Anthony McClain

[Filthyhoya]

Update on the big 7 footer. I love what he says at the end of the page. Hopefully Macklin feels the same and jumps aboard. sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=citadel-2_385366_191&prov=citadel&type=story_recruiting

[the_way]

filthyhoya2 said:

Update on the big 7 footer. I love what he says at the end of the page. Hopefully Macklin feels the same and jumps aboard. sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=citadel-2_385366_191&prov=citadel&type=story_recruiting

"Georgetown," McClain noted when asked who had shown him heavy interest. "Kansas and Virginia Tech. I like Georgetown because it's big around here."

I like the second to last paragraph even better, particularly the highlighted sentence. For those who mistakenly thought we were an afterthought in the local area, think again.

[RBHoya]

Good stuff. I think its safe to say that we're back as far as recruiting in our area. I hope we continue to regain our prominence, and that we start to get all of the best players from Maryland, DC, Virginia, and essentially the entire midatlantic.

McClain is exactly what we need too. I've been very happy with III's recruiting so far, but he has yet to bring in a real big man. McClain would be a perfect fit. If he commits, he'd be a freshman when Roy is a senior, which would give him a year to learn the system and play some minutes here and there in a backup role before taking on a bigger role as a sophomore once Roy graduates. He's truly a perfect fit IMHO. I think he goes to NCA if I'm not mistaken, so maybe the Jessie Sapp connection will help us in recruiting him.... It's tough to outrecruit Kansas, but it seems like Anthony is fully aware of the Georgetown Big Man tradition, and respect ths program a lot.

We've got one, maybe two scholarships for '07, and I think McClain should be priority #1. Imagine if we got commitments from McClain AND Macklin over the next month or so? It'd be like a dream come true... We'd have the conference's best front court for years to come.

[prhoya]

Kudos to the coaching staff for recruitng efforts described by McClain as "hardest"!

[millerj9]

biggie, biggie smalls is the illest

[Deleted]

Great news! III and staff have really been pounding the pavement in the mid-Atlantic like never before it seems like. G'TOWN WANTS YOU TONY!!...

..."or should I say Mr. McClain. Mr. Officer John McClain of the New York Police Department?"

[SirSaxa]

"Georgetown's recruiting hardest and has offered," McClain noted. " the way they treat their big men."

The above is the best quote of all. "I like they way they treat their big men".

If that is the criteria, it is going to be awfully difficult for anyone to beat us out. Patrick, Zo, Deke, Mike, Jerome, O, Jahidi, Roy, Jeff....

We know the alumni come around in the summer. And with PE Jr on the team, we can be certain that PE Sr. will be around even more. Not to mention the ultimate "Big Man"... Pops himself.

There are no guarantees, but we sure seem to be in great position for this kid. GO JT3!!!

[SoCalHoya]

Can you imagine what our frontline would look like? Having McClain commit would be huh-UGE!

[FromTheBeginning]

Unfortunately, a Catch 22 situation. If he gets as good as we want him to be - he'll never see a college court. Bring on the age restriction.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

As far as the age restriction goes - with someone of McClain's age I believe it is a fait accompli that there will be an age restriction in place in the NBA by the time he signs his letter of intent - it is unconcievable that the NBA would lock out that long or that Stern would see that point as expendable and the player's association has never said that the age restriction was a deal-breaker.

[RBHoya]

I have a lot of mixed feelings on an age restriction though. When you think about it, I think its gonna be worse for us long term... We all see the short term benefits with guys like Macklin and McClain, but think about it in the long haul... It means that all of the most talented high school players in the country are going to be attending college for a few years... That means guys like Greg Oden, OJ Mayo et. al will be coming to college. It means that longterm, players LIKE Amare Stoudamire, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, etc. etc. etc. are all going to be playing a couple years of NCAA ball, even though they're all pretty certain that they have what it takes to play in the NBA.

Now... lets say youre a talented young guy like Amare Stoudamire. You know you're already athletic enough to play in the pros and you're NBA bound eventually.... You're not likely to follow through with your degree, you're just going to college because thats the next step going toward your NBA career....

