Monday, September 29, 2014

More on Nate Grimes going with Fresno

The Fresno Bee reports on Nate Grimes giving a verbal to Fresno State.

Speculation has Woodcreek High (Sacramento area) guard Noah Blackwell being the next in line for Bulldog Coach Rodney Terry. He's another with very solid offers.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Grimes to Fresno

Las Vegas prepster Nate Grimes, a 6-foot-7 forward, has announced his commitment: "I Nate Paul Grimes have decided to take my talents to the Fresno St Bulldogs and Head Coach Rodney Terry!"

Another link.

The young man has a solid chance to be a gamechanger in college. He could have gone to the Pac-12 (Washington State, the Big 10 (Iowa), everyone's favorite underdog (Wichita State) plus USF, Boise State and Utah State.

Our post on Grimes from August 30.

In our best Allen Iverson 'practice' imitation: "But we're talking about Fresno man. What are we talking about? Fresno? We're talking about Fresno, man. [laughter from the media crowd] We're talking about Fresno. We're talking about Fresno..."

Who in the hell visit Fresno and comes away thinking, "Man' I want to be there'?

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Spartans looking at 2016 frontcourter

From Corey Evans: "2016 Prolific Prep (CA) big Algevon Eichelbeger was seen by SJSU yesterday and expects to have Oregon State in the gym today."

This is mystifying

Geoff Grammer tweeted: "After being at last year's Mountain West hoops media day, I get why they aren't having it. Just not enough media covering the league."

Huh?

Spartans at Archbishop Mitty

From AMHS Basketball: "Big thanks to San Jose St. & @CoachLepore making it out to open gym tonight & spending some time with the coaching staff."

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Duruisseau with two offers

Premier Ball tweeted: "2015 6'9 C Devenir Duruisseau; Fishbourne Prep, just got offered by James Madison and Old Dominion today."

He's the former Spartan commit and, just for the sake of accuracy, he doesn't (yet) measure 6-foot-9.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Utah State lands a wing

Via Verbal Commits"2015 Lee Academy (ME) F Dusan Majstorovic has committed to Utah State."

From New England Scouting Report:

Dusan Majstorovic traveled from Serbia to upstate Maine and Lee Academy for a chance to play division I college basketball and now he’ll be heading to Utah to realize that dream.  

Majstorovic committed to Utah State on Sunday night, ending a recruiting process that began a year ago when he first arrived.  

The six-foot-five swingman is best known for his ability to shoot the ball from long range.  He was one of Lee’s primary outside threats and best overall players last year as a senior, but still opted to return as a post-grad in hopes of earning that division I scholarship. 

Utah State is a program that is well known for their offensive efficiency and complicated half-court sets and Majstorovic should be well suited for that with his high skill level and basketball I.Q. ...

Spartans offer a Mizzou prep guard

Via Verbal Commits"2016 Christian Brothers (MO) G Christian Willis has received an offer from San Jose State."

He's 6-foot-2, 190 pounds and his team won the Division 5 state championship last March, with Willis totaling 13 points.

Indiana State and Belmont are currently showing interest.

Wyoming has a five man class coming in

How are they doing it up in Laramie?

The coaching staff will sign five new prospects come November and the class includes three guys out of Florida and one from southern California.

A snippet:
"...What also has stood out in talking to all five of these commitments is how they — and their coaches — spoke highly of the way UW recruited them. The three Florida kids all said that coach Larry Shyatt and his staff made them feel like Laramie was “a second home” for them..."
A second home that offers temperatures from December through February (if not longer) that range from painful to excruciating.

Friday, September 19, 2014

SJSU in the running

From Mark Miller: "North Dakota State, San Jose State and St. Joseph among the leaders for West De Pere's Cody Schwartz. Wash. State also showing interest."

Here's a late July article on Schwartz.

Here's more.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

More dumping on Fresno

Just asking: how is Fresno one of the least educated cities in America with a university right there? link to Forbes article


Monday, September 15, 2014

Boise gets a in-state verbal

Boise State lands the top recruit out of Idaho -- it helps to be the top sports school in the state.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

MWC needing some breakout talents

There is always the possibility of breakout stars coming to the fore but these three  national prognostications don't bode well for the major media 'discovering' Mountain West Conference talent in 2014-15.

David Gardner's top 20 big men for 2014-15 contains no players from the MWC.

Chris Johnson's top 20 wing players for 2014-15 contains two players from the MWC:

WINSTON SHEPARD
San Diego State
Height: 6-8
Weight: 205
Class: Junior

Last season, Shepard began to show why he was rated one of the top small forwards in the class of 2012. The rangy forward more than doubled his scoring average, upped his rebounding and improved his free throw shooting while playing lockdown defense. After losing do-everything guard and leading scorer Xavier Thames this offseason, the Aztecs will need Shepard to make an even bigger jump in 2014-15. Shepard has the athletic tools to develop into one of the nation’s top two-way players, but his jump shot is inconsistent – he hit 16.2 percent of his 37 three-point attempts and 29.9 percent of his two-point jump shots last season, according to hoop-math.com – and it’s hard to say how he’ll take to a more prominent offensive role. Yet even if he can’t replicate Thames’ production, Shepard and a strong supporting cast should again make San Diego State one of the top teams on the West Coast.

