Three-star point guard Jordan Lathon of Grandview (Mo.), the No. 128 player in the country, picked up an offer from NU today.
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NU offers 2018 point guard
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
I don't think so, Cormac seems like a very versatile player that could slot in at both lead and off guard spots.
More an acknowledgement that NU was shooting too high (pardon the pun) with Dosunmu.
I talked to Jordan tonight. Here's the story...
Six-foot-four point guard Jordan Lathon picked up his Northwestern offer on Wednesday.
Story: Cats offer Rivals150 PG as heir apparent to McIntosh ($)
Agreed, this seems like Collins doesn't like his chances Dosunmu. But hey, if we get them both, good problem to have. And at 6-4, Lathon might even be able to play some SG.
That's fair, but PG seems different. It seems like most years our PG plays 35+ minutes so it doesn't make sense to have more than 2. Frankly, if Brown played more in control, I wouldn't be that concerned about the position, but he seems like a score first guard.
That's pretty good company. I'm guessing Lathon's injury will somewhat depress his market, but clearly he's in demand.
Collins doesn't offer lesser quality players or settle. The 17 class is an example. NU could have two or three incoming freshman, versus the one that is coming. But if Collins doesn't think they can compete at a high level in the Big Ten, they don't get an offer.
I know nothing about Lathon. But Collins offered so Lathon can play.
It's almost like there was a situation that happened early in his tenure with a player who was a late offer, who didn't have many other choices, who really wasn't that good, but accepted. And it's almost like that didn't go well. And maybe Collins learned from that?
Yes, newsflash - every coach in America does not hit on all of his recruits. But let's focus on the negative as opposed to the fact that NU has its most talented team returning and is ranked in top 15-25 in almost all too early preseason polls with 10 talented players returning and two newcomers in Gaines and Turner. This is Collins' first full team with all of his players. I will go out on a limb and say Collins' first four recruiting classes have turned out pretty well or the best four straight classes in NU bball history. Too bad some can't figure out what's been happening in regards to recruiting and think we should settle on recruiting and must fill in the 13th scholarship and not compete for the best talent in 2017 or 2018 and in the future.
OLShin may agree with all you've written. I think what he's saying is the JV situation is one that CCC learned from, which is a good thing.
Wow, one miscalculated schlorship offer in 3 years. Not to bad. Wonder how many schlorship offers previous NU coaches made that didn't turn out so well.
Yes, maybe I misread that post but I have grown exceedingly tired of that one late scholarship offer and recruit that did not turn out well.
Difference is that those guys were core members of their recruiting classes, not "add-on's" to fill out the roster.
Did I think they couldn't play? Yes.
Gocatsgo is right though -- those guys were COUNTED ON to be the core of their classes. That's far more embarrassing.
Are you that sensitive to think I'm knocking Collins here willy? I'm trying to give him credit. He screwed up early and made a young coach mistake and seems to have learned from it. That's a good thing!
Glad to see that your on the Collins bandwagon and sorry if I misunderstood. Still think a lot of blame for the Vassar mess falls on the young mans shoulders
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Not sure that Turner was ever viewed as "counted on" or "core" in respect to recruiting classes. Demps and Sobo were the same year.
Not sure anyone that ever came out of Univ. Chicago Lab schools was ever counted on for a D1 roster in any revenue sport for that matter.
Ajou was similar to Turner. Abrahamson and Lumpkin were the core of that class. And there was far more hope for Olah.
Everyone pretty much knew that Turner and Ajou were huge projects and it would be gravy if they got any minutes. The fact that Tuner got such big minutes was a commercial for why it's so hard to recruit quality post players at NU.
Similarly, Curletti was the final recruit in the class that featured Shurna, Rowley, Mirkovic and Fruendt, who were seen as a very strong Northwestern recruiting class at the time. Curletti had an offer as a preferred walk-on at Michigan State, but was always a hustle/energy guy and project. And Fruendt was actually a top 150 recruit at one point who was recruited by Indiana and other B1G programs, but obviously didn't materialize into anything more than a marginal role player.
Let me be clear that there is no question and no argument that Collins has significantly upgraded recruiting...
That said, I see no reason to bag on past players--especially when these players significantly contributed to the success of the program and in some ways helped set the table for where the program is today. Shurna, Mirkovic, Fruendt and Curletti are the only players in Northwestern history to make post-season appearances (yes, the NIT) all four years. They were the first group since the 1930s to have 4 consecutive winning seasons. And that group is still the winningest recruiting class in the history of Northwestern Men's Basketball.
It's funny to think back. Shurna had great buzz his entire senior season - I think he won a three point and a dunk contest during the state finals weekend - but Mirkovic (emerged in spring) and Rowley (reclassified and signed) were considered bigger "gets" the day they were "gotten".
