Men's BKB adds transfer, loses Stores

[TripleB]

USF will have 11 scholarship players for 05-06, with Aris Williams sitting out and one scholarship still unused.

seniors: Holmes, Jones

juniors: Prekevicius, Mattis, Sills, Richardson, Buckley

sophomores: Dennis

freshmen: Howard, Cann, Markusovic

There's a glaring omission there ............ What's the latest on #12?

[Apis Bull]

hope coach mac is here when transfer can play

Now you want to fire him?

[The Sheriff]

Homer Drew is a well established coach. Hopefully, we didn't pick up his loose baggage and got a decent ball player in return. I actually think RMC did all right with this one. The sky is falling.

[Markeymark]

What a joke. A transfer from Valpo? If I had any doubts that we were not going in the right direction, this has only increased them. And the fact that he is supposedly better than Stores only makes me wonder about the types of recruits we're bringing in.

[ChiTownBull]

from when valpo signed him

Williams, a 6-9, 210-pound forward, averaged seven points and four rebounds in his junior year at Georgetown Preparatory School in Washington. Last year was his first playing organized basketball.

[South_Florida_Flip]

This is just what we need heading inot  the Big East.  Someone who played 7 minutes a game at Valpo.  Have we beaten another school that is in one of the six major conferences on any of the kids that have been signed.  I thought us entering the Big East was supposed to help recruiting not kill it.  I don't wanna hear about Caan he is overweight, undersized and has lost all his athletcisim.  He is actually our lowest rated recruit from the early signing period.  

*yawn*

[GarySJ]

I don't wanna hear about Caan he is overweight, undersized and has lost all his athletcisim.

Yeah, but he's 65, what do you expect?

[Papa_Bull]

Some background info here:

Valpo picks up Maryland forward

Aris Williams becomes third member of Crusaders' 2004 recruiting class

BY SEAN P. HAYDEN

Times Sports Writer

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Saturday, November 1, 2003 12:03 AM CST

When Aris Williams transferred to Georgetown (Md.) Prep before the start of his junior year -- it was his third school in three years -- he said something just clicked right away, and he felt like he had been there forever.

So when Williams got that same feeling last weekend on an official visit to Valparaiso, he didn't hesitate.

The 6-foot-9, 210-pound small forward called Crusaders coach Homer Drew on Wednesday night and verbally committed to the program.

"Basically, I felt like I already fit in there," Williams said. "The first day there, I went right into one of the player's rooms and played video games. They took me in there like I had been there for years.

"They kind of extended their hands to me and accepted me right off the bat."

Williams is an intriguing pickup for the Crusaders. According to his high school coach Dwayne Bryant, Williams is a true small forward with unlimited athletic potential.

"Aris can shoot the ball, put it on the floor, he's got great legs and can defend anything from a two to a four," said Bryant, a former standout guard in the mid-1980s for John Thompson at Georgetown. "Like I told the coaches, the only reason he wasn't recruited higher was he wasn't very active in the summers his first couple years in high school."

That said, Williams averaged a scant 4 points and 3 rebounds per game, playing on a frontline that includes a pair of potential prep All-Americans in 7-0 center Roy Hibbert Jr, who has committed to Georgetown, and 6-9 Davis Nwankwo, who currently is leaning towards Arizona.

"This year is definitely going to be a coming out year for me," Williams said. "Before, I didn't get that much exposure, but this year we have five of the top 25 teams in the nation on our schedule and I'm looking to put up big numbers."

Williams said he scored a 1280 on the SAT and is currently carrying a 3.4 grade-point average. He knows all about hard work.

"I'm usually the first person down the floor on defense," he said. "I've got a lot of athleticism. I can post up the smaller guys and take it right at the bigger guys."

The Crusaders began recruiting Williams only after receiving an e-mail from Bryant. Bryant then sent the coaching staff tape of Williams working out, and he got invited out for an official visit.

"The (Valpo) coach called me on Saturday and told me he was everything that I said he was," Bryant said. "He worked out with one of their guards (Miles) who I guess told the coaches, 'If we can get this kid, get him, because he can play.'

"I went to Nike Camp, I worked at Five-Star and he's definitely one of the top 25 small forwards in the country."

Williams joins 7-4 Kenny George of Chicago Latin and 5-11 Jarryd Lloyd of Niles West in the 2004 recruiting class.

http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2003/11/01/sports/college_sports/c832b9ddd5b1be6286256dd00082e8ea.txt

[Guest BasketBull.]

