RE: NIU Hoops Recruits for 2022-23
I'm going to elicit some help from the community here.
I'm trying to figure out how many scholarships Coach Burno has to offer (and how many have been allotted for next season).
The NIU website says there are 6 seniors on the team (Hankerson, Osten, Okanu, Kueth, Makuoi, and Crump). If I remember correctly, when Osten transferred, it was reported he had two more years of eligibility.
Now, with the extra year of eligibility that was granted by the NCAA, all of these guys wouldn't count against the scholarship cap except Osten since he transferred after the extra year was awarded (if he'd had stayed at ASU, his scholarship wouldn't count against their number).
Now, I use Verbal Commits a lot for a reference and the coronavirus seems to have done a number on how it understands things as well. For one, none of these guys are listed as seniors. I think that site just bumped everyone down (who qualified) a year as a way to identify years remaining and, lets be honest, year classification (freshman, sophomore, etc) doesn't really matter with red shirts and whatnot. What matters is years remaining.
With that said, they have Crump listed as a sophomore (which would be a junior but with two more years remaining). It would also indicate, his scholarship will count for one more year.
Anyway...
Apparently Burno has inked 4 players for next year (Yazid Powell - JUCO, Xavier Amos - Whitney Young, David Coit - JUCO, and supposedly Martice Mitchell - Minnesota).
That leaves either one or two scholarships available (sans any unforeseen transfers, which...I can maybe speculate upon in a bit).
Whether he has one or two, I would have to say the primary player on my wish list is Anthony Roy, the JUCO player who started out at San Francisco.
However, if there's two scholarships available, I'm now a little open to being persuaded by the community.
I really like the size of Takai Hardy, but I also hear really good things about Jalen Drane, plus Drane is a Chicago kid (and from a prominent basketball school - Simeon) so I'd be interested in Burno being a legitimate player with those schools.
So, Hardy or Drane? They're completely different.
One's a guard, the other a post player.
Guards next year would be: Kaleb Thornton, Yazid Powell, Zion Russell, Keshawn Williams, Noah Kon, Darweshi Hunter, Anthony Roy (in my fantasy roster build), and maybe Anthony Crump. Then at Small Forward, you just have Edward Manuel although, some of those guards would fill into that role, most notably a guys like Crump, Hunter or Powell. Plus, the off chance that Kueth comes back.
Then, in the post, you have Osten (who no one wants to see with prominent playing time), Amos, Montavious Myrick, Martice Mitchell, and maybe one or all of Makuoi and Okanu.
Personally, I could very well see Kueth, Makuoi, Okanu and Hankerson leaving the program. But I'd bet every internet dollar I own that Crump will be back (if he's eligible to do so). Let me see if I can clean this up:
PG
Kaleb Thornton
Keshawn Williams
Noah Kon
David Coit (I forget about him earlier)
SG
Yazid Powell
Zion Russell
Darweshi Hunter
Anthony Roy (in my dream)
SF
Edward Emanuel
Anthony Crump (maybe not counting against scholarship number)
Forward
Xavier Amos,
Montavious Myrik
Takai Hardy (or Jaylen Drane as a guard)
Center/Forward
Chris Osten
Martice Mitchell
Hmmm....That's 14 scholarships.
And this is the issue I keep running into. I think I keep forgetting about Coit, who...I'm being honest...I'm not sure of the attraction to him and why he's signed up. He's probably better than I anticipate and I'm sure we'll have at least one more player transfer out to open up that last scholarship I need to get either Hardy or Drane.
I guess what I was trying to point out to myself is how crowded the guard position is and how a guy like Hardy is more needed. I suppose it would help if I could ever fully understand if Mitchell is actually coming to NIU. That would clear things up and maybe allow me to soften my stance on Hardy.
Anyway, that's a lot of words (and in a confusing order). Any thoughts or clarifications?
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2022 11:47 AM by Big Red.)
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