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Post by ptctitan on Mar 14, 2019 7:44:00 GMT -5
Also, remember what coaches say publicly about recruiting goals can be intentionally misleading information for competitive reasons.
Clearly, we want and need more size in the middle. We need a point guard. And we need replacements for King and Holland on the wings. We have 5 scholarships and an open walk-on slot, Gjysma. A signed NLI from Clyde Drexler's nephew, J. Pink.
We'll know more in about 4 -5 weeks. Once HS tournaments end and visits begin.
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Post by Commissioner on Mar 14, 2019 7:52:48 GMT -5
I suspect we'll have at least one transfer out and thus up to six scholarships (plus the already signed Pink) that can be awarded.
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Post by Commissioner on Mar 14, 2019 8:32:21 GMT -5
I'm just posting those Grad transfer names now because Davis seems to want 3 or 4 of them and honestly, he and his staff haven't proved they can get a good player from high school (like one of the Chicago kids) when recruiting vs other similar mid majors. [I'm not counting Davis, the coach's son and his buddy Pink, whom I'm not convinced is a talent yet (is he even playing High School Ball this season??)]. Also, remember what coaches say publicly about recruiting goals can be intentionally misleading information for competitive reasons. Clearly, we want and need more size in the middle. We need a point guard. And we need replacements for King and Holland on the wings. We have 5 scholarships and an open walk-on slot, Gjysma. A signed NLI from Clyde Drexler's nephew, J. Pink. We'll know more in about 4 -5 weeks. Once HS tournaments end and visits begin. It will be interesting, to be sure. It's surprising how little we know about Pink. His early on-line profiles (HUDL, MaxPreps, etc.) list him as Class of '18. Could be an error, but it could be he reclassified and finished high school eligibility last year. Most of those guys do a "prep" year, but not all--he could be working out in privately with John Lucas, etc. I don't have any idea. Pink doesn't seem to have been highly recruited or ranked. He had a reported offer from Monmouth. When signing him, Coach commented a lot about his work ethic. Pink's coach at Houston's Clear Lake HS, by the way, was Tommy Penders, Jr., whom I presume is the son of long-time college coach Tom Penders (Fordham, Rhode Island, Texas, GW, Houston). Very happy to have Coach Davis and I think he'll be successful--that's the predicate for this next comment. My one concern is whether he's really ready to recruit at Detroit. At Texas Southern, he could use his extensive contacts and some name power, and get some hard working kids (as he often notes, without leaving campus), and that was enough to dominate the SWAC. The Horizon, for all it's problems, plays a considerably better brand of ball than the SWAC. Meanwhile, Tracy Dildy spent several years as head man at Chicago State. Recognizing that Chicago State is an almost impossible job, I still note that while Dildy appears to have been much respected around Chicago, he wasn't able to up the talent level at Chicago State, and we've yet to close the deal with any of several Chicago area kids we've offered. I really appreciate Davis's emphasis on getting kids who want to work hard and play in the system. But at some point, you do have to jack up the raw talent level a bit, too. Again, I'm not criticizing or even being particularly skeptical. I'm just pointing out that this is the big question mark for the program right now. Last year was desperation mode--Davis did extremely well to bring in the talent he did and put a respectable team on the floor (though absent Antoine, we probably would have been a 4 to 6 win team). But this year will tell us a lot more.
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Post by titantarheel on Mar 14, 2019 8:48:51 GMT -5
I'm just posting those Grad transfer names now because Davis seems to want 3 or 4 of them and honestly, he and his staff haven't proved they can get a good player from high school (like one of the Chicago kids) when recruiting vs other similar mid majors. [I'm not counting Davis, the coach's son and his buddy Pink, whom I'm not convinced is a talent yet (is he even playing High School Ball this season??)]. Also, remember what coaches say publicly about recruiting goals can be intentionally misleading information for competitive reasons. Clearly, we want and need more size in the middle. We need a point guard. And we need replacements for King and Holland on the wings. We have 5 scholarships and an open walk-on slot, Gjysma. A signed NLI from Clyde Drexler's nephew, J. Pink. We'll know more in about 4 -5 weeks. Once HS tournaments end and visits begin. It will be interesting, to be sure. It's surprising how little we know about Pink. His early on-line profiles (HUDL, MaxPreps, etc.) list him as Class of '18. Could be an error, but it could be he reclassified and finished high school eligibility last year. Most of those guys do a "prep" year, but not all--he could be working out in privately with John Lucas, etc. I don't have any idea. Pink doesn't seem to have been highly recruited or ranked. He had a reported offer from Monmouth. When signing him, Coach commented a lot about his work ethic. Pink's coach at Houston's Clear Lake HS, by the way, was Tommy Penders, Jr., whom I presume is the son of long-time college coach Tom Penders (Fordham, Rhode Island, Texas, GW, Houston). Very happy to have Coach Davis and I think he'll be successful--that's the predicate for this next comment. My one concern is whether he's really ready to recruit at Detroit. At Texas Southern, he could use his extensive contacts and some name power, and get some hard working kids (as he often notes, without leaving campus), and that was enough to dominate the SWAC. The Horizon, for all it's problems, plays a considerably better brand of ball than the SWAC. Meanwhile, Tracy Dildy spent several years as head man at Chicago State. Recognizing that Chicago State is an almost impossible job, I still note that while Dildy appears to have been much respected around Chicago, he wasn't able to up the talent