BillySee58

Absolutely. Look at our 5 signees from last season's early signing period. None were on the court this season. Just wanted to show where we are right now and where we may go. That being said, "right now" may change on a week to week basis.

Lol, I pretty much had an identical thread on this today. Benford just has to start winning recruiting battles. The JUCO posts he signed combined to be at the bottom of the conference in post production, and the high school posts he signed didn't end up playing here and both (Tony Nunn and Josh Friar) combined to play 13 JUCO games and averaged under 2 points and under 2 rebounds per game. The posts by 90 were very relevant. Look at the offer lists of Jordan Williams and Chris Jones. Those guys are going to be seniors. If our post play/recruiting doesn't significantly improve, then Benford will have to adequately replace guys like CJ and J Will. That's what the offer lists look like on players of that caliber. Can we get players with those type of offer lists? If not, he's going to have to get the absolute most out of his players individually and as a team.

Reprising my role as the "care less vs. couldn't care less" police, I'd have to say that you were right. They could care a lot, lot less that they lost since I'm sure that loss matters plenty to them. Just messin with ya .

Of these guys it seems like Austin is the one we could potentially get. NT03 said Miller doesn't have much interest and Barford released a Top 7 back in the summer and we didn't make it. I don't know about Brinkley, but I'm not sure he'd be the best fit with what we need. As Vito has said, we'll likely target some JUCO posts who have yet to sign. Problem is, if we use our lasts scholarship spot in our class on a post, then we will not have a backup pg. Or we may cut ties with someone currently on the roster or signed to make room for both. Who we would cut ties with, I have no idea. Signing a JUCO this late, we'd be lucky for a Colin Voss type player, although Armani Flannigan production would be more likely. Also hard to get a real big man (over 6'8") who is actually good. But we'll see. If we could get one it'd definitely be worth a look.

NT03 and the basketball guys (Cooley, Tasty, etc.) could tell you more about these players. Just wanted to lay out what our roster looks like going forward and where we might go with our last scholarship. Or if not everyone comes back and a spot or two opens in the class. Returning players/grade classification next season/height/position(s) (1-5) Guards/Wings -Chris Jones/Sr/6'2"/1 -TJ Taylor/Sr/6'3"/2,1 -Maurice Aniefiok/Jr/6'5"/2,3 -Jordan Williams/Sr/6'6"/3,2,4 Posts -Colin Voss/Sr/6'7"/4 -Armani Flannigan/Sr/6'8"/4 -Keith Coleman/Sr/6'10"/5,4 -Kelvin Gaines/6'10"/5 Signees Guards/Wings -Carrington Ward/Jr/6'2"/2,1 -Deandre Harris/So/6'2"/2 -Greg Wesley/rsFr/6'7"/3,4 Posts -Jeremy Combs/Fr/6'6"/4 Uncommitted open offers Guards/Wings -Jovan Austin/JUCO(Jr)/6'1"/1 http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2013-14/div1/players/jovanaustin6d3t -Dequon Miller/JUCO(So)/5'11"/1,2 http://247sports.com/Player/Dequon-Miller-44162 -Jaylon Barford/HS(Fr)/6'2"/2,1 http://247sports.com/Player/Jaylen-Barford-28920 Posts -Trent Brinkley/HS(Fr)/3,4/6'5" http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/172013/trent-brinkley I have Brinkley, 6'5", under posts because of all the video I found of him, every shot he took was inside the paint, mainly dunks. Also, don't know if he has the ball handling skills to play 3 primarily in college.

Not sure where he stands with us in recruiting (I'd imagine we aren't much in the picture anymore) but he is still uncommitted and his school just won the D1 Class AA state title in Tennessee. Barford had 25 points in the state title game and had the game winner in the semifinals against the team his school had lost to in the state championship game the year before. http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/15/6240932/south-side-beats-e-nashville-magnet.html

Even though they're leaving, he should be CUSA Coach of the Year. Tim Floyd deserves some recognition with being so short handed, but what Manning did with an underclassmen roster was impressive.

Yeah, never made sense. According to the tweet in the OP, it looks like he wasn't enrolled the first semester, then made it in for the second semester and only played 3 games. It would make sense if he quit. Nunn only played 10 games according to the stats that I saw, as well. I know I never talk about how important the 2015 signing class is, but we just can't keep signing these type of big men.

http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2013-14/div1/players/joshfriarn3nb Found this since NT03 put up Tony Nunn's JUCO stats. Looks like Friar was able to get into 3 games for Ranger College, and put up 1.7 points/game on 28.6% shooting from the field as well as 25% from the free throw line and 1 rebound/game.

