FB Attendees were jumping, FB team won. Plenty of FB Recruits on the sidelines, all four basketball recruits for next season played prior to the FB game, I was fortunate to witness their play - all can play, Rams and the staff did a tremendous recruiting job. All appear to be good kids as well!
Three junior prospects were visiting as well: Balkema - big and I mean big kid from Warren Cousino, Stewart from Livonia Clarensville nad Valentine from Lansing Sexton. They all witnessed the B Ball scrimmage.
Here's what Steve Bell, of
http://www.bankhoops.com and the mlive HS blog, has to say about those recruits mentioned. Rankings are for the class of 2009 in MI:
9. Drew Valentine 6-5 W Lansing Sexton
He has as much all-around basketball skill and IQ as anyone in the class.
17. Jamie Stewart 6-4 W Livonia Clarenceville
He's made an incredible comeback from a severe broken leg. Legit DI talent playing outside the AAU spotlight.
21. Matt Balkema 6-10 C Warren Cousino
Huge kid whose game is far from subtle.
The home side of Rynearson actually felt like big time college FB. The announced crowd of just over 10K seemed low. I was guessing more like 14K. I get the feeling that EMU is more exact when counting attendance than most schools. Do they count everyone including tha bands, players, media, etc???
quote:
"Here's what Steve Bell, of
http://www.bankhoops.com and the mlive HS blog, has to say about those recruits mentioned. Rankings are for the class of 2009 in MI:"
Aaron,
I'd take these visits with a grain of salt. They mean little.
I remember meeting some juniors that Braun had visiting who didn't end up @EMU but at MSU. I believe one was from Wayne Memorial. Lorenzo Guess or something like that. He was a FB QB (?) and hoopster.
I remember hearing that even Boone had a Mr. Basketball for an 'unofficial' visit. Might have been during a summer for an open gym or fall. He might have known someone on the team.
maybe a hundred soph and junior FB players and dozen or two dozen of soph and juniors hoopsters coming and 'hanging out' during summer and fall isn't really a 'breaking news' story.
In FB, kids attend multiple summer camps so to say, "rising senior X participated in the EMU summer camp" takes on much less meaning when it is learned that he participated in say two other camps.
It means what it means. Apparently there is some interest or curiousity in EMU (or EMU is nearby or their camp is cheaper then say the UofM camp) but little else.
What it means is that the kid will probably make a more informed decision then kids made say 25 years ago.
I've known Dennis for a number of years. He is always looking for the rainbow.
After following recruiting for 15 years, I've become cautious to perhaps cynical.
quick p.s.
The only time I've ever became really giddy about EMU FB recruiting was during the Ron Cooper era.
Coop could sell ice to an eskimo.
That guy was a master salesmen and could go into metro Detroit and bring back a really good haul of kids from the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press top college FB prospects lists.
If Cooper had not left from L'ville he could have built a nice program at EMU, but Coop never unpacked his suit case - he switched jobs every year or two.
TheWoodenNickle Wrote:The home side of Rynearson actually felt like big time college FB. The announced crowd of just over 10K seemed low. I was guessing more like 14K. I get the feeling that EMU is more exact when counting attendance than most schools. Do they count everyone including tha bands, players, media, etc???
W'Nickle:
I'll try to get some info.
I from time to time can find out the student turnstile count.
I heard the count from the BSU game; I'll try to get the count from yesterday.
10K in Rynearson, if 9K are on the press box side, is impressive.
The press box side should appear 'mostly full' - everyone gets about 30" of bench rather then around 20".
2/3 full in say Comerica means a LOT of empty chairback seats which are VERY obvious.
In a stadium with benches, 15 folks might occupy a row with 25 seats and the row looks 'full' - but doesn't look like the Big House where folks are packed like sardines (I think they allocate 18 or 19" per attendee).
how good were the 08 basketball recruits?
08 recruits: all are talented - big kid is very aggressive and hits the boards well. Milby kid on the thin side but appeared to be very athletic and nice medium range shot - propbably 6'8.
New Guards can both handle the ball and shoot. Barnes is a lefty with good range. Greene is very strong, good defensively and can rebound. Look to see Greene play at Dearborn Hgts Robichaud this coming season.
Barnes played more poinjt and Greene more on the wing. Solomon Farris, one of this year's new recruiits played well also, nice soft shot and plenty of moves. PT may be difficult for him however, since we have so many wing players. The competition will be excellant and PT hard to come by for some. Looks like Bowdry will be replaced by comittee. Benjanin, Dodd, Mathews in the mix.
Although I heard that Dobbins was working out with the team, he did not play. Had a foot injury earlier in the summer.
P.S. Medlock played and played pretty well. Heard he just started playing a week or so ago. He looks a little heavier and perhaps all his quickness is not yet back.