Friday, May 07, 2010

More hoops roster shuffling

Steve Donahue picked up his first official commitment in 6'10 Mass product Dennis Clifford. While not an elite recruit, Clifford is a good first sign. He's local (which had been a challenge for Skinner), he had other options, and he's willing to sign on for Donahue before he's even coached a game at BC. Clifford is part of the 2011 recruiting class.


Donahue is also closing in on his first transfer in Centenary guard Damon Starring. Because Centenary is dropping down to DIII, Starring would not have to sit out a year in a transer.


It is not all good news though as Evan Ravenel will transfer. That leaves BC, very thin in the front court. I don't know if or how Ravenel would have adapted to Donahue's scheme but I always liked him as a player. He wasn't dominate nor did he have great talent, but he seemed to play smart and hard.

11 comments:

blist said...

One of two things must be going on - either Donahue feels the players' effort was so bad last year none of them are worth sweating over if they don't buy into his system fully from the start.
Or, he figures the worse this year's team is, the better he'll look in a couple of years when we win a few games and he can get an extension. He can say to GDF, 'look at the awful situation I inherited and now four years later, we're a .500 club. One day soon, we'll make the NCAA tournament!'

Erik said...

I feel like we're owed an explanation from Coach Donohue, even if what he says is all political P.C. that isn't the truth, to at heast hear his take. Especially with BRady Heslip. After all, how you someone just decide to runsomeone off the team who he's never seen play a game or go through a real practice, because he isn't good enough. There's got to be a reason neyond basketball talent. After all, there's no one on the team after this year besides Jackson, Elmore, and previously Ravenel. YOu don't get rid of kids when you only have 2 out of 12 slots filled. Even if he wasn't good enough, you sitll need someone to sit the bench for emergencies, and someone to practice against.

I really would love to hear the BC Basketball Office take on Brady, Rakim, Papa Samba, and Ravenel.

Erik said...

What are the chances Dennis Clifford is related to the old Holy Cross Center Tim Clifford?

BCNorCal07 said...

So here's something a little worrisome to me: Pac-10/Big-12 network (thanks to Dr Saturday). If the ACC misses out on a TV network completely, the conference stands a good chance of whithering in the face of a football "Big 4". That would make any Big11 offer very attractive.

modest34b said...

We beat out northeastern Princeton and sienna for Clifford.

Does Donahue still think he is at cornell ?


We have 3 scholarship players for 2011. No wonder Noreen ndao brust etc don't want to come to bc. Suddenly we have no hoops progam.


But Donahue some how does seem like he is a focused success oriented coach. So I still am confident he will get the program refocused and winning again soon. And let's not leave skinner blameless for leaving the shelves unstocked


Something is rotten in Denmark

BCNorCal07 said...

So, I tried to post a link in my last comment and it didn't work at all. That's odd. Anyway, here's the link: http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/9790/expansion-what-about-a-pac-10-big-12-partnership

Dan said...

Big 12 Pac 10 network combo makes me think of a great option for us ...

Big 10/ ACC TV deal

Big 10 grabs 1 team (Notre Dame might be interesting) then partners with ACC.
Benefits include:
Big 10 gets championship game
Big 10 avoids looking like an ass for destroying/ impacting multiple conferences.
ACC gets a much better tv deal.
Big 10 adds the entire eastern seaboard to their tv deal.
ND avoids NBC f--king them on account of them sucking for years.


OR

All of the above plus big 10 guts Big East for 4 more teams to further lock up NYC market.

Lenny Sienko said...

A quick Google search on possible transfer "Daman Starring" turns up troubling reports of 2006 juvenile sexual assault charges in a "hazing" incident while in H.S. Not found "guilty" of the sexual assault; but on lesser charges of battery.

Shades of "Tark the Shark" and "Boystown" at UNLV?

On to Oz and Europe asap.

G.A. said...

Skinner didn't leave the shelves empty! I can't stand this meme. 12 of the 13 possible scholarships were taken up two months ago. Now 7 are occupied.

Skinner didn't take his best player, like OBE. He didn't trash the school and call it racist, despite a fan base that constantly called him "lazy" on message boards and is assured that Coach D is "hard-working," despite no results besides a 2011 center with his top offer from UMass.

The cupboard was full. Maybe not with elite talent, but with some nice pieces and three intriguing recruits lined up.

Skinner didn't stop recruiting. Yes, the team dropped off. Yes, there was cause for firing him. But the cupboard was not bare.

modest34b said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CT said...

Yeah, saw that "Daman Starring" was accused of sticking his finger up some dude's bum in a dogpile after practice one day. Yikes. Combined with his 9 pt/gm senior avg and his 11 pt/gm Centenary avg, I say nothing says BC hoops quite like a non-scoring, digitally dexterous, colon-exploring point guard. Just imagine how good the celebration after a big win will feel.

If, you know, we have any of those. By 2014.

Prostates of the world unite.