Flying Dutchmen Fans

bobe13 wrote:With all this talk have we signed anyone as yet?

That's a no but I'm imagining we r pursuing players feeling the pressure of getting some recruits in the fold.

Polito, with all due respect perhaps you should recruit for the program to show us how it should be done... You seem to have a lock on all player evaluations and predictions of performances. You should share your knowledge with the coaching staff. Oh and by the way how much film of Schulte have you seen to make your ironclad evaluation?

DAMN STRAIGHT HUSID!!! Ah, c'mon, you know I know I'm not some super expert. I just enjoy the recruiting stuff, have really gotten into it over the years, and yeah I've learned a lot. You don't have to be a HC to have an accurate assessment or gut feeling. Like it or not, I'm right more often than I'm wrong. What I'm saying here is scholly's are few and valuable and must be used wisely. This program doesn't exist to pump up egos - it's here to win D1 games, the CAA champ, and go dancing. At least that's what it's SUPPOSED to be doing.

Not going to do that by pretending guys like that are the answer when it's very clear they are not. This isn't Jr High. This is a real D1 program with real money involved. I.E. egos get checked - produce a winner, period.

To be clear though, I think I've been uniform in my general happiness with HU recruiting over the years. I don't think it's the talent level that's the problem. HU routinely brings in conf POY candidates... talent is certainly good enough. Just need more of it / depth. And stronger coaching/development.

They manned up last year with Greer, great move by the staff to say thank you for your service son (genuinely), but it's best we part ways. That's what it takes.

Film? Sure, about 9 and 1/2 minutes worth. Against terrible competition I might add. And that's all there is... the reasons should be obvious.

Positives: Moves relatively well with/without the ball, can get up/down the court, decent passer, and can hit FT's (though not sure to what %). Is 6'9.
Negatives: Has no other shot or offense to speak of (none, so can't be a 4), wild on defense, not athletic, etc. Plays wild in general actually, very raw. And my goodness, the competition was horrific. Is light/215. Will get eaten alive in the CAA.

Would love to believe this was a strategic move for other high end guys. Unfortunately, the only other HU target from the Netherlands (a place with zero hoops pedigree by the way) has already named Fresno St and Denver as his leaders as of Dec. So, yeah, that doesn't seem to be producing the desired fruit thus far. I'm all for that strategy when it's done right, though. But for a Netherlands connection? Um, no thanks, not necessary.

What would I do in my infinite wisdom you ask? Well, here's an idea: how about using a strategy like that to build a LOCAL pipeline, or in a REAL hoops territory with a history of strong talent? What the heck happened to capitalizing on Green/Tanksley and getting more Philly talent to follow and continue their legacy? Shouldn't have been a real hard sell. Let's see THAT please.

Agree and understand not every player can or will be a stud - I'm not opposed to him being on the roster as an emergency backup/practice player. I'm making a point here, but I really don't have some big issue with him specifically.

Bottom line is this team needs a STARTING quality 5 to replace one of the best bigs in HU history. That player is not currently on the roster and needs to be the focal point of the '18 class.

Wow you don't say! No secret what this team needs for next year...if you know and I know...EVERYBODY knows it including our coaches. Don't you think they are WORKING NY, PHILLY and other recruiting hotbeds????? I'll bet you right now that the players we end up signing ARE NOT EVEN on the verbal commits list.
We are not St. John's, we do not ANNOUNCE every visit our coaches are making. Right or wrong it has been this staff's philosophy; perhaps they DON'T want anyone to know who they are REALLY going after.
I go back to when Joe was recruiting Rok. I ran into him at the Charlotte airport not once but twice during his recruitment...only then did Joe even HINT at who he was recruiting.
You can have all the "strategy" you want but it comes down to good old footwork on the part of the staff. ID the right kids (which for Hofstra is not the easiest thing to do) and go after 'em hard...then makes sure you have 3-4 back ups because invariably we will lose many of them...

And hopefully, as this staff has done since getting here...land a few good ones for EVERY class.

HUSID74 wrote:Wow you don't say! No secret what this team needs for next year...if you know and I know...EVERYBODY knows it including our coaches. Don't you think they are WORKING NY, PHILLY and other recruiting hotbeds????? I'll bet you right now that the players we end up signing ARE NOT EVEN on the verbal commits list.
We are not St. John's, we do not ANNOUNCE every visit our coaches are making. Right or wrong it has been this staff's philosophy; perhaps they DON'T want anyone to know who they are REALLY going after.
I go back to when Joe was recruiting Rok. I ran into him at the Charlotte airport not once but twice during his recruitment...only then did Joe even HINT at who he was recruiting.
You can have all the "strategy" you want but it comes down to good old footwork on the part of the staff. ID the right kids (which for Hofstra is not the easiest thing to do) and go after 'em hard...then makes sure you have 3-4 back ups because invariably we will lose many of them...

