New UNI Commit

[tornado]

Yet another bizarre recruiting story.........

a kid named Nathan Buss...completely unheralded and little known high school senior...
wasn't even being recruited by UNI........
He isn't listed by any recruiting service anywhere...and even a Google search comes up with virtually nothing...


Then the kid came to the Northern Iowa Basketball camp this weekend...on his own!!
and after the camp...
"After competing at UNI's basketball team camp this weekend...Ben Jacobson wanted to speak with him.
"I just thought he'd say, 'Nice playing, it was fun watching you and we'll continue following you this summer,'" Buss said.
"But after we started talking and one thing led to another, he offered me.
"The whole thing was kind of a surprise. I was speechless.

Minutes later, the Charles City senior-to-be gave UNI its first verbal commitment for the 2010 class"

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2009/06/22/sports/local/11427362.txt

[tornado]

I just signed up on IowaPreps.com for a free 7-day subscription just to see their rankings...

and Nathan Buss is listed #27 in their Top 100 players (in the state of Iowa) in the class of 2010

[Beninator]

My Dad was from Charles City so I know that Charles City is away from the beaten path and I could see how a kid could go unnoticed. You never know about kids like this, but one thing that I have read about recruits is that the scouts like kids who are late bloomers. This kid grew 4 inches in one year so he would definately qualify.

[PTTB]

Tornado-

I had the chance to catch Nathan playing this weekend and he was a very intriguing prospect. He was there with his Charles City HS basketball team, as they come every year. Charles City plays 3A basketball which is the 2nd largest classification and about 45 minutes from Cedar Falls on the Avenue of the Saints. In the last 10 years, there have been two D1 basketball players from Charles City (Iowa's Greg Brunner and Wyoming's David Rottinghaus). UNI's team camp had 40+ teams from Minneapolis/Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Chicagoland, and Peoria (Richwoods). It's a pretty solid camp. Buss was the best player there. Very skilled. I compare him to Adam Koch in regards to the fact that Adam (at 6'8") can go 3 point line to hole with ease. Nathan has a similar game, which is rare in the MVC for 6'8" guys. That's what made Sommerville such a tough matchup, and there really haven't been too many since him (or before) that could make defenders guard both the perimeter, post, and lane. I can only hope he has a similar career to that of Adam Koch, who has been a great team player.

Nathan isn't as obscure as most make him out to be. He's the #7 player in the 2010 class by IAHoops.com (a blog--- http://iahoops.blogspot.com/2009/04/...-rankings.html ) and IowaPreps.Com doesn't really have much on him (based on your info). Usually, Luke does a great job with his site, and I'm sure he'll be on Nathan's commit sometime soon. Nathan was named to the St. Louis Eagles All-Tourney Team a couple months ago ( http://minnesota.scout.com/2/865957.html ) under the name "Nate Bliss" . As compared to Illinois HS recruiting, where there is Chicagohoops, Bullseye, MidstateHoops, Poneman, etc...there just isn't much for Iowa, so that definitely leads to more of an unknown on the regional/national level...but that's not new. Here is his AAU Coach's Twitter page with several mentions of Buss getting looks by D1 coaches and offers (not sure from who though): http://twitter.com/IA_Barnstormers

Also, he was being looked at by UNI prior to this camp. I don't know anywhere in the article where it mentions he wasn't being recruited, but rather that he wasn't expecting an offer. UNI has been known to offer guys after their camps, sometimes unexpectedly to the prospect. Eglseder and Dunham are a few that come to mind. Both have turned out very nicely.

Does Bradley have a pretty solid team camp(s)? UNI has 3 team camps each summer, with around 100 total teams from the surrounding states (one time Arizona, too).

[tornado]

well...but any time a kid goes to a camp, and he doesn't even know the college is recruiting him, and he not only gets a fully unexpected offer but even commits on the spot...then that is a little unusual...

