Post by Chuck on Aug 28, 2007 18:34:41 GMT -5
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 7:12 PM EDT
PEZZIMENTI: Assessing the Bonnies' 8-man recruiting class
Assessing St. Bonaventure's eight-man recruiting class while adding up the career averages for Yankuba Camara, David Fox, Ivan Kovacevic and Lounceny Kaba. Hmmm .... not bad numbers for one big man.
- What stands out most of the eight additions is that three attended the same prep school - Philadelphia's Lutheran Christian Academy.
Division I transfers Chris Matthews (Washington State) and Maurice Thomas (Texas El Paso) were teammates at the school while Delonte Taylor, a close friend of Matthews', played there last season.
Lutheran Christian is well known for its hoops success, but in recent years has been vilified for academic deficiencies. Both the Washington Post and New York Times have done in-depth reporting on Lutheran Christian and other prep schools, questioning whether those institutions serve merely as basketball factories.
Lutheran Christian operates out of a community center in a ragged part of North Philadelphia, the Washington Post reported. The school does not utilize traditional text books and the only teacher is the coach, Darryl Schofield.
According to the New York Times, Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli refuses to recruit players from the school. When a Gonzaga assistant asked calling for directions to Lutheran Christian, Martelli, a long-time Philly resident, replied, "I have no idea. I've never been there."
While the NCAA has investigated and continues to look into schools like Lutheran Christian, college coaches have retreated from recruiting players from those institutions.
Bona coach Mark Schmidt backed his decision to bring aboard Matthews, Thomas and Taylor over the weekend, saying, "The guys that we have are qualified (to play, by NCAA standards)."
As for succeeding at Bona, Matthews and Thomas had no trouble remaining academically eligible while playing the last two seasons.
"Those guys did the work at those universities," Schmidt said. "They did a good job at Washington State and UTEP academically."
The Washington Post reported, Taylor, a 21-year-old freshman, held a 3.66 grade point average while at H.D. Woodson High in Washington D.C., but failed to earn a qualifying score on standardized tests and wasn't able to accept a Division I scholarship out of high school.
Nevertheless, Schmidt isn't concerned with any negative perception Lutheran Christian might bring his program.
"We have great support here academically," he said. "We're going to make sure our guys graduate."
- Considering that Schmidt was introduced as coach on April 10, a time when most of the top talent was signed, sealed and delivered to other schools, he deserves a high recruiting grade.
Matthews and Thomas are already proven college players. They should be starters and sound contributors once they become eligible after sitting out this season.
Schmidt also successfully re-recruited the three freshmen former coach Anthony Solomon signed last fall. Two of them, highly-regarded prospects Malcolm Eleby and Da'Quan Cook, will likely provide immediate help.
The class features five freshmen. The other two, Taylor and Hilary Haley, are athletic, scoring wings.
Junior college big man D'Lancy Carter completes the list. Carter was also sought after by Rhode Island and Dayton.
"My staff has done a tremendous job getting us involved and getting people," Schmidt said. I'm pleased and looking forward to getting into individual (preseason workouts) and seeing what we have."
But Schmidt's optimism is guarded.
Asked to grade the class, he said, "Sometimes it's hard to say. Sometimes you get high-major (rated) players and they don't turn out to be anything. And then you get these guys who weren't highly recruited at all and they become great players. It's happened everywhere I've been."
- Schmidt is fairly confident he won't use the one scholarship Bona has remaining for this season's roster, instead hanging on to it for next year. That would give the Bonnies four scholarships to hand out, starting this fall, for the 2008-09 season.
Then again, Schmidt wasn't sure in June if he'd utilize any of the three remaining scholarships for this season.
"Who knows? Someone might pop up," he said over the weekend. "There's still a couple guys out there looking to transfer."
Schmidt added that a player like Thomas was available deep into August due in large part to the NCAA's Academic Progress Report (APR). If sports programs don't meet academic standards set forth by the NCAA or have a large number of team members transfer, scholarships can be lost.
"It's almost like every year kids are available later and later," Schmidt said. "Part of it is schools can't afford to go 0-for-2 with the academic report stuff. So they're making their kids go to school summer before they can transfer."