And hopefully, as this staff has done since getting here...land a few good ones for EVERY class.

That's a positive that we r not holding our breath on these kids listed on V/C. Laquill Hardnett HAS eight offers including us, David Nzekwesi has 21 offers( the kid from the Netherlands) and Giorgi Bezhanishvili a 3 STAR player only has 3 offers including ours which I don't believe. You can't believe everything that's posted on V/C as the gospel. This 3 STAR player must have more then 3 offers. Imagine a kid from a country not known for playing basketball getting 21 offers. There must be some game here. Yes HUSID I'm with u that a lot of kids that we r recruiting are not on V/C and maybe hush hush. We never saw Schutte or Radovic on V/C until they were signed/committed! If Radovic was supposed to be the best kept secret in this league somewhere somehow things went south with him. I feel he's got game but will need to develop and get playing time. As much as we all wait anxiously to c what we have to look forward to down the road with this program the focus needs to be with our hunt to win a championship in the CAA clearly within our grasp if the current coaching staff can put a team on the floor that can play some respectable "D".

triplec2195 wrote:If Radovic was supposed to be the best kept secret in this league somewhere somehow things went south with him. I feel he's got game but will need to develop and get playing time. .

Something went south? He is halfway through his true freshman season; lets at least wait until he has a full season under his belt before we slam the guy. And lets not forget he has made contributions in games for us this year; he is completely different matchup then trueheart and most games trueheart tends to match up better as he is better on the defensive side of the ball.

Guys never judge a recruit until his junior and senior season Do you know what the best thing about freshmen are? They grow up to be sophomores and juniors. As Bill Edwards once said. Somewhere between the sophomore and junior season. The light bulb goes on and the athlete gets it

HofstraMathew wrote:

triplec2195 wrote:If Radovic was supposed to be the best kept secret in this league somewhere somehow things went south with him. I feel he's got game but will need to develop and get playing time. .

Something went south? He is halfway through his true freshman season; lets at least wait until he has a full season under his belt before we slam the guy. And lets not forget he has made contributions in games for us this year; he is completely different matchup then trueheart and most games trueheart tends to match up better as he is better on the defensive side of the ball.

Well someone mentioned after a conversation with Speedy that according to Speedy he was going to be the surprise of the conference. This is what I'm referring to but if you're not getting the playing time it's hard to be noticed. But why isn't he getting the playing time is more the question? Is it because he has people in front of him or is it because when he gets the playing time he's not producing?? Don't get me wrong I like aspects of his game but the jury is out on him for now IMO!

HofstraMathew wrote:

triplec2195 wrote:If Radovic was supposed to be the best kept secret in this league somewhere somehow things went south with him. I feel he's got game but will need to develop and get playing time. .

Something went south? He is halfway through his true freshman season; lets at least wait until he has a full season under his belt before we slam the guy. And lets not forget he has made contributions in games for us this year; he is completely different matchup then trueheart and most games trueheart tends to match up better as he is better on the defensive side of the ball.

So true HM - I seems flashes from MR for sure - I think he has nice enough stroke, good size and thought he has a bit of noses for the ball off the glass. And if there were any school that should know that the freshman season might not tell you what type of player that person can become it should be us, Hofstra. A few years ago there was this freshman that hardly got in the game... - his name? JFW!!!

Yes JWF is proof of the pudding just basing the conversation on hearsay regarding comments made by Speedy. I've noted more then once that the coaching staff should have played JWF more as a freshman since I believed he could have helped this team but that lineup was etched in stone. If MR can pan out to be a Denton Koon type player whom he has been compared to in some discussions that would be a big plus for us. We'll see.

Just saw on verbal commits this morning a kid we're recruiting from N Carolina 1/24/2018 - 2018 PG Jamarius Burton (6-5, 195, 2★) has received an offer from Hofstra. It quickly reminded me of the former PG from Baldwin H.S. Darius Burton who played for Jay Wright and who was an assists machine. Also was a two sport player for us. He also played soccer!! I wonder how often that has happened here??

