Scouting report on him coming into Seton Hall was that he was an excellent rebounder and defender that needed to work on his strength. He did not play the last ten games or so of last season, leading me to believe he had left the program by that point. He's fairly athletic as I recall.

Saw where Al Horford's brother is transferring from Michigan as a 5th year grad student as well. I'm a big fan of a couple of these guys for JMU this year- whats the down side- we all agree that its a make or break year for the program- why bring in some more 2 star freshmen who may or may not contribute immediately- get a couple of experienced athletic guys to surround Curry & Nation preferably a shooter and a front court player and then next year you have 2 scholarships for the coaching staff to use for grad transfers or freshman depending on how the year goes.

Here's a little write-up and video on Johnson:

http://phenomhoopreport.com/college-coac...n-johnson/

Today starts the Spring signing period. We have openings. Is Arledge of GMU coming? Is anyone coming or are there more goings?

Austin Williams out of Trinity in Richmond, VA is visiting JMU today

http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/austin-williams--2

Also former target 7 footer Satchel Pierce just reopening his recruitment- he had previously committed to Buzz Williams and Marquette but visited JMU over the summer User Actions
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2014 Kiski (PA)/Marquette commit C Satchel Pierce is reopening his recruitment. (HT @EvanDaniels) @satch1032

(04-18-2014 11:22 AM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  Austin Williams out of Trinity in Richmond, VA is visiting JMU today

http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/austin-williams--2

Also former target 7 footer Satchel Pierce just reopening his recruitment- he had previously committed to Buzz Williams and Marquette but visited JMU over the summer User Actions
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2014 Kiski (PA)/Marquette commit C Satchel Pierce is reopening his recruitment. (HT @EvanDaniels) @satch1032

We shouldn't contact him because he quit on his new coach

I think he's visiting VTech today so probably a done deal that he follows Williams to Blacksburg. Just figured if there was a chance to steal a 7 footer JMU should go for it.

would love to see Pierce come to jmu.....still think we need another ball handler to compliment and play along side of curry. And of course a wing who can shoot.

Pierce signed with Tech over the weekend.

Also the George Mason grad transfer Anali Okoloji committed to Eastern Michigan. Here's a Freshman guard transfer out of Butler that JMU offered out of high school. He's from California somaybe he'll try to transfer back to the West Coast. Son of Cavs coach Mike Brown.

http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/elijah-brown

According to what I read over the weekend, Austin Williams has JMU in his top four along with Niagara, Gardner-Webb and East Tennessee. He's had a number of offers (including Minnesota at one point, as I recall per the Rivals site) and was named second team All-State Independent League. The player of the year from that league is going to play for Maryland and played his high school ball at Bishop O'Connell. Thought I saw where he's rated as a top 20 recruit within the state of VA. If you look at his stats, he excels in rebounding and shot-blocking. I have not watched any video of him at this point, although there's some video of him out there.

The other guy, Ryan Johnson, is also being wooed by Minnesota, but not clear whether they've offered him (he may be a fall back option for them, but I doubt we would get him if Minnesota were to offer). He put up big scoring numbers this past season and had a really good game against one of the elite teams on their schedule (either Hargrave or Oak Hill, as I recall). Looks like a good shooter in the brief period that I watched of that video that I posted. I saw him listed as a top ten recruit within the state of NC on 24/7.

I have no idea of who JMU is hoping to bring in, but I would think that they would be pleased to bring in one of these two guys (Williams or Johnson or even both), Arledge and a point guard to fill out the three scholarships.

Looking at things on the bright side, the two guys (JMU targets) that have committed elsewhere so far this spring (Gill and Olokojoli) were of the least interest to me. If a month from now, we still don't have any new commits, then it might be time to worry.

Austin Williams kid hasn't impressed me, I was walking through while team scrimmaged and trust me he looked pretty awful, maybe it was a bad day or nerves, but he wasn't better than big on our roster last year. 2nd team all league in the VIS conference 2nd division isn't impressive. Look at schedule his highschool plays. Hopefully I'm wrong.