Now, where are you going to go? Are you going to go to a school like Georgetown, where one of the primary selling points is academic excellence and you're going to have to work your butt off to pass your courses in between games and practices? Or are you going to go to Kentucky, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Memphis, Louisville, UF, Alabama, or somewhere like that where you're going to get passed through the classroom without needing to focus too heavily on academics? I mean, let me be blunt... most of these guys don't give a damn about education. They know they're ranked very highly in their classes and that NBA scouts already know full well what they can do. They're only going to college because they aren't allowed to go straight to the pros... And since they dont care about education, they're not going to want to come to a school where education is first priority. They'd probably be just as happy with a degree from OK state as from Georgetown anyway, so why bust your ass in the classroom and with long hours of studying when you can go somewhere where professors are just gonna pass you along because youre a star athlete? An age limit is gonna totally change college hoops. Adding players with LeBron/Amare/Kobe Bryant type talent is gonna totally shift the balance of power... the teams that land these guys are the teams that are gonna win the title, and teams that don't land any of them will struggle to compete.

And you have to ask yourself, how good of a chance do we have to nab these sorts of players? Yea, we're on the rise in terms of popularity among young players, and we're starting to recruit heavy hitters again... but we're having success with guys like DaJuan Summers and Jeremiah Rivers, guys who care about Georgetown's academic reputation... are we gonna have any luck bringing in guys who have no interest in classes or grades? Who don't wanna go to class at all, and have no interest in a degree? I mean, maybe we can do alright in recruiting these sorts of players, but I still think that its probably a disadvantage for us and other schools who focus on academics and an advantage for schools like Memphis where academics are an afterthought.

[the_way]

Another point is that the NBA wants a 20 year old age limit and the Players Union doesn't want one. But it has been said that they have agreed to meet halfway at age 19. So, it makes it even worse. A lot of the kids are 19 when they come out. Amare was 20 during his first year . Kwame Brown was 19 his first year.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

Well if the age thing is 20 and there are a lot of players going to college that means none of them are getting their degrees because no one graduates college when they are 20. Also many of them might be partial qualifiers or go to JCs if we are to believe that it is an issue of athleticism and poor academics as well in some cases. There will be court challenges to the rule ofcourse but I think that overall it will improve the quality of college basketball and benefit teams that are in power conferences and that can get these players face time - going to a school that is already loaded with talent is not the smartest thing - if you want to be making the leap from college to the pros in the year you have to be starting and having an impact not just being a sixth man for Eddie Sutton, Coach K, etc.

[hoyalove4ever]

The age restriction is a terrible idea for all involved. What college basketball DOESN'T need is a bunch *more* guys who have no interest in getting a degree. What the NBA DOESN'T need is the true stars being delayed before reaching the show.

Other than that, it's a great idea.

[FromTheBeginning]

The kids that are not really interested in going to school already have plenty of institutions of "higher learning" willing to make a place for them, regardless of how long they plan to be in school.

[MCIGuy]

Its the business of the league itself that is the issue, not future players. Future players don't have any rights nor should they. They aren't part of the NBA yet. This is about business. The health of the league is more important than any one, ten, one hundred future players. Instead of going over all this again I will simply cut and paste from a post I wrote on HoyaReport in which I listed some of the reasons WHY David Stern andothers in the NBA offices want an age limit. Its pretty long so if you have a problem with that just ignore my post.:


1)Image. The league is seen by many that have shunned it as some place where underdeveloped teenagers who are lacking in skills can get paid millions of dollars out of high school and learn the basic of hoops while on the job. Despite the success of LeBron most casual sports fans (the ones Stern and Co want back as viewers in order for the NBA to stay profitable and pay these outstanding salaries) regard these young players as spoiled brats who get paid almost exclusively on potential rather than results because they have never played a minute of college hoops. And how one plays in college is still by far a better indicator of one's ability to play in the pros than dominating high school teams ever will be. Rightfully or wrongly the casual fans view these high school pups as undeserving hot shots who hold teams hostage as they are paid ungodly amounts of money without, for the most part, giving in return an equitable contribution. Now of course one can say that about many of the players drafted out of college but in those cases the players and GMs are given more of a pass because the feeling is that a player has at least paid his dues by going to college and working on his game at that level. If he doesn't pan out its very disappointing but its not viewed as negatively when the player is straight from hig school. For example there are countless college players who were drafted high and stunk but the media does not come down on hard on them or the teams that chose them as it does when a high school player is involved (Kwame Brown anyone?). Again this may not be fair but fairness has nothing to do with it. The media shines the spotlight more on the failure of high school players in the pros than they do college players. The truth is there are various reasons why so many current NBA players are lacking fundamentals. But the one that is the main scapegoat for the media and particularly the casual sports fans who love to bash the NBA is that drafting way too young players (including those who only go to college for a year) has hurt the play on the court. Do you guys realize that Stern has hired part of the team that got Bush elected to the White House to help with the NBA’s image. He brought in a major player in politics, a man who was part of the smear campaign against Bush’s rivals, to seek help in repairing the image of the league. Stern and co are dead serious in fixing any perceived damage. Also there is truth in their belief that a person who goes to college is going to be, on average, more mature and well rounded than a player who comes straight out of high school. Those types of guys will also better serve the unions down the line Of course there are exceptions. But anyone who doesn’t think that on average an individual who spent just two years in college is not more mature, more worldly and more educated than a highschooler is kidding himself.

2)They have a nice farm system. Its called college basketball. It costs them nothing. Having the American players funneled through this farm system is still seen as a better alternative for preparing for the level of play on the court, the travel on the road throughout the season and the maturation off the court. High school hoops doesn’t do as good a job in these areas. Again there are exceptions but there is a reason that for the rest of us stiffs working in the real world we tend to get better job opportunities and handle ourselves better after going to college than we would if we try to go straight from high school to a professional work environment. Why would it be any different for athletes?

3)Growing the fan base. As much as the fans of Duke, UNC, Kentucky, UConn, etc love to complain about the "evil" NBA, the fact is most of them whom normally don’t follow the NBA will tune in to games when former players from their favorite college teams are involved. If you go to a Kentucky forum you will often see a lot of posts dedicated to the Pistons. Why? Well, its because Tayshaun Price is a very important player for Detroit. His presence on a NBA championship team has really had quite an affect on a couple of Kentucky boards. I can now go there and read many threads devoted to NBA hoops, some of which do not even involve former Kentucky players. Because of their exposure to watching Detroit because of Prince, there have been Kentucky fans, young and old, who previously never got into the NBA originally but now are very knowledgeable about the league itself. A handful of them may become legitimate hardcore NBA supporters or at least regular viewers. And that is how you help build your fanbase. If you can get college fans to carry over the support of their players from the college teams to the pros it would mean more eyes tuning in on the NBA product. Which means better ratings, more tickets sold and more merchandise being purchased. Which means more money in the end for both the owners and the players. In other words its good business. This is not a option when the player comes straight out of high school. Outside of LeBron who got more hype than anyone in history, not one high school player ever brought in a large fan following with him. As popular as Amare Stoudemire may become can you imagine how much more popular he would have been IMMEDIATELY if he had played at, say, Georgetown (wishful thinking) and had played alongside Sweetney to beat Carmello Anthony and the Syracuse Orangemen? He would have been an Iverson or Ewing-like draw as soon as he suited up for the NBA team that drafted him and he would have likely had an even greater impact in the league his first two years. But when the very top high school prospects, the ones most likely to become NBA superstars, go from highschool to the pros there is not an opportunity to build much awareness. Do you think Magic and Bird would have improved the fortunes of the NBA nearly as much if they had not gone to college, had not dominated and made a name for themselves and had not met in the ’79 NCAA championship? Get real. If those two had gone straight from high school to the pros it would have taken years before the larger public of sports fans had ever figured out who they were. Again this is a business decision and when it comes down to business who do you want to risk alienating? Parents of high school players who don’t want to see an age limit? The populace who decry how unfair or perhaps racist an age limit would be but will still tune into NBA hoops anyway? Or the possible millions of college fans who go out of their way to demonize the NBA and refuse to support it because they feel the NBA hurts college hoops? If this is a business decision then the choice is a nobrainer. I’m not going to alienate a bunch of college fans when a good percentage could become NBA fans as well. There are some divisions between college football and the NFL. There are some strands of antagonism college football supporters have for the NFL. But in no way does it come anywhere near the antagonism, sometimes downright hatred, that far too many college basketball supporters have for the NBA. It gets nastier and nastier each year and more and more it seems as if people are being asked to choose sides rather than support both. I’ll admit that the college fans can be a bit extreme and hypocritical and that they can have the wrong perceptions about the NBA. But perception often trumps reality when it comes to opinions and that is a harsh reality that Stern and the NBA have to deal with. It would help the NBA in this battle if they didn’t come across as the enemy to college programs. But by taking the best high school players and by taking a bunch of college freshmen, the NBA has to worry that not only aren't new fan fan bases being built for the top players while in college, it also has to concern itself with turning off many would-be fans who wound up angry that the players are being “stolen" from the prep and college ranks.



