[Hold My Own]

yall asked for a big man, and you'll be getting a big man, 6'8" 260lbs C, this is the same guy that the BMOC thread was about...He just called coach at around 11, and the papers should be in tomorrow. This is great news guys, like I've said before, Alex was a part of the puzzle but not the answer, this along with Armon, Alex should be all we were looking for....this kid runs the floor great and can even run with and some say better than Alex which is great for his size.


Just wanted the Flame Fans to be the first to know as always!

I tried posting this earlier but something was up with the site

[kel varson]

Great news! Sounds like we're in business. If we don't have a mass exodus or injuries, next year should be exiciting.

[LUconn]

ranked #13 on some kind of ranking:
http://magnoliapreps.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=531392

Lamont has fun writing:
http://www.thisweeknews.com/?edition=co ... 46742.html

ranked #304 overall (last year so it may have changed)
http://www.hoopscooponline.com/members/ ... g2005.html

[Rocketfan]

They list him at 6'7"'??? Not that it really matters but i just want to make sure those stats are close and not overinflating his size?

[Rocketfan]

http://www.hoopscooponline.com/members/ ... 72008.html

Man they must know there stuff.

Check out the schools listed below us......i don't care what the haters got to say....thats a good sign.

[jcmanson]

Wow. That's some exciting stuff! We are ranked ahead of UCLA and Gonazaga as well as others. Very exciting to hear!

[LUconn]

hold your horses there fellas. That's based on the talent rating points per player times the number of players. We have 5 recruits at a 2.8 average which gives us 14. Troy St. has an average of 4.3 per player but only 3 guys giving them 13 points and ranked under us. So we got bumped up because we got so many guys.

[PeterParker]

Has the High School cleared those allegations through the NCAA...?

TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006
SPORTS COLUMNS | SPORTS | HOME | FORUMS | ARCHIVES | SCHEDULES


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KYLE VEAZEY

Tide must prevent late-season slide


The Alabama baseball team's domination of Vanderbilt during a weekend three-game set gave the Crimson Tide sole possession of the top spot in the Southeastern Conference. But is it good enough to be able to play at home in June?

At 13-5 in the league with 12 games left, the Tide could go 6-6 down the stretch and still finish with an enviable 19-11 record. That ought to be good enough to guarantee a Tuscaloosa regional.

Last year's club finished 17-13 and was sent to the New Orleans regional. Every SEC team with 18 or more wins hosted a regional in 2005.

Though such a mark is clearly far from assumed, the big debate is whether the Crimson Tide can receive a national seed and be in line to host a Super Regional should it win its regional. At 31-12 overall, Alabama has a gaudy enough record to be considered one of the top eight teams in the country.

Two SEC teams — Florida and Ole Miss — received national seeds last season, and Alabama's to-date resume stacks up nicely with what those teams did. SEBaseball.com's Mark Etheridge, who projects such things on his Web site, had Alabama as the No. 8 national seed last week, before the Crimson Tide swept Vanderbilt.

Alabama's 13-5 SEC start equals the best league start ever under Jim Wells, matching the 2002 team that won the Western Division.

The Crimson Tide climbed to sixth in Monday's Collegiate Baseball rankings and also to sixth in Baseball America's.

Keeping the streak alive: Ashley Miles' individual vault title at Saturday's NCAA gymnastics championships cemented her place in Tide gymnastics history.
Nationally, Miles is tied for third in career titles with four, joining for Alabama gymnast Penney Hauschild, among others. Miles' win upped Alabama's all-time individual NCAA Championship total to 19.

Alabama has won at least one individual title in each of the past five years, which is the longest active streak in the nation.

