TheTastyGreek

For anyone who can't or doesn't want to see the video themselves... Jarion tells us that his friend Javier is interested in "strictly black girls. No, um... Mexican, Puerto Rican, no Asians, no Whites... Straight Black girls." Though Jarion has "respect" for Javier's somewhat limited and narrow tastes in random internet YouTube skank hookups... Jarion assures us that he himself "don't discriminate nuthin, man". Whether you happen to be "short, tall, thick... lips, everything, man. Long hair don't care, short hair, Halle Berry..." Jarion assures everyone that he is much more open to all the hues and styles of the female rainbow, as he is a "buuuuuiiiiisnessman" who is going to the league in "one and done". If I were a fine female at, uh, Adamson... Maybe I'd feel differently. But I don't regret missing out on Jarion. Everyone says and does stupid stuff when they are a teenager. Some people, depending on when they were at that age, happen to videotape it. But it's a shocking example of Not Wisdom to act dumb (in school), videotape it, and then post it on your own YouTube channel when you just happen to be one of the 10 or 15 highest ranked unsigned prospects in the country. During signing period. I hope things go well for him, whether it's in New Mexico or somewhere else. Wherever he's able to get to school, I hope his decision making and maturity eventually reach the same level as his exceptional basketball skills.

What should I NOT post in this forum? 1. Generally speaking: opinions, thoughts, questions, etc. "We need to recruit a Post/Guard/True Center/3 point specialist!" -> Basketball forum "Jimmy Chitwood at Metroplex High scored 40 points last night! Why aren't we recruiting him?" -> Basketball forum "I think this year's class may be the best/worst in North Texas history!" -> Basketball forum 2. Full articles, copyrighted images and material DO NOT copy and paste full articles, whether they come from free and public sites (like ESPN.com or Brett Vito's DRC blog) or paid subscription sites (like Rivals). If you find a relevant story or piece of information, summarize briefly ("Vito says Player X is visiting next week", "ESPN says Player Y trimmed his list of schools to us and 4 others", etc.) and provide a direct link to the story so that interested readers can see it in a context that will provide page views and advertising impressions to the content originator or copyright holder. When you link to a story, use a direct link instead of a general one- Don't link to the front page of ESPN or the Denton Record-Chronicle sports section... Link to the specific story so that the information can still be found a day/week/month/year later. If a story is behind a gate or subscription wall (like many Dallas Morning News stories or most Rivals articles), be very careful about how you summarize the information when you post the link. Definitely don't copy and paste anything from these articles, and try to keep your description of the article short and sweet. Sites that use a subscription or paid content model are usually very touchy about losing their income stream. And they've got lawyers and everything. Real, live, licensed lawyers; not just people who read about copyright law on Wikipedia or saw an interesting episode of Law and Order last week. Posting links that direct people to their site (and potentially motivate them to subscribe) is generally smiled upon. Copying and pasting those gated articles is not looked upon fondly. Use good judgment. And if your judgment sucks, don't get upset if your posts get edited or you get scolded by Harry. 3. Personal attacks, defamatory statements/opinions about recruits, irrelevant gossip, etc. If you think Player X "tottaly sux"... There's no need to share. If you think Player Y is cheating on his high school classes, using steroids, molesting his housepets... There's no need to share. If Whitney said that Courtney said that Ashley heard that Player Z is going to prom with Julie instead of Amber... There's no need to share. Once again: Use good judgment. And if your judgment sucks, don't get upset if your posts get edited or you get scolded by Harry.

