Spring Signing Period

[FreddyMac]

I think it is rude for incoming freshmen to not sign a LOI by May17th. It's a little different for transfers as they only have a short time to make their decision, unlike some of the incoming freshmen have had a couple of years to decide. In the case of Bowen, I think he has carried this on for way too long. This really puts teams/schools in a tough spot.

How? Unless a team actually passes on somebody else willing to sign to hold a spot open, how does it put the school in a tough spot? The school can tell these kids that they are moving on and not waiting at any time. Right now, there is no indication we have passed or missed on anyone else because of this.

Of course we have passed on or missed on some people because Bowen's apparently incapable of making a decision. If he'd have decided in October, or November, or January (or DEFINITELY April) or on any of his previous deadlines do you think we would have just said "Aw, shucks. I guess we'll just have to save this scholarship for next year"? Of course not. Are we missing on anyone any longer because he's waiting. Nope, because almost everyone else has decided and signed so we're way past the point of being able to move on and offer someone else. And why is that? And this is the biggest issue. It's one thing to make a late decision, it's another to constantly lead everyone on into thinking you're "just about" to make that decision and then when you don't tell them to wait "just a little bit longer" and then I'll decide. Just keep that spot open for me for one more month and then I'll know.

[Realhoops]

I think it is rude for incoming freshmen to not sign a LOI by May17th. It's a little different for transfers as they only have a short time to make their decision, unlike some of the incoming freshmen have had a couple of years to decide. In the case of Bowen, I think he has carried this on for way too long. This really puts teams/schools in a tough spot.

How? Unless a team actually passes on somebody else willing to sign to hold a spot open, how does it put the school in a tough spot? The school can tell these kids that they are moving on and not waiting at any time. Right now, there is no indication we have passed or missed on anyone else because of this.

Of course we have passed on or missed on some people because Bowen's apparently incapable of making a decision. If he'd have decided in October, or November, or January (or DEFINITELY April) or on any of his previous deadlines do you think we would have just said "Aw, shucks. I guess we'll just have to save this scholarship for next year"? Of course not. Are we missing on anyone any longer because he's waiting. Nope, because almost everyone else has decided and signed so we're way past the point of being able to move on and offer someone else. And why is that? And this is the biggest issue. It's one thing to make a late decision, it's another to constantly lead everyone on into thinking you're "just about" to make that decision and then when you don't tell them to wait "just a little bit longer" and then I'll decide. Just keep that spot open for me for one more month and then I'll know.

Of course I don't think we would have just said "Aw, shucks" and not looked for anyone else if he had decided on someone else months ago. But we also haven't said "Aw, shucks. I guess we can't look at or offer anyone else until he decides" in the time we've been waiting. We've offered more people than we have open spots for. There hasn't been an indication of a single player that we wanted to make an offer to that we elected not to just because Bowen is taking his time to make this decision. And there hasn't been an indication of a single player who wasn't interested in us because we had offered Bowen and he was taking time.

I am not defending Bowen's process here. I frankly am tired of hearing about him and all the drama around his recruitment, and I'm not all that sold that he's even worth it. He'd be a great get in terms of his rankings, etc., but that might not ever pan out to be a huge impact on the floor anywhere. It's an uncertain process.

But the reality is that colleges aren't limited to only offering the same number of scholarships they actually have open. Every school offers way more kids than they can actually accept. And we're no different. We've continued to pursue other recruits and transfers while waiting for Bowen.

So I'm just not sure how anyone can say that we've missed out on anyone or passed on anyone because of Bowen's timeline. His timeline is tiresome -- but unless there's some indication of anyone not being offered as a result of it, I think it is just that. Tiresome.

[FreddyMac]

There hasn't been an indication of a single player that we wanted to make an offer to that we elected not to just because Bowen is taking his time to make this decision. And there hasn't been an indication of a single player who wasn't interested in us because we had offered Bowen and he was taking time.

I can pretty much assure you that there's a handful of players on our "B list" that we'd have offered long ago had Bowen not continued to string this along. Guys who are no longer available but would have been two or three months ago. Davion almost certainly wasn't on our "A list" last year but fortunately the guys on that initial list decided early against us so we were able to jump on Davion, offer him a scholarship, and land a good player that wouldn't have been available later had those guys strung us along. If we didn't have a pretty good sized B list then that would have been unlike any recruiting year that I can remember. Right now our "B list" seems to have shrunk to the UMASS transfers who couldn't even have been on any list until very recently when they decided to transfer.

Does Bowen have the right to keep dragging this out? Absolutely. Do I think it's an admirable quality to string people along like this who have invested a ton of time in him? Absolutely not.

