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Just in case you wondered about Hawaii ...

Norm Peterson

By Norm Peterson
in The Haymarket Hardwood

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nustudent

nustudent

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If Hawaii can beat Illinois, UNLV, or Miami, I'll be impressed.

There is no doubt that Vander or Standhardinger would be major contributors to our team, assuming that they also would have been around for Miles. Would you rather have JBD or Andre at this point?

JBD...but that isn't much of a choice. Almeida is bad.

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Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

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I remember Standhardinger, but can you give me the history on Vander Joaquim? I remember the name, but not the circumstances around him.

Vander was briefly ranked as a top 100 recruit by ESPN and he committed to us when we had Walter Roese as an assistant coach. Vander is from (some African nation that speaks Portugese) which is the same language they speak in Brazil, where Walter is from. So, we had Vander with a signed LOI, but then we tried to slide him into a prep school on the east coast rather than the California HS he was at, and I can't remember why but the transfer was disallowed and he ended up signing up for a juco instead, which started his college clock. It also appeared that he might not be as good as we thought and he was dropped from the ESPN top 100. I think it's possible we got cold feet on him. After a year at juco, though, he went to Hawaii and has been a very solid contributor for them. Very solid. Could-have-played-here solid.
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Huskerbb73

Huskerbb73

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Vander was briefly ranked as a top 100 recruit by ESPN and he committed to us when we had Walter Roese as an assistant coach. Vander is from (some African nation that speaks Portugese) which is the same language they speak in Brazil, where Walter is from. So, we had Vander with a signed LOI, but then we tried to slide him into a prep school on the east coast rather than the California HS he was at, and I can't remember why but the transfer was disallowed and he ended up signing up for a juco instead, which started his college clock. It also appeared that he might not be as good as we thought and he was dropped from the ESPN top 100. I think it's possible we got cold feet on him. After a year at juco, though, he went to Hawaii and has been a very solid contributor for them. Very solid. Could-have-played-here solid.

Thanks Norm. I remembered hearing the name, but just didn't remember what happened to him. Sounds like we defiitely could have used him here.

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nebrasketball10

nebrasketball10

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Vander was briefly ranked as a top 100 recruit by ESPN and he committed to us when we had Walter Roese as an assistant coach. Vander is from (some African nation that speaks Portugese) which is the same language they speak in Brazil, where Walter is from. So, we had Vander with a signed LOI, but then we tried to slide him into a prep school on the east coast rather than the California HS he was at, and I can't remember why but the transfer was disallowed and he ended up signing up for a juco instead, which started his college clock. It also appeared that he might not be as good as we thought and he was dropped from the ESPN top 100. I think it's possible we got cold feet on him. After a year at juco, though, he went to Hawaii and has been a very solid contributor for them. Very solid. Could-have-played-here solid.

I think part of the reason we tried to get him into a prep school was eligibility.

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Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

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Well, I question that because, if that had been the case, he would have had to finish his juco degree to be eligible and he didn't do that as far as I recall. I thought he was there for a year and was immediately eligible because he was eligible coming out of HS and his eligibility followed him. I could be wrong. I did, however, get the sense that we cooled on him and decided he might not be as good a prospect as we originally thought. I could be wrong on that too, however.

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nebrasketball10

nebrasketball10

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I think it was a mixture of "cooling" on him, as you say, and then eligibility concerns. You may... actually, you probably are right in saying that he did end up becoming eligible. I think our thought was that a year in prep school would clear any eligibility concerns AND add to his value as a player (not to mention a few lbs... I think he was another stick figure).

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Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson

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I think Christian, ironically, might have fit pretty well in Miles' system, which appears as though it would have allowed him a little bit of opportunity to freelance. Of course, the redshirt was beneficial for him. He wouldn't have had that if he'd been here. All in all, good for Vander and Christian. They could have probably helped us but c'est la vie.

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HB

HB

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I think Christian, ironically, might have fit pretty well in Miles' system, which appears as though it would have allowed him a little bit of opportunity to freelance. Of course, the redshirt was beneficial for him. He wouldn't have had that if he'd been here. All in all, good for Vander and Christian. They could have probably helped us but c'est la vie.

PROBABLY have helped us, Norm? :o

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NUdiehard

NUdiehard

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I'll take Pitchford over Christan and Vander. He has way more potential than both.

How can you say this when you have never seen him play? It is fascinating how the guys people have never seen play are always the best players on the team (at least until we actually see them play). Just like some were claiming that Vucetic would be our starting center this year. What we do know is that as a true freshman, Standhardinger had to sit out the entire non-conf, and in his first game of his career, against a legit Big 12 team in TX A&M, CS had more points in about 10 minutes than Pitchford had all of last year combined. I believe Vander was the voted MVP of his entire conference last year. I realize that Pitchford was on the bench at Florida, but that could be taken both ways.

I hope beyond hope you are correct, but none of us really know until we see him/them. I actually am a bit disappointed that I haven't heard more reports/rumors about Pitchford lighting it up in practice. You would think that if he is truly dominating, that word would leak out. There are many people who have watched practices (ie, HS coaches, etc), but I have not heard anyone say that Pitchford was heads and tails above the rest. In contrast, when I watched Doc's practices, it didn't take but 10 minutes to see that Standhardinger stood out. Again, though, Miles does not have open practices, so there is less observations to report. Hopefully, Pitchford is lighting it up and word just is not leaking out. I guess I just have been burned too many times in the past to get my hopes up on a guy that has never actually performed in the big league yet, so I will take a wait and see approach.

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Neebraska

Neebraska

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Vander was from Angola and I believe there was discussion at the time that he didn't speak a lick of English. I think the prep school came in to play because of that.

I know someone that attends practice somewhat regularly, I'll try and remember to ask about Pitchford when I see him at the game Thursday.

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FredsSlacks

FredsSlacks

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How can you say this when you have never seen him play? It is fascinating how the guys people have never seen play are always the best players on the team (at least until we actually see them play). Just like some were claiming that Vucetic would be our starting center this year. What we do know is that as a true freshman, Standhardinger had to sit out the entire non-conf, and in his first game of his career, against a legit Big 12 team in TX A&M, CS had more points in about 10 minutes than Pitchford had all of last year combined. I believe Vander was the voted MVP of his entire conference last year. I realize that Pitchford was on the bench at Florida, but that could be taken both ways.

I hope beyond hope you are correct, but none of us really know until we see him/them. I actually am a bit disappointed that I haven't heard more reports/rumors about Pitchford lighting it up in practice. You would think that if he is truly dominating, that word would leak out. There are many people who have watched practices (ie, HS coaches, etc), but I have not heard anyone say that Pitchford was heads and tails above the rest. In contrast, when I watched Doc's practices, it didn't take but 10 minutes to see that Standhardinger stood out. Again, though, Miles does not have open practices, so there is less observations to report. Hopefully, Pitchford is lighting it up and word just is not leaking out. I guess I just have been burned too many times in the past to get my hopes up on a guy that has never actually performed in the big league yet, so I will take a wait and see approach.

I said that Pitchford has more potential, not that he is better right now. Offers from Florida, Indiana, and Memphis. Pitchford has a much better outside shot and is a lot more athletic than CS and VJ.

Skip to 2:00 to see his athleticism.

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