What should I post in this forum? 1. North Texas targets or potential recruits who have expressed an interest in North Texas, but haven't already been identified and given a dedicated Recruiting Forum thread. We have a great network of fans across the metroplex, the state, and the country that always have their eyes open for North Texas relevant news and information. If you see an article in the newspaper or somewhere on the internet that identifies a player as having interest in or from North Texas... Share it here. This has already been happening on the general Basketball forum for years, and the addition of this forum should just give us a clean and organized way of consolidating recruit information in a way that won't get lost in the flood of in-season activity. 2. Updates on recruits in their pre-existing threads. If Rivals or ESPN updates a ranking, if you find a YouTube video highlight reel, if a listed prospect announces an official visit to North Texas or any other school... Anything that updates and informs on a confirmed prospect's recruitment is welcome here. Also, news and information from the high school or AAU season. A great example of this from the 2010-11 year would be GrandGreen's regular updates on recruit results and statistics. If a target scores 20 points (or sprains an ankle), that's something most of us would very much like to know about. Post it in the prospect's dedicated thread. 3. First hand observations and analysis We are very fortunate to have a group of fans who follow high school basketball very closely. Cooley and NT03 (among others) collectively watched a lot of high school games, tournaments, and recruit showcases last season, and shared their observations on the Basketball forum. Other members of the forum are alums or employees of schools that recruits/commits play(ed) for, and have shared their observations from games. When some of our recruits made the state finals and had their games broadcast on television, many fans were able to see them in action and comment on their performance. You don't have to be a basketball expert... If you watch a recruit play and see something you feel is worth mentioning, share it with the rest of the forum.

Identifying High School and JUCO recruits Prospects will get a dedicated thread here when they are identified as having interest in or from North Texas by a recognized recruiting resource (such as Rivals or ESPN), by a published source or public statement (such as an article by Brett Vito or Tim MacMahon, or an interview the prospect gives to a local newspaper), or by a credible private source. Prospects will NOT get a dedicated thread here because they happen to be a local recruit, a highly rated prospect, or because one or more of us thinks North Texas ought to be pursuing them. If you can't already find a thread about a recruit on this forum, and you aren't linking to a story about some documented interest or offer... Don't start a thread about them here. That belongs on the general Basketball forum. Someone visiting this forum should be able to look around for a while and get the best, most comprehensive picture of who we've targeted and/or who wants us to offer them a scholarship, and how those processes moved forward through the recruiting season. Fan recruiting wants, wishes, and speculation are all great and we don't want to discourage anyone from starting or having those sorts of conversations... But they should be confined to the primary Basketball forum. Identifying potential Transfers from other D-1 schools Because transfer players generally aren't as public about the process of choosing a destination, the rules will be a little more lenient. As long as someone has formally requested or received permission to transfer, and the rationale for their transfer fits our profile (they "want to move back to Texas", "want to play closer to home in Dallas/Fort Worth", etc.), they will likely receive a listing here. If this forum works the way we hope it will, post-Class of 2012 transfers will already have archived threads here from their high school recruitment.

Welcome to the North Texas basketball recruiting forum. The goal for this forum is to offer fans the same sort of comprehensive overview of recruiting targets and activity that Gangrene and OldTimer have created over the years on the Football recruiting forum. The best example of what we hope to accomplish here is Missouri State's basketball recruiting forum. Each prospect gets a dedicated listing, easy to update with new statistics, information, photographs, videos, and any news on scheduled visits or verbal/LOI news. If we can get this forum running half as well as Missouri State, this should be a very valuable resource for our ever-growing basketball fan base. The rules and goals of this sub-forum will probably evolve over time, but for now... We want to make sure we avoid siphoning traffic away from the main Basketball forum. Activity and interest, especially in the off-season, have grown tremendously over the past few years as our team has enjoyed sustained success. To avoid splitting activity and hurting this natural growth, we're going to treat this Recruiting forum as more of an informational resource and less of a conversational forum. Discussion and conversation should stay over on the Basketball forum. Posts in this forum should be limited to links to outside sources or first-hand observations of confirmed targets/interested prospects. If anyone has any questions or comments about the recruiting sub-forum, this is the best place to ask them. The first and most important DO NOT of this forum: DO NOT CONTACT THESE (or any other) RECRUITS. Don't send them Facebook messages telling them to sign with North Texas. Don't go to their games and try to engage them or their families in conversation. Don't use this forum as a resource for chatting up or trying to befriend future Mean Green players. Don't do it. Don't do any of it. Trust our coaches to handle the recruiting process; to let potential Mean Green players know about how great our university is, how much our fans will love and appreciate them, or how perfect a fit North Texas would be for them. Do not contact recruits. Nothing good will come of it. Don't worry about whether you're technically a "booster" according to the NCAA, don't try to figure out how you can talk up North Texas without breaking any rules... Just don't contact them at all. Don't do it. If you avoid communicating with recruits as a general life philosophy, it becomes very unlikely that you'll do anything that could cause recruiting or legal problems for you, the team, or our school.

