I'd prefer Dirk Nowitzki but beggars can't be choosers.
Parker Stewart - New Commit
- Thread starter Ronnyp91
- Start date
Durand Johnson? Ronald Ramon? Cam Johnson? John Johnson? Ashton Gibbs?
Ashton Gibbs was the closest thing to a scoring 2 guard we've had in a decade, and outside of being a great shooter he certainly wasn't the prototype athletically or size-wise for the position. Hopefully this guy will give us some length, athleticism and skill that we haven't seen combined in the off guard spot at Pitt in a long time.
I'm excited about Stevenson. Explosive athlete on the wing, big, strong guy who can jump out of the gym. Big upside to him. It has been a long time since we had a wing guy who can attack the rim with some anger and violence.
By comparing apples to apples (commits to commits).
Wilson, Kithcart, Manigualt, and Clark were all better "on paper" as recruits than Parker.
That's all those guys were good on "paper."
The game is played on the court so lets hope he actually has some basketball skills!
Haha - yeah. Thought about it, but didn't want to get too greedy.
Hey, can you tone down the positivity a few decimals, please? You're calling out all of the usual suspects that get alert notifications sent to them when defense of JD's lineup of WNBA All Stars assembled over the previous 5 years needs protecting!
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Based on your comments after the Golden and Stewart commitments, me thinks you are way too caught up with the "on paper" profiles DT. What's funny is that, in both cases, your comments brutally demonstrated how worthless those "on paper" profiles can be.
Personally, I am not way too caught up with on paper profiles at all -- that is hardly my point.
For the last 30 years, I have always maintained that all that matters to me is wins. Good recruits are the recruits that win. Willard recruited several Top 75 players (even 2 top 25) and struggled. Dixon was branded as a poor recruiter and won.
Still, the thought (hope?) is that we needed better recruiting to the next level. I don't disagree with that. But on paper, I'm not yet seeing the recruits with the better high school resumes that fans were clamoring for. What I am seeing are much of the same level of player (at least coming out of high school) that put us at the place we are now.
Perhaps Stallings will make more out of players than we were able to get previously out of players with similar high school pedigrees.
Generally speaking though, I try not to get too excited about recruits in general. (Although it is easy to get caught up in for sure.) I try to stay focused on being excited about wins.
Dixon was branded as a poor recruiter and won.
Until his recruiting went from mediocre to abysmal a few years ago. If winning is defined as mowing through a slate of non-conference creampuffs, then going .500 give or take in the conference, then squeaking into the filed of 68 in March and going nowhere in the tournament, Dixon was doing fine.
If someone's standard for this program is to simply make the NCAA tournament field of 68 consistently, as has been suggested by many since Dixon left, Stallings may eventually be able to fulfill those expectations. Fearless leader himself was trending the wrong way on that measure, and nearly every other, before he left.
I agree with DT. These kids appear to be pretty much the same as what we were getting before Stallings came here. Maybe not even at that level. All that matters is what they can do on the court when the lights are on and they're playing ACC basketball. That's where my extreme doubts enter the picture. I have zero confidence that Stallings will be able to coach these kids, let alone coach them as well as our former coach.
At this point as long as Stallings is here, I'd shut up if we had a better than 0.500 season with the recruits he's bringing in. It wouldn't get us into the NCAAT, but at least it wouldn't be embarrassing most of the time.
At this point as long as Stallings is here, I'd shut up if we had a better than 0.500 season with the recruits he's bringing in. It wouldn't get us into the NCAAT, but at least it wouldn't be embarrassing most of the time.
Mediocre recruiting is probably a more accurate description of how many had branded it. (I think it may have only been SMF who was calling him a horrible recruiter early on. LOL)
By winning, I was defining it as it was for Dixon when he had the highest conference win % of any coach in the history of the Big East. It was even during this time that he was branded a mediocre recruiter by many.
Over Dixon's last two years especially, our standard for winning and recruiting was certainly trending downward. My concern, and time will tell if it's a legit concern, is that we haven't yet really upgraded the recruiting the got us into the slide. Golden was a good start to a better direction, but we are going to need a few more higher level guys in the 2018, I believe.
