Vanderbilt

[Basket]

Vandy added another grad transfer guard to the mix in 5’7 Marnelle Garraud from Boston College. Seems like a true point guard. I haven’t seen her play, but maybe someone else can fill me in on her. Averaged 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3+ assists. Shot 38 percent from the field, 34% beyond the arc and 74% from the free throw line.

Happy to have her on board to join what appears to be a legitimately deep guard rotation. Still, I feel compelled to add….

Dear Basketball Gods: When I asked for a little bit of size in the message above this one, I did not mean another 5’7 player. That’s my bad. I should have been clear. I’m asking for big players. Let’s say a minimum of 6’3. Right now we only have one player taller than 5’10, and she’s only 6’2. Thanks.

Garraud is hurt by her size. She is a real poor man’s Jordyn Cambridge at best. A bit lackadaisical. Better defensive reputation than reality on the floor. Offensively disappointing. Her best year was as a sophomore. Since then she has trended downward. She had a difficult time scoring down the stretch when BC needed everyone on the board. In the two late season key losses to Fl St that cost them the chance at the tourney she scored 3 pts total (1-13) in 66 minutes when the team was starving for help. I’m a BC fan and was not disappointed she chose to move on though I like her back up less. Overall I think Shea may have an edge at developing players over Coach Mac (though some BC players showed great improvement) so maybe Shea can reverse the downward trend for Gerraud. I hope she does well under Shea.

 

[YoDore]

Garraud is hurt by her size. She is a poor man’s Jordyn Cambridge at best. A bit lackadaisical. Better defensive reputation than reality on the floor. Offensively disappointing. Her best year was as a sophomore. Since then she has trended downward. Her play was part of why BC didn’t make the tourney. She had a difficult time scoring down the stretch and pg turned into somewhat of a weakness the last quarter of the year.

Thanks for the info. Vandy will have four other guards, so if she doesn't play well, she probably won't play. Cambridge and freshman Iyanna Moore are pretty well entrenched as starters, so I think they're just looking for some depth. Are you a BC fan?

 

[Basket]

Thanks for the info. Vandy will have four other guards, so if she doesn't play well, she probably won't play. Cambridge and freshman Iyanna Moore are pretty well entrenched as starters, so I think they're just looking for some depth. Are you a BC fan?

Yes a big BC fan. Is Cambridge coming back?

 

[YoDore]

Yes a big BC fan. Is Cambridge coming back?

Yes. Announced it a week or so ago.

 

[YoDore]

 

[sun]

..........Dear Basketball Gods: When I asked for a little bit of size in the message above this one, I did not mean another 5’7 player. That’s my bad. I should have been clear. I’m asking for big players. Let’s say a minimum of 6’3. Right now we only have one player taller than 5’10, and she’s only 6’2. Thanks.

Shea should consider recruiting 6' 5" Piath Gabriel who is in the transfer portal from UConn.
Shea and Piath spent a season together and know each other, and Piath has 3 more years of eligibility.
It could work and help recruit more talent.

 

[YoDore]

Shea should consider recruiting 6' 5" Piath Gabriel who is in the transfer portal from UConn.
Shea and Piath spent a season together and know each other, and Piath has 3 more years of eligibility.
It could work and help recruit more talent.

I'm all in. I truly don't want to be mean, but we start a 5'10 post player who could not start at any position for any other SEC team. Literally. Now, I want to give the kid props. She missed more than a year with a severe injury and surgery recovery and worked very hard to get back and has progressed beyond the point I ever imagined for her. Still, reality is reality. She's more suited to be a role player in spite of how hard she works. I just don't see how the staff can take this program forward very far as long as they're so overmatched in the front court. I still expect the addition of one or two bigs. We have three scholarships available.

 

[HuskyNan]

Garraud is hurt by her size. She is a real poor man’s Jordyn Cambridge at best. A bit lackadaisical. Better defensive reputation than reality on the floor. Offensively disappointing. Her best year was as a sophomore. Since then she has trended downward. She had a difficult time scoring down the stretch when BC needed everyone on the board. In the two late season key losses to Fl St that cost them the chance at the tourney she scored 3 pts total (1-13) in 66 minutes when the team was starving for help. I’m a BC fan and was not disappointed she chose to move on though I like her back up less. Overall I think Shea may have an edge at developing players over Coach Mac (though some BC players showed great improvement) so maybe Shea can reverse the downward trend for Gerraud. I hope she does well under Shea.

Marnelle led the team in steals and assists for a a couple years. She’s out of Noble and Greenough, a prep school with a good history of producing DI players. Shea may have seen her when scouting New England preps.

As for her production falling off, if she was unhappy at BC, it’s no surprise.

Marnelle Garraud - Women's Basketball - Boston College Athletics

Marnelle Garraud (14) G - AS A SENIOR (2021-22) Started in 33 of 33 games ... ACC All-Academic team ... earned the ACC Postgraduate Scholarship ... led the

bceagles.com

 

[YoDore]

My first venture as a recruit snoop has not gone well overall. Not only do I find it difficult to break Vandy's double-top-secret recruiting code, when I do stumble onto something, it doesn't work out so well. Consider:



That post is about about former West Virginia signee Avery "Ace" Strickland, who re-opened her recruitment the third week of January (I won't go into details here. Post #15 above explains it all). I'm not 100 percent certain Vandy made her an offer, but I do know recruiting coordinator Ashley Earley was on hand to watch her play and talk to her the first game after she re-opened her recruiting.