level at Chicago State, and we've yet to close the deal with any of several Chicago area kids we've offered. I really appreciate Davis's emphasis on getting kids who want to work hard and play in the system. But at some point, you do have to jack up the raw talent level a bit, too. Again, I'm not criticizing or even being particularly skeptical. I'm just pointing out that this is the big question mark for the program right now. Last year was desperation mode--Davis did extremely well to bring in the talent he did and put a respectable team on the floor (though absent Antoine, we probably would have been a 4 to 6 win team). But this year will tell us a lot more. This is a GREAT recap of where things are at in the Davis recruiting era at UD, and I agree with it all. He passed the first test in somehow assembling a roster out of nothing last summer to field a relatively competitive team. This is a new phase now and it should tell us alot about the future with this offseason's signings. I'm okay going Juco/Grad transfer route for a few guys. I think its been expressed on here that the reality of success for a mid major probably means a mix of high school kids, and some transfers in. Heck UD has been getting impactful transfers in for a LONG time now including some of the bigger contributors. For all the warts of our team and record the past few years, there are certainly some appealing aspects right now in coming to be a Titan. Seasoned coaching staff with terrific basketball world connections, playing alongside the highly talented Antoine, the chance to come contribute and win. I don't know if the Titans have been this appealing to recruits for several years now (perhaps the off season we signed the Western boys Josh and Gerald?) Get to work Coach! Make us great!
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 14, 2019 9:00:20 GMT -5
The same concerns were voiced about Dicky V. It took him 2 years to prove he could.
As a comparison, and posed simply as a question, who has Kampe recruited recently out of Detroit? Tray Maddox. He has been successful recently in getting transfers back; e.g., Dorsey-Walker, Walker, Newman. He does seem to have a link to the western part of the State with Brechting and Beck. The core of this year's team came from out of State. Cumberland and Norris from Ohio. Hill-Mais from NC. Scott from PA. Pittman from Chicago. Sowunmi from an academy in Georgia. In recent years, however, he has not been all that successful in recruiting Detroit if you mean by that phrase, getting Detroit area high school players that are important parts of his roster.
So, I question whether recruiting Detroit is all that important.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2019 10:21:49 GMT -5
I'm still hoping for some straight out of high school big men. Two I'd like to see--and I admit, I don't know much about them beyond a touch of highlight reel, a couple press stories, other reported offers, and some gut--are Rashaun Agee and Eric Rustin. Agee is a 6-7/6-8 forward out of Chicago. Although he had a pretty good senior year (if the local Chicago press is to be believed) he hasn't added much to his offer sheet since we offered last summer. Buffalo would be objectively his top offer right now, based on on-court performance, and he's got a couple other mid-majors I think would rank below the Titans--Milwaukee, Northern Illinois (he may like the close to home aspect of both) and Tennessee Martin. Rustin is the 7 footer at a Tennessee Prep school. A 7' guy without high major offers probably isn't that good, right? But he is 7' tall. He's got a couple other solid mid-major offers in Santa Clara and Miami (Oh), plus Tennessee State and a bunch of SWAC/MEAC schools. Also, there's Kasean Pryor, a 6-8 forward at Ann Arbor Pioneer. He's got some solid offers (New Mexico, St. Louis, Drake). It seems like we could be in contention for all three of these guys. We do need immediate help, and that might emphasize a juco or grad transfer. But hopefully that juco/grad transfer fills in while some good freshman/sophs are working their way up. These three all seem within our reach and like pretty good pick ups. From today's Chicago Sun Times, they rank the top remaining Class 4A and Class 3A (these are the largest 2 enrollment classes) college prospects, regardless of class (academic grade), who will be playing in Peoria for the state tourney. www.suntimeshighschoolsports.com/2019/03/14/ranking-the-top-10-prospects-playing-in-peoria/
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Post by Commissioner on Mar 14, 2019 11:08:40 GMT -5
The same concerns were voiced about Dicky V. It took him 2 years to prove he could. As a comparison, and posed simply as a question, who has Kampe recruited recently out of Detroit? Tray Maddox. He has been successful recently in getting transfers back; e.g., Dorsey-Walker, Walker, Newman. He does seem to have a link to the western part of the State with Brechting and Beck. The core of this year's team came from out of State. Cumberland and Norris from Ohio. Hill-Mais from NC. Scott from PA. Pittman from Chicago. Sowunmi from an academy in Georgia. In recent years, however, he has not been all that successful in recruiting Detroit if you mean by that phrase, getting Detroit area high school players that are important parts of his roster. So, I question whether recruiting Detroit is all that important. By "at Detroit," I mean "at the University of Detroit," not "from the Detroit area." I don't care where they are from. I think the Vitale comparison is WAY off the mark. Vitale hit the recruiting market like gangbusters. His first class--the one recruited the spring and summer after he was hired--included Ron Bostic, Wilbur Ross, and Dennis Boyd, three major contributors to the quality teams that followed over the next 4 years. His second class--the one signed at this same point in Davis's tenure--included John Long, Terry Tyler, Kevin Kaseta, Dave Grauzer, and Turono Anderson. I don't know when those guys all committed, and of course it was a very different world back then. But Vitale came out smokin' on the recruiting market, and within a year of his hiring had two excellent classes in the bag, the second of which was one of the best in the country.
