Leaderboard

Wish we could use the old Iowa high school girls rules and just have Tyrance play defense.

I posted this on another board, but Hawkins is a steal! Here's a cut and paste: Hawkins is special guys! Been watching him for years. He has it all. Miles snuck one out of the lone star state that is as good as any in this area. That includes the many five stars around here. He hasn't played on high profile AAU teams until last year, so he hasn't been seen like the Harrison twins, Julius Randle, Keith Frazier, Matt Jones, etc. But he's every bit the player those guys are. Texas is so loaded with talent it's not even funny. He plays the game the right way. He takes over when he needs to, he defers when that's what his team needs, and will do all the little things when he's not needed to be "the man". But rest assured, he can definitely dominate whenever he decides to. I haven't seen many high school kids that can change their game, depending on the circumstances, like he can. He's the real deal! We are in for a treat the next four years with this 2013 class and the transfers that become eligible next year. As for athleticism, just ask Miles what he thinks about what he saw. From what I've read, he's been saying Hawkins is very athletic. He's a long, quick defender. Has a great first step, and can get to the paint anytime he wants to. He jumps better off two feet than he does one. If I'm not mistaken he was dealing with a foot injury all summer that looked to me was affecting his explosiveness. I saw him win a dunk contest last year with a couple of crazy dunks. One was a nasty windmill. He's definitely got hops.

Just saw a pic on twitter of Fuller signing his LOA, disappointed that he has a better looking bball shirt on that I can find in this state

Norm, I am new here, so I certainly don't want to stir the waters. I was just giving my opinion after watching him compete against these guys down here for a number of years. IMO, just because a player doesn't appear to be athletic on a video or even exhibit athleticism in a very structured environment in person, doesn't mean he's not athletic. System play requires different things from different players. I can only report what I've seen for myself, and then draw conclusions from reading where coach Miles has said in statements to the media, that he also thinks he's long and athletic. FWIW, here's what Rivals in Texas, who's seen these boys play more than me for sure, have on his scouting report: "NATHAN is a very athletic wing with the ability to impact a game in many ways. He slashes to the rim, finishes strong on the break, has good bounce in the paint and can create his own shot off the dribble. He has a smooth stroke, can hit the open 3 point shot and has a nice pull-up jumper. He can go to the boards, can start the break, has good speed in the open floor and handles it well. He can guard multiple positions as he moves his feet well, has long arms and a strong body." As for high-flying athlete, yeah, he's not jumping over cars or catching oops with one hand, 2 feet above the rim, as he comes swooping in on a fast break. I'll agree with that for sure

Oh. Shit.

Hey, it was either THAT or listen to Jeff Culhane. And since I needed to stay awake ...

My computer is powered by a beet so its all good.

Coincidentally a team mate of Tai Webster from New Zealand is a freshman for Hawaii. Power Forward Isaac Fotu is averaging 6.3pts and 8.0 rebounds.

Andre needs to have a big game.

like the game threads better personally. Keep doing your thing Cip.

Great news from Rosenthal here. There is a loop hole that will allow Tai to sign his LOI over there, bring it on his official and if he likes campus, get it submitted within the alloted 3 week period from signing. Great news!

But on the good news front we signed 2 really good guys, I do believe. :) :)

Both these guys can SHOOT. This is a Tim Miles class.

Yes! Cip keep doing the game threads!

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.

My experience with this kind of conversation is the person Tai is speaking with won't even know where Nebraska is. When I was in England I had to resort to telling people I was from Chicago so they would stop asking "Where is Nebraska?"