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Interesting tidbits from the player bios on the basketball roster. Lots of this information is old but I bolded a few things I found interesting/encouraging in their bio's. Inserted a couple comments in italics which were make by me and not included in their bios.

Roster can be found here http://smumustangs.cstv.com/sports/m-ba ... l-mtt.html

Pappa Dia
Played alongside current teammate Mike Walker at South Kent School...is a native of St. Louis, Senegal, the same hometown as current Mustang center Bamba Fall...was ranked 56th nationally by Hoop Scoop...As a junior at South Kent, he averaged 7.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 4.6 blocks per game for coach Raphael Chillious on a team that had eight Division I signees.

Ryan Harp
Was a four-year letterman for coach Marc Case at Abilene Cooper High School in Abilene, Texas, where he scored 2,010 points in his career...named the MVP of district 35A his last two years and was first-team all-district his last three seasons...senior season, he averaged 21.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, and three assists and was named first-team All-State by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches...as a junior, he averaged 22.5 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 3.2 assists to earn District MVP honors...Harp was ranked 14th in Texas by Texas Hoops...during his sophomore season, he scored 32 points in a televised game at Moody Coliseum as his team defeated rival Abilene High School 40-39...he finished that season averaging 14.8 points and 7.0 boards per contest...was a member of the National Honor Society.

Tomasz Kwiatkowski
Played center for coach Carl Parker at Lee Academy in Maine where he averaged seven points and six rebounds as he helped his team to a 23-13 record in 2006-07...entered Lee Academy after earning three letters playing basketball for High School #1 (great name)in Wloclawek, Poland...helped lead his school to the 2006 state championship after a runner-up finish in 2005...also lettered in soccer, volleyball, swimming, and track and field (sounds like he might be pretty athletic for his size)...ranked as a three-star recruit by Scout.com and Rivals.com.

Alex MaloneWas a three-year letterwinner for coach Eric McDade at Timberview High School in Mansfield, Texas...ranked as the 22nd-best prospect in the state by Texas Hoops...was all-district first-team as a senior...junior season, he was named all-district as he averaged 14 points and seven rebounds to help his team advance to the second-round of the 4A playoffs...his sophomore season included averages of 12 points, seven rebounds, and six blocks as he was named district sophomore of the year.

Robert Nyakundi
He was a three-time letterman at power-forward for coach Allen Gratts at Arlington Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas...was named first-team all-district and all-region as a senior...as a junior, he earned second-team all-district honors while averaging 8.4 points and 4.9 rebounds and leading Bowie to the 5A Region I quarterfinals...he also played football at Bowie HS...was ranked No. 76 by TexasHoops.com.

Bennie Rhodes
Averaged 19 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists as a guard for coach Antonio Fozard at Mt. Zion Academy in North Carolina...in 2005-06, Rhodes led Castlemont High School in Oakland, California, to the Northern California Division I semifinals while averaging 19 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists...was a four-time all-league selection and a three-time all-metro honoree...an honor roll student for three years at Castlemont HS (what was all this talk with poor grades???)...also played soccer for his high school and was team MVP...is a three-star recruit by Scout.com and Rivals.com.

Mike Walker
He was a three-year letterman and played alongside Papa Dia at South Kent School...senior season, he averaged 12 points and five assists as a team captain...the team also won the conference title and he was named all-conference...as a junior at South Kent, he was a team captain and averaged 5.2 points and 4.0 assists per game for coach Raphael Chillious on a team that had eight Division I signees. (some people seemed to insinuate that Walker had a very small role on South Kent but it appears, from numbers alone, he must have played very significant minutes, or possibly even started)

We need scoring. I hope Harp will turn out to be real outside threat.

Thanks for the info. There is a lot to be encouraged about. That also appears to clear up some questions particularly Mike Wlaker and Bennie Rhodes. A team captian is a major contributor and says a lot about Walkers participation on a very good team.

I am looking forward to next year.

This team is truly desperate for a consistent scorer. Outside of the incoming freshmen, Derrick Roberts is only guy who put up big numbers in HS and that hasn’t translated to the college game. Harp is the only “scorer” in this class and expecting him to come in from day one and be the guy is asking a lot. Regardless, someone is going to have to step up or it will be another long year of painfully dull basketball.

