Are we going to get screwed?

[BeantownHoya]

This is to the recruiting Gurus. Do any of you honestly feel we are legitimately the #1 choice for any of our Center targets?

Is Egbunu now a VT lean?
Rabb really ever leaving the west coast?
or Comanche for that matter?
Is Govan our best hope?

ESPN actually lists Dickerson as a five but I can't imagine that's where JT III plans to play him or am I wrong?

I mean if all four above choose another school, where are we then? I absolutely applaud the effort, not saying if we get screwed on all of the above it was lack of effort but I am getting worried about landing any of them.

[BubbleVisionBiff]

I am no guru, but...
Can someone bring me up to speed? When did Buzz become Calipari with a much worse haircut and wardrobe? Honestly, I never heard Buzz and bagman in the same sentence until a week ago.

I would assume Egbunu's choices are become a Hoya and become the next great Hoya big man or go to Blacksburg and never be heard from again as Seth Allen takes all the shots. Up to him.

Rabb said he wants to take an unofficial to GU. He wants to pay his own way to visit. That's no guarantee of anything, but it is a lot better than him not visiting.

I don't know about Comanche.

If Govan is our best hope, i.e., the "fallback" option, then this staff has radically revised the definition of recruiting success in a fairly short period of time. Revised it upward.

Screwed is definitely not the word I would use. I can't wait for 2015, to say nothing of next season.

[IDenj]

I like where the staff is with their recruiting. We will know in the next few days if we will land out third big for the class of 2015. If Egbunu commits we can focus on a couple of smaller more skilled guys like Trier, Mann, Reaves or Crawford.
Glad the staff has been proactive in getting kids early in the process, not late.

[blueandgray]

Not screwed at all. We were screwed when we had Hopkins, Lubick, and Trawick all in the starting line up...we were running 2 on 5 on offense.

When you look down the road to '15, as of now we could have a line up of DSR, LJP, White, Copeland and Dickerson....scoring threats at every position. We will be very tough to defend and long and athletic on the wings.

Would we benefit from a true shot blocking presence in the post...certainly! But we are far from screwed.

I do think both Comanche and Rabb are considered long shots namely because we'd have to pull them out east. But we are in the mix for both and have to play it out.

[hoyafan23]

May 12, 2014 8:56:54 GMT -5 BeantownHoya said:

This is to the recruiting Gurus. Do any of you honestly feel we are legitimately the #1 choice for any of our Center targets?

Is Egbunu now a VT lean?
Rabb really ever leaving the west coast?
or Comanche for that matter?
Is Govan our best hope?

ESPN actually lists Dickerson as a five but I can't imagine that's where JT III plans to play him or am I wrong?

I mean if all four above choose another school, where are we then? I absolutely applaud the effort, not saying if we get screwed on all of the above it was lack of effort but I am getting worried about landing any of them.

No- in no ways is Egbunu a VT lean. Yes, the assistant from USF went there but its simply one of his official visits. The kid is transferring and wants to keep his options open I respect him for visiting VT, but I still see MSU as our main competition. Heard he loved the visit and the staff is doing everything it can. We also hear from him which should be this weekend so our staff will change its focus.

Rabb is and was always an Arizona lean. In my eyes I think it will come down to Georgetown, Arizona and maybe UCLA/UNC for him. Its very hard to pull a west coast recruit to the east, but our staff is grinding and I see it as a possibility (~15%) but nothing too high until I hear how his visit goes.

Do not know much about Commanche

Govan is a stud as well. Heard he enjoyed his unofficial as well, still very early in the process for him but a great sign he came to campus. Govan is a beast as well reminds me of a bull like player like a smaller Cliff Alexander and if he gains some muscle could be a force inside with Dickerson and Derrickson.

Remember we also have other centers on tab such as Pappi. Everything will become a lot more clear with Egbunu's decision hopefully this weekend.

[SFHoya99]

Are we screwed? No.

Is there a pretty decent chance that we do not secure a commitment from any of the four centers you've named? Yes.

So why aren't we screwed?

Because Noah Dickerson already committed, and while he's not as tall as many of us would like, he's talented. All those missed open layups? Don't worry about them. Yes, he's not going to defend the rim like Hibbert, but he's not a fallback plan, either.

Because there are other big men prospects out there. You've listed four, but there's other players.

Because Rabb and Comanche were always longer shots; Egbunu is far from a lock to Va Tech and Govan seems pretty open at the moment.

[EtomicB]

May 12, 2014 9:22:28 GMT -5 BubbleVisionBiff said:

I am no guru, but...
Can someone bring me up to speed? When did Buzz become Calipari with a much worse haircut and wardrobe? Honestly, I never heard Buzz and bagman in the same sentence until a week ago.