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Post by titantarheel on Mar 18, 2019 12:04:20 GMT -5
With the high school season over, I'm going to continue my campaign that we offer PG Julian Dozier from UD Jesuit. He reportedly has an offer from Oakland, and it'll really burn to see him go up there and have a fine career. He's a talented player, scorer and distributor who can patiently run an offense.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2019 12:07:39 GMT -5
With the high school season over, I'm going to continue my campaign that we offer PG Julian Dozier from UD Jesuit. He reportedly has an offer from Oakland, and it'll really burn to see him go up there and have a fine career. He's a talented player, scorer and distributor who can patiently run an offense. Back in October, I posted this, so it looks like there may be some mutual interest:
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Post by Commissioner on Mar 18, 2019 13:57:34 GMT -5
One of Dildy's former players And at 2.9 points and 2.6 rebounds per game at Chicago State, well, ... He's 6-9, 230 lbs, so he is size.
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Post by motorcitysam on Mar 18, 2019 15:49:21 GMT -5
With the high school season over, I'm going to continue my campaign that we offer PG Julian Dozier from UD Jesuit. He reportedly has an offer from Oakland, and it'll really burn to see him go up there and have a fine career. He's a talented player, scorer and distributor who can patiently run an offense. I'd be happy with Dozier for a couple of reasons. First, he's very talented, and should be a very good player at this level. Second, that UDJ program continues to pump out D1 players and I'd love to land one of those guys and start making some inroads there. That should be a natural mutually beneficial relationship.
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 18, 2019 17:13:52 GMT -5
Daniel Utomi of Akron is going the grad transfer route. 6'6" 215 lbs. Scored 13 against us. I bring up this player because he is from Houston and is eligible immediately for next season.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2019 17:57:50 GMT -5
Daniel Utomi of Akron is going the grad transfer route. 6'6" 215 lbs. Scored 13 against us. I bring up this player because he is from Houston and is eligible immediately for next season. I think you missed this one It was already posted 6 hours ago. 😁
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Post by Commissioner on Mar 18, 2019 19:15:31 GMT -5
Derrik Smits is leaving Valpo. I remember when he committed there, as a "3-star" 7 footer it was a big deal. He never quite lived up to expectations, but he's been good. My guess is he will want to go higher major--I don't know why else he would leave Valpo, as he'll get PT next year, there's no coaching change, and Valpo is a good situation for a mid-major-- and someone will want a 7 foot grad transfer who averaged 12ppg/6rpg in the MVC.
Unique McLean from UMass is transferring. Coach Ray offered McLean real early. He ended up with a bunch of offers, including Rutgers, Dayton, Rhode Island, etc. He's been a bit of a disappointment at UMass, and his playing time was cut this year. He'd be an odd one, because he already took a redshirt year, but he's not a grad student (unless he's graduated in 3 years). So you'd give up two years scholarship and only get 1 year of plya, unless he got a waiver on the 5 year rule. And his name is certainly Unique. Heh heh.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2019 20:25:30 GMT -5
Derrik Smits is leaving Valpo. I remember when he committed there, as a "3-star" 7 footer it was a big deal. He never quite lived up to expectations, but he's been good. My guess is he will want to go higher major--I don't know why else he would leave Valpo, as he'll get PT next year, there's no coaching change, and Valpo is a good situation for a mid-major-- and someone will want a 7 foot grad transfer who averaged 12ppg/6rpg in the MVC I read he will be declaring for the NBA draft, but may withdraw and transfer after the evaluation period
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