My feeling is he's probably pretty good but not a star -stars will start no matter who they play behind - so talent-wise, I think we are okay there.

The problem is that there was hope that Stores would be playing/contibuting next year. Now, that option is not available. So however Aris turns out, it will be two years from now before we find out.

---------------------------

USF basketball WILL be great down the road, and we WILL get 5-star players. I have no doubt about that.

I was hoping that this next season would a good showing.... Right now, with this roster as it is, it's going to be tough next year.

Too many new faces and too many unknowns (about our team) and probably not enough talent to make up for the transitional phase to handle the talent in the Big East.

That said, I still have a tiny bit of hope for an upswing for this next season: Keith Brumbaugh. As long as we have an open scholarship and as long as the staff keeps after him, he could still be a Bull.

With Brumbaugh, Sills and Buckley, USF will be able to win some games in the Big East....

[Papa_Bull]

Another old article:

Living Large

Little Hoyas' Towering Trio Is One of the Tallest Prep Front Lines Ever, and That's the Long and Short of It

By Tarik El-Bashir

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, December 13, 2003; Page D01

Davis Nwankwo cringes when he talks about the blue and white minibus that is often used by Georgetown Prep to shuttle its basketball team to games. About one-third the length and more narrow than a normal school bus, it has a low ceiling and only seven rows of bench seating to accommodate 13 players, basketballs, gear bags, coaches and managers.

The bus should be a cozy but acceptable fit for the traditionally undistinguished private school team. But this winter Georgetown Prep again has one of the tallest front lines ever in the Washington area if not the country. Even with an entire bench to himself, Nwankwo, a 6-foot-9 forward, must sit sideways and stretch his legs across the aisle. Aris Williams, another 6-9 forward, also needs his own row. And Roy Hibbert Jr., the Little Hoyas' 7-2 center, sprawls out the same way -- with his legs extending all the way to the other side.

"There's no room on that thing," Nwankwo said. "We're sitting on top of each other. Don't ask about the [two-hour] trip to Woodberry Forest" in Madison County, Va.

Such are the inconveniences that come with having a team that John Gillis, who has followed high school basketball nationally for 31 years and is an assistant director of the National Federation of State High School Associations, says has the tallest front line he can remember.

"It's unusual to have a seven-footer in high school, much less three kids that tall," Gillis said. "I've never heard of a front line of that size. It's impossible to know for sure [if it is the tallest front line ever], but that is incredible."

Gillis says he knows of two teams that started 7-foot twins, and others with two or three players who were at least 6-10 or taller. But Gillis and current and former local coaches interviewed for this story, did not know of a team with three players taller than Prep's.

"Having three guys that big is definitely an advantage," Williams said. "You can see over everyone, even when they have their arms out. You can also shoot over people pretty easily. And on defense, it makes people change their shot, or think twice about coming into the paint."

Hibbert, who has signed with Georgetown, admits he has yet to maximize his full potential. He broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot on the first day of practice his sophomore year, then again later in July. After the second time, he had a surgery to put insert a screw. Hibbert said the injury has slowed his development, and he only now feels 100 percent healthy.

"I still have a long way to go," Hibbert said.

After averaging 15.2 points per game last season, he had 25 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in the Little Hoyas' 68-53 season-opening victory over St. John's on Tuesday night in front of a packed gymnasium in Rockville. Hibbert's strength is shot-blocking -- he often rejects opponents' attempts without leaping.

"There's not a whole lot you can do against a team that big, especially if they take an early lead," St. John's Coach Paul DeStefano said. "I don't recall [facing] a team with three players that big."

Nwankwo, opposing coaches agree, may have the most potential of Prep's towering trio, thanks to his muscular frame -- he weighs 240 pounds. Georgetown Prep Coach Dwayne Bryant said he received 25 phone messages from college coaches on Nov. 18, the day after the NCAA's seven-day early signing period ended. All were asking about Nwankwo, who did not sign.

Hibbert and Nwankwo first met on a basketball court in the eighth grade. Hibbert was playing for St. Michael's of Silver Spring and was already 6-9; Nwankwo, then 6-6, was playing for St. Mark's of Adelphi. Hibbert scored 24 points in that game, but Nwankwo's team won. Who played better that day is still the subject of debate amongst the two.

"He might have outscored me," Nwankwo said. "But we won by like 30."

Arizona Coach Lute Olson, Stanford's Mike Montgomery, Holy Cross's Ralph Willard, Notre Dame's Mike Brey, Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg and Virginia's Pete Gillen, among others, have visited Georgetown Prep's cozy gymnasium to watch Nwankwo practice and talk to him. He says he has whittled his list of college choices to Stanford and Arizona.

