Weekly basketball recruiting roundup
After the Terps’ debacle in Charlotte last night, I’m sure Maryland fans are searching for answers.
According to these baltimoresun.com poll results, 43 percent of the respondents think Maryland’s woes these past four seasons are due to subpar recruiting.
The good news for UM fans is that the 2008 recruiting class looks like it could buck that disappointing trend.
2008 UM commitments
Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College suffered an earlier than expected end to its season, but point guard Bobby Maze certainly did his part.
For his efforts this season, the Terps commitment was named Most Valuable Player in the Jayhawk Conference Western Division yesterday. He also earned Region VI first-team honors. From the HCC news release:
Maze became only the third Blue Dragon point guard to have 200 assists in a season, finishing with 218. That’s second on HCC’s single-season list and ninth on the Blue Dragon career assist list. ...
Maze averaged 20.7 points per game, shooting 50.5 percent from the field overall and 72.9 percent from the free-throw line.
Maze’s teammate, power forward Ken Bowman (who could become a Terp should a scholarship open up), was named to the Jayhawk Western Division’s first team, and earned honorable mention laurels on the Region VI squad.
Bowman entered the 2007-08 season as a second-team NJCAA Preseason All-American.
The 6-foot-9 sophomore forward from Phoenix didn’t disappoint, averaging 14.8 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game. Bowman shot 53.5 percent from the field and led the team with 66 blocked shots.
• Meanwhile, Terps shooting guard commitment Sean Mosley continued his stellar play this season in St. Frances’ 95-86 overtime win over Roman Catholic in the opening round of the Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament. Mosley scored a game-high 35 points.
Mosley took sole possession of second place on the state's all-time scoring list and has 2,879. Rodney Monroe of St. Maria Goretti is the all-time leader with 3,047 points.
• Before yesterday’s loss, the Sun’s Terps beat writer Don Markus speculated on Maryland’s lineup combinations next year with Maze and Mosley factored in.
Williams admitted after practice Wednesday that Greivis Vasquez could be as effective at shooting guard if either Hayes, Bowie or junior college transfer Bobby Maze can be a reliable point guard next season. Bowie and Hayes have played out of position most of the time this season and while Bowie has seemingly adjusted, Hayes hasn't.
Given the lack of depth in the frontcourt next season, especially before Gus Gilchrist becomes eligible, I can also see Williams using a lot of three-guard sets with two big guards, Vasquez and freshman Sean Mosley, and either Bowie, Hayes or Maze running the point. Seems a bit crowded, especially at the point.
2009 recruiting
• TurtleSportsReport.com’s Jeff Ermann has a great article on two National Christian Academy standouts that are major UM targets – junior power forward Dante Taylor and sophomore shooting guard Will Barton.
Taylor and Barton’s coach at NCA, Trevor Brown, had high praise for Gary Williams in the article.
Williams “just gets the most out of them. It’s easy when ‘X University’ gets eight McDonald’s All-Americans and half of them become pros. They might have been pros coming out of high school. Those kids that Gary has put in the NBA, none of them were top-50 players, maybe not even top-75. [Chris] Wilcox may have been top-50, but look at Juan Dixon. And Lonnie Baxter, I don’t think he was even top-75 in his class.”
• Besides Taylor, St. Benedict (N.J.) center Greg Echenique is arguably UM’s biggest target for ’09. According to Charlotte.com, Echenique is a top priority for Duke as well.
The most important recruit in the arena was St. Benedict Prep junior Greg Echenique, who's 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds and could give Duke the body it dearly needs to bang against all the big guys who have committed to North Carolina. The Blue Devils probably will continue with their wide-open style, but still will need muscle in the future.
• The Washington Post’s Josh Barr checked in with Montrose Christian coach Stu Vetter this week for his take on the recruitments of the Montrose Three -- Isaiah Armwood, Tristan Spurlock and Terrell Vinson.
"Terrell was down at Duke this weekend," Vetter said. "Isaiah likes Villanova a lot, but he's also got several ACC schools. Tristan likes U-Va. a lot, but he's got several schools too. All of them like Maryland, but who knows what their scholarship situation is."
Women’s recruiting
• The Fairfax (Va.) County Times has a nice feature on one of Maryland’s primary targets for the class of 2009, T.C. Williams guard Tierra Ruffin-Pratt. According to the Times, Ruffin-Pratt had a pretty good season for the Titans.
“I just want to go all the time, and not settle for the 'now,'” said Ruffin-Pratt, who has been chosen as the 2008 Times Player of the Year. “I need to keep working because I know there's always someone out there that's better than me.”
Nearly as humble as she is talented, Ruffin-Pratt averaged an NBA-like 26 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists per game this season, leading the Titans to a 22-1 record.
Miscellaneous hoops recruiting
• Remember itinerant shooting guard prospect Chris Turner? The Terps offered him a scholarship last summer, but Mosley beat him to the punch in accepting the offer. Turner later committed to Oregon State, but according to CSTV.com’s Van Coleman, Turner’s recruitment is open once again.
Oregon State lost one of its Class of 2008, when 6-foot-5 wing guard Chris Turner from Humble Christian Life Center (Tex.) decided to re-open his recruitment. He had originally decided to play for the Pac-10 squad when Jay John was still the Beaver coach, and felt he needed to check out his options this spring.
Also from Coleman’s column -- Frank Ben-Eze, who got a look (not an offer) from Maryland, is also back on the market.