I think we're both highly in agreement though that whether or not we've lost out on anyone this process has grown tiresome a long time ago.

[Ethanfor3]

There hasn't been an indication of a single player that we wanted to make an offer to that we elected not to just because Bowen is taking his time to make this decision. And there hasn't been an indication of a single player who wasn't interested in us because we had offered Bowen and he was taking time.

I can pretty much assure you that there's a handful of players on our "B list" that we'd have offered long ago had Bowen not continued to string this along. Guys who are no longer available but would have been two or three months ago. Davion almost certainly wasn't on our "A list" last year but fortunately the guys on that initial list decided early against us so we were able to jump on Davion, offer him a scholarship, and land a good player that wouldn't have been available later had those guys strung us along. If we didn't have a pretty good sized B list then that would have been unlike any recruiting year that I can remember. Right now our "B list" seems to have shrunk to the UMASS transfers who couldn't even have been on any list until very recently when they decided to transfer.

Does Bowen have the right to keep dragging this out? Absolutely. Do I think it's an admirable quality to string people along like this who have invested a ton of time in him? Absolutely not.

I think we're both highly in agreement though that whether or not we've lost out on anyone this process has grown tiresome a long time ago.

2 things...

whether we like it or not, we, as are all colleges, looking for the prettiest date to the prom. If we don't like the fact that the pretty girl has options, we should settle for the one with the good personality and call it a day. It's a balancing act that all of the coaches have to grapple with when building their programs. We might decide the juice isn't worth the squeeze, but it's part of the game

with regards to Davion, he was an early signing period guy if I remember properly, so not sure your analogy is totally fair regarding him. We had plenty of time to reach for the stars if we wanted to. Instead the staff made a conscious decision that Davion was pretty enough and left the other scholarship (the one that Paras ultimately got) just in case the supermodel wanted us too.

As it sits, assuming no injuries, we don't have gaping holes next year that a b list guy would have helped with anyway

(not in projected starting order)
PG - Joseph / Mintz / Clement
SG / SF - Thomas / Foster / Ballock / Alexander / Harrell
PF - Hegner / Harrell / Krapelj
C - Suarez / Hegner / Epperson / Krampelj

Bowen would be a nice addition at the PF spot, but I'm perfectly fine with a more mature Harrell filling that role or Hegner who I thought (pre-injury) was having a very nice season last year.

If we get Waters or Bowen at this stage, it's all icing on the cake, but I'm not expecting it.

Peace

[Creigh_All_Day]

I think you have to go beyond what our roster will look like next year if we land Tugs and Waters. I don't see Tugs as one and done, and Waters has potential to be a 4 year point guard we can build our offense around for the future. Nothing is guaranteed with recruits taking the next step, but adding these two to our recruiting class would be more than just icing on the cake for next season. This roster could be really special in 2-3 years (especially if more top recruits begin to look our way because of Tugs and Waters).

[gtmoBlue]

With the addition of Tugs n Waters this will be a special team. Hopefully Clements gets to keep the pine warm and Coach shuffles his 3 PGs effectively.

PG - Flip a coin: Joseph, Mintz, Waters
SG - Foster, Ty-Shon, and Mitch at the 2
SF - (Most have Tugs penciled in at the PF.) I however see him spending time predominantly at the 3...splitting time with Khyri, and potentially Mitch.
PF - Harrell and Martin, with spot play from THeggs
The 5 - Suarez, Heggs, spot play from Martin (Epperson RS's and maybe we see Slam in Blowout games).

a very athletic team, with shooters, rebounders, assist men. hmmmm.

[Helmzy]

With the addition of Tugs n Waters this will be a special team. Hopefully Clements gets to keep the pine warm and Coach shuffles his 3 PGs effectively.

PG - Flip a coin: Joseph, Mintz, Waters
SG - Foster, Ty-Shon, and Mitch at the 2
SF - (Most have Tugs penciled in at the PF.) I however see him spending time predominantly at the 3...splitting time with Kyrie, and potentially Mitch.
PF - Harrell and Martin, with spot play from THeggs
The 5 - Suarez, Heggs, spot play from Martin (Epperson RS's and maybe we see Slam in Blowout games).

a very athletic team, with shooters, rebounders, assist men. hmmmm.

There's no way Khyri Thomas is coming off the bench

[gtmoBlue]

Hmmm, really? Please 'splain your point of view.

[hilltopalum]

Hmmm, really? Please 'splain your point of view.

cause he's the best player on our team

[Syajeulb]

Hmmm, really? Please 'splain your point of view.

cause he's the best player on our team

this