RASHAD VAUGHN
UNLV
Height: 6-6
Weight: 200

After losing seven players this offseason – including guard Deville Smith, who would have been the team’s top returning scorer – the Rebels need Vaughn to produce immediately. Vaughn, who averaged 19.9 points per game in his senior season at Findlay (Nev.) Prep and was rated as the No. 8 player in the class of 2014 by Rivals.com, can attack the basket off the dribble and knock down outside shots. Though some have critiqued his shot selection, the Rebels will have to tolerate a larger volume of attempts than is ideal if it results in enough scoring; UNLV ranked 120th nationally in offensive efficiency last season. Vaughn headlines a heralded recruiting class that also features five-star wing Dwayne Morgan and big man Goodluck Okonoboh.

Brian Hamilton's top 20 guards in college hoops contains no players from the MWC.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Blackmon goes with the Gauchos

2015 Utah prep prospect Jariesse Blackmon has given a verbal commitment to UC Santa Barbara, who offered in mid-August. The 6-foot-6  forward was also offered in late June by San Jose State University but that may have been pulled when 6-foot-7 Arizona high schooler Brandon Clarke committed to the Spartans at the end of July. Clarke took an official to Washington Square on August 28.

What is it with the Boise State schedule?

The Boise State basketball schedule is a strange one, ranging from top notch opponents to ridiculous ones.

Examples:

Opening the season against LaVerne (Shirley must be busy) and then Montana Tech but such can be given a pass since so many programs begin the slate with a cream puff or two.

Then there's a rough stretch versus Wisconsin, North Carolina State and St. Mary's, all on the road.

But that is followed by home matchups with Adams State and Northwest Nazarene and a tournament in Las Vegas versus Southern Utah and Abilene Christian.

Such a non conference slate isn't (in Seinfeldian terms) season ticket worthy. It's actually rather embarrassing.

Friday, September 12, 2014

USU with a 7-footer

Utah State has a seven-footer on the roster: Bilal Begic, out of Sarajevo. Just try and find some background on him -- so who knows what to expect.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

SJSU checking out a 2016 big

Via Kenny Mullins: "Cincinnati, Rice, Grand Canyon, Cal Poly, San Jose St, and Portland St were all in gym yesterday to check out 2016 6'10" F Devin Kirby."

He's at Basha High in Chandler, Arizona and Kirby was listed as 6-foot-8, 185 as a sophomore. His 6-foot-9 brother signed with Virginia Teach out of high school, redshirted there for a season and now is at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas.

Monday, September 8, 2014

New Mexico receives a future commitment

New Mexico has landed a heralded 2016 prep frontcourter from Arizona, per Geoff Grammer.

Arizona State, UNLV, Creighton and Utah also offered Mitch Lightfoot.

This is the level of potential SJSU has to begin nabbing if the hope is to compete in the top half of the Mountain West Conference. But such wasn't going to happen in Coach Wojcik's initial recruiting class, nor the one he is currently composing. By the third year, yes, one per class at the very least.

Neal with a pay raise

New Mexico Coach Craig "Noodles" Neal just received a $200k pay raise so Geoff Grammer offered this delicious lede in his story: "The price of Noodles just went up at the University of New Mexico."

Hey, it's Monday -- we need all the humor that's available.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Fresno State loses a commit

Via Verbal Commits: "2015 Rowlett (TX)/Fresno State commit G Michael Kolawole is reopening his recruitment."

He committed in early August.

From Corey Evans: "Would advise a lot of the HM programs looking for scorer with size in 15 to give heavy look at Michael Kolawole. Kid was tremendous in July."

Who knows the whole story but the young man and the Bulldog basketball staff but Evans' post makes it sound like Kolawole wants to go higher.

USU gets a shooting guard verbal

Via John Gershon: "Utah State has landed a 2015 commitment from in-state SG Brock Miller, per a source."

From Tony Jones: "Brock Miller had offers from Stanford, Boston College and Harvard. Tremendous recruiting win for Stew Morrill, Chris Jones and the Aggies."

From Miller's own site: "Older Brothers Corbin (Harvard) and Brandon (U of Utah) are both currently serving LDS missions. Corbin returns home from Mexico in May of 2014 and will be back for his sophomore season at Harvard for the 2014-2015 season. Brandon is due to return home in February 2015 and will be a freshman at the U of Utah for the 2015-2016 season. Brock is a good student and currently holds a 3.97 GPA."

Not sure when he will serve his LDS mission.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

New Mexico at #67

College Sports Madness projects New Mexico as the 67th best team in the country for the 2014-15 season.

The projected starting five:

* Hugh Greenwood, Senior, Guard, 6.2 points per game
* Cullen Neal, Sophomore, Guard, 7.1 points per game
* Deshawn Delaney, Senior, Guard, 5.3 points per game
* Jordan Goodman, Junior, Forward, DNP last season
* Obij Aget, Sophomore, Center, 1.3 points per game

So no 6-foot-10 Cameron Bairstow, no 6-foot-11 Alex Kirk and no 6-foot-2 Kendall Williams and still #67!