A Sea Of Red

Falcons’ Burrus signs with Liberty

By Nathan Summers
The Daily Reflector

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Antwan Burrus is great at making first impressions. Now he hopes to create some staying power.

The former South Central High School basketball star recently put his future into the hands of Liberty University, and it happened quite suddenly, according to Burrus. After his AAU coach helped Burrus set up a visit to Liberty, the 6-foot-6 swingman/forward did the rest.

Before the visit ended, Liberty head coach Dale Layer offered Burrus a full ride, and he jumped at the chance.

“I really wanted to play D-I basketball my whole life, and I really concentrated this past year on standing out and getting noticed, but also I wanted to be able to represent Pitt County,” said Burrus, who averaged a school-record 22.2 points per game for the Falcons while pulling down 9.6 rebounds.

He said he expects to stay in the same 3 or 4 role on the floor for the Flames, who last season finished 23-12 overall and 12-6 in the Big South Conference.

The Flames lost to VMI in the Big South tournament semifinals, then beat Rider in the opening round of the Collegeinsider.com Tournament before bowing out to James Madison in the following round.

Now, Burrus said he needs to think about his own game, what strengths he needs to hone and what weaknesses he needs to address.

“I think it's going to be tough,” said Burrus, who also set a new standard at South Central with 128 offensive boards in his senior season. “(The Liberty coaches) said they liked my toughness on the court and my explosiveness. The things I need to work on most are my ball-handling and my outside shooting.”

The man who poured in a school-record 41 points last season in a playoff game against Wilson Hunt now hopes to find an immediate role with the Flames.

Currently, Liberty boasts six sophomores and a freshman on its roster, with just a pair of seniors.

But Burrus seems to possess the ability to make fast impressions, like his explosive senior season and his unexpected offer from Liberty.

“I'm ready to see what it's like,” Burrus said. “My family is very happy, and they're ready for me to move on and play in college.”

http://www.reflector.com/sports/high-sc ... 01545.html

Seems like a good pick-up this late in the game by Coach Layer. He reminds me of former LU recruit Sammy Jackson. And judging by his profile, he seems like a mini Big-Baby Davis.

Here is what Prime Preps said about him:

6'6 210 #194 South Central High School NC 2009. Big strong talented young player. Plays the 4 but can skip out and hit the perimeter shots. Rebounds well and has soft hands. Most effective when in the post and can use his strength to overpower opponents. Has explosive athleticism and will dunk if his opponents are not paying attention. Although a senior, Antwan is 16 years old.

http://www.primepreps.com/profile.asp?id=1178

Blessed1 wrote:Although a senior, Antwan is 16 years old.

What? Did he skip like 2 grades?

dompennix wrote:

Blessed1 wrote:Although a senior, Antwan is 16 years old.

What? Did he skip like 2 grades?

Late birthday perhaps? My sister graduated at 16. Her b-day is in December.

The age could indicate he's not done growing yet and we could wind up getting a nice little steal by the time all is said and done.

Sly Fox wrote:The age could indicate he's not done growing yet and we could wind up getting a nice little steal by the time all is said and done.

Sly, you took the words right out of my mouth. 6'6" and 210 at age 16?? There was a comment on the Reflector.com article

"Congratulations to Antwan, his family and the coaching staff at SC. Antwan has come a long way from that skinny kid in the weight room I used to get on about getting bigger and stronger. Good Luck!

Hopefully he'll keep up the good work in the weight room and be a great asset for the Flames. And just curious , how did "ballah09" find this? Nothing on NewsAdvance on nothing on LibertyFlames.com....

dompennix wrote:

Blessed1 wrote:Although a senior, Antwan is 16 years old.

What? Did he skip like 2 grades?

I was sixteen until October of my senior year.

Is Layer, the McKay of wings? No complaints here. Those are my favorite players. And it sounds like he's no good from outside which means he must already have an inside game. Sounds good to me.

SuperJon wrote:

dompennix wrote:

Blessed1 wrote:Although a senior, Antwan is 16 years old.