I have only heard of this happening two other times...and both times it was also at a UNI camp with Anthony Davis (Clarinda) and Kerwin Dunham (Bondurant-Farrar) - both marginal D-I candidates from tiny high schools who got offers unexpectedly while attending a UNI camp!

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=35407&highlight=summer+camps#post35407

In fact, look at the words Dunham used...they mirror precisely what Buss said about his offer...
"Dunham, a 6 foot 4 inch junior-to-be, verbally committed Tuesday night to play basketball at Northern Iowa..
"It was very unexpected," Dunham said of the scholarship offer from Northern Iowa coach Greg McDermott. "I was surprised."
Dunham said McDermott made his pitch at a Northern Iowa camp which he attended Sunday and Monday in Cedar Falls.
Dunham excitedly went home to discuss the opportunity with his parents.."

http://www.panthernation.com/archive/index.php?t-218.html

BTW--
I have the IowaPreps subscription for 7 days, so here's the rap on Buss...

"Nathan Buss
Charles City
Position: Forward
IowaPreps.com Star Rating:
Previous Ranking: 64
Height: 6-foot-7
AAU Team: N/A
Offers: N/A
More: Buss is a load to stop with his 6-foot-7 frame and the skills needed to
hit the outside jumper. He will have high expectations surrounding him and
his team heading into his senior year."


if you wanna see what they say on anyone else...let me know soon before the subscrp. expires...
they have 2010, 2011, and 2012 rankings!

[BUFAN]

Tornado-

I had the chance to catch Nathan playing this weekend and he was a very intriguing prospect. He was there with his Charles City HS basketball team, as they come every year. Charles City plays 3A basketball which is the 2nd largest classification and about 45 minutes from Cedar Falls on the Avenue of the Saints. In the last 10 years, there have been two D1 basketball players from Charles City (Iowa's Greg Brunner and Wyoming's David Rottinghaus). UNI's team camp had 40+ teams from Minneapolis/Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Chicagoland, and Peoria (Richwoods). It's a pretty solid camp. Buss was the best player there. Very skilled. I compare him to Adam Koch in regards to the fact that Adam (at 6'8") can go 3 point line to hole with ease. Nathan has a similar game, which is rare in the MVC for 6'8" guys. That's what made Sommerville such a tough matchup, and there really haven't been too many since him (or before) that could make defenders guard both the perimeter, post, and lane. I can only hope he has a similar career to that of Adam Koch, who has been a great team player.

Nathan isn't as obscure as most make him out to be. He's the #7 player in the 2010 class by IAHoops.com (a blog--- http://iahoops.blogspot.com/2009/04/...-rankings.html ) and IowaPreps.Com doesn't really have much on him (based on your info). Usually, Luke does a great job with his site, and I'm sure he'll be on Nathan's commit sometime soon. Nathan was named to the St. Louis Eagles All-Tourney Team a couple months ago ( http://minnesota.scout.com/2/865957.html ) under the name "Nate Bliss" . As compared to Illinois HS recruiting, where there is Chicagohoops, Bullseye, MidstateHoops, Poneman, etc...there just isn't much for Iowa, so that definitely leads to more of an unknown on the regional/national level...but that's not new. Here is his AAU Coach's Twitter page with several mentions of Buss getting looks by D1 coaches and offers (not sure from who though): http://twitter.com/IA_Barnstormers

Also, he was being looked at by UNI prior to this camp. I don't know anywhere in the article where it mentions he wasn't being recruited, but rather that he wasn't expecting an offer. UNI has been known to offer guys after their camps, sometimes unexpectedly to the prospect. Eglseder and Dunham are a few that come to mind. Both have turned out very nicely.

Does Bradley have a pretty solid team camp(s)? UNI has 3 team camps each summer, with around 100 total teams from the surrounding states (one time Arizona, too).

PTTB, I appriciate the scouting report but find it difficult to believe a kid from charles city Iowa was the best player at a camp with 40 other teams. Can you compare him to Jordan Prosser or other players I might know. If he can fill Adam Koch's shoes UNI would have a nice player...

