I'm just stunned at the recruiting prowess of this staff, especially at the guard line during DeCuire's tenure.
His first major recruit was Michael Oguine, followed by one of the very few four-star recruits in our history, Ahmaad Rorie. Enter then Sayeed Pridgett, a point guard on his El Cerrito high school team, and an all-Bay Area selection his senior year. Hello then to Timmy Falls, one of the top guard recruits out of the Bay Area, not to mention Kendal Manuel transferring in from Oregon State, followed then by Eddie Egun, and his great recruiting story, and Freddy Brown, grandson of the legendary Downtown Freddy Brown, followed then by Josh Vazquez, whom DeCuire believes could break his very own assist record at Montana. Oh! Wait a minute! Naseem Gaskin, a three-star recruit, just transferred in from Utah. Wow! Well, now we're really set at the guard line, for this year and the future, right?
Nope! There's Brandon Whitney, a 2020 recruit, who seems to be one of those kids who flew under the recruiting radar until he blossoms as a senior, and all the recruiting experts say, "How did California college coaches ever let this kid get away?" And let's not forget Robbie Beasley, already a three-star recruit, and one of the top guards this year in the Bay Area, which historically has produced dozens of great NBA guards.
I mean, the wealth at the guard line, not only now but in the future, is just staggering for a mid-major like Montana. The question is--especially for a coach known for his tight rotations--where do all these players fit in? I mean next year we'll have Falls, Brown, Egun Vazquez, Gaskin, Whitney and Beasley all vying for playing time at guard--unless one of the freshmen takes a redshirt.
All the while, along the front line, we look extremely thin--as we've been throughout the DeCuire tenure. Several bigs have washed out of the program. Akoh was great but oft-injured. Selcuk looks like he could be the real deal, but Mack Anderson is not showing the development I think any of us had hoped for. Steadman looks like a jewel, but we'll only have him for one year.
In short, the disparity between the quality at the guard line and the quality up front is significant, which leads me to the title of this post: Is DeCuire, a great guard in his own right, recruiting himself?