(Vinny Pezzimenti is a sports writer for the Olean Times Herald)
www.oleantimesherald.com/articles/2007/08/28/sports/doc46d493cb0e3f8533096495.txt
PEZZIMENTI: Assessing the Bonnies' 8-man recruiting class
Assessing St. Bonaventure's eight-man recruiting class while adding up the career averages for Yankuba Camara, David Fox, Ivan Kovacevic and Lounceny Kaba. Hmmm .... not bad numbers for one big man.
- What stands out most of the eight additions is that three attended the same prep school - Philadelphia's Lutheran Christian Academy.
Division I transfers Chris Matthews (Washington State) and Maurice Thomas (Texas El Paso) were teammates at the school while Delonte Taylor, a close friend of Matthews', played there last season.
Lutheran Christian is well known for its hoops success, but in recent years has been vilified for academic deficiencies. Both the Washington Post and New York Times have done in-depth reporting on Lutheran Christian and other prep schools, questioning whether those institutions serve merely as basketball factories.
Lutheran Christian operates out of a community center in a ragged part of North Philadelphia, the Washington Post reported. The school does not utilize traditional text books and the only teacher is the coach, Darryl Schofield.
According to the New York Times, Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli refuses to recruit players from the school. When a Gonzaga assistant asked calling for directions to Lutheran Christian, Martelli, a long-time Philly resident, replied, "I have no idea. I've never been there."
While the NCAA has investigated and continues to look into schools like Lutheran Christian, college coaches have retreated from recruiting players from those institutions.
Bona coach Mark Schmidt backed his decision to bring aboard Matthews, Thomas and Taylor over the weekend, saying, "The guys that we have are qualified (to play, by NCAA standards)."
As for succeeding at Bona, Matthews and Thomas had no trouble remaining academically eligible while playing the last two seasons.
"Those guys did the work at those universities," Schmidt said. "They did a good job at Washington State and UTEP academically."
The Washington Post reported, Taylor, a 21-year-old freshman, held a 3.66 grade point average while at H.D. Woodson High in Washington D.C., but failed to earn a qualifying score on standardized tests and wasn't able to accept a Division I scholarship out of high school.
Nevertheless, Schmidt isn't concerned with any negative perception Lutheran Christian might bring his program.
"We have great support here academically," he said. "We're going to make sure our guys graduate."
- Considering that Schmidt was introduced as coach on April 10, a time when most of the top talent was signed, sealed and delivered to other schools, he deserves a high recruiting grade.
Matthews and Thomas are already proven college players. They should be starters and sound contributors once they become eligible after sitting out this season.
Schmidt also successfully re-recruited the three freshmen former coach Anthony Solomon signed last fall. Two of them, highly-regarded prospects Malcolm Eleby and Da'Quan Cook, will likely provide immediate help.
The class features five freshmen. The other two, Taylor and Hilary Haley, are athletic, scoring wings.
Junior college big man D'Lancy Carter completes the list. Carter was also sought after by Rhode Island and Dayton.
"My staff has done a tremendous job getting us involved and getting people," Schmidt said. I'm pleased and looking forward to getting into individual (preseason workouts) and seeing what we have."
But Schmidt's optimism is guarded.
Asked to grade the class, he said, "Sometimes it's hard to say. Sometimes you get high-major (rated) players and they don't turn out to be anything. And then you get these guys who weren't highly recruited at all and they become great players. It's happened everywhere I've been."
- Schmidt is fairly confident he won't use the one scholarship Bona has remaining for this season's roster, instead hanging on to it for next year. That would give the Bonnies four scholarships to hand out, starting this fall, for the 2008-09 season.
Then again, Schmidt wasn't sure in June if he'd utilize any of the three remaining scholarships for this season.
"Who knows? Someone might pop up," he said over the weekend. "There's still a couple guys out there looking to transfer."
Schmidt added that a player like Thomas was available deep into August due in large part to the NCAA's Academic Progress Report (APR). If sports programs don't meet academic standards set forth by the NCAA or have a large number of team members transfer, scholarships can be lost.
"It's almost like every year kids are available later and later," Schmidt said. "Part of it is schools can't afford to go 0-for-2 with the academic report stuff. So they're making their kids go to school summer before they can transfer."
(Vinny Pezzimenti is a sports writer for the Olean Times Herald)
www.oleantimesherald.com/articles/2007/08/28/sports/doc46d493cb0e3f8533096495.txt
