Just wanted to see how everyone feels about their respective recruiting classes on this first official day of signing. Did anyone's team sign some promising players? Do you believe your team filled in some gaps?
With respect to the Bucs...I think we've signed some outstanding players. Then again, I thought we had a strong recruiting class last year too--and that obviously didn't translate into victories.

Info. on our signees can be found at http://www.etsubucs.com

Mercer so far:

Calvin Henry - 6' 6" Guard (JC Transfer - Orlando)

Michael Ellis - 6' 5" Guard (Transfer from UNC Asheville - Big South Freshman of the Year - Eligible in 07-08)

Bejay Corley - 6' 7" Forward (Freshman - Marietta, GA)

Brendan Walker - No article on player that I can find

Lionel Saban - No article on player that I can find


Henry sounds awesome for immediate impact, and Ellis sounds outstanding but will have to wait til 07-08 to see. Ellis will have 3 years of eligibility with Mercer.

^^pretty good recuriting class. Ellis is gonna be worth the wait i promise u that. And corley is gonna help u out big time. pretty good size, and very very strong. he's not gonna get u much on the offensive end, but he prob will be you're best defensive player. i saw him play, and he loves blocking shots.

Kennesaw seems to have a pretty good class coming in as well. their finally getting some size. we signed alex cornett who's 6'10, and John allison from scottland who's 7 foot. Also Shawn Stegal who's 6'7, who redshirted last year will be playing along with marvin listabee who is 6'9. And we still have our 2 best players Ingle and Wooten and the only person we lost was Isreal ingle and he only played about 10 min a game. now that we have size..we should def contend for that conference title.

still cant believe mercer got ellis. good for you guys, cuz he'll be a-sun player of the year in 2 years.

KSU is doing EXACTLY what they need to do to build fast. RECRUIT FOREIGN PLAYERS. I've never understood why the ETSU program doesn't do it for basketball too... Heck, it works wonders with our tennis and golf programs, between the four teams, m and w golf, m and w tennis, there are LESS than five American players. I would redshirt those big guys this year, so when they are third year sophomores, I think you guys are eligible for postseason.
Our class looks solid, they addressed needs at the three guard, a true point guard, and a big man. I would have liked to have seen us get a good 6'11 or bigger guy, this league isn't known for really big guys, hence the advantage that Kennesaw will have.

I am pleased with KSU's obvious need to get some height in the paint. It was painful to watch as other teams would take rebounds from our fingertips. As the first year is coming to a close, i'm excited to see where all of our sports stand. Lady's basketball being the exception but i'm sure they will come up to par when the program builds more.

6'7, 6'9, 6'10, and a 7 footer for KSU next year??

That will be unreal if they have coordination. Also, I don't think Ingle is one of your best players, he seems like a liability to me. Sure he scores points, but it takes 20 shots and a 30% average. If he focuses on being the point guard and racking up assists, Wooten scores points, and those monsters control the paint... well then look out.

well i think his shooting was down because he hadnt played basketball in over 2 years. i think he'll improve that next year. but yea wooten athletically is by far and away the most talented player we have. i cant believe he wasnt picked up on by other d1 schools. i'm excited for kennesaw.

for etsu..looks like u had a solid recruiting class, hopefully for you're fans, you're team will do better this year. you all lost you're football team, and then you're school really didnt fulfill their promise of making b-ball a main priority. but i still cant wait to play ya'll again. those were some intense games. the first game was prob the conference game of the year and even though u blew us out the second time, it was evident that the teams did not like each other. i heard from a few etsu fans that that game was the most fun they had in a few years. wooten got ejected, which really hurt, cuz the very next game mercer took advantage of that and pulled out the W.

Yeah im amped about KSU this year. we are going to actually have a bench too! Im looking to see an NIT birth.

Even if you were to win the conference next year, as a provisional d1 member you're ineligible for any type of postseason. Kind of like being on NCAA probation. It's a terrible rule.

Actually i heard the NIT already said that if we can't be in the NCAA tourny they will extend an invite if we win the reg conf. championship. I think its just NCAA postseason.... im not sure if NCAA funds the NIT... but i dont think so. just what i heard.