Verice Cloyd situation: Much decision-making still needs to be done in the case of Alabama basketball signee Verice Cloyd. A 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Mendenhall, Miss., Cloyd graduated from the unaccredited Genesis One School.
That's a problem, according to the NCAA, since Genesis One is unaccredited. On the heels of a handful of New York Times stories in recent months, the NCAA is looking into these schools more closely and could wind up saying Cloyd's high school education is no good, according to various media reports.
Still on top: Alabama's softball team kept hold of the top spot in the SEC standings with a series win over No. 8 Georgia this weekend in Tuscaloosa, capped by a 4-1 win Sunday.
"That's a difficult team to beat two out of three times," UA coach Patrick Murphy said. "It says a lot for the freshmen too, because it was two of them that contributed most of the offense today and all the RBIs."

Alabama and Auburn renew their rivalry with a mid-week three-game set that starts today at 5 p.m.

[Hold My Own]

paper work just got in!!!!


LUConn, keep in mind that isnt counting Brewington....if you were to take his skill rating alone and just keep 2 other guys we'd be Top 50 still, if you add him with all these other guys we're top #30

[Hold My Own]

Has the High School cleared those allegations through the NCAA...?

TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006
SPORTS COLUMNS | SPORTS | HOME | FORUMS | ARCHIVES | SCHEDULES


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KYLE VEAZEY

Tide must prevent late-season slide


The Alabama baseball team's domination of Vanderbilt during a weekend three-game set gave the Crimson Tide sole possession of the top spot in the Southeastern Conference. But is it good enough to be able to play at home in June?

At 13-5 in the league with 12 games left, the Tide could go 6-6 down the stretch and still finish with an enviable 19-11 record. That ought to be good enough to guarantee a Tuscaloosa regional.

Last year's club finished 17-13 and was sent to the New Orleans regional. Every SEC team with 18 or more wins hosted a regional in 2005.

Though such a mark is clearly far from assumed, the big debate is whether the Crimson Tide can receive a national seed and be in line to host a Super Regional should it win its regional. At 31-12 overall, Alabama has a gaudy enough record to be considered one of the top eight teams in the country.

Two SEC teams — Florida and Ole Miss — received national seeds last season, and Alabama's to-date resume stacks up nicely with what those teams did. SEBaseball.com's Mark Etheridge, who projects such things on his Web site, had Alabama as the No. 8 national seed last week, before the Crimson Tide swept Vanderbilt.

Alabama's 13-5 SEC start equals the best league start ever under Jim Wells, matching the 2002 team that won the Western Division.

The Crimson Tide climbed to sixth in Monday's Collegiate Baseball rankings and also to sixth in Baseball America's.

Keeping the streak alive: Ashley Miles' individual vault title at Saturday's NCAA gymnastics championships cemented her place in Tide gymnastics history.
Nationally, Miles is tied for third in career titles with four, joining for Alabama gymnast Penney Hauschild, among others. Miles' win upped Alabama's all-time individual NCAA Championship total to 19.

Alabama has won at least one individual title in each of the past five years, which is the longest active streak in the nation.

Verice Cloyd situation: Much decision-making still needs to be done in the case of Alabama basketball signee Verice Cloyd. A 6-foot-3 shooting guard from Mendenhall, Miss., Cloyd graduated from the unaccredited Genesis One School.
That's a problem, according to the NCAA, since Genesis One is unaccredited. On the heels of a handful of New York Times stories in recent months, the NCAA is looking into these schools more closely and could wind up saying Cloyd's high school education is no good, according to various media reports.
Still on top: Alabama's softball team kept hold of the top spot in the SEC standings with a series win over No. 8 Georgia this weekend in Tuscaloosa, capped by a 4-1 win Sunday.
"That's a difficult team to beat two out of three times," UA coach Patrick Murphy said. "It says a lot for the freshmen too, because it was two of them that contributed most of the offense today and all the RBIs."

Alabama and Auburn renew their rivalry with a mid-week three-game set that starts today at 5 p.m.

The NCAA has already checked out Gen 1, they concluded that these kids do go to real classes and have real teachers, there are TONS of schools out there though that will be busted b/c the kids dont know what a classroom looks like or who their teacher is.....Homeschool kids also come unaccredited, thats a non issue

[Brokeback Flamer]

paper work just got in!!!!