[Beninator]

I think in situations like this, we have to trust the coaching staff. I am not comparing the players, but last year, JL and staff discovered Taylor Brown in what many thought was an unsual fashion. So far, most here on this board including myself like what we have seen from TB. Maybe things will work out for UNI.

[SFP]

PTTB, I appriciate the scouting report but find it difficult to believe a kid from charles city Iowa was the best player at a camp with 40 other teams. Can you compare him to Jordan Prosser or other players I might know. If he can fill Adam Koch's shoes UNI would have a nice player...

Why would find it difficult to believe that a player from Charles City, Iowa could be the best player in a camp. I'm sure there was some difficulties for people to believe a player from Frenchlick, IN could be one of the all time greats also.

[tornado]

I think in situations like this, we have to trust the coaching staff. I am not comparing the players, but last year, JL and staff discovered Taylor Brown in what many thought was an unsual fashion. So far, most here on this board including myself like what we have seen from TB. Maybe things will work out for UNI.

two things differ with the Taylor Brown situation...
-first, Coach Les saw TB play in a competitive situation at a juco exposure event against a mix of other top juco kids and some other D-I players.
This UNI camp had the vast (99%) amount of the other players were high schoolers who are never going to play college ball.
Plus, team camps of this nature often force kids to play 4, 6, or even 8 games in a day! How can you judge the kid's talent or the strength of the competition he's playing against in such a team camp -- it's impossible.

-second...Coach probably NEVER would have even been at the juco event nor offered the scholarship, save for the fact it was a "leftover" scholarship that became open suddenly and unexpectedly with the departure of Rashad Austin.... Thus Coach Les wanted to fill it and not waste it for 2008-2009.
In this Nathan Buss situation, the kid won't even be on campus until fall of 2010! The coach has absolutely NO SUCH urgency about finding someone to take this scholarship to UNI! This is a totally different setting where maybe even a better player could emerge in the interval...plus, just read the story...sounds like the kid would have still gone to UNI, as that's where he wanted to go, even if the scholarship wasn't offered until next spring...or maybe he could have had the kid as a walk on....!

[Beninator]

two things differ with the Taylor Brown situation...
-first, Coach Les saw TB play in a competitive situation at a juco exposure event against a mix of other top juco kids and some other D-I players.
This UNI camp had the vast (99%) amount of the other players were high schoolers who are never going to play college ball.
Plus, team camps of this nature often force kids to play 4, 6, or even 8 games in a day! How can you judge the kid's talent or the strength of the competition he's playing against in such a team camp -- it's impossible.

-second...Coach probably NEVER would have even been at the juco event nor offered the scholarship, save for the fact it was a "leftover" scholarship that became open suddenly and unexpectedly with the departure of Rashad Austin.... Thus Coach Les wanted to fill it and not waste it for 2008-2009.
In this Nathan Buss situation, the kid won't even be on campus until fall of 2010! The coach has absolutely NO SUCH urgency about finding someone to take this scholarship to UNI! This is a totally different setting where maybe even a better player could emerge in the interval...plus, just read the story...sounds like the kid would have still gone to UNI, as that's where he wanted to go, even if the scholarship wasn't offered until next spring...or maybe he could have had the kid as a walk on....!

Just a couple of minor points T. No two situations are the same, but the TB sitauation with us and the Nate Buss commit with UNI are unusual. TB committed to us without visiting BU which I thought and still think was a bit odd. I am glad that we have TB and that things worked out for everyone. From the article, Nate Buss, was selected to an AAU All-Tournament team in St Louis recently so it seems that he does have a degree of experience against players who will be division 1 players.
Even though Nate Buss was ranked 27th in the Iowa Hoops article, the article states that Buss is "long and skilled and just scratching the surface." Like JL with TB, I think we have to trust Ben Jacobson's judement in this situation. You never know in these circumstances... If the kid's recruitment were to blow up, UNI probalby would not have been in the picture.