Yes it was. I think that was when Alzee took over at pg as well. Trey Norris wasn't quite stepping in the way we had hoped, and Alzee did what was asked of him. We actually had one game before that w/o CJ and Jordan. It was a mid-season exhibition against Huston-Tullotson for the DISD game that year. That game was also very fun for me, experiencing the DISD kids for the first time. Alzee and B Walt both went for over 20, which was good to see after Chris and Jordan were out. Also that game, Tyler Hall got fouled hard going up for a dunk and landed on his face. He broke his nose, but luckily didn't miss any playing time. He did, however, look like a raccoon walking around campus after.

This is broken up into two lists as well. Guys with at least one other offer but usually no P5 offers yet, and at the most 1 P5 offer. The other list is made of guys who we are currently that players only D1 offer. These D1 offers are according to the recruiting websites, and may not be up to date. Some players don't have recruiting profiles, so they are listed with having no other offers. Other offers: - Leander ATH Billy Mccrary Offers from SMU, Texas St, and UTSA - FB Elkins ATH Jonathan Giles Offers from Fresno State and Colorado - Coppell TE/OL Connor Williams Offer from TCU - Richmond Bush OL Josh Jones Offer from Houston - Mallard Creek Charlotte, NC DB Nafees Lyon Offers from Miami (OH), Charlotte, and JMU - Whitehouse DB Nate Brooks Offer from La Tech Players only we've offered: - Del City, OK ATH Davion Freeman - Dallas Skyline WR Savon Rollinson - Ringling, OK OL Riley Daniel - Flower Mound OL Evan Curl - Plano OL Beau Hott - Carrolton Creekview OL Larry Hughes - Denton High DE Dailon Holmes - Denton Guyer DE Carl Thompson Note: I believe he has some offers, but nothing listed on the recruiting sites - Burleson DE Kenneth Mann - Tyler JC DE Mote Maile - Paris LB Jordan Williams Whether they have just an offer from us, or just a non P5 offer or two, it's still early in the process and these players could blow up. Nice to get in early on kids. A few players in particular on this list who I'm really watching out for are Connor Williams, Nate Brooks, Larry Hughes, and Kenneth Mann. Williams interests me because he reminds me a little of Wylie Reinhardt. I could see us recruiting him at tight end, while other colleges (like TCU) want him at guard. He'd be a perfect road-grading tight end like Reinhardt or Andrew Power, and letting him play glory OL (tight end) could give us an edge over other schools. Nate Brooks would be another good get out of East Texas. He has some versatility at DB, and if it's just a battle between us and La Tech, we should win. Obviously, still plenty of time for other schools to come in. Larry Hughes still doesn't have any other offers. I don't know how much longer that will last for, but us being first has to help. He has the prototypical frame to play Left Tackle and go up against opposing teams' top pass rushers week in and week out. Once Antonio Johnson graduates this year, we really won't have a true Left Tackle on the roster. Hughes would be a perfect fit and has plenty of room to grow physically and from a technique standpoint. No offers yet, but he's still going to be a tough pull. Kenneth Mann is another interesting case of a guy yet to have another offer. He's a big kid, and after signing just 1 high school defensive end combined over the last 2 classes, we could use a big time DE or 2 this class. Mann would be a great player to build this d-line class around.

Been quiet lately. No new offers out this week as I post. Early offer period can be a beating, with a lot of offers going out to players who we have very little, to no shot at getting. Here's a classification of what our competition is like for the players we've offered so far. Starting with the boring part. The players we've offered who have daunting offer lists, which are already growing. Already committed elsewhere: - Rowlett DE Charles Omenihu (Texas) - Dallas Adams DT Joseph Broadnax (TCU) - Midland Christian OL Johnny Wilson (Ok State) Long shots (players with multiple P5 offer): - Skyline DE/OLB Anthony Wheeler - Skyline WR Carlos Strickland - Aledo ATH Ryan Newsome - Mansfield Legacy DT Taaj Bakari - Richmond Bush DL Kingsley KeKe - Cedar Hill LB Richard Moore - W Mesquite DB Josh Butler - Lawton, OK OL Jalin Barnett - Arlington Bowie OL Madison Akamnonu - Lancaster OL Dominique Hearne These guys have a who's who of offer lists. A lot of Big 12 and SEC offers among these guys, and the top tier schools from those conference included. Our best chance at getting these guys would be down the road as a transfer.