I would assume Egbunu's choices are become a Hoya and become the next great Hoya big man or go to Blacksburg and never be heard from again as Seth Allen takes all the shots. Up to him.

Rabb said he wants to take an unofficial to GU. He wants to pay his own way to visit. That's no guarantee of anything, but it is a lot better than him not visiting.

I don't know about Comanche.

If Govan is our best hope, i.e., the "fallback" option, then this staff has radically revised the definition of recruiting success in a fairly short period of time. Revised it upward.

Screwed is definitely not the word I would use. I can't wait for 2015, to say nothing of next season.

Very well stated Bubbles..

I also don't buy into the conspiracy theories pushed by Professorhoya either..

Antigua could have easily blocked Egbunu from even considering Va.Tech if he felt something shady was going on with Roccoforte & Buzz.. Egbunu could end up choosing Buzz but I don't buy that he's a Va. tech lean at all and I still like the staff's chances with him..

[michaelgrahmstylie]

As far as the coaching staff goes, I truly believe they are doing all they can to land one or more of the above mentioned. "Screwed" is way off base. Grinding process, sweat it out, pray, do everything legal and hope, hope and pray some more, cross your fingers and hope and pray would be more like it.

[TBird41]

May 12, 2014 10:03:16 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Are we screwed? No.

Is there a pretty decent chance that we do not secure a commitment from any of the four centers you've named? Yes.

So why aren't we screwed?

Because Noah Dickerson already committed, and while he's not as tall as many of us would like, he's talented. All those missed open layups? Don't worry about them. Yes, he's not going to defend the rim like Hibbert, but he's not a fallback plan, either.

Because there are other big men prospects out there. You've listed four, but there's other players.

Because Rabb and Comanche were always longer shots; Egbunu is far from a lock to Va Tech and Govan seems pretty open at the moment.

To this point, we saw in 2013 that JT3 has shown he knows how to deploy a pretty nasty zone without having a 7' shotblocker. If we're going 6'3-6'5-6'9-6'9-6'8 with athletes, we're going to have a good defense (especially if we are able to occasionally shift Copeland to shooting guard)

[OldHoyafan]

My, my my, our cup runneth over. The Hoyas just landed a very capable 4/5 player and son of a Hoya legend(Mourning), and this past weekend landed a top 50 4/5 recruit for 2015 in Dickerson, and the question is asked "Are we screwed?" How far the Hoyas prospects have come from just 3 months ago when they were looking at a starting front court of Lubbick, Hopson, and Aegba. I am being sarcastic of course, but things are looking GOOD for the Hoyas in the near future.

[TC]

Can we change the title of this thread to "people wetting their pants over Buzz Williams for no reason at all"?

Buzz took a pay cut to go to Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech is not a good program - they've won only six NCAA tournament games EVER. Why do we think that a C would want to go to Blacksburg over Georgetown?

Can we get back to some semblance of common sense around here?

[IDenj]

May 12, 2014 10:03:31 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

May 12, 2014 9:22:28 GMT -5 BubbleVisionBiff said:

I am no guru, but...
Can someone bring me up to speed? When did Buzz become Calipari with a much worse haircut and wardrobe? Honestly, I never heard Buzz and bagman in the same sentence until a week ago.

I would assume Egbunu's choices are become a Hoya and become the next great Hoya big man or go to Blacksburg and never be heard from again as Seth Allen takes all the shots. Up to him.

Rabb said he wants to take an unofficial to GU. He wants to pay his own way to visit. That's no guarantee of anything, but it is a lot better than him not visiting.

I don't know about Comanche.

If Govan is our best hope, i.e., the "fallback" option, then this staff has radically revised the definition of recruiting success in a fairly short period of time. Revised it upward.

Screwed is definitely not the word I would use. I can't wait for 2015, to say nothing of next season.

Very well stated Bubbles..

I also don't buy into the conspiracy theories pushed by Professorhoya either..

Antigua could have easily blocked Egbunu from even considering Va.Tech if he felt something shady was going on with Roccoforte & Buzz.. Egbunu could end up choosing Buzz but I don't buy that he's a Va. tech lean at all and I still like the staff's chances with him..

Nothing surprises me in this game called recruiting. Do I believe he has a bagman or extra incentives to secure a players services? For sure. But I also believe a recruit can look past the short term gain and see tr bigger picture.

[TBird41]

May 12, 2014 10:33:44 GMT -5 IDenj said:

May 12, 2014 10:03:31 GMT -5 EtomicB said:

Very well stated Bubbles..

I also don't buy into the conspiracy theories pushed by Professorhoya either..

