2016 American Athletic Conference Recruiting

[tcf15]

Good pickup for SMU

 

[James]

Good pickup for SMU

I remember rumors of him signing a contract overseas, so I hope he qualifies.

Man it's too bad Larry brown is close to his expiration date, the guy can really coach and develop talent . There are so many players on smu I enjoy watching... Great players that could play on any team in the country and get minutes.

 

[huskiesnyc]

Cumberland is going to be a player. He looked like he was in his mid 20's when he was a high school freshman. He's the second best player in Ohio behind Michigan State commit Nick Ward.

Bottom line, it's a HUGE drop off after UConn in this conference recruiting wise. No problem partnering with @kobe on the way to the Big 12 tho.

 

[UConnStats]

I remember rumors of him signing a contract overseas, so I hope he qualifies.

Man it's too bad Larry brown is close to his expiration date, the guy can really coach and develop talent . There are so many players on smu I enjoy watching... Great players that could play on any team in the country and get minutes.

I agree. I think Ben Moore is one of the most slept on players in the country this year. He's super efficient and a good passer for a PF. Love his game.

Brown has done great things for Tolbert and Kennedy as well.

 

[aceboon]

SMU was going to have issues recruiting "high level" recruits with all of the NCAA stuff hanging over their heads, plus they're going to be impacted a bit going forward with their sanctions, but their player development under Brown is top notch so I wouldn't be really too concerned with them as long as he's there. Look how good they've been with under the radar recruits and transfers, I think they will continue along that path.

As far as Houston, I don't seem to recall Sampson pulling in a lot of studs when he was at Oklahoma but I could be wrong, it seemed like he was also finding under the radar types mixed with jucos/transfers and building from there. Maybe he can replicate the formula at Houston, they've already took a leap under him in year 2 with the transfers he's added.

 

[James]

I agree. I think Ben Moore is one of the most slept on players in the country this year. He's super efficient and a good passer for a PF. Love his game.

Brown has done great things for Tolbert and Kennedy as well.

Yep I eye Moore and Milton as legit pro prospects . Moore can really shoot and defend , second round white whale territory. Not sure about his measurements but the kid is also coachable which is invaluable . nic Moore the pg is better than 95% of starting pgs in NCAAA, This isn't even mentioning Kennedy who is a friggin beast . Brown is a hoops legend and I'm loving every minute we share the floor vs his squads.

 

[A10 fan]

As far as Houston, I don't seem to recall Sampson pulling in a lot of studs when he was at Oklahoma but I could be wrong, it seemed like he was also finding under the radar types mixed with jucos/transfers and building from there. Maybe he can replicate the formula at Houston, they've already took a leap under him in year 2 with the transfers he's added.

I've been a big booster of Houston's potential on this board, and nothing I've seen so far has changed my mind. I know folks want to escape this league and get into a P5 league, but as long as you're stuck here, you should want the schools with potential to realize it. Some people here poo-poo Houston's past, like it was nothing. Yet the same folks rave about St. John's. St. John's was good in the 80's. Houston was better, and by a fair margin too. St. John's made 1 Final Four. Houston made 3 in a row, including 2 Finals. For all of St. John's history, I'll take Houston's 3 best players (Hakeem, Drexler, Elvin Hayes), against any combination of St. John's players from their entire history. In fact, that trio is NBA Championship caliber. They would smoke any combination of St. John's players you could come up with. In fact, that group is so outstanding, that you would be hard pressed to find many better groups from any school, including the historic blue bloods. UCLA has the centers, but what Bruins guard was as good as Clyde? What Bruins forward was as good as Hayes? Carolina of course has the guards, and forwards, but no one who could come close to handling Hakeem. Basically, my point is, If the BE boosters can expect SJU to become a power again, based on their past, why can't fans of the AAC expect Houston to do the same?

 

[BUConn10]

I am a huge fan of Shake Milton, his game is so smooth.

 

[Matrim55]

UCLA has the centers, but what Bruins guard was as good as Clyde? What Bruins forward was as good as Hayes? Carolina of course has the guards, and forwards, but no one who could come close to handling Hakeem.

Clyde was great, and one of the truly underrated superstars ever, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect Westbrook to surpass him if he keeps playing as he has over the last few years. And by almost every measure Love is a better PF than Hayes, who was a low efficiency player.

UCLA's best is pretty balanced & filthy:
PG: Westbrook
SG: Miller
SF: Johnson
PF: Love
C: KAJ

Then they can bring Goodrich, Vanderweghe, Walton, Baron Davis and Jamaal Wilkes off the bench. (I'm curious to see if LaVine cracks this list eventually as well).

Houston has one big hole:
PG: ???
SG: Clyde
SF: Birdsong
PF: Elvin
C: Hakeem

I guess you could have Don Chaney in the PG spot, but really he was more of a 2 guard who didn't handle the ball. Everything would have to run through Clyde.

Even if we call Kareem vs. Hakeem a wash, and give Clyde the justifiable edge over Reggie, I still think UCLA's 5 best are significantly better than anything the Cougars could claim.

North Carolina isn't as good as I'd expected:
PG: Lawson
SG: Jordan
SF: Carter
PF: McAdoo
C: Daugherty

I'm kind of shocked they never produced a better PG than Lawson (and spoiler alert, but Paige ain't it). Daugherty is largely forgotten now, but for about 6 years -- before the injuries -- he was an All-Star caliber center, and probably would have been a hall of famer if he'd stayed healthy. Hakeem's better, of course, but Daughtery was no scrub, and did just fine against the Dream in their many real life matchups.

I chose McAdoo over Wallace at PF, but I might rethink that.

So again, we'll give Houston the edge at one spot (center), but everything else is UNC.

And here's St. John's:
PG: Jackson
SG: Loughery
SF: Mullin
PF: Artest
C: Wennington

I don't think to me that's three spots (center, PF, SG) to Houston, two (PG, SF) to St. John's.

Basically, my point is, If the BE boosters can expect SJU to become a power again, based on their past, why can't fans of the AAC expect Houston to do the same?

This I agree with. I think the idea should be to recruit Houston & the surrounding area in the way that The U cordoned off southern Florida back in the '80s and '90s -- you knew the best players from there were going to stay local.

It's obviously a big ask for Sampson to pull that off, but there's so much talent coming out of Texas that even a modicum of success could see Houston become a regular NCAA tourney team.

 

[Drew]

Tulsa picked up a 2016 commitment from SC guard Joseph Battle today: