My first, honest, gut-felt reaction? Oh, crap!

After reconsidering it, my second reaction? Oh crap!

After reflecting on it for 24 hours, my final thoughts? Oh crap, but good get, Toppers!

Great get for the Toppers! Awesome to see that much talent roaming the C-USA courts. Congrats to WKU!

Any truth to the rumor that a family member/friend was hired by Stansbury to be on the staff in order to get this guy? Honest question as I read this somewhere.

(06-30-2016 08:02 AM)Hop45 Wrote:  Any truth to the rumor that a family member/friend was hired by Stansbury to be on the staff in order to get this guy? Honest question as I read this somewhere.

His godfather.

Stand berry was this guys main recruiter at TA&M and when he left there the player decommitted. He was coming here but stansberry hired the guys godfather who played in 3 final fours with UNCheat and has been an assistant with Tulane for last few years. I'm all for hiring a family member of it gets you the number 1 position player available haha.

Obviously it's a great get and a possible program-changer for WKU and maybe even CUSA if he pans out.

One thing that confuses me a bit, though: For a 7-footer and consensus top-20 prospect, why is his offer sheet so ... underwhelming? Look at it: Louisiana State, Alabama, Tulane, Troy, Massachusetts, Murray State, Alabama-Birmingham and Depaul. There's good programs in there, of course, but not a single offer from an elite program? No Kansas, no Duke, no Kentucky, no Arizona? Austin Wiley, the center who slots after him in ESPN's rankings, was offered by Duke, Kansas and Florida before taking Auburn. Jeremiah Tillmon, a four-star, has offers from North Carolina, Michigan State and UCLA, among others.

Obviously reopening his recruitment changes things, and maybe all the power programs were committed to going after other targets by then. Still, it seems weird that one of the best rising seniors in the country had no elite-tier programs offer.

Nevertheless, he's a five-star center and he's WKU's, so let's hope they keep him and he makes them and the conference look good.

(06-30-2016 10:27 AM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Obviously it's a great get and a possible program-changer for WKU and maybe even CUSA if he pans out.

One thing that confuses me a bit, though: For a 7-footer and consensus top-20 prospect, why is his offer sheet so ... underwhelming? Look at it: Louisiana State, Alabama, Tulane, Troy, Massachusetts, Murray State, Alabama-Birmingham and Depaul. There's good programs in there, of course, but not a single offer from an elite program? No Kansas, no Duke, no Kentucky, no Arizona? Austin Wiley, the center who slots after him in ESPN's rankings, was offered by Duke, Kansas and Florida before taking Auburn. Jeremiah Tillmon, a four-star, has offers from North Carolina, Michigan State and UCLA, among others.

Obviously reopening his recruitment changes things, and maybe all the power programs were committed to going after other targets by then. Still, it seems weird that one of the best rising seniors in the country had no elite-tier programs offer.

Nevertheless, he's a five-star center and he's WKU's, so let's hope they keep him and he makes them and the conference look good.

From what I read he is still developing offensively, but he's a good athlete and a dominant defender.

He committed to A&M fairly early too, so he might have already been committed to them before he blew up to 5 star status. That would have kept the UKs, UNCs, and KUs of the world away.

(06-30-2016 10:27 AM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Obviously it's a great get and a possible program-changer for WKU and maybe even CUSA if he pans out.

One thing that confuses me a bit, though: For a 7-footer and consensus top-20 prospect, why is his offer sheet so ... underwhelming? Look at it: Louisiana State, Alabama, Tulane, Troy, Massachusetts, Murray State, Alabama-Birmingham and Depaul. There's good programs in there, of course, but not a single offer from an elite program? No Kansas, no Duke, no Kentucky, no Arizona? Austin Wiley, the center who slots after him in ESPN's rankings, was offered by Duke, Kansas and Florida before taking Auburn. Jeremiah Tillmon, a four-star, has offers from North Carolina, Michigan State and UCLA, among others.

Obviously reopening his recruitment changes things, and maybe all the power programs were committed to going after other targets by then. Still, it seems weird that one of the best rising seniors in the country had no elite-tier programs offer.