High School: Skyline (Dallas) AAU: Dallas Mustangs Rivals listing ESPN listing: 3 star prospect, 90 grade from Scouts, 16th ranked PG nationally, 80th ranked overall prospect (April 2011) 7th ranked prospect in the state of Texas according to ESPN rankings (April 2011) 6th ranked DFW prospect in the class of 2013 according to Metroplex Hoops (April 2011) Selected to play in the "Fab Frosh" (Top 20 overall freshmen) Freshman All-American All-Star game held at the University of Kentucky, received "Top Defender" award at the camp (June 2009)

High School: Ranchview (Carrollton) AAU: Full Court Athletes Rivals listing: 3 star prospect, 27th ranked shooting guard, 134th ranked national prospect in Rivals 150 (August 2010) 6th ranked prospect from DFW according to Metroplex Hoops (April 2011) Documented interest from North Texas, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Clemson, Wichita State, Utah State (July 2010)

High School: Mesquite AAU: Triumph Select Rivals listing 20th ranked overall prospect in the state according to Texas Hoops/Rivals (Jan. 2011) Former Dallas Morning News writer and current Rivals/Texas Hoops analyst Damon Sayles identified Reed as a "rising star/player to watch" based on Reed's performance during the summer of 2010. Rivals lists 13 interested schools, with offers from TCU, Wichita State, and UTA. Additional interest from 3 BCS schools (Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Colorado) and 1 other Sun Belt school (Western Kentucky) (April 2011)

Depends on what forum you're reading.

The problem with all this Chinese indebtedness is that after an hour or two, we're hungry to sell them more bonds again. It's a destructive cycle.

Edited 10/2/11 to reflect new roster and verbal commits: Barring unexpected redshirts, injuries, or early departures, North Texas is scheduled to lose three players in the outgoing class of 2012. Alonzo Edwards - 6'7" PF Kedrick Hogans - 6'7" PF Justin Patton - 6'7" G/F North Texas currently has two solid verbal commitments from high school recruits: Clark Overlander - 6'5" G/F Brandon Pye - 6'1" G Barring interest from high-major or BCS caliber talent that can't be passed up, it is reasonable to assume that our final 2012 scholarship will be dedicated to a post player. Early signing period for the incoming class of 2012 is November 9th-16th, 2011. Regular signing period runs from April 11th - August 1st, 2012.

High School: Central (Keller) AAU: Dallas Heroes Rivals listing (basketball) Rivals listing (football) Scout.com listing (football) Goines seems to be primarily a football recruit (4 star OT according to Scout). May also participate in track and field, throwing shot put and discus, at the college level. Rivals lists interest in/from 19 schools, primarily as a football prospect, including 11 scholarship offers. Scout identifies 10 offers as of March 2011. Goines hints he will give up summer AAU ball to focus on his college football recruitment. Fort Worth Star-Telegram article says his top 5 schools are Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Oregon, Nebraska, and Arizona. (February 2011)

High School: Naaman Forest (Garland) AAU: Top Achievers Pistons Rivals listing: 3 star Upgraded to a 4 star prospect, 21st 19th ranked Center, 123rd 103rd ranked national prospect in Rivals 150 (September 2010 updated June 2011) ESPN listing Rivals lists interest in/from 31 different schools, including 17 BCS programs. 8 offers: Baylor, Houston, Iowa, Marquette, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M. (April 2011) Ibeh said in a December 2010 interview that he plans on waiting "a while" to choose a destination, and planned on visiting Oklahoma and Texas A&M. 5th ranked 2012 prospect from DFW by Metroplex Hoops, behind Isiah Austin, Marcus Smart, Jordan Mason, and Zach Peters. (April 2011) Named a "surprise player" by ESPN analyst at the 2010 Dallas Great American Shootout (September 2010) 11th ranked player in the state according to Texas Hoops/Rivals (January 2011)

