Kentucky combo-guard Darryl Hicks committed to BC Tuesday. He's well-regarded and should provide some nice relief to both Rahon and Hanlan next year. Hicks represents a solid recruiting job by the Donahue staff and would be a nice piece in a stable program. BC's not a stable program and that is where Donahue's challenge comes into play.
We ended the season on a high note. Hanlan exploded and the team proved they could play good defense and hang with some of the best teams in the country. With our core coming back and maturing a year, next year should be a turning point. To break through we probably need one big man. A Center/Power Forward type would give us size when we face bigger teams and provide an insurance policy if Clifford never regains his old form. Hicks and his fellow incoming freshman Garland Owens are nice to haves but still leave us with a hole on the front line. And with two commits and the megaclass becoming Juniors, Donahue now only has two scholarships to work with and no impact big man on the horizon.
Donahue has to win next year. But at the same time he has to plan for life after the Anderson/Clifford/Odio class. Taking Hicks is a move to solidify the program.
Donahue has a few options. With two scholarships open he can still add more pieces to his current recruiting class. While that might create more imbalance, a betting man would guess we will have more attrition (Caudill?) freeing up other scholarships for next year's class. Or he can look for another 5th year like Van Nest who gives him size for one season. Or he can wait for an elite big man to come along and make the most of the guys he has now.
My hope is that he finds a big man for next year. Whether it is a 5th year, a Juco (highly unlikely) or a freshman. While scholarship balance is a good thing, I don't think we should take this year's finish for granted. We have a window next year. Win now and figure the rest out later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
15 comments:
From what I have heard, Donahue does not feel like there is a big that is good enough, that he can get. Therefore he is looking hard into transfers, and if that doesn't work, he won't pick up a big
bill
what window? we did not beat a tournament team, we have 1 healthy guy over 6'7" and Cuse, Pitt, ND and Ville' are coming in the conference
with next years schedule we will be lucky to b 7-11 again
we need height and athletes to compete
Pearl Washington, continuing to dribble down the lane of "Donahue Pessimism" -- I must say I love your resiliency!
98% of our points were scored by underclassmen and we had the best freshman in the ACC. i'll take that and see what happens next year.
Caudill leaving/opening up a schollie would be phenomenal -- he hasn't been in shape since he got here and has never contributed anything meaningful, which is remarkable considering he was the 2nd best recruit of that first class. just shows you how silly these ratings are.
we are one of 3 finalists for a 6'9 big from Chicago named Tommy Hamilton Jr. (his dad Thomas Hamilton was 7'3 and played for the Celtics.) hopefully we can pick him up.
ATL i do think you are overblowing the "downside" of having that big junior class. obviously it would be nice to have it more evenly spread out, but hypothetically speaking lets say we got Hamilton (the only big we are recruiting that I know of) and had 3 freshman, 2 sophomores, and 7 juniors, while we would only have 1 scholarship to use for next year's recruiting class, we would presumably be a top 25 team and very dangerous 2 years from now with a rotation of basically all seniors and juniors, with some nice sophomores thrown in. i dont think its the worst thing in the world to have 7 scholarships at your disposal coinciding with the best year the team would have had in like a decade at that point, the atmosphere at Conte would (presumably) be a lot better, recruits have already shown a liking to Donahue's system (Rahon, Hanlon, Hicks have all said that was a big factor) and maybe we would actually have a decent recruiting class. who knows.
if anything, this season has shown that extrapolating out any 3 year prediction based on previous 2-3 weeks of activity is silly. i am happy with the direction of the program and think Donahue is building something, i am excited to see where it goes.
here is the most recent video I could find of Hicks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbWij6UrP5o
also, Pearl - Louisville isn't in the ACC next year, Cuse is rumored to be on the verge of major sanctions, and Pitt just got drubbed (again) in the Tourny.
we were a bounce of the ball from beating two teams still alive (Duke and Miami).