Nevertheless, he's a five-star center and he's WKU's, so let's hope they keep him and he makes them and the conference look good.

Isnt he for 2017?

(06-30-2016 10:31 AM)Niner National Wrote:  

(06-30-2016 10:27 AM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Obviously it's a great get and a possible program-changer for WKU and maybe even CUSA if he pans out.

One thing that confuses me a bit, though: For a 7-footer and consensus top-20 prospect, why is his offer sheet so ... underwhelming? Look at it: Louisiana State, Alabama, Tulane, Troy, Massachusetts, Murray State, Alabama-Birmingham and Depaul. There's good programs in there, of course, but not a single offer from an elite program? No Kansas, no Duke, no Kentucky, no Arizona? Austin Wiley, the center who slots after him in ESPN's rankings, was offered by Duke, Kansas and Florida before taking Auburn. Jeremiah Tillmon, a four-star, has offers from North Carolina, Michigan State and UCLA, among others.

Obviously reopening his recruitment changes things, and maybe all the power programs were committed to going after other targets by then. Still, it seems weird that one of the best rising seniors in the country had no elite-tier programs offer.

Nevertheless, he's a five-star center and he's WKU's, so let's hope they keep him and he makes them and the conference look good.

From what I read he is still developing offensively, but he's a good athlete and a dominant defender.

He committed to A&M fairly early too, so he might have already been committed to them before he blew up to 5 star status. That would have kept the UKs, UNCs, and KUs of the world away.

Yep this exactly. He was around the 50-65 range before May of this year. I have read he only played ball for 2 years so still raw offensively. But he is developing at an amazing pace.

Better take a picture of his 5 star recruit pages, cause the services will drop him to 2 star status once they realize he's not going to an "elite" program.

(06-30-2016 11:33 AM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  Better take a picture of his 5 star recruit pages, cause the services will drop him to 2 star status once they realize he's not going to an "elite" program.

Nah, in this case they'll leave him there because a 5 star recruit going to "lowly ol WKU" makes great headlines and tha drives revenue. A 4 star recruit doesn't really drive headlines as much, so they just throw those guys down to 3 stars and bump guys up to the top 100 to drive Insider subscriptions for their recruiting services.

(06-30-2016 12:52 PM)Niner National Wrote:  

(06-30-2016 11:33 AM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  Better take a picture of his 5 star recruit pages, cause the services will drop him to 2 star status once they realize he's not going to an "elite" program.

Nah, in this case they'll leave him there because a 5 star recruit going to "lowly ol WKU" makes great headlines and tha drives revenue. A 4 star recruit doesn't really drive headlines as much, so they just throw those guys down to 3 stars and bump guys up to the top 100 to drive Insider subscriptions for their recruiting services.

Did Ray McCallum Jr. get bumped down when he signed to play for his dad? He's the last of the McD's All-Americans I remember to sign outside of the power leagues.

(06-30-2016 11:17 AM)Jack Bauer Wrote:  

(06-30-2016 10:31 AM)Niner National Wrote:  

(06-30-2016 10:27 AM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Obviously it's a great get and a possible program-changer for WKU and maybe even CUSA if he pans out.

One thing that confuses me a bit, though: For a 7-footer and consensus top-20 prospect, why is his offer sheet so ... underwhelming? Look at it: Louisiana State, Alabama, Tulane, Troy, Massachusetts, Murray State, Alabama-Birmingham and Depaul. There's good programs in there, of course, but not a single offer from an elite program? No Kansas, no Duke, no Kentucky, no Arizona? Austin Wiley, the center who slots after him in ESPN's rankings, was offered by Duke, Kansas and Florida before taking Auburn. Jeremiah Tillmon, a four-star, has offers from North Carolina, Michigan State and UCLA, among others.

Obviously reopening his recruitment changes things, and maybe all the power programs were committed to going after other targets by then. Still, it seems weird that one of the best rising seniors in the country had no elite-tier programs offer.

Nevertheless, he's a five-star center and he's WKU's, so let's hope they keep him and he makes them and the conference look good.

