Prospect Report

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, and hey... it's a new year so when is there a better time than now?

First off... hats off to MesaPilot for finding this:

http://www.arizonabasketballchallenge.org/news/rivals_az_top_25.pdf

A listing of the top 25 prospects from AZ, with two listing the Pilots: James Ellisor, a 6'5" guard ranked #10 and Ryan Howley, a 6'5 guard/forward ranked #12. Both sound like just the right size for the team... small forward is really the only area where we might have a gap, though maybe Mitrovic can fill that role.

Here's a list from Rivals of our 2008 prospects (we still have one more scholarship to give) that are still uncommitted. Of course these things can be pretty sketchy, but hey... they are names at least:

Point Guards:
Anthony Golden, Portland (OR) Madison, 6-1/165
Reggie Guyton, Jr., Hillsboro (OR) Hillsboro, 5-11/170
Nadav Heyman, Corvallis (OR) Corvallis, 6-1/165
Cameron Jackson, Portland (OR) Roosevelt, 6-0/-

Shooting Guards:
Scott Krizman, Colfax (CA) Colfax, 6-4/-
Brandon McGee, Spanaway (WA) Bethel School, 6-3/200
Ryan Meehan, Beaverton (OR) Beaverton, 6-3/180
Bryce Smith, Woodland Hills (CA) Taft, 6-4/185
Tommie Tyler, Houston (TX) Langham Creek, 6-3/185

Small Forward:
Nick Alexander, (CA) West Valley C.C., 6-7/210
Brendan Ingebritsen, Spokane (WA) Mead, 6-5/190
Renado Parker, Renton (WA) Kentridge, 6-5/215
Allen Tate, Hobbs (NM) Hobbs, 6-6/-

Power Forward:
Michael Boswell, Beaverton (OR) Aloha, 6-9/210
John Hayward-Mayhew, Eugene (OR) South Eugene, 6-8/205
Greg Shepard, Portland (OR) Sunset, 6-8/-

The big thing that jumps out at me is all of the local names that are on the list. Now, of course they probably aren't that interested in a lot of these guys, but I do like to see that they have at least been contacting all of the potential prospects from Oregon.

Also, here are guys that they list who received offers from us but signed elsewhere:

Garrett Sim, Portland (OR) Sunset, 6-1/165, California
Chris Jones, Newark (CA) Newark Memorial, 6-3/, Fresno State
James Nunnally, Stockton (CA) Weston Ranch, 6-6/, UC Santa Barbara
Drew Wiley, Springfield (OR) Thurston, 6-7/190, Oregon

And you can add to that list Greg Somogyi, the 7'2" kid who went to UCSB.

As for 2009, here is a list of guys we have offered already:

Larry Richards, Portland (OR) Roosevelt, 6-1/-
Kameron Wilhite, Pueblo (CO) Pueblo South, 6-1/-
Mike Moser, Portland (OR) Grant, 6-7/200

And here are the other names for 2009:

Aalim Moor, Berkeley (CA) St. Mary's, 6-2/183
Teandre Hubbard, San Fransisco (CA) Sacred Heart Cathedral, 6-1/-
Nick Markovich, Chandler (AZ) Basha, 6-3/180
Aaron Dotson, Seattle (WA) Garfield, 6-4/180

Whew! As for Scout, here is our listings for 2008:

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=11&cfg=bb&pid=-1&iSchoolStateProvinceId=-1&iRatingValue=-1&yr=2008&iGetJUCOFlag=-1&iCommitFlag=-1&iGroupbyPosition=0&toinid=637&iInterestLevelId=-1&iOffer=-1&iRecruitVisitFlag=-1&OrderbyColumn=RatingValue


And for 2009:

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=9&c=11&cfg=bb&yr=2009&pid=-1&iSchoolStateProvinceId=-1&iRatingValue=-1&iGetJUCOFlag=-1&iCommitFlag=-1&iGroupbyPosition=0&toinid=637&iInterestLevelId=-1&iOffer=-1&iRecruitVisitFlag=-1&OrderbyColumn=RatingValue

It says that we have offered scholarships for these 2009 guys:

Brandon Smith, (De La Salle HS) Concord, CA, 5-11/170
Darius Morris, (Windward School) Los Angeles, CA, 6-3/165

Anyway, again you have to take these things with a grain of salt, but it's always exciting to read about prospects...one can't help but to dream of the future!

I agree that these lists are sketchy, but it is always interesting to see who is on the list, and of the players we supposedly show interest in, who else they list--to see what other schools we may or may not be competing against.

Good to see the local guys on there!

One thing I notice about this is that we seem to have a pipeline coming from De La Salle HS in Concord Ca (Niedermeyer now this Smith kid). DLS is one of the premier sports schools in the Bay Area. Many people know them for their record 10+ year winning streak in football (Just to make what i said clear, they didn't lose a football game from 1991 till 2005), but they've also got a really good basketball team. They've made it to the state championships several times.

So its nice to see that we're developing a connection to such a successful program.

Ryan Meehan, son of Brian Meehan?? First off, if it is true, what a terrible name, "Hey dad, our names rhyme, cool."

Second, I know Meehan had a kid at Beaverton a few years back, I know this because I have it on good authority from a staffer in Waldschmidt that Meehan drew an unsportsmanlike flag on his son's team while watching the game from the sidelines.

Please tell me they are not recruiting a Meehan, or at least let it be a neice, or nephew, not a son. Anyway, the Oregonian just needs to bring back Chuck Culpepper, culpepper8@aol.com

AHHH! Chuck Culpepper! Didn't his wife email you back one time telling you to stop harassing him?

Anyway, I Googled him and apparantly he works for the LA Times as their soccer reporter. Weird. And he wrote a book about the English Premier League. You can hear an interview with him here:

http://epltalk.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=256379

I'm just disappointed that he didn't write a romance novel... I think his unflinching and needless use of multiple adjectives and his cloying, overwraught prose really would lend itself well to the world of the bodice-ripper. (That last sentance was 100% inspired by my boy CC.)

Anyway... don't know if it's Meehan's kid or not, but I do know that Brian is a Little League coach out there in Beaverton. I hope one day my team (last year we were the North Portland NoPo's, easily the best name for a team ever) gets to play him... that would be pretty cool. Almost as cool as Joe Sottile the weather man coaching the girl's soccer team at LaSalle.