LUConn, keep in mind that isnt counting Brewington....if you were to take his skill rating alone and just keep 2 other guys we'd be Top 50 still, if you add him with all these other guys we're top #30

Does anyone else have Hankinson flashbacks where they here "Recruiting Class" rankings? I think every year he was here we had some type of "Top 50" recruiting class! These rankings are like open gym talent evals....worthless. I wonder what Navy's recruiting class ranking was when The Admiral was a frosh? Or GW's a few years ago. Can this guy help? Absolutley. Are we better then Gonzaga or UCLA? Only if the Kool Aid is really strong. LU made a great point. Our score is so high b/c of the number of players we are bringing in, not necessarily the talent. Let's just hope everyone comes back (You consiracist KEL) and we avoid injury. It is only May, and teams are not made over the summer. (But players are)

[Stevev]

Nice ranking. In front of some great programs. Something to be proud of.

[Hold My Own]

First, Not one of those players that put us in the Top 25 recruiting classes ended up at LU, thats the difference between this and that, these guys are signed sealed and will be delivered, none of those guys stepped foot on campus they ended up at schools like Memphis and others....the biggest difference is Hank would tell everyone about potential leads and how their going to come not guys that have already signed on the dotted line.....we're not talking about anyone other than those that signed, heck even if one recruit was to fall by the wayside then its still a VERY good recruiting class and ranks tops in the BS, and keep in mind that's all that matters, nobody on the MBB is looking to compete with anyone on that list unless it has Big South by their names


2nd take a look at the other teams, while you will find your 3 and 4 player recruits there are a ton of 5's too, so dont drink to much of that koolade either brokeback

[Brokeback Flamer]

Ahh yes my fine young champion (old school LU for ya) You do admit that these recruitng classes are much hyped. Here is the bottom line in ANY recruiting class: Did you address your needs? You may only need a specific position, if you recruit to that position, your "Ranking" won't be very high, but your team will probably be better.
As for the "quantity" argument you made, it is an old saw. Just b/c other teams have 5 new players, should we? This has already been discussed, but I thought it was worth pointing out how this worked in the "rankings". Why are these teams replacing? B/c UNC had to bring in 5 players last year, does that put them on the same level as St. Forgottenbug State who had to bring in 5 players as well?
Re read the post: I said this guy SHOULD help us. He addresses a need. For my money, I would like to have seen us bring in more front line depth and maybe not have pursued some of these guards as heavily. BUT, I don't make those calls, the staff does and as is the nature of the beast they have to live die and stay employed!
(I did try some of the Kiwi Strawberry Kool Aid, and it was Delic! Plus the color brought out my skin tones!0

[Hold My Own]

well, you keep telling people like myself, LUconn, SJ and many others to step back from the Koolade....but your drinking some on your own.....yes it is a different color and flavor but it doesn't change the fact that your still sippin on your own home brew....I feel like our needs were met, The biggest need was in the middle so we signed 3 guys 6'8"....that's all you can ask for, we needed someone to handle the rock, we found that....these are good times for our program, yes we'll hit a bump in the road before Midnight Madness but that's ok too, let's pretend LB was to get hurt at the NBA camp and he's done, while we'll be sad and you cant replace that type of player it still wouldn't change the fact that there are great things going on in this program.

I'm getting flashbacks of members getting in the FB thread and hating on what's going on in the program and all to willing to point out any flaw they can find....we all to often forget where we've come from....I'm not even talking about since conception, just remember last year in both FB and MBB, these are great times guys!

After re-reading your post you questioned should we have brought in 5 players......the answers simple....NO, we should have brought in more!

