out better now then ever before...so big guys who want to compete really have a lot of options. Karena had 5 D1 offers, R.Davis had 10...yet somehow were lured to WSU. However, our two big guys sitting out this season had 1 combined other D1 options. I speculate big guys look at our program, and see a guard-based program, and look to play in a program where they will have a better opportunity to succeed. I think this is the real driver why we aren't getting Alec Brown-esque players coming right out of high school. We've been very complacent in dealing with what we have. Hopefully next year we can turn the page. There aren't really any schools in the HL bringing in big men that step right in with college ready bodies ready to compete. You brought up Alex Brown. He is arguable the best center to come out of the HL in the last 10 years and he didn't even come to Green Bay with a college ready body. He was 6-11, 200# when he stepped on campus at Green Bay. Most mid-major post players take a few years to develop into solid players. Besides Brown, can you name another post player on any current HL team that came in and had a real impact right away? I honestly can only think of D1 transfers and JUCO posts that had immediate impact for most schools. I agree that we have been at a disadvantage recruiting big men to Wright State. That is in part because we run a guard oriented system, but more so because we haven't developed many big men under Brownell or Donlon. Brownell only developed one big man when he was at WSU: Cory Cooperwood. Until recently Donlon hasn't either. We have 3 former Donlon big men making a living playing basketball now: Cooper Land, Cole Darling, and AJ Pacher. Karena and Yoho will join that list after next season. That should help our big men recruiting in the future. Every kid, even at the mid-major level, has the dream of playing pro ball. Having former players making a living playing ball overseas is going to help us in the long run.
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Post by dogbert on Jan 19, 2015 16:06:05 GMT -5
I'm just asking but do you really think telling a high school recruit, hey we have a guy playing pro ball in Turkey helps getting him on campus? I'm also going to say if guys who were pretty average like Cole or Matt are good enough to play overseas, don't you think that schools we are recruiting against have their own laundry list of players who are also playing overseas? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that some of our former players are playing pro ball on some level, but unless you're telling a 17 year old baller that we have a couple of guys in the NBA, they aren't listening.
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Post by mudman on Jan 20, 2015 11:12:08 GMT -5
Of the five players mentioned (big men) only Cooperwood (a Junior College transfer) and Karena (Junior college transfer) were comfortable in the post. The other three were essentially big perimeter players. So these Junior College guys essentially have most of their skills before the even get here. So I will believe the impact our two redshirts have when I see it.
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Post by Big D on Jan 20, 2015 15:02:34 GMT -5
Of the five players mentioned (big men) only Cooperwood (a Junior College transfer) and Karena (Junior college transfer) were comfortable in the post. The other three were essentially big perimeter players. So these Junior College guys essentially have most of their skills before the even get here. So I will believe the impact our two redshirts have when I see it. Bull shit. AJ started out as a perimeter player as a freshman and turned into a back to the basket post player by his senior year.
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Post by ohiopirate on Jan 20, 2015 15:56:40 GMT -5
Big D beat me to it but anyone that says AJ, Cooper, or more recently JT haven't improved in the post in their time at WSU simply just has an agenda to bash Donlon or hasn't been paying attention.
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Post by bleedgreenngold on Jan 27, 2015 10:32:07 GMT -5
And when BD does recruit big guys, it doesn't help when he can't hold onto them. Most recently, look at Daniel Meyer. Sat out last year, would be a redshirt freshman but instead transferred to Nebraska-Omaha who just moved to D-1 in a cpl years ago. Sure he has only played in 13 games, but has averaged 6.0 minutes in those games and done something with them (2.1 PPG, 2.2 RPG). One thing I also like is he only has 2 TO in those 78 minutes. And I would be willing to bet he would see a lot more production on this team seeing as we are so thin, so why couldnt BD keep him? Also, I'm sure he would be a substantial upgrade over true freshman R. Davis (19 games played, 6.6 MPG, 0.6 PPG, 0.6 RPG).
Anybody who hasn't admitted BD is a trash head coach/recuiter, is oblivious.
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Post by wolf41 on Jan 27, 2015 12:03:15 GMT -5
A friend of ours, who happens to be a UD fan, but who likes WSU as well, says the so-called "word-on-the-street" is that Donlon isn't a D-I coach. Whether he is or isn't is beyond my pay grade. He has been given a good time line to prove himself at WSU. At the end of that time the powers that be will have to decide, by his recruiting, schedulng, and record if he is a coach likely to lead WSU to greater success in the future in terms of NCAA/NIT appearances and top 3 or 4 finishes in the current HL. In time, if the HL becomes diluted in terms of its quality of teams even that final criteria may not be very meaningful. Personally I think Donlon and the Commish are both on the line, or should be, for their futures. For starters, next season I'd like to see us play a stronger schedule with 50% of our games at home with a team that is competative in every game. If that comes to past I will be in his corner.
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