Maybe your paper.
Damon Wilson only guy with the amount of quality offers Stewart had. Plus Stewart can fill up the scoreboard like no one I've seen Pitt get for awhile.
Hope you are correct. He's still about a top 200-250 kind of recruit though. But if the kid can indeed fill it up and make a difference, that's all that will matter ... no doubt about that!!
I don't think KS' job is in danger until at least the end of year three. This coming season, however, may determine how long he lasts. I don't really care about winning in 17-18, only care that the young guys show improvement throughout the course of the season. This could be a nice, ACC-level core in a few years IF KS can get the most out of these guys.
I tend to look at the offers a recruit is getting. His stars and ranking of course are important (200-250) but that offer sheet is as good as we've seen in quite awhile. A 6'4" outside shooter is a lot different than an undersized off guard (Gibbs). When you look at Our past
"shooters" Gibbs and Cam Johnson were mentioned. Hardly anyone recruited Johnson and as I said already, Gibbs was undersized. Wilson was an athlete but not much of a guard, and had almost no outside shot. When I think of Pitt's off guards I'm forced to remember Cam Wright (great leader and team mate) but horrendous outside shooter, I don't care what his % was, teams dared him to shoot. Someone also mentioned Durand Johnson and Ramon. Ramon was like Gibbs... an outside threat but undersized. Durand??..Forget it.
None of these guys have Stewart's offer sheet. Ramon and Gibbs actually produced while here, and I have a sense this guy will also as a scorer.
The offers are always a good way to look at it. But regardless, it's all guesswork anyway you go about it.
Nonetheless, debating how good we think he might be is great for message boards. But it matters not when he actually starts playing. He'll either be more successful or he won't.
I totally agree! At this point it's all conjecture, and that's why I said "I have a sense this guy will also be a scorer." I'm not guaranteeing anything, just suggesting. However my comments about the others were not conjecture...the story has already clearly shown
our less than stellar 2 Guard players of the recent past. On the other hand, our recent history of PG's ...now THAT IMO is impressive.
our less than stellar 2 Guard players of the recent past. On the other hand, our recent history of PG's ...now THAT IMO is impressive.
He's about a top 200-250 player, but yes, he's now our 2nd best recruit on paper.
S Curry was rated in the 240's . It won't be long to see what any of these players bring to the table . Let's hope KS has a eye for under rated talent !
IMO watching his video, there is something to the comparisons to Gibbs and Ramon. The shot seems to equivalent.
He is definitely is taller as noted, and in his video you see him blocking a lot of shots and also a good number of contested dunks.
I am not saying he will be as good as Gibbs, much less better. But, it appears he has more to work with talent wise than he or Ramon did.
He isn't a Julius Page, but he appears to be a little better athlete than Gibbs and Ramon, again, with the height you would want at SG.
Where things are right now, something to be a little excited about.
Also, getting him roughly makes up for the loss to Thompson, talent wise and at guard generally, and it balances it out a bit.
Carr is basically a half and half, sized and skilled to be a PG, but not a natural PG, not a pure shooter or with the height to be a 2G.
So, you have a PG and a 1/2 split guy. Now, again, he is not a pure PG, but he is probably is best off at PG moving forward, and this kid is a true 2G.
I would suspect they will really go after a traditional PG in the 2018 class to round it out.
Clark really better on paper?
Parker had a lot of Power School offers & was a 3.5 star overall on Verbal Commits. That's possibly higher than Kithcart/Manigault too.
Maybe overall top 150/200 rankings they're higher than Parker tho...
Clark is tougher to judge because he was a JUCO. But he was pretty well regarded. Real bummer about his knee. Could have been a pretty good player.
Yeah, speaking of offers, Clark probably had the best offer sheet of anyone that we've recruited in the past few years. We had to beat out Oregon, St. Mary's, Nevada and Wichita State for him. It's just a shame about the knee but I hope that he does well for Portland.
Ramon and Gibbs were pretty good....and Zavackas was, too. Epps on the other hand....
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