[guest]

you boys are so excited about this great class huh. well, you should be. According to the last 4 years, this is the third top 50 class coach dunton has recruited. Let me name some of the other players that were on the list that made the first two top 50 classes. Blair, Dees, Stewart, Miller, and Segun (Class of 2003). Only one is still around (Blair). Risher, Porter, Monroe, and Robinson (Class of 2004). Combined record with those two classes over the last two years 16-37 (division I record; but some of you would like to take credit for Cinncinnati Christian, Lynchburg College, Shenandoah, and PR Mayog.) and 6 of the 9 have left the program. Not hatn, just put statistics and facts out there for you to think about before you go crazy over numbers and ratings. Hey, maybe third time is a charm. They may acutally stay for more than a year and improve a little. Either time will tell or history will keep repeating.

[guest]

oh yeah, i don't believe Winthrop has had but one, if that, top 50 recruiting class since Marshall has been there. They seem to be doing just fine the last few years.

[LUconn]

Thanks for you interest in Liberty Athletics

[Guest]

Dunton, I believe was 45-45 in his first three years. Played 9 guarantee games so for all intention we were 54-36. He took over a situation with no roots left. This team has talent as I have witness in the
spring practices. The staff is in one accord and building this university a program. There are no magic
potions. From my perspective the changes will be healthy but coaching this generation is a chore. The
previous guest can position his opinions as he desires, but I am looking forward to 95% of us getting behind Coach D and watching exciting hoops. I am in on some of the promotions Coach is planing for next year and it will be tremendous. Also the way he is helping all the guys who are done or transferring
speaks volumes to his concern for the young lives. I am glad he is our coach and I don't even drink kool-aid.

[Guest]

Lightbourne was part of the 2003 class and I believe he graduated. Also was a tremendous impact on the program. Woodson, Turner, Baker, Holland and Eck all had substantial injuries that affected the teams ability. Coach D is accountable to put a successful team on the court but isn't a 2,1,2 run ahead of most of our teams other than women's hoop. Enough about the past I looking forward to seeing more from this current squad. Armon Jones arrives for summer school tomorrow.
Yeah for another big body!! Tyler Baker gets to play full court for the first time since his surgery. Has
anybody noticed how big Tyler is now?

[fsn32]

The best way to gauge it would be to order the list by the "rating per recruit." My brain is fried right now so this sounds like a job for the Medic!

[Brokeback Flamer]

Well for starters, the big difference is I kNOW I drink the kool aid! I don't buy into Recruiting Class rankings et al. I do not believe I said we SHOULDN"T bring in 5 new players. We sorta HAD to bring in 5 new players. Now a hope would be that we have a balanced enough recruiting system that we are not having to make wholesale changes every year. This has already been discussed at length in another thread. Also, it would be sort of tough on the program if we brought in more then 5 guys, what with those pesky recruiting limits and all.
As for the poster who says "he has seen talent in open gym this spring" I refer back to my position on open gym talent evaluation and stick behind it.
Also, being 6'8" does not a front court player you make. We apparently brought in three, but what are their body types? How aggressive and smart are they? I keep hearing how "versatile" they are and can step out on the wing. Other then this guy do we have an "Booty on the block" that can create space and give us a bucket when we need one?
As for the hype, I am tired of it. I have heard the last two coaches talk up their recruiting class rankings. I would rather see CONSISTENT wins on the court. We used to have those, even AT our inception.
Finally, let me point out that being critical does not mean you are hatin. No need to be all defensive about it.

[Guest]

Winters 6'8"
Jenkins 6'
Franklin 6'1"

I didn't see the other two on the board. Did I miss them or have our fabulous FFer's missed telling us about the others?

[Guest]

Actually you have also added:
6'8" Armon Jones
6'8" Alex McLean
6'5" Dwight Brewington

Tyler Baker is now 6'9" and is supposedly a inside/out guy.

[Guest]

Brokeback is right on. Competitve toughness and IQ are huge components in any college position,
but especially in the post. I believe if two of the group Winters, McLean, Jones and Baker can be
productive with a veteran Rell Porter we will see post play return in the upcoming year. Let's give the
staff credit for their work with this class.