Stuhoo

  Them's the wingys I'm thinking too. 

Connors State star Willie Atwood (6-8, 217). Atwood, who played his first three years of high school basketball Memphis Melrose and then finished up at West Memphis, has had a breakout season for the Cowboys this season and is averaging 21.6 points and 8.2 rebounds this season. “He has really had a great season for us and really come into his own,” Connors State head coach Bill Muse said. “He has scored inside and out for us, grabbed rebounds, passed the ball well and played great defense. That’s why so many schools have been here to see him.” Indeed Arkansas joins Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Iowa, Auburn, Wichita State and Murray State - the latter two who have offered - as teams that have been in to see the Memphis native play this season. Atwood – shooting 60 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line this season for No. 25 Connors State (12-2) - has taken only one official visit has been to Marshall so he has four left to help him make his decision. “He obviously decided that he wasn’t going to sign early and just see how recruiting went for him during the season,” Muse said. “It’s looking like a very good decision for him.” He has had two monster games this season with a school-record 49-point effort in a loss to Independence Community College and 35 points in a win over Northern Oklahoma-Enid. Atwood was 33-of-37 from the free throw line in that 49-point outing and got to the foul line 19 times in the other. “He was just phenomenal when he scored 49 points,” Muse said. “He is a very aggressive, hard-nosed and tough player who doesn’t back down from anyone or any situation." He was named the National Junior College Player of the Week on Dec. 5 after averaging 25.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 blocks in a trio games that didn’t even include the school-record game. “He could have won it several times this season already,” Muse said. Atwood averaged 14 points and 9 rebounds for West Memphis his senior season and then 10.6 rebounds and 7 rebounds per game as a freshman for Connors State. During that time he went from being a 175-pound guard to a 217-pound combo forward. “He has really filled out since he got here, gotten stronger and developed into a very complete player,” Muse said. “He is just getting better every night and has a very bright future ahead of him. More people are calling about him every day.”

    Discuss ;)

  Does mean that my "just wanted a tasty sandwich" riff may be true after all?!?  lol

    Geez, I hope so!   Kidding aside, seems like Guerrero, Cimino, and Sharma shoot well, and Rozkas is a banger, not a shooter.

This is the payoff for running a clean, close second recruitment of LouRawls Nairn.   There is obviously a good relationship that has been built between our staff and the Sunrise staff, and you can betcha they fed Ruben's potential and film directly to us when they saw our need for a big.

"More notables from the Elite 14 Bel Aire (Kan.) Sunrise Christian is the high school basketball equivalent of the United Nations and has players from all over the globe. Leading the way was four-star point guard Lourawls Nairn from the Bahamas. The Michigan State pledge looked in tip top condition and was making plays all over the floor. We've written it before, but Spartan fans will love him for his toughness and playmaking. Also making some noise were shooting guard Vasilije Pusica and big men Ruben Guerrero and Moataz Hosney. A product of Serbia, Pusica is a deadly jump shooter with some savvy and toughness off the dribble who has offers from San Diego and Colorado State. A product of Spain, Guerrero is a pretty mobile big man who has a great looking jumper for a 6-foot-10 kid. Just arrived from Egypt, Hosney has long arms, good strength and was very active on the glass, scoring around the rim and as a shot blocking presence. - See more at: http://theoldcoach.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1570451#sthash.lkJCBhC0.dpuf"

  GMM never had a bad game at IU! ;)

A team video that has some clips of Ruben, especially toward the end of the video. He's #24.   He's very long. He's playing against a very high level of high school competition. From the video, his team does not appear to be completely guard oriented; the bigs come out to screen,roll, and post up. Things occur for a reason, and I am intrigued.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NF4aexMyDKo

    It's all a big misunderstanding.    At noon today Coach Crean was talking to Coach Kenny, and a few reporters were eavesdropping.   CTC: "Hey Kenny, next year this team is going to be starving for big men". Coach Johnson: "Hey Tom, what I'm really hungry for is a Ruben".   The reporters put two and two together, and ran with the story.

  My bad; it's 247. Here's a part of the 247 board list for him:       Bradley Warm true - Nov 9   Oklahoma Warm true Lew Hill Oct 4   Creighton Warm true - Sep 21   DePaul Warm true - -   South Carolina Warm true - -   Indiana Warm - - -   Iowa State Cool true - Oct 25   Northwestern Cool true - Aug 27   Minnesota Cool true  

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-12-26/sports/ct-spt-1227-prep-bkb-spotlight-20131226_1_kain-harris-morgan-park-nick-irvin

  Yes we are: I believe it is Rivals that has him as a 4 star and has about 1/2 of the B1G as having offered.

Don't know how interested we are, but we are the only major on that narrowed down list.

Jeff Howard is the poor man's Jared Odle.   So there.

  Not from what I've heard/read.    JB2 is pretty special, but Harris is a little bigger and stronger. As a catch and shoot mega-star with lots of other skills? JB can be really special.   I think of JB2 's game sorta like what I saw (and loved) when we went up against Shabazz Napier earlier this year.

Y'all are attaching far more importance to position than a basketball coach would.   Coaches don't think about "1 guard, 2 guard". They think about the skill sets of their players, and try to put those skill sets into positions where they can succeed. Those skills can and will differ on the offensive and defensive ends of the court. The smaller players tend to be quicker, handle the ball better and score from outside more often, but as long as a team is complete in its ability to get those skills from somewhere, it's all good.   Between Stan, JB, and Yogi, next year we will hopefully have multiple smaller players who handle the ball, make outside shots, get to the rim, and defend a variety of size and quickness sets from our opponents' smaller players.

  All_Hoosiers...this is NOT directed at you in any way, but since you raised the point:   Hoosier fanbase overreaction #1: Turnovers are killing us. Why can't we do something about all dem cursed turnovers!!?!!   Hoosier fanbase overreaction #2: Why is that walk-on Howard getting all dem minutes instead of talented kids like Perea, Davis, and the rejuvenated Hollowell!!?!!

    ok...Most goodest?

Here's are concepts that I'm starting to grasp:   1)  Stan Robinson and Yogi Ferrell going to the rim are turning into the bestest offense we've got.   2)  Our other bestest offense at times is an open Noah Vonleh three-ball.    3)  Our third bestest offense is our wings crashing the boards.   Above-listed offense 'number 2' helps to clear lots of space for above-listed offenses 'one' and 'three'.

S T A N   Was really excellent. As always.

Also;   This will be a redundant post that can be rinsed and repeated throughout the next 3 1/2 years:   Stan Robinson was absolutely great today.

Seven B1G teams are likely to make the NCAA tournament.   The current top six are: UM, MSU, Iowa, OSU, UW, and Minn.   That leaves one spot for: Nebraska, Penn State, NW (too many losses even if they do well in conf) NOPE, NOPE, NOPE   Purdue, Illinois, and Indiana   I think we are the best team and the most likely... to be the seventh.     EDIT: Minny drops to 4-4 in conference. Let's make it Minny, us and Purdooo for three spots.

  No sarcasm!   I agree that Coach Crean's half court offense can get pretty stagnant and relies far too much on dribble-kick instead of screening and passing. However, IU has been consistently excellent on offensive inbounds plays during the CTC era.   Defensive inbounds plays? I still have Tyler Griffey nightmares.

A lot of this has been discussed ad nauseum before, but I will say that Tom Crean coached teams are some of the best at inbounds plays that I have seen.   Definitely a strength of his coaching skills.