What? Did he skip like 2 grades?

I was sixteen until October of my senior year.

Yeah, my daughter was 16 until November of senior yr, started college at 17. Maybe this kid will turn 17 b4 he graduates.

Assuming he's the only "Antwan Burrus" in Greenville NC, found this pic:

If that's him, he's got David Robinson/Ralph Sampson sized guns.

LCA&LU Mom wrote:

Sly Fox wrote:The age could indicate he's not done growing yet and we could wind up getting a nice little steal by the time all is said and done.

Sly, you took the words right out of my mouth. 6'6" and 210 at age 16?? There was a comment on the Reflector.com article

"Congratulations to Antwan, his family and the coaching staff at SC. Antwan has come a long way from that skinny kid in the weight room I used to get on about getting bigger and stronger. Good Luck!

Hopefully he'll keep up the good work in the weight room and be a great asset for the Flames. And just curious , how did "ballah09" find this? Nothing on NewsAdvance on nothing on LibertyFlames.com....

Probably a Google alert.

The LU site won't have it until they have a letter officially in hand.

And the hometown paper of the kid is generally the first to report things, unless the high school coach gets in touch with me first, which didn't happen in this case. We'll have a blurb in tomorrow's paper about it.

SuperJon wrote:

dompennix wrote:

Blessed1 wrote:Although a senior, Antwan is 16 years old.

What? Did he skip like 2 grades?

I was sixteen until October of my senior year.

i actually had to look who wrote this twice....i would have sworn it was BJ.

Just stating the obvious but this kid seems like a prime candidate for a red shirt. Give him a year to grow and spread out our recruiting classes a bit.

Wow. I think this is a good recruit. I like the players who can score while also grabbing some boards as well. I think he will be a great fit for LU.

Not a great shooter, definitely not a 3-point shooter, but he put up 22 a game and had almost 10 rebounds. If this kid grew another inch or two to 6'7 or 6'8 with his frame, he could be a good Big South player. Apparently he is a flyer too so that could be fun. We'll see how it turns out.

Just as I suspected. Layer went almost in a complete different direction than what Mckay had recruited for the last two pieces. Perhaps there is still another in the pipeline. I'm glad he is trying to cut the cord from the Mckay era and start new.

is this a taller better version of brolin floyd?

vabigpoppa wrote:is this a taller better version of brolin floyd?

I don't know about better, but yes he's taller and seems to be a similar type of player.

jinxy wrote:Just as I suspected. Layer went almost in a complete different direction than what Mckay had recruited for the last two pieces. Perhaps there is still another in the pipeline. I'm glad he is trying to cut the cord from the Mckay era and start new.

What do you mean because Layer is more post-oriented and McKay preferred to use a guard-heavy rotation? To be honest with you, I enjoyed the "small-ball" offense because last year our strength were our guards. Granted we were out-rebounded most nights, but the 3-point shot was the ultimate equalizer. Our style last year reminded me of Rick Pitino when he first got to Kentucky where he didn't do a bunch of run-and-gun like VMI, but used a lot of motion offense to free up his shooters. It will be interesting to see how many points were going to average next season.

This was in the Lynchburg fishwrap this morning as well.

I'm really hoping for moree news at today's luncheon.

Blessed- actually I'm saying that he brings in his own guys and not Mckay recruits hence Konan and this kid. My post had nothing to do wiht being a post or guard oriented team

Coach mentioned at the luncheon that most of the players from last year are returning (including Stephene), but that Austin was still a question mark, and he was going to visit him and his family this weekend.

Cider Jim wrote:Coach mentioned at the luncheon that most of the players from last year are returning (including Stephene), but that Austin was still a question mark, and he was going to visit him and his family this weekend.

Stephene needs to step it up a little more, not that hes bad, but once he reaches his potential he may be a key part of this team

Just to clear up the age question, Antwan turned 17 October 2008 and will be 18 this year. That was an actual picture of him...where did that picture come from?

So does anyone know what Austin's beef is? Where would he go. Austin, we need you don't go!