Wednesday, September 30, 2015

MWC predictions

Geoff Grammer/Albuquerque Journal reports on predictions from Athlon, Sporting News and Lindy's magazines on the 2016 finish in the Mountain West Conference plus the top talents. SJSU is predicted to finish last by all three. Athlon also has no SJSU players on any of its three all-conference teams.

He also writes: "...Preseason media ballots for all-Mountain West voting are due Monday. The league’s coaches have again asked select media around the conference to handle the preseason voting, and the coaches will not conduct any preseason polls. Those picks should be made public during the two-day media conference in Las Vegas in mid-October..."

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

SJSU & Falls again

Via The NorCal Report: "Cal, Montana, & San Jose St expected to be at open gym tonight at Dublin HS to see our #3 2017 SG Timmy Falls (@TF1000_)."

Monday, September 28, 2015

Falls, Fadal and SJSU

Via The NorCal Report"#3 Timmy Falls (@TF1000_) and #12 Austin Fadal (@A_Fadal) scrimmaged Saturday afternoon with San Jose St."

Timmy Falls:


Austin Fadal is also a 6-foot-3 2017 backcourter.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Fascinating tweet

From Ballers Bridge about 6-foot-6 junior Darrin Person out of the Fresno area: "@userdpj32 is hearing from Fresno State, Nevada, UCSB, Portland, San Jose State & St. Mary's. 2017 F is one to watch."

SJSU and Fresno have offered. So has Cal State Bakersfield but Person becoming a Roadrunner would be the recruiting shock of the century.

Person is likely to commit around this time next season. Now he's not in the program-changer category but rather a solid cog for a winning team. So how can the Spartans finish on top in this chase?

Fresno has a solid group of talents and should be MWC competitive in 2015-16, plus, never count Rodney Terry out in any recruiting challenge, especially with a hometowner. The Bulldogs have a 6-foot-7 freshman who should own the small forward spot for some years and that will make the San Joaquin a tough sell.

Nevada is on a recruiting roll so Coach Musselman may not have Person at the top of his wish list or may go/be going in a different direction considering who he has proven access to.

UC Santa Barbara will have playing time available to be earned but let's see how the Gauchos do post-Alan Williams who carried the team the past couple of seasons. The beach next to campus is always an element Santa Barbara coaches keep in their respective back pockets.

Portland has playing in the West Coast Conference as a lure but opposing coaches will continue to hammer on the Pilots inability to ever finish in front of Gonzaga, BYU and even St. Mary's.

It's hard to go after St. Mary's in almost any area but the Gaels do already have a pair of young small forwards and that may be a turnoff.

Proactively for the Spartans, finishing ahead of Fresno State overall and taking both matchups this season would help. But that will certainly be a challenge. Ending with a winning record, especially so in conference, would majestically aid the matter. Probably most important of all, getting Person to strongly connect with Coach Wojcik is the biggest aspect of all. Such often eliminates most other roadblocks. The new fiscally-induced emphasis on landing prospects from in-state makes the landing of this kid even more important.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Chris Murray on Musselman's recruiting

Chris Murray goes deeper into the question "Is Musselman the Pack's best recruiter ever?"

Remember, this is a coach really just into his first full recruiting period. The evidence, including northern California'ers Cameron OliverKenny Wooten and Shawn Smith, makes for a pretty strong case.

The Runnin' Rebels will finally live up to their name

Taylor Bern writes that fast-paced offensive and defensive systems for UNLV seem likely to finally make an appearance in the 2015-16 season.

Matt Youmans covers the same subject.

Terrell Brown

Did a feature on new SJSU commit 6-foot-1 guard Terrell Brown for the NorCal Preps site but it's behind the subscription wall.

An excerpt: "Here's Frank Knight, the Moreau High head coach, on his senior guard: “Terrell played JV here at Moreau Catholic and was really what we would call a late bloomer. He did not come in with all the hype like many others and I think that's what motivated him to work on his game, a true chip on his shoulder. Terrell's best basketball is ahead of him. He has a super high ceiling and I think he was a steal for San Jose State. He will give that conference problems for four years.”


A James Jenkins update

Very few Spartan basketball fans will remember 6-foot-7 James Jenkins. After his freshman year as a walk-on to the men's basketball team, he died in an accidental fall while hiking.

Here's more on the tragedy.

And even more.

The latest is that his mother had dedicated a bench to her son close to where his life ended.

Jenkins had a real chance to become a solid contributor to SJSU basketball. Even more important, he sounds like someone who was a great teammate, wonderful to be around.


Monday, September 21, 2015

A Jamie Craighead interview

Switching things up a bit, Alleywhoops provides a Q-and-A with SJSU Coach Jamie Craighead.

Musselman doin' it in Reno

Coach Eric Musselman has fast become a game-changer for Wolf Pack hoops. Now, he has landed a top-ranked JC power forward away from Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Missouri and Memphis and others as Chris Murray reports.

Brad Winton tweeted: "Arlando Cook (6'8/F/2016) from Connors State has committed to Nevada. Big addition for them. Impact player next season."

Two tweets from Murray:

"It's early, but is it fair to say Eric Musselman is best recruiter Nevada has had? All eight of his signees had P5 offers, most had many."

and


"Of course, we have to see how the players turn out but I can't remember a Wolf Pack coach who routinely beat BCS-level programs for players."