This part He's not saying we aren't showing progress. He's saying the pattern of neglect over years has caused people to lose faith in NT sports. Neglect is what is going on with the basketball program right now. If we are going to be a legitimate athletic college, then we need to show commitment, particularly to the big sports, rather than this indifference from the upper level leadership. But not my argument in the first place. 90 can stand up for his own self if you disagree with him. It just sounded like you were omitting part of his posts in your rebuttal.

You're completely misreading these posts.

Yeah, Mamadou Ndiaye. He was a online video sensation last year. He's a cool story. Choose UC-Irvine because he didn't want to go too far from his host family. I believe he's from Senegal. His height made for a funny picture when he was matched up with a 5'8" guard from Oregon early in the year. http://nesn.com/2013/12/mamadou-ndiaye-creates-hilarious-picture-as-7-foot-6-player-matches-up-against-5-foot-8-oregon-guard-photo/2/

Here's a kid who I've been keeping an eye on, who still has surprisingly yet to receive an offer. His name is Dakota Laws. He's an offensive lineman from Denton Ryan, and he was 1st-team All District and 2nd-team AP All-State Selection last year as a junior. He reports some interest from UNT on scout. Plays left tackle for Ryan, and is listed around 6'4" 285 lbs. http://drchighschoolblog.dentonrc.com/2013/12/ryans-laws-orozco-make-ap-5a-all-state-team.html/ http://recruiting.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=7377925 Highlights: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=84rHnR86PCA

Top 5 really. After that the dropoff was huge.

Picked up an Oklahoma State offer.

Are we mistaken? What about Fraschilla, Kaspar, or Scott Cross, who we didn't even contact?

Thank you very much Jesse. Well put. I've been on the fence as to whether or not RV should be fired. The poster above you (GreenMachine) mentioned pride, and you explained what a financial strain it would be to buyout about $900K. I believe both are factors, but I didn't know if both could be directly attributed to RV.

Absolutely. I was a freshman that year, and that was one of the games that really turned me into a die-hard.

I don't know nearly about the workings of the athletic department like many of you do. I have a question. What are reasons why RV would choose to be cheap for? We've had a poster on here say that we do have the money to buy him out if we choose. Does RV get to keep any money that we save? Does it just stay in the athletic department? Does he really just have that much confidence in his bad hires? Just trying to figure out why he chooses to retain these mistakes rather than try and atone for them.

Have you read Tasty's posts about the other conference mates who take basketball seriously? These jobs are not always lifetime achievement awards. Is that person the right man for his job right now? Not 5 years ago or when he was hired. RV has done plenty of good here, and we should be grateful. That is what has had me so torn on this. I want to be grateful for what he has done, but looking at things objectively, he just hasn't been a good AD with the money sports. Outside of helping with the Mac hire, which I don't overlook. I just don't have any faith in him when it comes to hirings. Retaining Benford for another year and recruiting class will likely set this program back years. If he makes another bad hire after that, we could be looking at another 6 years until we get a competent head coach and likely another 2 years after that until we can get back to where we need to be. Or we could just not care about basketball anymore.

Maybe he doesn't deserve to be fired, but if he isn't then it'll set our program back years. We need a capable recruiter to handle these 7 scholarship spots next year. If the signees are more high school guys who don't make it in and late juco signees, we will be lucky to be a 10 seed in the conference tourney as long as Benny is here. Benford has a decent track record recruiting, but he's only as good a recruiter as his product is that he's selling. Some recruiters could sell ice to an Eskimo. Benford doesn't have the history and consistency of Marquette to sell, and he doesn't have the pitches that JJ established (20 win seasons, Sun Belt tourney success, Tony Mitchell, etc). Greg Wesley's main pitch that he received from Benny was that he would be used like Tony Mitchell, a player Benford had nothing to do with being on our roster. Combs was a good pickup, but the only school on his offer list that was impressive to beat for him was Texas Tech. We had proximity and playing time in our favor there. The other current 2014 signees didn't have any other offers. Luckily we have playing time to offer. We need that pitch. Need. Edit: sorry, forgot to explain what I was getting at. If the recruiting class tanks, and Benny does without JJ players to rely on, then RV does deserve to be fired. He has the option to fire him now and get a capable coach/recruiter to have for these 7 seniors' last season and for the 7-man signing class. He's chosen to let Benford handle that. Not to mention what's going on in women's hoops and football scheduling.

Just glad B Walt got to take the 3 with a chance to tie.