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Beal the 'real deal', says high school coach


Jermaine Beal By Brent Wiseman Staff Writer
Date: Sep 14, 2005

DeSoto, Tex. combo guard Jermaine Beal (6-3) is scheduled for an official visit this weekend to Vanderbilt. Is he more of a point guard or shooting guard? Here's a scouting report and recruiting update.

DeSoto (Tex.) High School combo guard Jermaine Beal had a number of impressive statistics as a junior last season. Of all of them, according to the school's head coach Chris Dyer, one clearly stood out.
"37-and-4," Dyer says, referring to the Eagles' 2004-05 record.

The 6-foot-3 combo guard's best attribute, according to his head coach, is that he helped his team advance all the way to the 5A state championship game, where it was defeated 54-52 by Humble-Kingwood. For his efforts, Beal was named All-State, TABC All-State, and All-Tournament.

This weekend Beal is expected to make an official visit to Vanderbilt, where the Commodore staff is hoping he can help fill the void left by the graduation next year of senior point guard Mario Moore. The versatile Beal has already made an official visit to Oklahoma, and at last report VU and OU were slight leaders over a host of other schools for his services. Vanderbilt, Illinois, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor and SMU are among the 12 to 14 schools that have offered.

"I go to Vanderbilt on the 17th," Beal told SoonersIllustrated last week. "I told Coach (Kelvin) Sampson that Oklahoma and Vanderbilt are my top two schools. So after my visit to Vandy I will be able to tell OU a lot more about what I am thinking."

We put it to Dyer: would Beal be more of a shooting guard or point guard at the next level?

"Combo," was the reply. "Nowadays at the college level they want kids that can do it all.

"Used to be, 15 years ago, your point guard was a distributor and passer. That's all changed. Nowadays your point guard is a scorer just like your two and your three.

"Jermaine knows what to do with the ball. He's a brilliant passer. He's getting stronger, works hard in the weight room. His best attribute is that he just works his butt off in the gym.

"He'll be in the gym two hours every evening, just doing shooting drills. He was an extremely good scorer for us last year, and got a lot better for us on defense."

Beal may be closer to 6-foot-3-1/2 by now, Dyer said. "He's still growing. He wears a size 15 or 16 shoe."

The camp circuit last summer was a mixed blessing for Beal. Although the camps gave him additional exposure and netted him some major-college offers, Beal was probably not given the opportunity to showcase his full abilities.

"He went to the Texas A&M camp, the Texas camp, and a camp up in Virginia," said Dyer. "In some of those camps you get six guys who think they're point guards who have never played it before, or you get guys who, every time they touch the ball, it's like throwing it into a black hole.

"He played with a group of guys who were somewhat like that. From what I've heard and what I've read, it was not a good situation, because he's used to working with a team concept."

Dyer has built a powerhouse at DeSoto, as well as a proving ground for college-level talent. Last year's DeSoto team produced Roderick Flemings, a 6-6 forward who signed with Oklahoma State. Deveric Taylor, a senior teammate of Beal's, is receiving recruiting interest from several mid-majors. This season Beal will be one of three key senior returnees for a DeSoto team that hopes to advance to the state championship game for the third time in four years.

"We have some new faces this year," said Dyer. "We have three guys returning who all started as sophomores. Jermaine got to travel on our state championship team three years ago as a freshman, so now he's a seasoned veteran."

Should Beal ultimately opt for the Commodores, admissions shouldn't be an issue.

"He's already qualified academically," Dyer said. "He's a very, very good student."

that doesn't sound promising ~ why Vanderbilt?? Family connection??

good school, SEC competition, why not Vandy? Not that we wouldn't like him to stay closer to home!

Committed to Vanderbilt, according to scout.com.

