hollis

[MIKE MACALUSO]

Justin Young
RivalsHoops.com Recruiting Analyst

When Mother Nature topples buildings, de-roofs homes and turns palm trees into toothpicks, recruiting becomes trivial. As his community continues to regroup from the aftereffects of Hurricane Wilma, Damian Hollis is keeping his legs fresh on the playground courts all the while keeping one eye on the schools recruiting him.


Rivals.com

Damian Hollis will wait until the spring to sign.
Still without power, and probably that way for another week, the 6-foot-7, 180-pound small forward from Coral Springs High School in Taravella, Fla., is making good use of his time out of school.

"I've been playing outside on a blacktop," Hollis said. "I guess you could say I'm a street baller now."

He's taken the role of unifier with his team and holding impromptu practices at a local blacktop. He believes this time of inconvenience will only make his team stronger this season.

"This is drawing us together," Hollis said. "We are growing up everyday."

As Hollis grows, he knows he has to make some grown up decisions. Recruiting is something he knows he has to tackle, tragedy or not. There are a number of schools in the picture with the silky shooter.

Florida Atlantic, George Washington, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Seton Hall and UAB are all involved and have offered a scholarship, Hollis said. The long and lanky wing forward has already made official visits to Rhode Island and Seton Hall.

"Rhode Island was nice. I got to see their Midnight Madness. It was cool," Hollis said. "Seton Hall was pretty cool. I played pick up with their guys and got a feel for their team. We walked around campus after that."

Hollis said he has plans to visit George Washington later this month. With all of his trips and schools involved, the three-star prospect does not intend on inking his name in a week and a half.

"I'm just going to wait until the late signing date," Hollis said. "I'd like to save some visits for the cold weather season. I was born and raised in Florida. I've never seen snow. That's going to play a big role in my decision."

There is one school Hollis hopes comes into the picture as the season starts.

"Hopefully Maryland comes out and recruits me," Hollis said. "I just like them a lot. I've liked them and watched them ever since I was real small."

[Copenhagen]

Thanks for the posting, pretty much confirms that SBU is out! But we have our wing forward with Lee & Morris, we need a strong young post player like TLynch!

I'd like to see him get the opportunity to go big time with Maryland or with the Big East-Seton Hall.

Also a good story if he chooses URI and teams up with JB & JBjr.

[mangham]

Rhody is out of scholarships.......I bet Maryland gets him.

[Phantom]

For what it is worth, this is total conjecture. Yes, this is one of those, I heard from someone, who heard from someone stories.

When Baron, Hollis (Hollis jr) were in town for the NIT Championship reunion at Walsh High School this summer, I heard Hollis was put off by Anthony's overzealous and persistence, to the point of annoying pursuit of his son.

Which in that dog eat dog profession is saying something!

I'm certain Jimmy's influence had nothing to do with that perception!!!

[Copenhagen]

Can't connect with everyone, it would be understandable that Coach S was overexcited about the possibilities considering the pressure he has to produce.

Saw an interesting article about Calhoun and his recruiting tactics at UConn, talk about the dogy dog world and cut throat tactics.

Anyway, sounds like we really never had much of a chance, the window of opportunity was small and Coach went for it.

Hopefully both our guy JMorris & DHollis both have outstanding careers!

Hey, our coaching staff does connect with alot of good prospects, so they must be telling a good story!

Can't win them all!

[bonadona]

Unfortunately Phantom you're information is totally incorrect! Coach Solomon was not even IN TOWN when they were up in August! He was at Coach Brannen's wedding! So, once again, the Olean rumor mill is spreading incorrect details of what our coach is/isn't doing .

Why can't everyone in town just lay off the negatives and let the season unfold. I can't remember the last time anybody actually spread a positive rumor.

I really hate to post here but have to speak out when people are reading this board and taking it as gospel truth.

[wgt]

Thanks bonadona. Glad to hear that there is no basis to the conjecture surrounding the recruiting process for Hollis Jr. That characterization of coach would have been a odds with all I have heard about his approach and ability to connect with recruits. Post more often.

[bonadona]

thanks wgt! by the way, make sure you have Fox introduce us when you're up this season. Found out that my niece Sarah is a good friend of your daughter Mary and when she told me she was going to Yonkers it was to stay at your place!

[Friar]

Let me give some back up to the Phantom. First, I don't know if Solomon and Hollis had a conversation at Walsh. I don't know if Solomon was in or out of town. With that said I have heard from reliable sources that Solomon does have a tendency to get "too carried away" with the holier than thou preaching. Not that I think this is a bad thing (judging by some of the players questionable behavior this approach isn't working) but lets face it today's kids really don't want to hear that approach. It would take a very special kid to hear that speech and I would gladly like to have someone like that on our team.

So, I can verify that at times I have heard that Solomon "preaches" to the recruits. Maybe that is what we need. Who knows?

[bonadona]

Once again Friar you prove my point! You have "heard from reliable sources"? I am down in the Bona area quite frequently, not only during the season, and most of what I hear pumping out of the rumor mill amazes me.
Many people on this board know me and know that when I do post it is not just something I heard or what someone told me they saw, it is information that I received myself. So, how can you "verify" what you have heard that Coach "preaches" to the recruits? Have you actually witnessed this behavior? Knowing how the Coach carries on his daily business I really doubt there is anyone you know on the scene while he is actively recruiting his players.