The NCAA runs the NIT now, so not likely that you're eligible. It's still "postseason play"

are u sure? cuz i'm pretty sure i remember them saying on espn.com that if we win the conference we get an NIT berth.

Owlzfan84 Wrote:are u sure? cuz i'm pretty sure i remember them saying on espn.com that if we win the conference we get an NIT berth.

The NIT this year did promise invitations to any regular season conference champion who did not win their conference tournament and was not selected at-large by the NCAAs. However, they didn't specify whether or not they could/would take a team that was ineligible for the NCAAs...

I'm pretty sure no postseason play means no postseason play of any kind. I'm not 100%, but winning the regular season would impress me enough (KSU or UNF) :)

Let's hear from the other schools, any big recruits?? Who's the big ETSU man on campus now?

KSU and UNF are essentially on probation, ineligible for any postseason play at all.

Courtney Pigram will be our leading scorer next year, he's the most talented player on the squad. We'll be weak inside unless Nuckles decides to start being the player everyone thought he could be. Point guard is a BIG problem for us right now, unless this freshman coming in is just phenomenal, I believe his name is Twilley, we are in big trouble. This team is going to HAVE to learn to play 40 minutes of in your face pressure defense in the off-season to have success, I think offensively we can be okay, but as long as Justin Hare, Ronnell Wooten, and anyone who can shoot from the perimeter is in the league, we're in trouble, I don't believe we can outscore anybody.

I have to admit, I didn't think our guys would be intimidating other D-I schools so fast. Feels kinda good. I'm extremely pumped up about the basketball. It's definately something our school can finally find a little school spirit for.

Go team! ha...

at the start of the year..i thought we were gonna get destroyed. i was wondering why ingle had redshirted stegal and listabee, two guys that would really help get those rebounds. but now i'm glad he did. all the new guys got valuable playing experience. our team is probably the most well coached team in the league and now that were adding height, we wont get beat up on the inside and FINALLY be able to get those rebounds.

i think school spirt will get better every year. We had some good crowds this past year at the ETSU game and the Lipscomb game.

Nick M, you should definitely by encouraged by your teams quick progress. I have seen a lot of teams make that transition to D1 and get absolutely slaughtered. It also appears that your school has a number of huge factors in its favor--namely location, size of your school, and an athletic department who seems to have great leadership.

As Buc'lover pointed out, I think our two question marks for next year's team will definitely be at the point and in the post. However, we have signed an outstanding point guard in Dequan Twilley. He was recruited by Purdue, UT, UT(Chattanooga) and some others. How we got him...I have no idea. From what I hear, he can step in immediately and play at this level. In the post, we've signed a 6'8" PF from Lithuania who was also highly recruited, his name is Petras Balocka. 3 more recruits rounded out this year's signing class"
-Mike Smith, 6'6" 205, SF/SG Missouri
-Blake Mishler, 6'8, 215, SF/PF Illinois
-Micah Williams, 6'4", 215, SF/SG TN

I'm already counting now to next season!!

My mercer bears got their point guard. i thought this was one of our most glaring needs...besides just overall athleticism(which seems to be addressed with the calvin kid and the beejay kid out of wheeler. now we got one of the top 10 players in the state(this according to our press release). this pg seems like he is over our head, very atheltic, but has a nice stroke. perfect fit. i know he will just be a freshman but i see him starting next year with of course some rookie mistakes. but we drastically improved.

on another note...the bears will be good this year, but man in 2 years we will be looking really really good. we get the kid from asheville in the mix...and the only people graduating are 2 walkons and alacqua next year. it will be basically the same guys the next two years...i am predicting big things coming up. but boy these posts about ksu are starting to frighten me...glad you aren't eligible yet. btw i would give credit to ingle. it has to be hard to recruit when the players aren't playing for any reward at the end of the season. i would think as soon as a rival school brings this up, ksu would lose some kids. its a testiment to ingle.

We have a point guard, his name is Waters. He's gonna be way better than any freshmen coming in.