4)Scouting. Stern doesn’t want NBA scouts in high school gyms. He knows it looks bad when that happens, especially when college coaches are restricted from high school gyms while NBA scouts are allowed. He thinks the NBA is taking an image hit on that and he feels that the teams’ scouts are being spread to thin by having to devote much time and energy to go to small high school gyms to watch a bunch of high school games. He wants them out of there. Yesterday.

5)Its their freakin’ league, people. It amazes me when people keep talking about the rights of individuals to work. Oh, please. Hey, I have a right to work but am I owed a job at MicroSoft if I do not have the needed credentials? Does a prodigy who grows up in a household with a mom and dad who are lawyers have the right to get a job straight out of high school at the best law firms because he has a superb understanding of the law? A college educated man doesn’t have a right to get a job at Burger King if he does not fit the job’s requirements or adhere to certain rules or principles. But a high school player with a 40 inch plus vertical and a pretty good handle has a right to be in the NBA if he’s good enough? What country are you guys living in? The America I know of have exclusive country clubs in which all sorts of people are kept out for superficial reasons. The NBA isn’t exactly that extreme but it is an exclusive enterprise/private country club in which one has to be invited to join and then picked, not just show up at some door and demand a job. If you don’t think the NBA doesn’t have a right to set an age limit then you might as well say it doesn’t have the right to hold a draft or prevent players from moving team to team anytime they want. Does a top ten player out of high school have the right to play at UNC if he doesn’t have the grades to be qualified and has such a bad attitude that the coaches don’t want him? He may not have the grades because he didn’t apply himself in high school but that doesn’t mean he isn’t smart enough to handle college work, right. So why create such a superficial rule such as abiding by a cutoff number for SAT scores? Is that fair? The guy has the ability to contribute on the court and scrape by in the classroom. So why punish him if he wants to play for UNC? And who cares about the bad attitude? The coaches should just get over that and stop denying him his rights. Uh-huh. I don't think many of you here would agree with such a notion but quite a few think the NBA shouldn't have any restrictions. I find that absurd. And I don’t want to hear about how if he’s old enough to go to war…blah, blah, blah. If 18 is old enough to serve in the army why isn’t it old enough for an individual to run for President of the United States? Why isn’t it old enough for an individual to legally adopt another child that’s not a sibling? Why isn’t it old enough for that person to legally buy a drink? We apply different standards for different situations. What makes a person a great soldier does not necessarily make someone a great doctor. The requirements that a trucking company may be looking for in drivers who apply, may be different than what elementary schools look for in teachers. Are we to come down on all of these different forms of employment in our society and tell them they must come up with a universal requirement for all applicants regardless how different the fields of work are? Of course not. So why should anyone tell the NBA what they can do with their own business operations? If they prefer to install an age limit its their right just as establishing a code of conduct, a drug enforcement law and a salary cap is their right once all the parties agree to it. There are retail chains which won’t hire 16 year olds but will hire 17 year olds. What’s the difference? All of them are minors. And who is to say the 16 year old can’t do work twice as good. But we allow those retail chains to make their own requirements. So why can’t we give the NBA the same authority over its own product and businesses?

6)The better prepared the better the result. The reality is that the more people work on a craft before they enter the workforce the better they are at it when they join that workplace. No many of these players don't need college...but their craft, their game, would be advanced, for the most part, by playing in a college system. Or playing overseas. Or playing in a minor league. As good as KG, Kobe, Amare, etc were in their first few professional seasons they would have been even better if they had a training ground between high school and the NBA.