The prize big man in Harvard's fall recruiting class, 6-foot-10 Franklin Ben-Eze from Arlington Bishop O'Connell (Va.) has decided to re-open his recruitment. The gifted big man is a defensive stopper who has really come on this year on the offensive end of the court. He has decided to look at other schools this spring and should become a hot commodity nationally with the shortage of true post prospects (with grades) currently available. His loss will be a big one in the efforts of Tommy Amaker to rebuild Harvard into a contender in the Ivy League.
Programming note: I’ll post a ‘Weekly football recruiting roundup’ tomorrow.
Shameless plug alert: I shot video and wrote a feature about former Terps tight end Joey Haynos as part of the BaltimoreSun.com series, Eyeing the NFL.
Comments
Vetter asks a good question: what is Maryland's scholarship situation? I keep hearing that Gary used up all of the available scholarships, but I also keep hearing that Maryland is still going after guys in the 2009 class.
Posted by: Jimmy | March 14, 2008 12:39 PM
I'm sure Gary Williams will beat Coach K in a head to head battle Echenique or Vinson.
I too would love to hear who's leaving. I've heard rumors about Hayes, Vazquez, and then obvious questions about Gregory, Dupree, and now not so much about Burney & Walker since they got some time at the end.
But Gary keeps going the JUCO route b/c he continually fails recruiting program building frosh. How can you not recruit with the Comcast Center, playing in the ACC, and being the only state school of all that Baltimore talent.
Posted by: Mark Davis | March 14, 2008 1:01 PM
I would never criticize a coach with the accomplishments of Gary Williams. Nor should anyone else unless their last name is Wooten or Wooden. The man has been tremendously successful without even a hint of a recruiting violation. Doing it the right way is every bit as important as wins and losses. With that said the only thing that I question about this years team is the lack of minutes given to Dino Gregory.My guess would be that he is perhaps a 1/2 step slow and will be a contributor down the line but never a star. Dupree has no one to blame but himself, he simply is not in good enough shape. This offseason he must decide if he is willing to work hard enough to lose the weight to make the best of his ability.
Posted by: lefty | March 14, 2008 4:11 PM
To me that poll question is poorly structured...the reasons this team will miss the Dance are not the same reasons as those from the previous 2 and should not be lumped together.
I am confident that the 2006-2008 recruiting classes will end up being very solid as a group. Vazquez is clearly a guy you can build around, and Mosley and Gilchrist both have potential for that as well. The rest are all going to be good role players, and Tucker could be a star as well if he can find consistency as a shooter.
The reason the Terps will miss the tourney this year is primarily youth and inexperience. Notice that all 4 ACC locks for the Dance (UNC, Duke, Clemson, Miami) and in fact most legit Final 4 contenders have significant upperclassman contributions in their starting lineup and bench. We simply didn't get enough from our bench and (like Syracuse) had too many flaws to make up for that lack of depth. Dupree was a dissapointment but otherwise I think we got what should rightly have been expected from our underclassmen. Most objective observers would admit that our recruiting is fine and looks promising going forward (much thanks to Chuck Driesell).
Posted by: Jeremy | March 14, 2008 6:18 PM
Jeremy,
You are correct that the Terps are a wee bit inexperienced to accomplish a whole lot this year. (Although some observers will point out that the best college players only stick around for a couple years anyway).
But don't be too quick to dismiss recruiting inadequacies. Ask yourself why is the team so young? Where are all the Juniors and Seniors?
The answer is 2004 and 2005 were awful recruiting years. To wit:
2004
Sterling Ledbetter
James Gist
2005
Parrish Brown
Dave Neal
Shane Clark (they gave him a scholarship but he never gained eligibility because of grades--and has done not a lot at Villanova.)
Take away the JUCOs and you're left with Neal and Gist.
Ouch.
Yes, there is much to look forward to with Driesell recruiting now, but you have to admit that recruiting failures in 2004 and 2005 are the reason the team lacks experienced players.
The poll question was, why are they struggling. The answer is that Gary's poor recruiting saddled the team with youth.
If you want to probe further, you probably have to look at the heralded 2002 class with Gilchrist, McCray, Caner-Medley, Garrison, and Smith. When they imploded it put the program into a five year tailspin.
Posted by: shaslers | March 15, 2008 8:08 AM
Shaslers,
Your '02 class didn't even include Haasan Fofana and Will Bowers, the two reasons they passed on Josh Boone.
Add the inablity to close the deal on Matt Walsh, allowing Syracuse and UConn to snatch up Carmelo Anthony and Rudy Gay, respectively, the failures of Mike Jones (not entirely his fault), ignoring Joakim Noah's interst in coming to College Park, and allowing three of the top big men in the Metro area (DaJuan Summers, Donte Greene, and Henry Sims) to go to other schools without a fight, and it's no wonder the terps are where they are, in the NIT for the third time in four years.
The landscape has also changed in that time frame as well. Georgetown is a national power once again, and they're back raiding local talent, Loyola, UMBC, and Morgan under Todd Bozeman, are no longer the weak sisters they used to be. Which means Gary has his work cut out for him. And I wonder if he still has the fire to not only fight for the best players in this area, but to fully develop those he does get?
Posted by: des | March 15, 2008 11:47 AM
Des,
Point well taken. It was actually the '03 class with Fofana, Bowers, Mike Jones, along with Ibekwe and Strawberry. They were much more like the '02 class. A decent set of recruits but a disappointing group of performers, aside from Strawberry. The classes since have been less of these "four star" players and more of the "three star" players that Gary seems to have settled back into.
Posted by: shaslers | March 15, 2008 1:08 PM
Shaslers,
Thanks for the correction.
Posted by: des | March 15, 2008 3:19 PM
You were really busy this week, weren't you?
Good work!
Posted by: kgoon1590 | March 15, 2008 8:47 PM