Recruit the Babies

USC head coach Tim Floyd recently received a verbal commitment from an eighth-grader, and you might think that is weird but its actually the second straight year he has done this. With all the strange recruiting rules the NCAA has its amazing to me how they don't seem to care about college coaches hanging around middle school gyms scouting 13 and 14 year old boys. There's limitations on text messaging and phone calls but not an age limit to when you can start stalking these kids? Has the PAC-10 really got that competitive that coaches have now resorted to signing kids to scholarships that have never played in a high school game?

Frankly I don't see how watching any phenom prospect dominate eighth grade level competition can give you any insight as to what kind of player he will be like 5 years down the road; especially before he is even out of puberty. I for one would never want to commit to a college at age 14, how do you even know what to look for in a college when your 14? That would tell me that your parents are pulling all the strings and I don't know about you but I would not be happy with that. Especially at the ripe old age of 14 when disobeying your parents is more fun than Xbox. And who wants the pressure before you even enter high school of knowing that a university has already invested that much in you. Every other kid out there would literally be gunning for you game after game; who wouldn't want to show up the kid who got a scholarship offer in eighth grade? Recruiting moves like this will make Floyd either a genius or one of those guys from Dateline's "Catch a Predator". But I guess when your coaching at USC you can take more risks when guys like OJ Mayo recruit themselves to your school.

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Patriots to Face GW in BB&T Classic

All I can say is its about time we get a chance to play local rival George Washington, even if it will be a watered down product from previous years. They have dodged us for awhile now and like Maryland have been scared to travel down the beltway to take us on in the Patriot Center. God forbid they could give up their 10th home game in the row in December. Thanks to the BB&T classic we have got chances to take on local teams such as Maryland, GW, and Bucknell. I would rather we have a home and home type deal set-up with GW but we will see what happens as I believe this is the last year we are locked in to playing in the BB&T. GW has lost some quality guys but do return their leading scorer, Rice, from last years squad that was blown out by Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Definitely a winnable game for the Patriots and a good early season test against a well coached team.

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Weekend Bullets

• Once again I managed to break basketball news before Gomason.com
• The bookstore is now selling gold jerseys!
• Dayton and Vermont coming to Fairfax this fall?
• Rivals.com ranks mid-major recruiting (VCU #5)
• MDVarsity.com reports on Mason's elite camp last weekend, read it if you pay for the subscription service. I don't because that would be lost beer money
• Mason assistant coach Chris Caputo will be at the Freshman All-American camp at Hoop Magic Sports Academy in Chantilly, Va (Don't let Florida steal our local talent!)
• Montrose Christian (MD) standout Kevon Moore lists Mason in his top 3
  

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Suitable Replacement

When former Mason assistant coach James Johnson bolted from Fairfax to Hokie land in April he left a big void in the coaching staff. As if its not bad enough we lose recruits to a school that hasn't won consecutive NCAA tournament games since 1967 but now they get our coaches too? But hey yeah good for them, they need our help because Johnson is an excellent DC/Metro area recruiter and a defensive specialists. Although he was only at Mason for two seasons his efforts were no doubt a part of the Patriot's recent success. I can't confirm it yet but rumor has it that Larranaga is bringing in a former player he coached from his days at Bowling Green, Michael Huger to fill this last assistant position. Huger has spent the last two years as an assistant at Longwood, which might not sound like much but he was responsible for recruiting a lot of DC/Metro area players that made Longwood a respectable squad despite just recently joining the Division I ranks. Apparently Huger was at this past weekends "elite camp" at Mason which I mentioned in an early post is where a couple local prospects were brought in to be evaluated. Huger coming to Fairfax is good news and maybe Johnson going to VA Tech means maybe we can schedule a game with them in Fairfax this upcoming season! Hahaha yeah I know.

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Weekend Update

As summer recruiting heats up, Mason had a visit this weekend from a rising local prospect. Chris Cooper from Woodbridge, VA had Mason as his first stop along with Virginia, Virginia Tech, Penn State and Pittsburgh, according to scout.com. He is listed as a three-star recruit with an excellent low post game and rebounding. The 6'8", 215-pound Forest Park recruit would fill a huge hole that Will Thomas will be leaving after the 2007-2008 season. I know what your thinking, finally a low-post player taller than 6'7"! Let's all keep our fingers crossed. He has started to get more attention from some high major programs after the Southern Invitational Tournament he participated in with his AAU team. In that tournament he showed off his low post scoring, which is a difficult commodity for mid-major teams to come by. He has already received offers from Marist, Delaware, and Richmond but look for Coach L to enter the mix soon as he has not put out many offers to big men.


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On an unrelated note, how is Mason's Final Four run not on this list?

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On the Recruiting Trails

Coach Larranaga has had success recruiting in his own backyard but every once in awhile he will push hard to bring in an out of state kid. His latest 2008 prospect, Stacey Waters, hails from Michigan and is a 6'4" shooting guard with an excellent perimeter game. All of Larranaga's 2007 recruits have a great shooting touch so its obvious to see what caught his eye in this kid's game. He seems to be the same mold as John Vaughan and incoming freshman Cameron Long. Waters is viewed as a late bloomer that has just recently started to get offers from VCU and Central Michigan. A good mid-major coach has to be able to spot kids like this right from the start and get to him before the major teams start to notice him. Waters speaks of George Mason in an interview on rivals.com:

"I heard from George Mason not too long ago," he began. "They said they are in a good position to offer me a scholarship with one of their guys at my position leaving."

The guy at his position that will be leaving after next season is Folarin Campbell and it will not be easy to fill those shoes. Hopefully Coach L will offer to Waters before his stock continues to rise even more this summer in his AAU league. Here's a quote from an article talking about his AAU team:

Stacey Waters from Detroit Renaissance is playing the best basketball of any perimeter player in the state of Michigan at this point. He's a mid D-1 player now for certain, trying to produce his way to high D-1 status by the end of July.

Larranaga might have to use some recruiting magic and hope for a little luck in order to bring this kid to Fairfax but then again I never thought 'Dre Smith would commit to Mason.

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Spice up the Schedule

Early season tournaments have always given a preview of which teams could be dark horses in March. The pre-season NIT did wonders for Butler last year, giving them a chance to knock off some power house programs and ride the wave of success all year into the NCAA tournament. Mason could have really used a pre-season tournament to help with chemistry last year and this year they will get their chance to prove themselves early. The field was just announced for the Old Spice Classic which has the Patriots squaring off against Kansas State thanksgiving night on ESPN2. The tournament also features Penn State, South Carolina, Villanova, NC State, Rider and UCF. The casual college hoops fan might not think much of this Big 12 Kansas State team but there's nothing about them this year that should be overlooked as they have arguably the best recruiting class of 2007. Before Bob Huggins bolted for West Virginia he was able to sign Michael Beasley (ranked #1 on scout.com) and Bill Walker (ranked #2). Why those two have chosen to stay at Kansas State without Huggins is beyond me. Let's just hope they have not bought into 1st year head coach Frank Martin's system yet, who coached at Northeastern from 2000-2004 by the way. But serious match-up problems aside this is a great opportunity for the Patriots and give me another reason to ignore my family thanksgiving night.

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