I would think that with the influx of athletic ability and ball handling we will push the ball a whole lot more this year and pick up a bunch of fast break points. I don't have any stats to back it up but our fast break points per game last year were next to none for the most part as i recall. Also, aside from Harp, I believe Malone averaged in the mid 20's in ppg his senior season.

On another note, there have been some rumblings around campus that Walker has impressed to the point that his ability was a strong factor in Dez's deciding to leave. Any "insiders" that can shed some light verifying or debunking that speculation?

BTW,

JTstang, I had not forgotten about finding the link to the website on the films on Mike Walker that you asked me to post. I think I just stumbled upon them and never stored them in my favorites. My apologies. I'll keep looking.

But as you can see -- and word-of-mouth is always like Russian Roulette -- you can start to understand why I really like this kid. I hope he can step up and lead for us this year.

I hope so too. As much as I admire Jon Killen's work on his game, and he has improved some, having this team look to him as a leader is a little troublesome to me.

It will be interesting to see how quickly our starting 5 consists of 1 junior and 4 freshmen!

PonySnob wrote:It will be interesting to see how quickly our starting 5 consists of 1 sophomore and 4 freshmen!

Bamba is a Junior and will for sure start at Center. Then I guess we have D-Rob and Killen, both Seniors, as the only other returning players who might start. We very well could see 4 Freshman and a Junior in the starting lineup at some point.

I love Rhodes' upside. I just hope he doesn't become awesome-one game, terrible the next type of player.

I still have to think Kwiatkowski is going to get redshirted. I know what Matt has said about that, but I would think an extra year of adding strength would help him be more of low post presence in 2008-09.

Just a couple of thoughts.

George S. Patton wrote:I love Rhodes' upside. I just hope he doesn't become awesome-one game, terrible the next type of player.

I still have to think Kwiatkowski is going to get redshirted. I know what Matt has said about that, but I would think an extra year of adding strength would help him be more of low post presence in 2008-09.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Do you have mysterious videos of Rhodes and TK too? I would love to see something demonstrating Bennie's "upside".

On TK, of course he needs to add strength. MOST 7 footers will need to add strength up until their last college basketball game. He weighs considerably more than Bamba or Rack did as Freshman.

MustangIcon wrote:

George S. Patton wrote:I love Rhodes' upside. I just hope he doesn't become awesome-one game, terrible the next type of player.

I still have to think Kwiatkowski is going to get redshirted. I know what Matt has said about that, but I would think an extra year of adding strength would help him be more of low post presence in 2008-09.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Do you have mysterious videos of Rhodes and TK too? I would love to see something demonstrating Bennie's "upside".

On TK, of course he needs to add strength. MOST 7 footers will need to add strength up until their last college basketball game. He weighs considerably more than Bamba or Rack did as Freshman.

Well, if I find something on them, I'll make sure you are the LAST to know.

And as far as the video, I'm going off the videos that were posted of Rhodes on this forum earlier this year and a conversation I was fortunate to have with coach Doherty at one of the coaches functions.

Thanks for asking.

MustangIcon wrote: I would love to see something demonstrating Bennie's "upside"

"Averaged 19 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists as a guard for coach Antonio Fozard at Mt. Zion Academy in North Carolina"

ponydawg wrote:

MustangIcon wrote: I would love to see something demonstrating Bennie's "upside"

"Averaged 19 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists as a guard for coach Antonio Fozard at Mt. Zion Academy in North Carolina"

If you read the line before you can see I was asking for a video the general might have had access to. I can see his averages from the season too (as shown by the fact I bolded them in his bio). Thanks for your help though.

MustangIcon wrote:

ponydawg wrote:

MustangIcon wrote: I would love to see something demonstrating Bennie's "upside"

"Averaged 19 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists as a guard for coach Antonio Fozard at Mt. Zion Academy in North Carolina"

If you read the line before you can see I was asking for a video the general might have had access to. I can see his averages from the season too (as shown by the fact I bolded them in his bio). Thanks for your help though.

And it's pretty obvious that your inability to read is revealed. Why don't you look at what I wrote earlier in response to your bogus challenge.

But that might be asking too much. For you, I'll draw a picture and use the word potential instead of upside. I hope that clears it up for you.