(11-14-2012 05:18 PM)talon owl Wrote: [ -> ]Drone, Bender, Jackson and Davis sign with the Owls:
http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-baskbl/...12aab.html
What stands out to me is that all four are from very successful high school teams.
Sounds like a great recruiting class. Now it feels like fall of 2010 all over again as we have to wait until 2013 to see these guys in play. Best case scenario, we are middle of the road and are waiting on 2013 freshmen to get back to potential front runner status.
What stands out to me is that none of them is within 1,100 miles of Houston. No good high school basketball players in Texas?
(11-14-2012 06:00 PM)Pan95 Wrote: [ -> ] (11-14-2012 05:18 PM)talon owl Wrote: [ -> ]Drone, Bender, Jackson and Davis sign with the Owls:
http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-baskbl/...12aab.html
What stands out to me is that all four are from very successful high school teams.
Sounds like a great recruiting class. Now it feels like fall of 2010 all over again as we have to wait until 2013 to see these guys in play. Best case scenario, we are middle of the road and are waiting on 2013 freshmen to get back to potential front runner status.
I was pretty impressed with the write-ups on these players as well. Waiting to see them play will be tough. Wonder if Rice is looking at any transfers to bring on for January or any additional signings for the 2013 class during the spring signing period. Seems like the team has to still have a number of open scholarships after all the departures.
Mentioned in another thread, but 6'9", 245 lb Sean Obi
signed a LOI with Rice during the early signing period. Obi is Nigerian-born and plays HS ball in Connecticut. I don't see him listed on Rivals or Scout. ESPN
grades him at 68 (2 stars). Sounds like he's a very strong physical presence who is still raw in a lot of phases. At least one of these articles mentions that his HS competition is pretty weak, so take his averaging almost a 20-20 each game with a grain of salt. Here are a few good articles on him.
New England Recruiting Report
Blind Side in Connecticut (fantastic story on Sean's upbringing and journey to America)
Houston-based Nigerian businessman discovered Obi
Sounds like a smart guy who highly values academics.
I really like that Rice has an obvious weakness right now (size) and addressed that by signing a 6'8" PF (Denzel Davis), a 6'9" C (Obi), and a 6'10" center (Andrew Drone). Hope at least 2 of those guys are ready for immediate minutes in 2013!
Welcome to Sean Obi, who discusses his choice
in this article linked by the RUBPA mailing list. May he be just as successful, basketball-wise, as another tall fellow from Nigeria who came to play college ball in Houston. We know he'll be successful academically.
From this thread, it appears Braun has put together a pretty decent class for next year, and addressed the needs of size and height which are making this another season with hard to come by wins.
From watching/listening to games and reading the game threads, it appears the undermanned team is actually scrapping and trying to hustle out a few wins and keeping as competitive as they can, whcih might bode well for next year.
Why Rice always seems to have trouble recruiting two solid shooters and guys who can hit layups at point balnk range at the same time has befuddled me for more than 20 years. Where is a Mark Price, or a Derek Wittenburg or Danny Ainge (Dennis Johnson?) when we need one?
Hang in there Owls, it appears reinforcements are on the way, at least in Men's Basketball.
Actually I thought Connor Frizzelle was as good of a shooter we've recruited in quite a bit - and he was a Braun recruit (indeed his first recruit at Rice). And Ramljak is also a pretty decent shooter. Neither were/are very athletic but they'd qualify as gym rats in my book.
The team that shockingly can't recruit anyone who can shoot is the women's team. We haven't had a good shooter from the outside since Jenny Cafferty. McNeese State had three sisters who probably were way better shooters than anyone we've had in that time either (at least two of them - one of them was dreadful from the free throw line so maybe she wasn't that great - but I'm sure somewhere there are still women's basketball players who are good outside shooters).
(12-03-2012 06:26 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote: [ -> ]Actually I thought Connor Frizzelle was as good of a shooter we've recruited in quite a bit - and he was a Braun recruit (indeed his first recruit at Rice). And Ramljak is also a pretty decent shooter. Neither were/are very athletic but they'd qualify as gym rats in my book.
Good point about Frizzelle. And thank goodness for Ramljak or we'd really be in danger of a winless campaign this season. Nevertheless, too many missed layups has been a hallmark of Rice teams from Thompson, through Wilson and even Braun. Everyone misses some, but many times I'm watching or more commonly listening and I'm thinking "Come on!"
I'd like to have more than one excellent sharpshooter a season, hence I said two. I don't think that's being too greedy.
The women have seemed to have problems since the coach went to Clemson. Williams is a Rice guy, which I like, but it hasn't worked quite as well for him as I think he'd have hoped. Do you attribute it to his recruiting or his coaching, primarily? I hardly ever see/hear them (Rice women bb), so I cannot judge that well.