Not a great loss for us except for the "prestige" factor. I doubt seriously he will play much for Vandy. He's not real quick and he has flaws in his shot. I don't think he can play point in the SEC with the guards he will go against - he'll have to play shooting guard and his shot breaks down quickly when guarded tightly. He might be one that we could get on the rebound in a couple of years - if we want him.

friarwolf wrote:Not a great loss for us except for the "prestige" factor. I doubt seriously he will play much for Vandy. He's not real quick and he has flaws in his shot. I don't think he can play point in the SEC with the guards he will go against - he'll have to play shooting guard and his shot breaks down quickly when guarded tightly. He might be one that we could get on the rebound in a couple of years - if we want him.

The original post on this thread stated that 'Vanderbilt, Illinois, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Baylor and SMU are among the 12 to 14 schools that have offered'...are you telling us you have better insights than Sampson, Sutton and Weber?

friarwolf wrote:Not a great loss for us except for the "prestige" factor. I doubt seriously he will play much for Vandy. He's not real quick and he has flaws in his shot. I don't think he can play point in the SEC with the guards he will go against - he'll have to play shooting guard and his shot breaks down quickly when guarded tightly. He might be one that we could get on the rebound in a couple of years - if we want him.

If he sucks that much why did we want him?

Sampson, Sutton, et al did know about Jermaine. That's why he basically had 2 firm offers - Vandy and us. He took the SEC option. Good for him. I still say we will have our chance to have him within 2 years if we want him. And if it is my call, I say thanks but no thanks. Nothing against him - he's a good kid - and a good basketball player - but only good. And by the way, I didn't want him - I wanted Sloan and Fulce.

Jermaine was another in a long line of kids who blossomed early and used their superior size and athletic ability to dominate. Now that others have caught up physically, he has to rely on his talent - which has dwindled. He has a funky motion to his shot, his quickness is not what it once was, and he was never a great defender. He has played on the best select teams and because of this, he has big game experience. That's a plus in high school but you've got to be a superior talent to succeed in college and I don't think he is anymore. Saw him this summer and he looked like he has regressed.

How much of a loss it is really only depends on who we end up actually signing. If we got Donald Sloan and any other solid player, I'd say losing Beal meant nothing. You cant sign everybody, the best you can hope for is to get solid guys with the few scholarships available.

We're out of the running on Sloan. He'll go to the Big 12, probably A&M. The focus is now moving to mostly out-of-state kids.

It is a crying shame when a coach who was hired to recruit local players has to go out of state to get players. Things are not looking good for Tubbs.

while true-just remember SMU does not appear to have a shot at even 1 out of top 87 Football players from the DFW Metroplex-ie rated 5.3 or better Rivals. The last one Melvin Stephenson appears to be looking elsewhere. Close may not count-but what about a coaching staff that can't even seem to get in the running for players in its own back yard.

We can all forget the "endorsement" Tubbs got from the high school coaches. I am not saying it wasn't sincere - I'm sure it was but...........it was a toothless document. Look at Darrel Arthur - who gives the quotes about his recruitment? Jazzy Hartwell, his select team coach. Why is Jerome Tang making inroads for Baylor? He's hooked up with the summer ball coaches - most high school coaches can't stand him. If Tubbs wants local talent, he has got to make inroads with the summer coaches. Unfortunately, High school coaches for the most part are on the outside looking in with the "stud" players.

I think we've seen the extent of how effective the "endorsement" can be. You can lead a horse to water, but cant make him drink. High school coaches can suggest to a player that they give SMU a look, and several high quality kids did express genuine interest. But, all of those kids had multiple options, many of which looked better than us. At that point the high school coach cant twist a players arm and make him go one way or the other, at least not in most cases. At this point, top kids know what they are worth to the college programs, (or have an inflated vision of that value) they dont feel like they have to do what the high school coach tells them, they have options.

From my standpoint, it looks like several high school coachs DID try to help Tubbs with the top kids. Those guys just dont have as much influence as some might think.

Heres a link to an article on the prep school kids who visited us this weekend:

http://story.Scout.com/a.z?s=400&p=2&c=446071

boy that's like falling off a cliff in comparison to the Dallas kids we were after. I've got that sinking feeling.