Let me end it with this. I love college hoops more than anything. But I love the NBA too and I want it to succeed, be healthy and thrive. And if part of the reason for the bad play on the floor and the ills of the league is the fact that too many young players are coming into the league, then I'm all for trying to correct that problem, even if it means developing true minor league squads for each team. Just as I'm for cleaning up the problems of AAU ball, I'm just as much invested in the idea of keeping way too eager high schoolers from jumping to the big leagues for the money. This battle is more important than the individual rights of some talented 17 year olds and their families and friends. Its about the health of a league whose ratings are falling like a ton of bricks. The age limit might not turn that around but if it can help regain some stability then Stern must pursue it. Otherwise ten years or more from now future stars in high school will have to turn to baseball and football because the NBA won't be as nearly as rewarding financially then it is now. Frankly I don't give a d**n about impatient teenagers. I care more about the state of basketball at the high school, college and pro level and if you have to have your head in the ground if you don't think all three are being affected negatively by this trend of talented but unprepared kiddies dreaming of going straight to the pros than they do in listening to high school coaches, working on their skills and getting their grades in order for college.

[Nevada Hoya]

Now that's the MCI that we know and love.

[RBHoya]

You do a good job of making David Stern's case for him, MCI... but it still doesn't make me want to see an age limit. I understand why he wants it and his logic is pretty sound, and he's probably got a legal leg to stand on, as the NFL's age limit policy was upheld when Clarrett challenged it... But I still hope it doesn't happen. I think its bad for the college game, and to me college hoops has far more appeal than NBA hoops. I used to be a big NBA fan as a kid, but I just don't care as much anymore. NCAA basketball is far more pure and entertaining as far as I'm concerned, and as mentioned in this thread forcing a bunch of guys to go to class and play in college when their only concern is improving their draft stock will hurt the college game.

It might work well for Stern, but it's bad for parity in the college game, and most importantly, its probably bad for the Hoyas. That's why I'm still hoping that it falls through (preferably after a long lock out )

[MCIGuy]

I think its bad for the college game, and to me college hoops has far more appeal than NBA hoops. I used to be a big NBA fan as a kid, but I just don't care as much anymore. NCAA basketball is far more pure and entertaining as far as I'm concerned, and as mentioned in this thread forcing a bunch of guys to go to class and play in college when their only concern is improving their draft stock will hurt the college game.

Kids were "forced" to play in college during the 80s which is universally considered the Golden Age of college basketball. So obviously it didn't hurt the game then when you consider the vast majority of the best players stayed in school until they were juniors. And the ratings were higher back then to. In fact this year's tourney managed to turn around almost a decade long problem of continual sliding ratings for the NCAA tournament. Also isn't it interesting that the NBA's golden age is generally considered to be the 80s as well? It proves that when one is strong the other is stromg as well. Its only when more and more peole started leaving college early and then later high school kids started going straight to the pros that you began to see the rapind decline in skills and fundamentals across the board. That's because every great player is so eager to jump to the pros so quickly without mastering techniques of the game in college. This is also about the time that the AAU teams began to overtake the high school teams as the most important vehicle for talented players to be spotted and make their reps. What we have here is a weakened product at ALL levels and it needs to be addressed. I would argue that an NBA that gets weaker and weaker over a period of years can be bad for college basketball because college bball could lose out on top athletes to football and baseball if they don't see a legit cash cow for hoops to go to once their college days are over.

As for the players who just won't go to class let them go overseas or play in an American minor league. Or they can get a real job for a couple of years until they're the right age. But the last thing the NBA should do is take in a bunch of classroom challenged teenagers who have little patience for working on their game (coasting on their natural abilities instead) and who have more love for the bling-bling lifestyle than they do for the game.

It might work well for Stern, but it's bad for parity in the college game, and most importantly, its probably bad for the Hoyas. That's why I'm still hoping that it falls through (preferably after a long lock out )[/quote]

[Gold Coast Hoya]

The college game does not need "student athletes" who need a place to reside until their next birthday. IMO the age limit really hurts the college game with no upside I can see.