[PTTB]

well...but any time a kid goes to a camp, and he doesn't even know the college is recruiting him, and he not only gets a fully unexpected offer but even commits on the spot...then that is a little unusual...

I think this is where the hang up with your thought process is on this topic. There is no info out there supporting that he wasn't being recruited by UNI. There may not have been overtures that a scholarship was coming, but that doesn't mean there wasn't serious recruitment. Not every kid out there thinks they are the top dawg deserving of an offer from a school. I think it's great that a kid was not only surprised, but genuinely excited about an offer from a school he wanted to go to. He didn't expect to get a scholy at the camp (even though that is what he has been working towards for the better part of his HS career), and thus was pleasantly surprised. Nothing wrong with that...and to all of the sudden get the media asking you your thoughts less than 10 hours after your commitment, I can imagine the excitement and sense of shock that may be exhibited. I think the fact that he had been thinking previously about accepting a scholarship shows that this is something he knew could be a possibility down the road (when he didn't know), and his connection to UNI with his Dad graduating from there is a tie that binds alot of kids. We often hear of legacy recruits who like to go to their parent(s)' alma mater.

I have only heard of this happening two other times...and both times it was also at a UNI camp with Anthony Davis (Clarinda) and Kerwin Dunham (Bondurant-Farrar) - both marginal D-I candidates from tiny high schools who got offers unexpectedly while attending a UNI camp!

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=35407&highlight=summer+camps#post35407

In fact, look at the words Dunham used...they mirror precisely what Buss said about his offer...
"Dunham, a 6 foot 4 inch junior-to-be, verbally committed Tuesday night to play basketball at Northern Iowa..
"It was very unexpected," Dunham said of the scholarship offer from Northern Iowa coach Greg McDermott. "I was surprised."
Dunham said McDermott made his pitch at a Northern Iowa camp which he attended Sunday and Monday in Cedar Falls.
Dunham excitedly went home to discuss the opportunity with his parents.."

http://www.panthernation.com/archive/index.php?t-218.html

In Iowa, based on the landscape, a majority of the communities/schools are from tiny towns as you would put it. Charles City was a small school according to you, as was Bondurant-Farrar (2A school that's essentially a suburb of Des Moines) and Clarinda (another Class 3A school---2nd largest classification in Iowa). Unfortunately, there are only about 50 schools in the 4A classification in Iowa, so not everyone is going to have great athletes. In fact, WDM Valley is I believe the largest HS and their basketball has been very subpar over the past decade or so. Tiny schools don't have much to do with things in Iowa, as most schools are just that in your book.

You can add Eglseder in the mix on being given a scholy offer after a summer camp. Dunham was a 2,000 point HS scorer who has played significantly for UNI over the past 2 years. He has started a quarter of his UNI games, and hit some huge shots for UNI last year with the game on the line. His career is nothing to sneeze at. He has been asked to be a role player, and has done a very solid job of it, especially defending taller guards or undersized posts. Eglseder may end up being the best post player to graduate from UNI, as he was healthy all last year (well, at least the regular season), and had some of the best production per minute stats in the league. When 7'0", you can't run them at 30 minutes per game, as their bodies tend to break down over the course of the season, IMO. However, he has really gotten in great shape this spring, and I think his senior year will be a very impressive one. Anthony Davis was offered out of HS at camp, and it was quickly found that his grades were going to be an issue. He eventually dropped off of his commitment, finished HS, took a year or two off, went to a Juco, and is currently at South Dakota State. With your subscription, you should ask Luke Feddersen about Anthony Davis' camp at UNI. He was there. He can tell you how much improvement he made in a span of a few months. He's still a D1 athlete, but had to go a different route. He could very well have gone to UNI and turned out better, faster, but that will never be known. Bottom line, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

BTW--
I have the IowaPreps subscription for 7 days, so here's the rap on Buss...

