It's Monday morning somewhere

[Norm Peterson]

It's almost Monday morning here.  And I just kind of get a wild hair and decided to play Monday Morning Quarterback and look up some names that might or might not be familiar to see how they've been doing after they ended their recruiting, chose a school, and went off to play college ball.

 

Jeff Carroll.  Remember him?  He was Nathan Hawkins's HS teammate from Rowlette, TX who went to Okie State.  Jeff redshirted last year (going against the conventional wisdom around here that only transfers should really ever redshirt.)

 

This season at Okie State, as a RS Freshman, he's averaging 20 minutes, 8.2 pts., 4.8 bds., and shooting a nifty 35.7% from long range.  Nice stats for a sophomore, let alone a RS Freshman.

 

Matt Thomas.  A kid I really wanted us to land, Matt Thomas, a kid from Wisconsin who went to ISU, is averaging 25.5 minutes as a true soph, while chipping in 9.5 pts., 5.0 bds., and shooting 40% from three.

 

Jaron Hopkins.  Another kid I really liked, Jaron Hopkins from Mesa, AZ, now a soph at Colorado, is averaging 21.5 minutes, 4.5 pts, 2.0 bds., and a blistering 25% from downtown.

 

Sheldon Jeter.  What sort of update like this would be complete if I didn't mention Sheldon Jeter?

 

Sheldon is now a sophomore at Pitt after sitting out last season after transferring from Vandy.  Vandy's coach wouldn't grant Sheldon a release, and so Sheldon had to pay his own way at Polk Junior College and didn't participate in basketball in order to preserve his eligibility.  (He might have practiced with Polk State but didn't play.)

 

Sheldon is averaging 12.5 minutes and 5 pts. while shooting 50% from long range.

 

I'm wondering if he found the Pitt coach's dog house.  He averaged 21.5 minutes and 8 pts in the first two games but then only played 3 minutes in the 3rd game and has seen limited action ever since.  It's kind of crazy, actually.  In a loss to #15 SDSU, he scored 5 pts on 50% shooting from the field, secured 5 bds, no turnovers, which are decent enough numbers.  But then the next game he plays 3 minutes.  That one seems puzzling.

 

Elbert Robinson.  Meanwhile, Fat Elbert, the kid at LSU, is averaging 7 minutes, 1 point, and 1.8 bds in what can only be described as a "the bag men paid too much for that one" story.

 

Sai Tummala.  Finally, Sai Tummala is a sad story.  He's getting mop-up minutes, as ESPN shows him checking in only twice this season and getting 8.5 minutes average in the 2 games he's played.  I think they're treating him like a walk-on. 

 

This kid averaged 44% from three point range as a juco freshman.  He was the best player on a team that sent a couple of other kids to major D1 programs including Gary Payton II, who is now a starter at Oregon State averaging 35.6 minutes and 12.4 points per game.

 

I don't get it.  I don't think Miles would have offered the kid if he didn't think the kid could play.  And from the tweets surrounding his visit, I thought it sounded not only like we really wanted this Tummala kid, but that we felt pretty comfortable like we were in a good position to get him.  And then ASU comes in at the end with an offer and he goes to the hometown school. 

 

And they've wasted him.  Looks to me like.

 

Things turned out OK for us with Petteway and Shields and we've been fine without him, but I really strongly believe this kid was a lot better than the numbers he's putting up in mop-up action at ASU.  He might as well have stayed at Michigan and gotten a good education.

 

OK, well, that's enough of a look back now.  Monday-morning quarterbacking on the recruits we missed out on.  Some, it appears, we're just as well missing out on them.

 

Note:  Edited to change formatting to make the post easier to follow

[49r]

What about Matt Atewe? (I believe that's his name anyway)  How's he doing at Auburn?  Got lost in the kudzu?

[hhcmatt]

 (going against the conventional wisdom around here that only transfers should really ever redshirt.)

 

Classic

[Norm Peterson]

What about Matt Atewe? (I believe that's his name anyway) How's he doing at Auburn? Got lost in the kudzu?

Falls into the "just as well we missed out on them" category. Not sure he would have been a player even without that pernicious kudzu problem.

[lang]

Nice update Norm, thanks !

[Norm Peterson]

Atewe, by the way, is possibly either redshirting or transferring because, as far as ESPN's stat keepers are aware, he hasn't played in any games yet this year.

[hhcmatt]

Atewe, by the way, is possibly either redshirting or transferring because, as far as ESPN's stat keepers are aware, he hasn't played in any games yet this year.

 

Leg injury.  http://www.al.com/auburnbasketball/index.ssf/2014/11/auburn_forward_matthew_atewe_s.html

[AuroranHusker]

Forgot to mention Trigga Trey?!  I hear he's really lightin' it up at Iowa. ha

[Norm Peterson]

Forgot to mention Trigga Trey?!  I hear he's really lightin' it up at Iowa. ha

Feel free to add to the thread with Trigga Trey's stats or any other kid you find of interest.  I intended the thread for anyone to join in with any former recruit's updates, good or bad, as they saw fit. 

 

But, since you mention it ...

 

Trey "Trigga Trey" Dickerson.  Um, we all remember this kid, right?  "Must get"?  Tweeted a lot and retweeted a lot about the teams that were trying to land him?  Seemed to relish the whole recruitment thing maybe a little too much?  Him?  Yeah.  Uh, Trey has not exactly blown people away in Iowa City with his mad hoops skillz. 

 

At 11.3 minutes/game, he is 10th on the team in playing time.  He's chipping in 2.9 points per game (about 1/10th of what he scored in juco) on disastrous shooting of 25% from the stripe, 16.7% from the arc, and 31% from the floor.  He has dished out 11 assists in 7 games against only 4 turnovers, so there is that.

[Silverbacked1]

So basically what we are seeing here is that Tim and the staff know who we need to recuit and not.  Kind of reminds of high school trying to get a girlfriend.  Trying to get the one everybody things is the hottest and thinking you settled for lesser until you find out she has money and likes to you know ...                cook.