(04-21-2014 11:02 AM)Jmubarkers Wrote:  Austin Williams kid hasn't impressed me, I was walking through while team scrimmaged and trust me he looked pretty awful, maybe it was a bad day or nerves, but he wasn't better than big on our roster last year. 2nd team all league in the VIS conference 2nd division isn't impressive. Look at schedule his highschool plays. Hopefully I'm wrong.

honestly, who is impressed with Niagra, Gardner-Webb, and ETSU? Nothing against them, but I don't like that fact that we are competing with those schools for a player's services.

(04-21-2014 01:25 PM)jmutoml757 Wrote:  

(04-21-2014 11:02 AM)Jmubarkers Wrote:  Austin Williams kid hasn't impressed me, I was walking through while team scrimmaged and trust me he looked pretty awful, maybe it was a bad day or nerves, but he wasn't better than big on our roster last year. 2nd team all league in the VIS conference 2nd division isn't impressive. Look at schedule his highschool plays. Hopefully I'm wrong.

honestly, who is impressed with Niagra, Gardner-Webb, and ETSU? Nothing against them, but I don't like that fact that we are competing with those schools for a player's services.

Agreed. A program like ours isn't likely to move beyond schools like that if they're recruiting the same players as them.

How do their RPI's compare to ours? They may be saying the same thing about being compared to JMU


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(04-21-2014 01:58 PM)brizzock Wrote:  How do their RPI's compare to ours? They may be saying the same thing about being compared to JMU


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Haha...How sad have things become? Closer to true than not.

Niagra 271, Gardner Webb 240 and ETSU 237 in the final KenPom ratings. JMU was 267.

Let me make a few quick points as I some times (more than that probably) think people rush to judgment with little information to go on.

1. I have never seen Austin play....just indicating what I've read. And I have no idea how the coaching staff views him.
2. Most of the best players sign in the fall, so any good players left will be hotly contested.
3. The All State team that he made had players from Bishop O'Connell and Paul VI. Both of those schools are basketball powerhouses. As I had said, the guy from O'Connell was going to Maryland and I thought I had read that the Paul VI guy was going to Louisville (if I'm not confusing the All-Met big that has signed with the Cardinals). In other words, his peers on that all-state team were impressive.
4. His AAU team is the Richmond Squires....they've produced some quality players in the college and pro ranks. According to that site, and it may be wrong, he had 14 offers as of June 2013, including schools like Drexel, Duquesne, Creighton and Towson.
5. The Rivals site might be wrong, but it has Minnesota offering him (and Minnesota is also interested in Ryan Johnson).
6. Of the final four schools indicated, East Tenn. State, last time I checked, had a solid coach in Murray Bartow's son. Niagara has some pedigree and was solid recently with Joe Mihalich as coach. I don't know a lot about Gardner-Webb, other than we may have played them recently and their young coach got some national press (if he's the guy I'm thinking of). If you're going to look at RPI for a program, especially for a mid-major, perhaps it's better to view over longer term than one year.
7. JMU almost always loses recruiting battles with the BCS conferences, if not always. Brady will tell you himself that he prefers that he finds someone before they burst on to the scene. Until JMU either moves up in conferences or becomes substantially more prominent in the world of college basketball, that's going to be the case. No one offered Taylor Bessick as I recall (he was a late summer signee) and Temple supporters are saying he may transfer there now. Cooke had some interest from St. Joe's and VCU and he may transfer up to Rutgers (Big Ten) or an A-10 program. We had a legit chance with Pierce had he come out in 2013, but no chance really in 2014 (as he might have been eligible collegiately a year earlier). Instead, we finished among his top five schools or so.
8. I would guess that JMU has multiple offers out at this point and probably have prioritized who they'd like to get. And as I said, if no one comes on board within the next month, then it might be time to worry.

going the juco route now:

JMU looking at Trace Cureton, 6'4" SG

http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/trace-cureton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjOAxMVhWX4

pretty good shooting numbers on Cureton:

http://occac.org/sports/mbkb/2013-14/pla...ew=gamelog

Those are really good numbers DD.