I'm assuming the ACC program she's visiting Sunday is Pitt since she got an offer there immediately after opening her recruitment. The Big 12 program getting a future visit? Who knows. Maybe West Virginia under the new coach, but I doubt it.

The bottom line is, Vandy was there in late January, it's mid-April, and she's off visiting other schools. No mention of a Vandy visit. Not a good sign for me. I would imagine if coach Ralph did make an offer, and she hasn't accepted after this much time, she's not real fired up about Vandy.

Recruiting is hard. Not sure I'm cut out for it.

 

[HuskyMJ]

My first venture as a recruit snoop has not gone well overall. Not only do I find it difficult to break Vandy's double-top-secret recruiting code, when I do stumble onto something, it doesn't work out so well. Consider:



That post is about about former West Virginia signee Avery "Ace" Strickland, who re-opened her recruitment the third week of January (I won't go into details here. Post #15 above explains it all). I'm not 100 percent certain Vandy made her an offer, but I do know recruiting coordinator Ashley Earley was on hand to watch her play and talk to her the first game after she re-opened her recruiting.

I'm assuming the ACC program she's visiting Sunday is Pitt since she got an offer there immediately after opening her recruitment. The Big 12 program getting a future visit? Who knows. Maybe West Virginia under the new coach, but I doubt it.

The bottom line is, Vandy was there in late January, it's mid-April, and she's off visiting other schools. No mention of a Vandy visit. Not a good sign for me. I would imagine if coach Ralph did make an offer, and she hasn't accepted after this much time, she's not real fired up about Vandy.

Recruiting is hard. Not sure I'm cut out for it.

It says future Big 12 team so that may be like Cincinnati? Central Florida maybe?

 

[YoDore]

It says future Big 12 team so that may be like Cincinnati? Central Florida maybe?

Could be. I just took it as awkward wording for "visit a Big 12 team in the future."

 

[DefenseBB]

Shea should consider recruiting 6' 5" Piath Gabriel who is in the transfer portal from UConn.
Shea and Piath spent a season together and know each other, and Piath has 3 more years of eligibility.
It could work and help recruit more talent.

For the love of God, NO! Please, this is just like everyone saying last year that Shea should get Autumn. Honestly, Piath would do well to hook on with Providence College, which is close to home, she can get minutes on another program that needs size while she continues to develop her game. A little reality here would be nice....

 

[sun]

For the love of God, NO! Please, this is just like everyone saying last year that Shea should get Autumn. Honestly, Piath would do well to hook on with Providence College, which is close to home, she can get minutes on another program that needs size while she continues to develop her game. A little reality here would be nice....

It was about Shea's relationship with Piath and personal knowledge about how much Piath has improved.
Vandy doesn't have any players over 6'2" listed which is not looking good for them rebounding much in the SEC.
Piath could certainly be part of the solution since it seems that Shea needs at least 2 or 3 bigs on her team.
Piath's level of progress shows that she's pretty much game ready.
The question is who else can Shea get who can rebound as well as Piath can?
Give Piath some credit, she can probably transfer into 40-50 different Div. 1 colleges.
Why does she need to stay close to home?
Do you think that she's not willing to hook up with Shea?
Piath is used to playing in larger arenas than Alumni Hall where Providence plays.
It's capacity is only 2479.
I guess that we'll see where Piath ends up transferring to.
I highly doubt that Piath wants to play against UConn but you never know.

 

[YoDore]

 

[YoDore]

My first venture as a recruit snoop has not gone well overall. Not only do I find it difficult to break Vandy's double-top-secret recruiting code, when I do stumble onto something, it doesn't work out so well. Consider:



That post is about about former West Virginia signee Avery "Ace" Strickland, who re-opened her recruitment the third week of January (I won't go into details here. Post #15 above explains it all). I'm not 100 percent certain Vandy made her an offer, but I do know recruiting coordinator Ashley Earley was on hand to watch her play and talk to her the first game after she re-opened her recruiting.

I'm assuming the ACC program she's visiting Sunday is Pitt since she got an offer there immediately after opening her recruitment. The Big 12 program getting a future visit? Who knows. Maybe West Virginia under the new coach, but I doubt it.

The bottom line is, Vandy was there in late January, it's mid-April, and she's off visiting other schools. No mention of a Vandy visit. Not a good sign for me. I would imagine if coach Ralph did make an offer, and she hasn't accepted after this much time, she's not real fired up about Vandy.

Recruiting is hard. Not sure I'm cut out for it.

Strickland committed to Pitt today. We lost an in-state player to Pitt. Yikes.

 

[YoDore]

Kevin Demille is just the right amount of silly. The players seem to love this guy. Right now, he seems fired up with how recruiting is going...lol

 

[YoDore]

She might be good enough to crack our starting lineup even with that boot on her foot.

 

[YoDore]

 

[Geew1992]

She might be good enough to crack our starting lineup even with that boot on her foot.

I really hope Shea gets the recruiting ball rolling

 

[YoDore]

 

[Argonaut]

Agata Makurat, Anna’s younger sister, had an OV over the weekend. For those unfamiliar, she’s a 6’2” shooting guard with a game similar to Katie Lou Samuelson. Would be a great get for Shea.

 

[UConnCat]

I'll be interested to see what other schools Agata and her parents visit while in the US.

 

[Argonaut]

I'll be interested to see what other schools Agata and her parents visit while in the US.

Next stop appears to be Georgia Tech.

 

[CL82]

The question is if Agata ends up signing a letter of intent, will Shea call Geno and say “Hey guess what? Agata Makurat!”

(Also this picture is just hysterical. I love the energy.)