Triple Doug Shanahan played both football and lacrosse and was an all American in both sports. Also Dion Nesmith played football for Northeastern he was the their QB then transferred to Hofstra to play basketball

HUSID, you love me

MR is a player who has some raw skill, needs a lot of development and experience. Remember, he was behind RJ Barrett at Montverde, has played very little in comparison to most by this time. To predict him as the CAA surprise of the year knowing that is odd, especially from a guy who should know - I received a much more realistic assessment from another coach which is that he is very streaky. And that's exactly what he is, which is 'eh' to me. HU doesn't need guys who can't be consistent, but the good news is he has good size, can rebound, and is so young in his career that he does have a lot of room to grow. Not sure how high his ceiling is, but he has the potential, seems like a good kid, and so was def worth taking a shot - we'll see how he progresses.

I always thought Trueheart should've gotten more minutes to start the year, not sure why the staff chose to go with MR over him - kinda foolish to me considering how little real experience he has - would've loved to redshirt him, but having the depth is great too - but I'll take a guy with ST's skills and a full RS year in the program with much more overall experience any day - and it's proving to play out as such.

Guys, I know what you are all trying to say, but you have GOT to stop calling JWF some shocking surprise out of nowhere player. This is completely inaccurate. Of course the media will say that, they have no clue, but everyone here should know this. The only reason JWF didn't play more his first year is because he was behind Juan'ya Green. JUAN'YA GREEN. The stud who came here specifically to follow his coach - there was no way he was going to sit for a freshman. Especially when this staff was overly loyal to Bernardi, Green was never ever going to be on the pine.

JWF has been a prolific scorer nearly his entire career. This is not a huge surprise, it was a great signing by the staff. As I have mentioned before, he was one of the best guards in the city, a talented athletic high-flying shooter. No, he did not garner tons of P5 offers, because he was at a smaller lesser known/lesser pedigree program and is on the shorter side. Thank God for HU!

Now of course no one knows 100% whether a player is going to translate, but even the staff told me his RS year that this kid was going to be a beast, and you could see it from his film. If he clicked and matured, watch out.

Anyhoo,Stu, waiting to evaluate a player until their Jr or Sr year only applies to HU bigs because they traditionally have been projects that take time. This is not the case for guards - there are a million talented D1 guards across the country, it's one of the easiest positions to fill even for a mid major because of how many kids play the spot (it's a role for nearly all sizes). And so therefore you start the assessment from day 1.

Shanahan... the definition of a true STUD. What an athlete!

Polito, love ya too!!!! But you should know that Buie was backing up Green...and he got more PT than JWF as a freshman...check the stats man!

HUSID74 wrote:Polito, love ya too!!!! But you should know that Buie was backing up Green...and he got more PT than JWF as a freshman...check the stats man!

Yes well said JWF would have had to come in for BB. Lots of good points Polito that I agree with and we all know freshman can start and have big years if given the chance. Jamall had a good freshman year although there wasn't too much competition for the job then.

triple another two sport athlete was Krista Thorn who played 3rd base for the softball team and her junior year she was the starting Goalie on the womens soccer team.

Carolyn Carrera is probably the most recent 2 sport athlete we’ve had, she played for women’s soccer and lacrosse.

I'm not very familiar with women's teams here although I have watched their softball team with Olivia Galati, volleyball and I religiously watch the WBB team. There an improved team with Boogie Brozoski and exciting to watch.

Back to Radovic for a minute, I have been pleasantly surprised.

I think he hasn't been getting playing time for two reasons. 1. He's an inconsistent freshman, which is expected, it's just the reality. 2. Our guards (JWF, Pemba, Buie) are eating up a lot of minutes, so he's really just backing up the 4 spot with Angus now that Trueheart has become the established starter.

When all is said and done, I think Radovic has more of a "3" role on the team, he's not really big enough to mix it up with the larger forwards in the conference. But overall, Radovic's athleticism and shooting touch are better than I expected, I'd like to see him on the court with Trueheart and Gustys from time to time as the season goes on, maybe get some more sub minutes for JWF and Pemba so they don't wear down.

stuball888 wrote:Triple Doug Shanahan played both football and lacrosse and was an all American in both sports. Also Dion Nesmith played football for Northeastern he was the their QB then transferred to Hofstra to play basketball

!983-87 - John Bilello, Oceanside HS grad, play 4 years for Hofstra baseball - top Hofstra P those years leader in W, K, ERA; walk-on G for the basketball team for 2 stints in '84-85 and '86-87; thought he played (or suited up) football his freshman year as a back up QB.

Rudy Fiorvanti (SP) played lacrosse, football and wrestled for Hofstra in the 70's...If I'm correct, he had a VERY distinguished career in all three sports...what was amazing to me was that he played defensive end in football at about 225 and WRESTLED at 177! REMARKABLE. Was also a standout defense man In lacrosse. Truly a special athlete.