Odds and ends

[The XtC]

There were a couple of threads with questions for me, that I never got around to answering, and now I cant find the original threads. Perhaps they dissapeared in the Great Server Meltdown. Anyway, here are my answers,

Ike Ofeogbu's older brother is leaving Texas Tech, but its unlikely he will end up here, or any other D1 school. His problem is that he's already been redshirted once, so he'll lose a year while sitting out after transferring. he would only have one year of eligibility left after that, and very few D1 teams will give a scholarship to someone for two years, when they can only play 1, particularly if he was never that impressive at his old school.If he had 2 years to play, that might be diifferent, but only a really desperate, bottom of D1 school would take a chance on him now. He cant go to a junior college, so he will probably wind up at a D2 school.

The coaching change at Tennessee means that Oregon power forward Bryan Morris is once again committed to SMU. Morris had been waiting for an offer from the Volunteers that never materialized, and he is not going to wait to see who the new coaching staff will be. Several big schools were watching Morris to see what kind of senior year he would have, but a late season ankle injury slowed him down, and the big name schools lost interest. His stats for this year are actually a little lower than his junior season. Fresno State had also offered Morris, but they have commitments from other big men now, and have withdrawn their offer. Morris is a 6'8, 260 pound wide body, who is very physical inside. His team finished their season last week with a loss in the state semifinals, to Lake Oswego. Morris had 12 points in the game. Interestingly, the leading scorer for Lake Oswego was Nick Lomax, son of former NFL qb Neil Lomax, who has signed to play football for Boise State next year. Morris has given a verbal commitment to SMU, but cannot actually sign until April.

The player from Colorado who backed out of his commitment to us was Ryan Dermody. Dermody originally was supposed to walk on at Colorado, but seems to have changed his mind (again) and re-opened his reccruitment, but SMU is no longer pursuing him.

Oak Hill finished the season with 2 blowout victories in the Champions Prep Classic. The CPC is a tournament for east coast prep schools, that is supposed to determine a de facto National Champion. Oak Hill finished their season 34-2, and that combined with a loss by former #1 Vashon (St. Louis) has vaulted them once again up to the #1 spot in USA-Todays prep rankings. Off hand I cant remember how many national titles this makes for Oak Hill, I think its 7, but not sure. In the championship game against Our Savior (Philadelpia) Bamba Fall had 4 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 blocked shots.

Thats all I can think of right now.

[Hoop Fan]

You're obviously wrong XTC, to me CPC doesn't mean Champions Prep Classic at all, it means Crippled Pet Chicken. Anyway, is the Morris verbal solid or still a little up in the air? I'll be excited if he signs because he is the kind of body we have lacked around here and could be a perfect complement to Bamba Fall on the block. Speaking of Fall, 7 blocks in the championship game of a quality prep tourney is very impressive. And as for John Ofoebu leaving Tech, has anyone heard that Bob Knight has 8 committments now for this year? That must be some kind of record for roster turnover. No wonder he lobbied so hard against the 5/3 rule a few years ago.

[LA_Mustang]

Getting Morris is an absolute must in my opinion.

[Hilltopper]

OK, there's our inside muscle for next year. If he has any kind of low-post game, he'll get plenty of opportunities with the ball as a freshman. I'd love it if he got to campus in the summer and latched on to Eric Castro to learn some of his low-post game. Sure like that size.

And the 7 blocks for our man Bamba.

[OldPony]

Is Our Savior the name of a school or our wildest hope for Bamba?

[Hoofprint]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I think he'll be fine, initially on defense and the boards. But he's got a lot of work to do, and a lot of food to eat.

Thought the same thing when I read it, though.