Recruiting Internationally

[citygriz]

Along with emergence of the three-point shot as a critical offensive weapon, the recruitment of international players ranks as one of the major developments in college basketball over the past twenty years. To wit:
--Possibly our best player, Josh Bannan, is from Australia, following on the heels of Fabian Krslovic.
--St Mary's has built a big-time program on Australian talent--Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills have had solid NBA careers, while Jock Landale is playing well now for the Spurs.
--For Gonzaga, it's chapter and verse of international kids--Turiaf, Pango, Olynyk, Sabonis and Jalen Suggs to name but a few.
--Two of Boise State's best players this year were from Canada; two more are from Serbia.
--Our rival Bobcats have leapfrogged us primarily because of one man, British native and assistant coach Chris Haslam. Adamu, Osobar and Belo are all British, while Fernandez is from Spain. Of course, the great Harold Fray was from Norway. And I've forgotten the name of the British kid who was going to play for the Bobs but wound up at Oregon.
I could probably expand this out in length to "War and Peace" if I had time to do research.
It's the way that mid-major schools have circumvented the McDonald's All-Americans that are out of their reach and stayed competitive with the major programs.
It's the reason that the Bobs are going to remain a major problem for us for as long as Haslam is on that staff.
It's why I hope we can refresh that Australian connection, or open up links to other international pipelines.

 

[Mousegriz]

Suggs is from Minnesota like Holmgren.

You're one of quite a few that seem to tout "Cali ball" all the time and a couple years ago spewed that Chris Cobb was the next great HC at Montana and a super recruiter. Griz continue to "get" the same type guys that super recruiter was getting then.

 

[citygriz]

Suggs is from Minnesota like Holmgren.

You're one of quite a few that seem to tout "Cali ball" all the time and a couple years ago spewed that Chris Cobb was the next great HC at Montana and a super recruiter. Griz continue to "get" the same type guys that super recruiter was getting then.

Oops! I'm wrong. Suggs IS from Minnesota. I always get Minna-slow-ta confused with Manitoba. My bad.

But I've also said, where there's "Mouse" there's mouse turds, so if you choose to obliterate from your memory Cherry, Jamarr, Dunn, Oguine, Pridgett, Beasley, Whitney and Vazquez in favor of all the great guards that Montana has produced over the past 20 years--like, one--then you're up their with Putin in your delusional metaverse.

I WILL amend my enthusiasm for "Cali ball" (one of most talent-rich recruiting grounds in the country, by the way) to point out that neither during the Tinkle era nor the DeCuire era have we been able to recruit quality bigs from of California, with the one exception of Akoh. Like many on this board, I had high hopes for Owens and DCH but Owens is gone for reasons that baffle me while DCH has proved the reason he had so few offers coming out of high school--at 6'5" he's a bit of a tweener, not big enough to bang with post players, but too big to fit in as a guard. This is where the Bobs are beating us with their British recruiting right now--they're getting quality bigs.

But please note that of the two quality bigs that Montana has produced over the past few years--Mack Anderson and Rhett Reynolds--DeCuire and his staff recruited both.

Does that win them a consolation prize?

Oh, one more thing to add to the list of things that'll piss you off today:

Go Bobcats!! I hope they beat or at least show well against Texas Tech.

A rising tide lifts all boats, including ours.

 

[Mousegriz]

David Bell, Anthony Johnson, Virgil Matthews. Kevin Criswell, Matt Martin, Jordan Gregory were a few decent guards in the past 20 years. Don't think Travis or Cobb recruited Cherry or Jamar. I'm not ready to put Whitney and Beasley who haven't gotten out of round 1 in the BSC tourney onto some all-time guard list. How in the hell is Vazquez on your list?

Mack Anderson will have year 6 to try and get a little bigger and stronger and work on his hands. He'll hopefully reduce his career record FPM (fouls per minute). You seem to have a much higher opinion of him as a recruit coming out of HS than most. Grew fast as a junior/senior in HS and suddenly appeared on the radar for some schools.

Reynolds...watched him a few times in HS playoffs this year. I think there could be some potential with Reynolds. He's pretty quick and has decent hands and feet. Will be interesting if Travis and staff are willing to watch a few growing pains and give him a true shot.

 

[twentythreeOh4]

David Bell, Anthony Johnson, Virgil Matthews. Kevin Criswell, Matt Martin, Jordan Gregory were a few decent guards in the past 20 years. Don't think Travis or Cobb recruited Cherry or Jamar. I'm not ready to put Whitney and Beasley who haven't gotten out of round 1 in the BSC tourney onto some all-time guard list. How in the hell is Vazquez on your list?

Mack Anderson will have year 6 to try and get a little bigger and stronger and work on his hands. He'll hopefully reduce his career record FPM (fouls per minute). You seem to have a much higher opinion of him as a recruit coming out of HS than most. Grew fast as a junior/senior in HS and suddenly appeared on the radar for some schools.

Reynolds...watched him a few times in HS playoffs this year. I think there could be some potential with Reynolds. He's pretty quick and has decent hands and feet. Will be interesting if Travis and staff are willing to watch a few growing pains and give him a true shot.

Huh? Montana beat Idaho and Weber in Big Sky tourney just last year.

 

[Zirg]

Suggs is from Minnesota like Holmgren.

You're one of quite a few that seem to tout "Cali ball" all the time and a couple years ago spewed that Chris Cobb was the next great HC at Montana and a super recruiter. Griz continue to "get" the same type guys that super recruiter was getting then.

Oops! I'm wrong. Suggs IS from Minnesota. I always get Minna-slow-ta confused with Manitoba. My bad.

But I've also said, where there's "Mouse" there's mouse turds, so if you choose to obliterate from your memory Cherry, Jamarr, Dunn, Oguine, Pridgett, Beasley, Whitney and Vazquez in favor of all the great guards that Montana has produced over the past 20 years--like, one--then you're up their with Putin in your delusional metaverse.

I WILL amend my enthusiasm for "Cali ball" (one of most talent-rich recruiting grounds in the country, by the way) to point out that neither during the Tinkle era nor the DeCuire era have we been able to recruit quality bigs from of California, with the one exception of Akoh. Like many on this board, I had high hopes for Owens and DCH but Owens is gone for reasons that baffle me while DCH has proved the reason he had so few offers coming out of high school--at 6'5" he's a bit of a tweener, not big enough to bang with post players, but too big to fit in as a guard. This is where the Bobs are beating us with their British recruiting right now--they're getting quality bigs.

But please note that of the two quality bigs that Montana has produced over the past few years--Mack Anderson and Rhett Reynolds--DeCuire and his staff recruited both.

Does that win them a consolation prize?

Oh, one more thing to add to the list of things that'll piss you off today:

Go Bobcats!! I hope they beat or at least show well against Texas Tech.

A rising tide lifts all boats, including ours.

People laugh about Minnesota being a great recruiting area, but it really is. NDSU is gonna continue winning 1-AA championships in football as long as they dominate the Minnesota pool. And there are 13 current NBA-ers from MN High schools, including a 1st round pick 3 straight years. https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/high_schools.fcgi?state=MN