Maybe this should be in the recruiting forum…oh well. I was wondering if we knew about the defensive abilities of any of our incomming recruits for next year. All we hear about is how good of a passer Williams is, how Tatum can light it up and take it to the rack, how Phaler can bomb it from deep, how Wilderness can finish with both hands, how Andersen has a sweet J, blah blahh. Thats really nice and Im glad to hear it, but do we know of any of these guys are known for their D? I remember when we recruited Leemire, all the articles I read about him were touting his amazing defensive abilities. We dont seem to have a recruit like that. Just wondering if any of the recruiting gurus on the board had anything to share about our incomming class on the D end of the floor. Thanks
We play Defense?
[QUOTE=Chisox17;141844]Maybe this should be in the recruiting forum…oh well. I was wondering if we knew about the defensive abilities of any of our incomming recruits for next year. All we hear about is how good of a passer Williams is, how Tatum can light it up and take it to the rack, how Phaler can bomb it from deep, how Wilderness can finish with both hands, how Andersen has a sweet J, blah blahh. Thats really nice and Im glad to hear it, but do we know of any of these guys are known for their D? I remember when we recruited Leemire, all the articles I read about him were touting his amazing defensive abilities. We dont seem to have a recruit like that. Just wondering if any of the recruiting gurus on the board had anything to share about our incomming class on the D end of the floor. Thanks[/QUOTE]
With the way we’ve been shooting the ball lately, I think the emphasis will be on getting a shooter in here next year, defensive ability or not. Unless a recruit is a 6’9"+ shot blocker, you rarely ever hear about their defensive abilities on the recruiting sites anyways. Most of the time, we find that info out from a Niner Nation member who attends a recruit’s game.
A good example: you may not have been around when Eddie was recruited, but I don’t ever remember his defensive abilities being mentioned during the recruiting process. All that was mentioned is that he was a 6’5" high flying dunker a la Vince Carter. He then hurt his knee sometime before he got here, and that became the focus. You make a good point in that we usually only hear about a recruit’s offensive abilities, but that’s usually the only information we are fed.
You make some good points X. The recruiting sites only talk offense unless it is some obscenely good defender (Paul Harris comes to mind) or a tall shot blocker. I remember reading tons of articles about Leemire’s defense when he was playing down at Dwyer, and even a couple of people who had watched him play logged onto cusatalk to tell us about his incredible D, but we havent really heard anything like that about our incomming players. You’re right, we probably are focusing on getting a shooter as soon as possible, I believe thats the role that Phaler and Andersen will be playing.