FW: Next Year Revisited

[Schroeder, Tom]

It's nice to know that this recruiting "mush" that I keep churning around in
my head on a 24/7 basis actually congealed into a kernel of logic !!!LOL
For the same reason that a freshman 4/5 man is needed, a shooting guard is
also necessary as well.  If this Loften kid could work out and one of our
three point guards in 2004-2005 could play some 2-guard then we would be set
there as well.


-----Original Message-----
From: Randy Shinkle [mailto:address@hidden
Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 5:00 PM
To: address@hidden
Subject: [UC Basketball] Next Year Revisited


I went back to the posts below and decided that Tom was right:  UC needs to
have a 4/5 player in next year's freshman class.  This became clear when I
added Whaley and Williams to the class breakdown and then divided it into
"interior" and "perimeter" players:

    Interior:

        Seniors:  Flowers, Johnson (maybe Land)
        Juniors:  Maxiell, Whaley
        Sophomores:  Hicks

    Perimeter:

        Seniors:  Bobbitt, F. Williams
        Juniors:  N. Williams
        Sophomores:  Kirkland, Moore

The problem is that the non-senior interior players represent various
degrees of risk.  Whaley may go to the NBA without ever playing at UC, or
perhaps playing just one year.  Some would say that Maxiell is also a risk
to play only one more year.  Hicks may turn out to be best utilized on the
wing, especially after this year.

It's therefore possible (although unlikely) that UC would have *no*
returning inside players the following year, which would clearly be
unacceptable.  That's why the "freshman guard" I listed below really needs
to be a freshman 4/5 player, preferably a kid big and talented enough to
hold his own in practice with Johnson and Whaley for a year.  Who?  Well,
we'll see ....  ;-)

For the reasons stated, Bass would still be a great pickup for the other
spot.  It may turn out to be a solid wing player instead, such as Reggie
Harwell or even JC product Jeff Varem (the latter would keep the classes
rather imbalanced, but that's normal with Huggins); however, the perimeter
depth is good with just Nick Williams added (not to mention the potential
for Hicks to move to the wing), and it's much easier to add walk-ons as
practice players on the perimeter, such as Lucas and Meeker.

Bass, Whaley, Williams and a freshman 4/5 player with "upside" would be an
excellent group.  Like I said, Tom was right.

Randy '78


Randy Shinkle wrote:
> To elaborate on Tom's comments, here is the class breakdown for 2003-04,
> using only current scholarship players:
>
>     Seniors:  Bobbitt, Flowers, Johnson, F. Williams
>     Junior:  Maxiell
>     Sophomores:  Hicks, Kirkland, Moore
>
> This assumes that:
>   - Hollman is not granted another year
>   - No current scholarship player redshirts this year
>
> Nick Williams would take the 9th scholarship as a junior, and if all goes
> well, Eugene Land would take the 10th as a senior.  For purposes of class
> and position balance, I'd like to see the remaining 3 scholarships go to:
>   - a freshman forward, preferably Brandon Bass
>   - a freshman guard, such as Von Wafer
>   - a JC post player, preferably *not* Bender or Whaley
>
> This recruiting class needs to include 2 freshmen and 2 JC kids to avoid
> future problems with the 5/8 rule, which unfortunately is probably not
> going away.  Besides, given Huggins' penchant for recruiting JC players,
> 2 (or occasionally 3) solid 3-to-4-year freshmen in each class is fine.
>
> Randy '78
>
> "Schroeder, Tom" wrote:
> > With Williams, the 2003-2004 class will have (4) seniors (5 if Land gets
his
> > last year through appeal), (2) juniors, incl. Williams, (3) sophs and at
> > this point, no freshmen.  Bender and Whaley would be the 3rd and 4th
> > juniors.
> >
> > If we have Land for his senior year, the (2) Jucos, Bender/Whaley, then
we
> > need to recruit a freshmen small forward and a freshman center for this
> > class.  It would be nice to have a soph center already in place to go
with
> > (hopefully) incoming Freshman center Terwilliger in 2004-2005.  Of
course,
> > Kirkland could step in as the small forward with Hicks, which could mean
> > that if Butler ends up at the shooting guard, in 2004-2005, he would
need a
> > compliment with him at the shooting guard spot for that class.