also, here is the breakdown of the heights of Duke this year, since apparently everyone assumes that every team easily has like five talented 7 footers:
kelly 6'11
plumlee 6'10
curry 6'2
cook 6'1
sulaimon 6'4
thornton 6'1
jefferson 6'8
hairston 6'7
next year BC will be:
clifford 7'
anderson 6'8
odio 6'8
heckman 6'5
owens 6'5
hanlan 6'4
lonnie 6'3
hicks 6'3
rahon 6'2
agree we are slightly undersized and in trouble if Clifford goes down, but its not like our team is a bunch of 5'11 guys (as it seems when i read people hyperventilating about how we are doomed next year b/c our average height is comparable to a Plex intramural team)
here is the best video I could find of Tommy Hamilton Jr:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1xRYAfHlKE&t=1m35s
per ESPN, its between BC, DePaul, and Illinois
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/100748/thomas-hamilton-jr
again, the worst case scenario is a team of 7 seniors (Anderson, Odio, Clifford, Lonnie, Dragicevich, Heckmann), 2 juniors (Hanlan, Rahon), 2 sophomores (Hicks and Owens), and presumably 1-2 freshman -- i'm not a betting man but my guess is a team that won 16 games as all fresh/soph will be a 22-25 win team as seniors/juniors and with more depth. so worst case is we go dancing with that team and hopefully can cash in with 3-4 impact freshman, coinciding with Hanlan/Rahon as seniors.
we'll see but i am optimistic. go BC
If one remembers Troy Bell's senior year in which BC won the BE title, one would note the starting lineup composed of 6' 8" Agbai and four others 6'5" and smaller. Guards are king in college b-ball. Size does not equate with victories. Give me a Bagley and Adams backcourt and I'll take my chances with anyone. Maryland has a seven footer projected to be an NBA lottery pick. Would you prefer Len or Hanlon? Give me Hanlon.
The 4 start center from Fairfield prep ought to be a priority.
Ned, Troy Bell won the big east in 2000-2001 aka his sophomore season. The starting five on that team was Bell, Kenny Walls (6'5''), Kenny Harley (6'5''), Uka Agbai (6'8''), and Xavier Singletary (6'6'')with Ryan Sidney (6'2''), Beerbohm (6'7''), and Brian Ross (6'8'') coming off the bench.
Wasn't the biggest lineup at all, but the argument could be made that everyone on that team played above their size when it came to crashing the boards and playing physically. What we need more than anything are players who are willing to play with a little bit more of that mindset.
Ry,
The guards were taller. Everyone on that team was tough, stought and confident.
I like the current team and coach but that team would have demolished this years team and next seasons team and the one after that.
They would have beaten everyone in the ACC this year as well.
Not revisionist history either. That team was very good.
agree Knucklehead. i went to both the Big East tourny that year and the Eagles 2 first round games at the Nassau Coliseum. Southern Utah had a great little guard that almost won the game for them (hit a ton of 3's to keep them alive), and the Sam Clancy/Jeff Trepagnier/Brian Scalabrine USC team knocked us out of the tourney. brutal loss for what was arguably the best BC team i've seen. (94 elite 8 team, that team, and the 06 sweet 16 team being the 3 in contention). fun team to watch that fought hard.
just goes to show you how teams are built. you need upperclassmen, you need dynamic guards, and sometimes you gotta take your lumps (BC the prior 3 years to that team were horrible).
Agbai was a "basketball" 6'8". Meaning he was 6'5" -6'6" at best
Miz. I was at the USC game as well. I was eight rows behind the BC bench when Al Skinner yelled out to Kenny Harley to go to the basket instead of shooting a three. Frustrating game. So frustrating I didn;t stay for the Kentucky game after.
Spent the rest of that St. patricks day weekend destroying South Hampton bars though.
Agbai was a natural post player, who was effective and agressive near the basket. He was also taller that 6ft 6in.
Ryan Anderson is suppossedly a legit 6ft 8in but he has alomst ZERO post game.
Point being is that we need a post player. The height doesn't matter to me.
We need to put the full court press on the center from Fairfield Prep in CT.
Craig Smith was 6ft 7
Danya Abrams was 6ft 6
Agbai was 6ft 7
Billy Curley was 6 ft 9
i wasn't arguing against the 2001 team at all. i hope it didn't come out that way. that's one of my favorite teams in recent memory.
Post a Comment