Andy Katz on Valley Recruiting

[collegehoopjunkie]

Will someone with an insider subscription get the rest of this article.
Andy Katz of ESPN apparently thinks that if Wichita gets this kid, Mekel, then it will "shift the balance" toward WSU.
He says the kid is good enough to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Anthony Parker's team.
Is anyone out there buying this hype?

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=katz_andy&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fespn%2fblog%2findex%3fname%3dkatz_andy#20060705

[tornado]

Here is more on the kid

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/sports/14803610.htm

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=22702#22702

and no, I am not buying the hype.
If the kid was that good, then why would he spend up to four
years in college when he could be making hundreds of thousands of
dollars playing pro ball in Europe.
This type of overhype-story comes up a lot about foreign players
like ISU's Dinma Odiakosa and Creighton's Manourou Gakou, and yet
when they hit the hardwood in the NCAA the truth is glaring, that
they have been overhyped.
How many ever are equal to the hype?
And, uh....didn't UNI have a couple of those "top player in Europe"
kind of recruits the last few years (Raffington, etc...)

[Fetz86]

here is the text from insider:
Wichita State is a finalist for a top recruit who could potentially shift the balance toward the Shockers this coming season in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Wichita State is attempting to land 6-foot-3 Israeli guard Gal Mekel. Mekel reportedly has already told Providence no thanks (on the same trip to the States, he visited Providence and Wichita State).

The Shockers' toughest competition likely will be from a professional team in Israel, possibly Maccabi Tel Aviv.

It's worth pointing out that these foreign pickups often tend to be a lot of hype, as many are overcome by homesickness and/or the lure of professional contracts. Remember Niv Berkovitz? He didn't last past one season with Marquette after arriving as the heir apparent to Travis Diener.

The Shockers lost only one player in their top 10 off last season's Sweet 16 team. Still, adding Mekel could make a difference for a club returning guards Sean Ogirri, Kyle Wilson, P.J. Couisnard and Karon Bradley. The Shockers' most pressing need is to find a replacement for league MVP big man Paul Miller.

Wichita State expects to hear from Mekel by the end of the week.

[tornado]

Fetz, that is truly amazing!!

Katz actually concedes the probability of the kid being overhyped...

"It's worth pointing out that these foreign pickups often tend to be a lot of hype, as many are overcome by homesickness and/or the lure of professional contracts. Remember Niv Berkovitz? He didn't last past one season with Marquette after arriving as the heir apparent to Travis Diener."

[espndude]

While I'm leary sometimes on these overseas players, Mekel is pretty much regarded as the best under 18 guard prospect in all of Europe. He would be a huge get for Wichita and the Valley. I've read where a couple of scouts have said Mekel is McD's All-American caliber if he had gone to high school in the states.

Alas, I don't see him playing college ball. He's going to get a contract offer to play for Maccabi. They are Europe's best pro team and he's going to get a nice contract. He's already said he plans to play in the NBA and wherever he goes it may just be a year or 2. He considered WSU simply because of Turgeon's history with the 76ers and connections to several NBA personnel.

Would be nice for the Valley to get a player of this profile, but I don't think it will come to pass.

[tornado]

I won't argue what someone in Europe supposedly said, and of course I have never seen the kid.
But here are a couple things that can easily be found on the kid:

--First, he is said in some sites to be 6'2" but as I pointed out in a different post, all over Europe he is listed as 1.81 meters in height.
Just do the simple conversion and 1.81 meters converts to 5' 11.25". (just more of the exaggeration)

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:5K30q5ccgKcJ:www.fibaeurope.com/cid_f43ulKJBGLcVnbH-aqLVu2.playerID_47608.compID_8aYeHlfuGF-mF5IqO8aFH1.season_2006.roundID_4889.teamID_306.html+%22gal+mekel%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5

--Here they even call him 6'3"

http://www.projo.com/pc/content/projo_20060630_30pc.19edc89.html

--Here is some text from a tournament in 2005, and Gal scores many of his points on 3-pointers.
But in college ball, a 5'11" point guard IS simply going to be defended way, way too tight to get that kind of scoring.
Clearly the Euro teams play little defense as almost all the scores in this tourney were at or over 100 points for both teams.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:QK4CyAYtIQgJ:www.euroleague.net/finalfour05/noticia.jsp%3Ftemporada%3DE04%26jornada%3D25%26id%3D595%26id2%3D662+%22gal+mekel%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2

http://www.euroleague.net/finalfour05/noticia.jsp?temporada=E04&jornada=22&id=807

--here is a pic of Gal




Another pic

He is only about 180lbs, he'll get pushed all over the Valley by guys as small as Daniel Ruffin.

His stats and his numbers are good but not exceptionally better than even some of the other players on his team.
Almost every junior team in Europe has players who average 16-20 ppg, and none of those kids come over to the US and are even noticed.
Just about the only foreign players who come over and play college ball with some degree of impact are the big guys, and not many of those succeed if they've never even played high school ball in the US or prep school ball.
I'd like to see the kid give it a try, but Wichita is far, far from home and the kid already ruled out Providence, so I think he will stay in Europe.