(02-12-2023 06:55 PM)Big Red Wrote: (02-12-2023 12:06 PM)HuskiePride12 Wrote: If they finish .500 on the season is a step in the right direction. Will help sell recruits for the next season too and possible transfer that can impact right away. Drastic change from about 3 weeks ago in the right direction. Let’s see if Burno can land another impact
Guy
There's a JUCO center that he's got an offer out to that really intrigues me. Fella by the name of Jeriah Coleman. 7'0" athletic center. Initially went to St. Francis (PA) and transfer to JUCO. He's been getting a lot of offers as of late so Burno would have his work cut out for him.
In addition to NIU, he's got offers from (and, I believe all of these have come since NIU as I believe Burno made him his first offer this year): CSU Bakersfield, Morehead State, Abilene Christian, ULM, IUPUI, Southern Indiana.
Currently, Morehead State is pretty good and Abilene Christian and ULM are probably about on par with NIU. Bakersfield isn't all that great, same with Southern Indiana, and we all know IUPUI is terrible.
Btw, the kid is from Alaska where he went to HS (Anchorage) and went to prep school in Virginia.
I've not seen video of him yet at the JUCO level but the video of him at STF(PA) is quite interestring to say the least. He's not crushing it at Clarendon (JUCO) as he's a tick below 10 ppg. But this is, imo, 100% a kid Burno could develop on the inside. He's a 7 footer that moves like a guy who's much smaller. He runs and jumps well and is very active.
Here I go...
If everyone stays, they'll lose 3 players. An athletic big (Crump), a 3PT shooter (Hunter) and the PG (Thornton).
With that in mind and considering the offers they already have out, they have two spots to fill since Seck Zongo has already committed. It's been a minute since I watched or searched for video on Zongo and, just a real quick look tells me there isn't anything new and the best (only?) vid I could come up with was a highlight package from one particular AAU game that was hyped for some reason or another. It took a minute for me to figure out who he was but I seem to remember him being a workman-like swing forward who's strength was cleaning up. He was already built well but didn't look finished physically (but the video is about 8 to 10 months old). He's listed as the same height as Nutter but he looks a little longe but built similarly. If he put on an inch or two, he'd be getting into Jaylen Key territory.
(Note: there's a very good chance Ibarguen takes one of those scholarships as I think he's a walk-on)
After Zongo, I like Coleman, the JUCO center and that leaves one more. Coach as some interesting offers to some guards but, at this point, its really hard for me to predict how they can shoot from the outside.
Obviously, getting Williams and Russel back helps this position out immensely in a lot of aspects. I'd still like to add a guard (and I think Burno will always be looking to add athletic guards). I'm also starting to look at a guy like Taku Youngblood and suspecting he's a prime candidate to transfer to a lower level. Which is fine. It would also open up another slot. But, until that happens, I'm not going to speculate any further on that.
As for the last guard spot, there's some really intriguing guys Burno has already offered to. The one's that stand out the most to me are Jalen Griffith (Simeon), Jaylen Drane (The Skill Factory but also went to Simeon), AJ Dancler (Indianapolis), Trent Lincoln (Tampa), Braylen Blue (Sun Prairie), and Grant Gondrezick (Benton Harbor).
Griffith and Drayne are obvious Chicago guys who can play. Drayne is a guy I really try to like a lot but he's so thin that I worry if he'll be able to strengthen up. Granted, the only vid I can locate of him is from last year's state tournament and he could have hit puberty by now since it didn't look like it had happened at the time of the vid. Dancler is also short but he reminds me of Coit. He's just a guy who seems to be able to score from anywhere but I hate his jump shot. It goes in but he's going to have to fix it to succeed at the college level. Blue is bigger and has a ton of moxy. And I'm intrigued by Gondrezick because his dad played in the NBA although this one is much, much smaller.
Honestly, Burno has a lot of really intriguing offers out so far and you have to figure he's not done. We also obviously have no idea about transfers we might lose and as much as I'l basically like to keep everyone (I'm indifferent to Youngblood leaving), that is probably not realistic.
Anyway, we still have plenty of season to go and we're doing well. Its just the mere suggestion of "what does next year have to offer" just gets me going.
So, I promise, I won't bring up recruiting again until after the season!!!!
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2023 MAC Men’s Basketball Tournament Bracket
