Another guard? This should be interesting. Is there a possibiliy that we play a four guard line up? Has that been done before? I don't like it, but I'll bet we will reel in one hell of a 2012 class.

Villanova had a 4 guard system a few years back, and they went to the Elite 8. It was when they had Randy Foye and Kyle Lowry. To play a 4 guard system you have to be aggressive on defense and cause a lot of disruption. I don't think Crean will go for it but he might not have much of a choice. This upcoming season is going to be rough

How do we not play four guards, at least for some portion of the game? I mean we only have Taber, Pritchard, and Jobe in the frontcourt. You're telling me that two of those guys are going to start and play nearly 40 minutes a game? A frontcourt of Taber and Pritchard with Jobe coming off the bench is pretty scary (and not in the good way). Hopefully we can snag one more solid big guy. He doesn't have to be great, but someone with athleticism and size.

mmmm I am not sure what to think about Malik Story's committment.......Not upset about it but Not sure what to think.........

We have about 8 guys 6'5 and under.
How many combo guards do we need?
Based on the video...only...he gives me the role player feel, but we will see....

Here is some more info...........
http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recruiting/track...

Also Master P's son is a good basketball player ...

The vacancy sign is open in B-town.

Always be open to players of any position.

He seems to have a pretty decent shot... a nice stroke. Based on video, he also looks pretty smart with the basketball, like he knows where he is going to go. Doesn't seem too explosive, and didn't seem to have much of a jump. But hey, not everyone has a rocket underneath them like Eric Gordon.

One thing I have to get use to or retrain my brain is weed out the "Help is on the way Mike Davis thoughts...and the "Shoot everytime coaching style" of KS. This kid could fit a good role on this team and if we have 7-8 good players and fit in about 5 role players, then I am happy...........5 star blue chip players are nice but it does not always win you championships.......Kansas and Florida had good teams, with solid role players.

Last year, you clap down on Ej, we had no other post, and if you doubled DJ....we were beat...........

This year, you sag off of Roth or Dumes they will beat you....if you loaf back on D...VJ and Nick will toast you.....if you don't block kyle, taber, tijan, or pritchard will crash......
This is all wishful thinking but nevertheless.....

My Brush with Greatness...........10min. ago....

So I am standing in line at Kroger in Indy near Ben Davis H.S. eagerly awaiting my purchase ...(by the way they have 10/10 going now) and I turn around and who do I see in "Kroger"...one Eric Gordon Jr.

Now a couple of observations.......
1. EJ is 6'4 and that is it, BUT he has beefed up some

2. EJ doesn't always hang with basketball people given the guys he was with, would be the lower portion of the pyramid in a college cheerleading team.

3. EJ is an upstanding kid, he was one of the few people in the 10 items or less line with less than 10 items.

4. Either people were so consumed with their 10/10 purchases or they were just as stunned as I was to see EJ in kroger cause no one bothered him.

5. He did NOT have KS on his shoes

6. Finally, EJ is 5 days away from being a lottery pick.....WTF are you doing in Kroger kid. I am sure your agent, who happens to be Kobe's agent, gave you some cash already, send a peasent to Kroger for you, you don't have to do that stuff anymore.

I really hate the term peasant.

Did you say anything to him?

No...didn't want to bug the kid, glad to see he is at least trying to maintain some normalcy...even if it is at Kroger.....seeing him though still pisses me off given the debacle of the year with KS, felt bad for him and the team.........

I hear ya man...it tears me up to think about what might have been....

What was he buying is what I want to know?...joking, sort of...but nice to see he's still supporting your hometown Kroger. Ha.

IU football just got a commit from Edward Wright Baker. This is great news for the football team. He plays QB and runs a 4.5 forty.

From ESPN: #57 shooting guard in the country, was considering G'town, Marquette, Minnesota, & Oregon

Evaluation

Story has one of the most polished jump shots in the country. He doesn't get great lift on his shot, but it has tremendous arc on it and it's quite feathery in its landing. In the past he was strictly just a shooter - and more or less still is - however he is beginning to add more skill to his game, including a pull-up off of the drive. He is not an explosive leaper and not overly quick, but he's extremely strong (physically mature player) and a solid rebounder. His post game is a work-in-progress as he now possesses a strong drop-step move. Defensively, he could become a liability because of his lack of lateral quickness, but his overall competitive nature should help him in that department. Overall, we don't see him getting any bigger. This USC verbal needs to work on his mid-range game if he's expecting to play at the Pac Ten level.