I have heard really ugly rumors spread down there about staff and players and I don't understand what good anyone thinks it will do for the morale of the program to constantly post this garbage for everyone to see. And when I see how many people take this information as the truth it scares me to think what some of this is doing to our program. (Think back to some of the horrible things that have been posted about various of this team's players this off season, all with no substance to back the claims.)

jh is right when he is constantly reminding everyone that recruits read this board. I don't know many 18 year old kids that would be excited about having to endure this if they chose to come to Bonas.

[Friar]

Bonadona, your are accurate that some stuff on this board is pure fabrication. Unfortunately, some people read this board as the gospel and truth. People with common sense can determine fact from fiction. I am going to you to task about what I hear and from whom. Just like any good reporter I won't divulge my source. What I can tell you is that, believe me or not, my source is reliable and has seen first hand many of my accounts. Please don't go on some diatribe about my postings. It doesn't cut with me.

[wgt]

Bonadonna …certainly looking forward to meeting you at some point. Differentiating fact from fiction is difficult at best for most of us who are far removed from campus. The value of the board is due to the faithful posters who convey factual first hand accounts and credible analysis. There are many who provide us this on the topics of recruiting, on campus happenings and their analysis of players and game strategy. Those of us, who have followed the Bandwagon for sometime are well aware of the posters who demand our respect and attention. New posters, potential recruits and newly acquired players don’t have a clue. In journalism “good reporters” don’t divulge sources (almost never) but they & their publications also issue retractions when they are wrong. Message boards are not known for their posters admitting they were wrong. Filtering out the fabrication from the fact is a necessity but I hope will not deter our most valuable posters from posting often.

[jh]

Phantom...you claim thru some source that Anthony was 'too over zealous'....ie...he was trying to go too hard after a top 150 recruit whose father was an alum....
something tells me if Anthony did not go after Hollis' boy that you'd somehow accuse him of not 'respecting sbu history and going after an obvious recruit like Hollis'
Bottom line is...does Essie Hollis want to send his kid to his alma mater or not.....if the school was his desire...Anthony certainly displayed he'd be welcome if that was the path he wished to travel.
The most unlikely scenario and borderline ridiculous was the one you presented,,,, and that was Essie Hollis would have wished his child to attend his alma mater but was put off because the head coach was too eager to make that happen !
Which obviously was what your post implied....absurd...............surprise surprise another negative slant at Solomon.

[DemBonnies]

I think those days are gone forever!!!

I, and many others, have grown tired of the constant attacks, mudslinging and backstabbing of coaching staffs, both past and present.

Nobody seems to get that recruits, players, staff and their families read this board.

There is no doubt that we can connect the dots to a very real tragedy that touched the Bona community to harsh words and criticism on this board. That's what the Internet has done to not only our Bonas but the whole world.

There was time when the Bona WWW was limited to a hard to find discussion board on AOL and there was some pretty spirited discussions and some disagreements but nothing like what goes on here. The Bandwagon was the cat's meow when it first came out. John Firkel did a great job and it climaxed with the 2000 NCAA season...site hits were astronomical. Bob Quinlan has done his best, but like the Bona program it's a difficult return to the glory, just as it is for the team.

I put the gloves on here to smack down the programs detractors who harangue constantly on the same old trite and untrue statements.

To me it's a shame that posters with a sense of history and passion for Bonas have shuffled into the shadows and have become readers and not contributors.

We need people like Jimmy Slattery, Kevin Hannon, Louie Kelly and the like to contribute on a regular basis. We need Leslie Rigali to give us the inside poop and not some 5th hand crap that someone heard from a friend of friend who heard it from a friend of the bartender @ AJ's.

Honest1 and his history lessons are a refreshing change from broken record of JVBK's biggest fan. WGT, JAC and Mangham work tirelessly to tell us who we're after and what's happening both on campus and on court.

The Bandwagon was built for fans of St.Bonaventure to join in a sense of camaraderie to relive, rehash our storied past and follow the exploits of the current group representing SBU.

Instead, the Bandwagon wishes to become the story...break the recruits down, slam their game before they even laced 'em up for us..be ringside for their fights at the Other Place and perhaps snap a incriminating photo with the camera phone as they swap a Blue Book in Doc Fay's Philosophy class. It's the information age, and they take great glee in the breaking of the story and the breaking of a program and they talk smack like a true Jim Rome wannabe. There's a good reason that flamer got tossed from the airwaves at ESPN, but he has his followers.

I don't have a solution...only an observation. I wish we could get back to the glory days of the Bonnies Basketball and the Bandwagon...I hope it's not too late!!!

[Chuck]

I personally dislike disclosing a person's name who shared information with me and I don't think I ever revealed a source, but since this appears to be the criteria needed in this thread, I'll share. Tyler Relph told me that Solomon's persistence (or overzealous) was a factor in choosing Bonas. I'm not sure what this proves, but there you go a first hand account.

I hear many rumors about the Bonnies and thankfully I never see them posted on this board. I realize there are exceptions, such as the regrettable Ahmad, Kern and Allegany Police posts, but overall the posters on this board deserve credit in refraining to post rumors.

Someone needs to explain to all of Steve Lappas heralded recruits that they should have been more attuned to what was being said on the UMass message board. Afterall Lappas was called "rat face" on their message board. On the A-10 board, Bonnie fans receive praise for their loyalty. I question how many other schools could experience a 7 and then a 2 win season and still have support from the majorty of the posters. If overzealous and preaching are the most negative things posted about Solomon, I would consider this as proof to the loyalty of posters on the Bandwagon.