(Shurna closed the recruiting period higher ranked than Fruendt, though, 9th in the state to 13th.)
(I can't find the full class of 2008 Illinois list.)
(Shurna closed the recruiting period higher ranked than Fruendt, though, 9th in the state to 13th.)
(I can't find the full class of 2008 Illinois list.)
Well the jury is still out on Ash, Falzon, and last year's group.
Falk's recruits were good but injury prone. I wouldn't say Foster was a bad recruiter either, would you? Anyway, Byrdsong was hit or miss, O'Neill was very uneven, and Carmody didn't recruit.
Agree on Ash. But Falzon was decent as a starter as a true Freshman, and both IB and BB showed promise as true Freshmen last year.
I'm just so grateful that Crawford, Shurna, Juice, Coble, Demps, and the rest of the group that contributed to the most consistent stretch of postseason basketball in NU history just showed up and asked to play. As they say, the campus recruits itself!
The more I watch Ash play spot minutes, the more I think that he's a guy who needs to play consistent, longer minutes to develop and be effective on the offensive side of the court. He's fine on the defensive side but it doesn't click on offense with one minute here and two minutes there.
The same can be said of some of the former players. Some just never got a meaningful chance IMO.
Turner got an extended chance but at the entirely wrong position. He was asked to bulk up and play the 5. Whereas he was more of a conventional 3, maybe a 4.
Don't forget Craig Moore (All-B1G Freshman Team, All-B1G Honorable Mention as a junior, Consensus All-B1G Third Team as a senior) and Jershon Cobb, who was a Rivals 4-star and Top 100 recruit. Too bad that he spent most of his career fighting injuries.
We had good players...but never enough depth.
The situation now is indeed dramatically different. I concede that Ash looks unlikely to ever be more than a marginal role player and some of the younger guys (who were high profile recruits and have tons of potential) still need to prove themselves. Still, we have serious depth for any team--and unprecedented depth for a Northwestern team.
This season, NU will have a Star (BMac), solid starters, depth, and a very good coaching staff. Which is why some are touting the team as a pre-season Top 25 squad. Just hoping that the success of the magical 2016-17 run doesn't cause these guys to become complacent.
Your joking right? They just showed up on Carmody's doorstep knelt and pleaded to play. Oh, that couldn't have taken place because BC was not home.
I obviously hope this, too...
While 2016-17 was especially magical in the end, we honestly blew more games than we stole over the course of the season. (The Lindsey illness contributed in part to this.) We were just a good team that deserved to be where we wound up.
With Collins leading a solid group of seniors and returnees, I am not concerned about complacency. (I'm much more concerned about injuries to top players.) Seniors tend to rise to the challenge in their final seasons--and I believe that BMac and Lindsey aspire to have pro careers. They will be all-in. I expect that the message in the locker room is that the NCAA Tournament is old news and that a B1G Championship is the new goal.
But back to the topic of depth... Our hoops team now truly has the "competitive depth" that Fitz likes to talk about. BMac and Lindsey are stars and will play most of the minutes available at the guard positions. But you can bet that Gaines, Brown and even Ash are going to work their asses off to try to be that third guard in the rotation. Vic Law has the SF position locked up, but who will start at the other forward spot? You have another senior in Gavin Skelly who has been a major contributor plus two former four-star recruits in Falzon and Ivanauskas who had to sit out a season and are going to be hungry to prove themselves. That should be quite a battle for minutes. Meanwhile, Pardon just continues to get better and better...but his backup Benson made a strong case that he deserves to be on the floor. Benson is not going to be content just picking up minutes when Pardon is in foul trouble or needs a rest.
There were times last season when you sort of held your breath and crossed your fingers when Ash, Brown, Benson or even Skelly were in big games. (Not to say that they didn't all have their moments. But still.) Next season, assuming we are healthy, we will have four returning starters who will be one season better--and not just any one season better, but a season full of big game pressure, NCAA bubble/Tournament experience and the weight of an entire program's history. And the next 4-5 guys who will ultimately earn their playing time are not exactly guys from the Island of Misfit Toys--they are experienced players or former 4-star recruits hungry to make their mark.
Finally, I am totally sold on Collins as a motivator, the vision that he sets forth and the way that the entire coaching staff goes about its business.
Say what you will about the All State Arena and all that...but I think that the odds of a backslide are very slim.
I forgot about Scotties mono. When you consider that NU lost Rap and Aaron for the full season, Dererk for 8 games, and Scottie for the better part of 6-8 games while recovering, it is really amazing what they accomplished last year.