Probably needs a new thread:
Quote:Joseph Duarte @Chronicle_Owls
#Rice picks up a basketball commitment for Class 2014 from Jordan Reed, a 6-0 point guard from Dallas Lovejoy
(09-30-2013 08:29 PM)dragon2owl Wrote: [ -> ]Probably needs a new thread:
Quote:Joseph Duarte @Chronicle_Owls
#Rice picks up a basketball commitment for Class 2014 from Jordan Reed, a 6-0 point guard from Dallas Lovejoy
Here is a little info for recruiters.
http://www.athleteprofileexchange.com/st...ordan.html
Wait, Braun signed a Texan?!? Pigs are flying, he'll is freezing over, and Greenspan is gone...
(09-30-2013 10:49 PM)mrbig Wrote: [ -> ]Wait, Braun signed a Texan?!? Pigs are flying, he'll is freezing over, and Greenspan is gone...
hard to recruit in Syria right now.
(10-01-2013 11:43 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: [ -> ] (09-30-2013 10:49 PM)mrbig Wrote: [ -> ]Wait, Braun signed a Texan?!? Pigs are flying, he'll is freezing over, and Greenspan is gone...
hard to recruit in Syria right now.
I don't know, you'd think anybody there would be looking for a way to get out.
(10-01-2013 01:03 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: [ -> ] (10-01-2013 11:43 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: [ -> ] (09-30-2013 10:49 PM)mrbig Wrote: [ -> ]Wait, Braun signed a Texan?!? Pigs are flying, he'll is freezing over, and Greenspan is gone...
hard to recruit in Syria right now.
I don't know, you'd think anybody there would be looking for a way to get out.
Love the GPA (3.98), but how is that 84 out of 292? In any case, hope his jumper is top of class.
(10-01-2013 03:45 PM)NYNightOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Love the GPA (3.98), but how is that 84 out of 292? In any case, hope his jumper is top of class.
I would guess advanced classes are 5 point A's, so the top 10 is probably around a 4.3 or 4.4 gpa (2d year of foreign languages, 2d year chemistry, 2d year physics, etc are 5 point A's, while first year are 4 point A's).
(10-01-2013 04:57 PM)RiceDoc Wrote: [ -> ] (10-01-2013 03:45 PM)NYNightOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Love the GPA (3.98), but how is that 84 out of 292? In any case, hope his jumper is top of class.
I would guess advanced classes are 5 point A's, so the top 10 is probably around a 4.3 or 4.4 gpa (2d year of foreign languages, 2d year chemistry, 2d year physics, etc are 5 point A's, while first year are 4 point A's).
Exactly! Plus if he takes non-AP/pre-AP classes such as electives or, I don't know, basketball class, which don't carry the bonus points, even if he scores 100% in the class, such grades still dilute the GPA and impact class rank.
For a kid who is blessed with athletic abilities, it's not a big deal. He still gets the free ride. For a kid with only academic skills, it makes it really tough to deal with the quotas, i.e., top 10%, top 8% or the whatever the cut-offs are these days.
Yes, I have a senior who recently dropped from top 8% to top 10.5% because of drop outs or departures even though his GPA went up.
(10-02-2013 02:58 PM)Tomball Owl Wrote: [ -> ] (10-01-2013 04:57 PM)RiceDoc Wrote: [ -> ] (10-01-2013 03:45 PM)NYNightOwl Wrote: [ -> ]Love the GPA (3.98), but how is that 84 out of 292? In any case, hope his jumper is top of class.
I would guess advanced classes are 5 point A's, so the top 10 is probably around a 4.3 or 4.4 gpa (2d year of foreign languages, 2d year chemistry, 2d year physics, etc are 5 point A's, while first year are 4 point A's).
Exactly! Plus if he takes non-AP/pre-AP classes such as electives or, I don't know, basketball class, which don't carry the bonus points, even if he scores 100% in the class, such grades still dilute the GPA and impact class rank.
For a kid who is blessed with athletic abilities, it's not a big deal. He still gets the free ride. For a kid with only academic skills, it makes it really tough to deal with the quotas, i.e., top 10%, top 8% or the whatever the cut-offs are these days.
Yes, I have a senior who recently dropped from top 8% to top 10.5% because of drop outs or departures even though his GPA went up.
I understand. I have a kid who was a starter on both the varsity soccer and varsity basketball teams as a freshman and as a sophomore. She dropped both sports prior to her junior year because continuing would hurt her GPA. But she stayed with Division 1 soccer and AAU basketball until she graduated, then turned down D1 scholarships in both sports in favor of academic scholarships at a D3 school. It about killed me to see her drop high school sports to avoid having her GPA dinged, but I could understand it and accept it.