Antigua could have easily blocked Egbunu from even considering Va.Tech if he felt something shady was going on with Roccoforte & Buzz.. Egbunu could end up choosing Buzz but I don't buy that he's a Va. tech lean at all and I still like the staff's chances with him..

Nothing surprises me in this game called recruiting. Do I believe he has a bagman or extra incentives to secure a players services? For sure. But I also believe a recruit can look past the short term gain and see tr bigger picture.

Well, this particular center already chose to go to South Florida despite having a RSCI ranking of #63, so it's pretty clear that horrible basketball programs aren't automatically eliminated from his decision making

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Sounds like some of our fans have a case of PTRSD. Post Traumatic Recruiting Stress Disorder.

[TBird41]

May 12, 2014 11:00:05 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

Sounds like some of our fans have a case of PTRSD. Post Traumatic Recruiting Stress Disorder.

Yup. If the recruit has any hair on his head what-so-ever, I'm going to assume the worst until he's committed (and signed a LOI, in some cases).

[BeantownHoya]

YIKES! I should have been much more clear on my original post, so I don't look like a moron (maybe too late).

For the record, I love literally every recruit that has been brought in for 2014 and 2015. I couldn't be happier in that regard. Love the direction of the program based on those recruits.

"Screwed" was specifically pointed at the Center position. I am concerned that we have this amazing talent at the 1,2,3, and 4 and the potential we don't have that same success at the 5 and then potentially forced to play again a player out of position. So again that's why i asked our position with what are considered our top targets and if we don;t land what do the "guru's" see as the next player(s) that would be considered.

[HoyaChris]

May 12, 2014 11:00:05 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

Sounds like some of our fans have a case of PTRSD. Post Traumatic Recruiting Stress Disorder.

I think what we have is a case of HTHDOFLGTBTWCMTTWTGGITWWBMUSD or "How The Hell Did Our Front Line Get This Bad That We Can't Make The Tourney With Two Great Guards I Thought We Were Big Man U Stress Disorder."

[SFHoya99]

May 12, 2014 11:23:58 GMT -5 BeantownHoya said:

YIKES! I should have been much more clear on my original post, so I don't look like a moron (maybe too late).

For the record, I love literally every recruit that has been brought in for 2014 and 2015. I couldn't be happier in that regard. Love the direction of the program based on those recruits.

"Screwed" was specifically pointed at the Center position. I am concerned that we have this amazing talent at the 1,2,3, and 4 and the potential we don't have that same success at the 5 and then potentially forced to play again a player out of position. So again that's why i asked our position with what are considered our top targets and if we don;t land what do the "guru's" see as the next player(s) that would be considered.

I think Dickerson would be playing in position at the 5. Our offense works best with a stretch four; Dickerson is a low post guy. Actually, pretty much no one is running two low post guys out there at the same time.

Yes, it's an open question at his point as to his defensive impact, simply because of height. But offensively? He's a post player who will play in the post. I also think people are applying NBA height standards too often to college. And even on D, if you read the write-ups, he's better at one on one defense in the interior than guarding the perimeter.

Honestly, the best match for Dickerson is probably a tall center who can play a bit outside, so they can play together and not clog up the middle.

[hoyasaxa2003]

May 12, 2014 11:23:58 GMT -5 BeantownHoya said:

YIKES! I should have been much more clear on my original post, so I don't look like a moron (maybe too late).

For the record, I love literally every recruit that has been brought in for 2014 and 2015. I couldn't be happier in that regard. Love the direction of the program based on those recruits.

"Screwed" was specifically pointed at the Center position. I am concerned that we have this amazing talent at the 1,2,3, and 4 and the potential we don't have that same success at the 5 and then potentially forced to play again a player out of position. So again that's why i asked our position with what are considered our top targets and if we don;t land what do the "guru's" see as the next player(s) that would be considered.

I am confident that however it works out, our front court will be significantly stronger than last year's front court of Lubick-Ayegba-Hopkins. Even worst case scenario, where we don't land a true center, we have Dickerson, who can be a low post player and an undersized center (for college, I think having a skilled 6'8 Dickerson is better than an unskilled 6'10 or 6'11 guy). That's not a bad place to be, especially considering that we are in the mix for a lot of 2015 big men.

As for Egbunu, it would be great to land him, and I think he could contribute a lot to our program, but do not forget that 2 months ago, Egbunu was not on anybody's radar. It would be nice to get Egbunu since it would guarantee us a skilled center starting in 2015, but if he chooses someone else, we are still in the mix for a lot of high quality 2015 guys.

I am really excited for our future. There could be some growing pains in 2014-2015, but I think there's a very strong chance we will be a top 25 and better team the following year.

[hoyabuddha]

Is there not a gentleman named Josh Smith who plays center enrolled for next year. it is hard to vanish at 6'10 and 300 lbs.