2007 Pangos All-American Camp: Story demonstrated a much-improved handle and an ability to get to the basket this weekend.
Notes

Left Artesia High (Lakewood, Calif.) for Oak Hill, then left OH for Ribet...He was ineligible at Ribet in 2008...Decommitted from USC...

ESPN has the worst recruiting coverage of any site. They rarely update and the rankings are usually not consistent with the well known recruiting sites. I just feel that if you want recruiting info go to Rivals or Scout. The are much more in depth and way more current. I am pretty sure they have Jordan Hulls grade as a 40 right now thats just being lazy and not knowing what they're talking about. Sorry for the little rant I just really dont trust anything I see on ESPN recruiting.

No worries, I appreciate the tip

I agree w Kelin Blab. Not sure what to think of this one in view of the other recruits. I especially worry about his lack of lateral movement ==> no defense. At 6'8" I would understand it.

Can JObe and Pritchard be effective for as many minutes as they will need to play ? I think not, with fouls, new to DIv 1 etc .

Jerry I agree, at this point we have I believe 15 post player fouls. ONE decent post presence inside to score. in Pritchard but he is a frosh. We need to recruit big guys only. Hopefully Jobe can give us some solid D and rebound in the post and taber can be taber 2.0 with a few more points.

I don't think Jobe is going to do diddly squat for us this season, if ever. He was probably a ploy to get Negedu, and it didn't work out. Maybe he can give us a few minutes here and there, but I just seriously doubt it.

Smitty I disagree because, given crean's style of play, which is up and down the court, and we have a lot of slashers and scorers, maybe in the post we need a defender, big body, and rebounder.........Jobe could be that......not to mention...he has not choice he is competing against taber. Now pritchard is tough, he will be a pleasant surprise i think

For the sake of our team, I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

I agree with Smitty. Jobe is just a body and will be a very spotty player for us.

can someone explain who is going to rebound on this team? Its not going to matter how well we play on D, its going to be offensive rebounds galore

You can rebound fine with a small team...you just need to work on the fundamentals and do it in the game. A lot of rebounding is getting on a body when the shot goes up and holding a solid box on them. Yeah we'll lose most of the long rebounds but if the 6'8''+ wants to go over our back, we'll take the foul.

Not sure anyone is still checking this post...but just curious....

What is left out there to recruit? Do we have any big men left on the radar? It looks like we've got 12 players next year, and four are walk ons. Correct me if I'm wrong on these guys, but here's what I see as our depth chart. 8 Freshmen, 1 Sophomore, 2 Juniors (who are JC guys), and 1 senior (former walk-on).

PG
Verdell Jones - Freshman
Devan Dumes - Junior (JC transfer)
Daniel Moore - Freshman (WO)
Brett Finklemeier - Sophomore (WO)

SG
Matt Roth - Freshman
Nick Williams - Freshman

SF
Malik Story - Freshman
Broderick Lewis - Freshman (WO)
Kory Barnett - Freshman (WO)

PF
Tom Pritchard - Freshman
Kyle Taber - Senior

C
Tijan Jobe - Junior (JC transfer)

I would start:

PG - Jones
SG - Roth
SG - Williams
SF - Story
PF - Pritchard or Taber

Good shooting out of Roth and Story. Penetration/Distribution/Slashing from Jones and Williams. Rebounding from Pritchard/Taber and the occasional basket.

We could occasionally use Pritchard and Taber together, but that scares me....I say go small and stay that way unless you just can't succeed.

Great post smitty, although looking at our FULL roster, I see 10-12 W's....I guess you really don't see Jobe doing much. I am very intrigued by VJ and hope my matt roth love lives up to my own hype......can't wait til the barnstorming games.......

Agreed. I want to see what these guys can do. Right now it's just conjecture until we can actually see this team play.