From what I read he is still developing offensively, but he's a good athlete and a dominant defender.

He committed to A&M fairly early too, so he might have already been committed to them before he blew up to 5 star status. That would have kept the UKs, UNCs, and KUs of the world away.

Yep this exactly. He was around the 50-65 range before May of this year. I have read he only played ball for 2 years so still raw offensively. But he is developing at an amazing pace.

That makes sense. It does look like North Carolina and Wichita State kicked the tires but didn't offer, at least looking at his ESPN page. I suppose if you're recruiting a five-star guy, generally you want him in the rotation, if not the starting lineup, and you may not want to throw the dice on someone who isn't plug-and-play. Whereas schools at our level will gladly take even a partially developed player with that skill set and that size and that potential.

You never know how players will pan out, but if nothing else, right now Western has the highest-ranked player to commit, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

Robinson was committed to A&M when Stansbury was there and backed out shortly after RS got the WKU job.

Robinson's godfather is Shammond Williams who Stans hired away from Tulane a couple of weeks ago.


(got this from a Ms State board)

(06-30-2016 01:21 PM)usmbacker Wrote:  Robinson's godfather is Shammond Williams who Stans hired away from Tulane a couple of weeks ago.

(got this from a Ms State board)

Williams and the rest of the staff was let go in March

(06-30-2016 10:27 AM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Obviously it's a great get and a possible program-changer for WKU and maybe even CUSA if he pans out.

One thing that confuses me a bit, though: For a 7-footer and consensus top-20 prospect, why is his offer sheet so ... underwhelming? Look at it: Louisiana State, Alabama, Tulane, Troy, Massachusetts, Murray State, Alabama-Birmingham and Depaul. There's good programs in there, of course, but not a single offer from an elite program? No Kansas, no Duke, no Kentucky, no Arizona? Austin Wiley, the center who slots after him in ESPN's rankings, was offered by Duke, Kansas and Florida before taking Auburn. Jeremiah Tillmon, a four-star, has offers from North Carolina, Michigan State and UCLA, among others.

Obviously reopening his recruitment changes things, and maybe all the power programs were committed to going after other targets by then. Still, it seems weird that one of the best rising seniors in the country had no elite-tier programs offer.

Nevertheless, he's a five-star center and he's WKU's, so let's hope they keep him and he makes them and the conference look good.

He was ranked #38 on Rivals and was only a 4 star prospect until literally the last few weeks. He had an awesome summer circuit and blew up. UNC as well as a few others started looking at him. Part of why he wasn't highly recruited before was because he committed to Texas A&M so early. Then when he decommitted and blew up this summer. WKU and LSU were on top of him the most. Others teams started coming in the last 2 weeks but it was too late again. His mind was largely made up to WKU at that point after he visited the same weekend as Malik Newman.

It's good to see so many of our conference mates cheering this on.

I expected the player haters ball when it was announced. It's actually unheard of. Especially when Malik Newman announces. I honestly doubted Stansbury would be able to do it.

This kid was a perfect storm. Rick had recruited him to Texas A&M before he blew up by seeing the potential in him as an elite shot blocker and grinder double double guy. He sealed the deal by hiring his godfather. Who is a legit college hoops coach with pedigree. Williams isn't some shady AAU sideline hustler out of Atlanta peddling kids.

He's gonna get Malik because of his relationship with Malik's dad.

Recruiting is about relationships. Rick has a ton from his years as an assistant and then head coach at Ms State. Plus he's a smooth salesman. That's what recruiting is. I was at his introductory press conference and attended a dinner at a local country club where he and Brohm spoke. He's smooth. I inwardly thought 'just wait until you hit that ESPN wall Rick' but I was wrong. He proved my doubts wrong with this signing.

I hope he keeps bringing them in and it turns into a hate fest from the big boys.

I am very happy about this. Keep it rolling. C-USA!

Well we didn't get one of the other 5 star players. He chose Kansas over us. If he wanted to play pg he won't do it there but good luck to him.

Yes we lost out on a guy to Kansas.....Hey I was getting spoiled with Robinson and wanted more, but you take what you can get, cannot get every player...