Williams, who transferred to Prep from Wilde Lake before last season and has signed with Valparaiso, is the most versatile of the three. He will most likely be a swingman in college because he can bring the ball down the court, distribute passes like a guard and make mid-range jump shots. But Williams can also control the lane and produce acrobatic dunks.

Williams comes from a basketball family. His father, Norman Williams, played for Long Island University and semi-professional teams. Williams's uncle, Quinis Brower, played for Hofstra and was drafted by the ABA's New York Nets in 1967. And his cousin, Etienne Brower, is a 6-7 freshman at Boston University.

"Basketball just runs in the blood for me," Williams said.

Hibbert, Nwankwo and Williams are complemented by guards Rice Moss and Danny Glading, who are each 6-3.

Size doesn't guarantee wins, and Bryant and his players know this all too well. At the high school level, smaller and quicker teams can often beat teams with bigger, plodding players.

"It's tricky with a lineup that big," said former DeMatha coach Morgan Wootten, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. "It depends on how athletic those guys are. With a team that big, you have to get ahead. Because the opponent can force them out of their zone defense and make the big guys come after them. That will give them trouble."

Swift moving guards aren't the only nuisance for Hibbert, Nwankwo and Williams: They also are learning to live in a world designed for people who are much smaller than them.

When the team heads to the North Carolina later this month, it will do so in a 47-seat luxury coach, not the school's minibus.

"I told the tournament organizers that there was no way we could drive all the way there in our bus," Bryant said. "So they got us a bigger one."

Buying clothes or shoes at the mall isn't possible, so the players often turn to eBay, where they can acquire big and tall items, everything from sweat suits to dress pants. Where else are you going to find a size 18 Nike Jordans?

"You're just not going to find shoes that big at Wheaton Plaza," Hibbert said.

Hibbert, the only one of the three who lives on Prep's Rockville campus, finally got the school to put him in a bigger room and give him an eight-foot-long bed two years ago. Before that, his legs hung over the edge of the mattress. Hibbert recently completed the classroom portion of driver's education. One problem: the Chevy Cavaliers used for the road portion of the course are much too small for him.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," Hibbert said. "Get a big SUV, I guess."

"That stuff just comes with the territory," Nwankwo said. "It's annoying sometimes when people keep asking, 'How tall are you?' Girls are a little bit intimidated by us. But none of us would trade being tall for anything."

Although Georgetown Prep's athletic program enjoys success in many sports, its basketball team has not been a perennial power by any stretch. But with Hibbert, Williams and Nwankwo, the program suddenly finds itself in the spotlight.

Wootten and other coaches said the tallest front lines they can remember included the fabled 1958-59 team at Carroll that had John Thompson (6-10) at center and forwards Tom Hoover (6-9) and Walt Skinner (6-4). Two DeMatha teams were closer to Prep's size: the 1999-2000 Stags had center Jordan Collins (6-11) and forwards Travis Garrison (6-8) and Robin Wentt (6-6). (That team also included Matt Slaninka, who at 7-4 was the tallest player in school history, but he was a reserve.) The 1987-88 Stags started Jerrod Mustaf (6-11), Ted Jeffries (6-9), Jason Bishop (6-6).

Nationally, the 1989-90 Martin Luther King High team from Chicago rode Damian Porter (6-10), Rashard Griffith (6-11) and Thomas Hamilton (6-9) to a 32-0 record and the Illinois state championship.

This year, the Little Hoyas have a challenging schedule, including three prestigious tournaments this month. After this weekend's D.C. Gonzaga Classic, the Little Hoyas are scheduled to play in the Les Schwab Invitational in Portland, Ore., and the GlaxoSmithKline Invitational in Raleigh, N.C.

Bryant is quick to point out the three's achievements in the classroom. Hibbert has a 3.3 GPA, Nwankwo has a 3.8 and Williams has a 3.6.

"There's not a coach in America who wouldn't want those three players on their team," Bryant said.

Whether they are good enough to lead Prep to the school's first Interstate Athletic Conference title since 1991, however, remains to be seen. Prep went 20-5 last year with virtually the same lineup. They were runners-up to Bullis for the third consecutive season.

"Because of the players we have this year, the expectations are high," said Bryant, a former standout guard at Georgetown who is in his fifth season coaching at Prep. "My expectations of them are high, and their expectations of themselves are high. They are some very talented young men."

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.