Isiaha Mike ♌ ‏@__MRMIKE@__MRMIKEThank you to all the schools that have recruited me. I'd like to officially announce that I have committed to Duquesne University. #GoDukes
http://verbalcommits.com/players/isiaha-mike

[url=http://[youtube/]pnMs55fCXL0[/youtube]]
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He visited two weeks ago.  As I mentioned previously in the "recruiting" thread, this is one of the mobile bigs Ferry is recruiting who can run the court, rebound and block shots.  He is proportedly a late bloomer who is now 6'8" and still growing and developing. 

Great to see we got him and not the Bonnies.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/20/isiaha-mike-has-bright-future-in-basketball

http://hoopshype.ca/2016-power-rankings/

 

Elias Sbiet ‏@Elias_NPH   3h3 hours ago Isiaha Mike is #5 ranked Canadian in 2016 class. Still a lot of upside with this one. Locked in & focused

Elias Sbiet ‏@Elias_NPH   3h3 hours ago Massive pick up for Duquesne, get commitment 2016 wing Isiaha Mike, can score from every angle, high athleticism

This poor kid. Every time I see a tweet or article, his name is spelled differently.

duq81,
Love your post.  Good point...and again, I know we don't put all of our eggs on the # of stars a recruit is, but again, he is only a 2 Star.  And if Ferry can't coach, these kids aren't being developed.
T

CLK wrote:

duq81 wrote:

Ferry seems to be hitting his stride everywhere except on the court. If he can take that step this year, I'll begin to be very confident going forward. It's a big step, but it's time.

I think Ferry did a decent job of recruiting. When you look at the videos (and read some of the reviews) of these kids they seem to have very good raw skill sets, and high potential (Littleson has a good chance of being named Mr. Basketball in Michigan according to some Michigan analysts, and Mike if the 5th best 2016 player in Canada)   It is up to Ferry and staff to develop, motivate,  and coach these kids.  I have not seen much of that in the past.  I will keep saying this...Ferry needs to win this year.  There is no excuse.  If he can show me that his team can play defense this year and have a winning season I will feel much better about the future. 
 

It is time for a 500 or better season.  To me, I'm looking at how are the non-seniors developing.  Colter and Jones were part of the first class whenever there were not any players available to recruit.  Its nice to see them develop, but I'm not formulating my opinion on guys he recruited out of necessity.  It's the next wave of guys I want to see...

Castro, Gill, Powell, Jackson, Robinson, Lewis, James

develop.  I think if we see those guys continuing to progress it bodes well for the wave after that and so on.  Ferry presumably has identified kids that fit what he wants to do after the first class. 

I think we are to the point now, and again I think this is how we need to build our edge, whereby we don't rely on true freshmen to make big contributions. 

Even looking at this season, I don't think we are looking for anything more than token contributions from our FR.  Jump ahead to next season, you have Castro, Smith, Gill, Robinson, Sanders, Powell, Lewis, Jackson, etc. who, again, are experienced and progressing.  While I believe the 2016 recruits have good potential, none of them is going to be needed right away.  That, is where I want to be. 

I have not been excited by any of these recruits TBH.  None of them really scream "Big Get" to me.  We are beating out crappy teams for 2 star guys.  I'd like to win recruiting battles against A10, AAC, and Lower tier Power 5 Conferences.

Last edited by Simms (10/08/2015 10:03 pm)

Simms wrote:

I have not been excited by any of these recruits TBH.  None of them really scream "Big Get" to me.  We are beating out crappy teams for 2 star guys.  I'd like to win recruiting battles against A10, AAC, and Lower tier Power 5 Conferences.

Right now, Central Michigan and Illinois State would wipe us off the floor with their B teams and they offered Mike Lewis. 

St. Joes offered Littleson. 

Isiaha Mike was offered by Bona and Hawaii(who won 22 games last year). 

Are these 5 star guys?...no.  Did we beat out UMBC for these guys either, No. 

I'm not saying we are getting superstars, but look at those MVC teams that are good.  They get guys and develop them.   

 

duq81 wrote:

Simms wrote:

I have not been excited by any of these recruits TBH.  None of them really scream "Big Get" to me.  We are beating out crappy teams for 2 star guys.  I'd like to win recruiting battles against A10, AAC, and Lower tier Power 5 Conferences.

You're not going to win many battles against those schools until you win some games. Get guys who fit the system you're trying to play. A good example is Pitt. when they first started winning, it was strictly 3 star type guys. Pitt was an attractive choice for 3 star guys, and they could be choosy about getting guys who were a good fit, even though they weren't NBA prospects. When they started reaching for 4-5 star guys, the competition is much stronger, and they're just part of the pack. They take whatever 4-5 star they can get, and some of them have been poor fits. Lesser guys can sometimes work out very well if they are good fits for your system. No one is expecting Duquesne
to become the dominant team in the league. At this point, we'd just like to reach the point where we can compete for the 4th or 5th spot in the league. Reach that, and then you can worry about getting the 3-4 star guys who will put you at the top of the league.
 

I agree with the  majority of the message, but Pitt started winning and gaining some attention when they opened the wallet and paid Charley Smith, Gore, and Jerome Lane to play there.  That is why Roy Chipman was asked to leave or get sanctioned by the NCAA. 

duq81 wrote:

levon1975 wrote:

duq81 wrote:

You're not going to win many battles against those schools until you win some games. Get guys who fit the system you're trying to play. A good example is Pitt. when they first started winning, it was strictly 3 star type guys. Pitt was an attractive choice for 3 star guys, and they could be choosy about getting guys who were a good fit, even though they weren't NBA prospects. When they started reaching for 4-5 star guys, the competition is much stronger, and they're just part of the pack. They take whatever 4-5 star they can get, and some of them have been poor fits. Lesser guys can sometimes work out very well if they are good fits for your system. No one is expecting Duquesne
to become the dominant team in the league. At this point, we'd just like to reach the point where we can compete for the 4th or 5th spot in the league. Reach that, and then you can worry about getting the 3-4 star guys who will put you at the top of the league.
 

I agree with the  majority of the message, but Pitt started winning and gaining some attention when they opened the wallet and paid Charley Smith, Gore, and Jerome Lane to play there.  That is why Roy Chipman was asked to leave or get sanctioned by the NCAA. 

That's ancient history. Pitt was clearly dirty in the late 70's and 80's, but I'm talking about the Howland/Dixon era. None of the guys they brought in during the early part of that era were close to being blue chippers. Dixon has run a clean program, as they knew the BE was living on borrowed time, and they couldn't afford any scandals, as they had to be clean in order to be attractive to another good league. Howland, and Dixon brought in lightly recruited players who fit what they were trying to do, and it worked out very well. For what it's worth, Duquesne was quite dirty as well during the mid to late 70's.
 

 Well, your basic premise was the Pitt dug itself out of basketball obscurity by recruiting under recruited players and building competitive teams, but the reality is that they couldn't have  attracted Ben Howland if they hadn't raised the ante earlier by paying the big bucks to Smith, Gore and Lane.  That is what made people take notice and also resulted in Chipman teetering on NCAA penalties had he been allowed to continue at Pitt.  I understand your points about the type of guys that Howland and Dixon recruited during their tenure, but my point is that the genesis of their success was paying the big money to get Charley Smith et al.
I never made any claim that Duquesne was the model of a clean  program back in the 70's but in comparison with Chipman's behavior Duquesne's crimes would be comparable to summary offenses.