DJ Bennett (6-8/PF), who is also a Chicago native, is averaging 7 points and 4 rebounds per game this season. Arkansas stopped in to see him last week and he has heavy interest from Western Kentucky, San Jose State and UNC Charlotte. Indian Hills is 27-3 on the season entering Region XI tournament play.
[b]D.J. Bennett[/b] of junior college powerhouse Indian Hills Community College is a prospect who is sure to become quite popular this season.
Bennett, a 6’8 sophomore power forward, is an athletic post who causes big problems defensively with 7’5 wing span. Bennett played his high school basketball at Sandburg High School in the suburbs of Chicago, and is a player who still brings a good deal of upside potential to his game.
Braz and KJ will be seniors. Thorne may be terrible, only the coaches know that. And he may be more ready to contribute immediately than next years freshman. BRING HIM ON IN!!!
Gotta go with Niner wup a$$ on this one. We have a bevy of post players next year.
Meanwhile we have four guards scheduled to be on the roster, and that number may drop to three by next year. If we need a JUCO let’s get a SG that can fill up the basket.
I understand what you guys mean. I want a guard that can fill it up too, but I want someone that can really impact the game for us, regardless of position. If it’s a PF that can team up with Braz and wreck shop then I’ll take that too.
I’m trying to see if this is recent interest or from earlier in the season. If it is recent, leads me to believe Thorne may not be ready to contribute more than 5mpg next year.
Look at next year’s post: Braz, KJ, Ilija, Thorn, Clayton, Clark.
We have 1 known contributor out of all of those players, and that’s Braz. In terms of court performance, you can count KJ and Ilija out. Thorn is still a ? Clayton and Clark will be freshmen. Additionally, Clark is 6’6, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing SF.
If Major thinks that Bennett will be a legit contributor next year, then recruiting him would give us 2 quality post players. Throw in DayDay at the 3, and I feel confident about our front court. I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.
[quote=“punkrockcowboy, post:11, topic:26427”]We need a lot more than a shooter.
Look at next year’s post: Braz, KJ, Ilija, Thorn, Clayton, Clark.
We have 1 known contributor out of all of those players, and that’s Braz. In terms of court performance, you can count KJ and Ilija out. Thorn is still a ? Clayton and Clark will be freshmen. Additionally, Clark is 6’6, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing SF.
If Major thinks that Bennett will be a legit contributor next year, then recruiting him would give us 2 quality post players. Throw in DayDay at the 3, and I feel confident about our front court. I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.[/quote]
This. All of this.
Clayton and Clark might be world beaters, but they will still be freshman, making freshman mistakes with freshman sensibilities. While I love seeing us recruit 4 year players, as we have seen this year, they take time to develop. KJ has been a non-factor, Ilja and Thorne have played combined less than 5 minutes this year.
If we have a chance at someone who can spell Braz or play side by side with him next year, we need to reel him in.
The only this makes sense for me given what I have heard from a few people is that they see that Ivan the terrible is well…terrible, and that K.J’s knees are never going to get better. (Have heard this from a few connected people who think his knee injury is the kind that gets aggravated when playing/practicing )
That leaves us with: Braz, Thorne, Clayton, and Clark. From what I have heard Clark is not as tall as 6’6 and is more like 6’4-6’5 in real life. So lets say the staff is looking at him more like a SF with some PF duty if needed.
Then that would leave us with really only three guys for post work. If this is the situation the staff is looking at then I could understand bringing in a fourth guy.
BUUUTTTT…I still think bringing in a guard is a better call. At most we have five (May). No situations, no “He sucks so lets not count him”, no what ifs…five is all we have. If Briscoe leaves we will only have four. thats a pretty thin back court, anyone gets in foul trouble or gets hurt and we will not have the bodies to put out a competitve back court. Just hope the staff know what they are doing.
Perhaps KJ is graduating. Wonder if all of his injuries and little playing time/ reward has caught up with him. Just speculation, but that is the only reason I can think of for recruiting another post position.
I really don’t see how anyone can say we are ‘deep’ in the post positions next year. Like someone said, we only have Braswell we can count on as of now. Thorne and KJ is our next best options. We need a JUCO big man that can contribute 2 years until our Freshman get a year or 2 of experience. Then we will see where we are at with our freshman. I don’t want to go into next year with big men behind Braswell like this year. Hopefully Bennett is way ahead of Ilija and can contribute now.
That’s why coaches are coaches and get paid big bucks. They should know what they are doing or they get canned. There’s no way they allow 2 scholarships to go to 2 JUCO big men who aren’t ready to play. right?
Everyone wants guards that can make shots. But we can’t load the roster with more and more guards until someone is the next Goldwire. Hopefully current players IMPROVE and start making shots.
I would be OK with this. All we have is Bras and a bunch of unknowns. KJ…I feel bad but he doesn’t need to see the court. Thorne…who knows. This guy would have collegiate experience coming in and can’t be much worse than what we have. Losing JB we gotta find someone to either take his spot or move Bras and take over the C spot. I expect our team next year to actually have less shooters but more balance. Two true post players with 3 guards.
I wouldn’t care if we had one reliable shooter. Or if we had 2 openings to bring in a JUCO big and a SG. If we go into next season with less skill from the outside than we have now I will quit going to games in december. It is so frustrating to get wide open looks and miss them over and over game after game. If we bring in another big I am just hopeful that Lester is really reliable and that T-Will, Demario and E-Vic really work on their jumpers. I think we know what Deuce gives us if he is back. I am not against bringing in more post play - so much as I am against it until we have our shooting solved.
So either way we are trusting in the unknown. We haven’t seen a shooter get better under Major - if anything we have watched one (Derrio) get worse. JB’s improvement was everywhere else. So we will find out next season if we get upskill our freshmen to shoot better and hope Lester is the real deal.
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