High School: Marcus (Flower Mound) AAU: Texas Assault Rivals listing: 3 star prospect (April 2011) ESPN listing: 2 star prospect, 85 grade from Scouts, 36th ranked PG in class of 2012 (April 2011) Scout.com listing Rivals lists interest in/from 6 schools; offers from North Texas, Oklahoma State, and TCU, additional interest from SMU, Texas Tech, and Missouri State. (April 2011) Named a "surprise player" by ESPN analyst at the 2010 Dallas Great American Shootout (September 2010) 9th ranked player in the state according to Texas Hoops/Rivals (January 2011)

High School: DeSoto (Kansas) AAU: KC Pump N Run Rivals listing ESPN listing - 2 star, Scouts Grade of 80, 66th ranked point guard in class of 2012 (April 2011) Rivals lists interest in 3 schools: Drake, Santa Clara, and North Texas (April 2011) Mason is the younger brother of Ryan Wedel, former Arkansas State player (and former Kansas Mr. Basketball) who transferred to Drake to finish his college career. First college visit was to North Texas in October of 2010; reported by Troy Phillips. 1st team all-area in 2011 Honorable Mention all-class (4A) 2011 Honorable Mention all-area in 2010

High School: Naaman Forest (Garland) AAU: Top Achievers Pistons Rivals listing 2010-11 season stats per MaxPreps: 11 points per game, 4.1 assists, 4.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals April 2011: Rivals lists interest from/in 19 schools, including 1 other Sun Belt school (UALR) and 7 other Texas schools (Tech, A&M, UTA, UTEP, TCU, Texas State, SMU). Offer from TCU.

Early interest from North Texas... Killed in a car accident in July 2010. Listed here to avoid future confusion, because he still shows up in a Rivals database search. High School: Duncanville HS AAU: Texas Bluechips Rivals

I'm working on a Very Special Project right now, and I may finally open up access to the VVIP forum. I promise not to let my new godlike powers to go my head while developing this Very Special Project. In the meantime...

Agree with the general sentiment, but not the specific wording here. These are still a lot of freshmen and the majority of the team has never played together before and never in an NT uniform. Day 1 is a little ambitious... There are going to be unavoidable mistakes and a bit of a learning curve as they get used to playing as a team. But what should have been a rebuilding year has potentially turned into a rebuilding month or month and a half... This team could be very dangerous by the time the new year hits.

Also... If the worst thing about the 13th scholarship player on your roster is that he's academically successful, 6'10" tall, and has shown flashes of quality play when given minutes and consistent improvement over his career... There are worse situations. If Knox played for Denver, by now he'd be 3rd team all Sun Belt in their system. Instead, he can't get the minutes here to really develop. But he's not complaining or transferring. Somebody has to be the 11-13th guys on the bench. We could do a LOT worse than Ben. And as other have said... He could still elevate his game.

You think wrong. Knox played from 15:53 in the 2nd half to 10:22. When he came in, we trailed by one. When he left, we trailed by one.

When you're a graduate of one of (at least) 347 schools across the country... Pro basketball is "better" than college basketball in the same way that watching porn is better than having sex.

Odd thread title for the week that begins spring signing period in basketball.

Definitely agree. Just for the record, I'm not saying we ought to go so unorthodox as a persistent strategy. Just considering where we are right now, with the talent available this year and the potential NBA lottery blessing about to fall in our laps in December... If we can't get that talented big man (and I think we're down to one and a half options right now), we can hold out for another year when we're replacing more departing big guys. If I had to pick one guy that I most want to see us land (realistic, not fantasy) in the near future, it would be Prince Ibeh or his non-union Mexican equivalent. We need someone (ideally, two someones) of that caliber and raw size to play inside. I do think that we can still take another step forward in the season ahead, even if we don't sign an impact post in this April's class. Definitely gotta bring them in next year, though. Also... I don't want to be too optimistic, but I haven't given up hope for Alonzo Edwards yet. I was very impressed with his intensity and desperate screaming desire to win the SBC tournament. I could see him filling not necessarily the numbers, but the team leader/motivator role everyone said was missing after Tramiel left. I just hope he can rehab the knee well enough to make an impact on the floor, because that would be a HUGE relief for next year.