"Nathan Buss
Charles City
Position: Forward
IowaPreps.com Star Rating:
Previous Ranking: 64
Height: 6-foot-7
AAU Team: N/A
Offers: N/A
More: Buss is a load to stop with his 6-foot-7 frame and the skills needed to
hit the outside jumper. He will have high expectations surrounding him and
his team heading into his senior year."

Yes, he was unheralded going into last year. A 6'3"/6'4" post player usually is! He has grown to 6'8" (still growing), has added great offensive skills, and plays for arguably the best AAU program in the state of Iowa currently (Iowa Barnstormers). Adam Koch was the same way. Going into his junior year, he was not well known of...and he was in the middle of a major growth spurt. He put it all together and had a strong AAU summer. By the end, he had offers from UNI to Wichita State to West Virginia. I think UNI is probably trying to prevent Buss from getting out there in the AAU docket (which he will be participating in) and having his stock blow up. Bottom line is that he fits the mold of what UNI wants in a '4'. He can drive from the wing to the basket, hit contested 3 point shots, athletic and tall enough to guard the '5' if needed. We'll wait and see how it pans out.

if you wanna see what they say on anyone else...let me know soon before the subscrp. expires...
they have 2010, 2011, and 2012 rankings!

I don't think Luke would be very happy if he knew you were doing this.

[PTTB]

PTTB, I appriciate the scouting report but find it difficult to believe a kid from charles city Iowa was the best player at a camp with 40 other teams. Can you compare him to Jordan Prosser or other players I might know. If he can fill Adam Koch's shoes UNI would have a nice player...

BUFAN-

Thanks for the post. I guess I'm not sure why a kid from Charles City, IA would be hard for you to believe as being the best player at a UNI team camp. Greg Brunner was such a player just 6 or so years ago. As for his game assessment, I'll try my best. He's a thin 6'8"/190lbs (similar to Adam Koch his summer before senior year of HS). He has been compared to a "young Kevin Coble" by one recruiting website. His release on his shot is very high, even when shooting threes. He runs cross country (about 6 minute miles from what I have seen) so his endurance and stamina aren't a concern for a big guy. At camp, I saw him get the ball at the top of the key, take a couple dribbles and then pull up and drain a 3 with a 6'6" defender in his face. Another time he got the ball on the key, put a quick move on, dribble drived and finished at the hole. Another time, there was a couple spin moves with a mid range pull-up. He had another where he got the ball a couple feet off the block with back to the basket, elevated and turned in mid air, with a shot from above his head (all makes). I'm not saying that he hit every shot (far from it). He's not the second coming of Larry Bird. I'm just giving you an example of the type of play I saw from him at camp against teams that are from larger schools than Charles City (and from out of state). He needs to work on his left hand, get stronger, become a better defender down low, and learn to get every board close to him. Offensively, very talented. Defensively, a good amount of work needed.

In the Valley, I really can't think of another athlete to compare him to besides Koch. Most Valley bigs are more stiff, more back to the basket, or guys who hang out on the 3 point arc. I haven't seen Prosser play, so I don't know how they compare. Adam Koch also only played about 12 minutes a game as a freshman, so it's not expected of Nathan to come in and be a world beater. The post positions will be an interesting development as we'll see what O'Rear ends up doing. If he plays baseball, then it's possible that Nathan will be needed to play solid minutes a freshman. Hopefully, O'Rear returns and can provide a solid post presence with Jake Koch, Austin Pehl, Nate Buss, and another post recruit.

FWIW, Richwoods had a great tourney. They knocked off St. Paul Johnson which is a team with some future D1 athletes. One has a UNI offer (and tornado, he plays for 43Hoops and had an offer prior to camp) .

[PTTB]

two things differ with the Taylor Brown situation...
-first, Coach Les saw TB play in a competitive situation at a juco exposure event against a mix of other top juco kids and some other D-I players.
This UNI camp had the vast (99%) amount of the other players were high schoolers who are never going to play college ball.
Plus, team camps of this nature often force kids to play 4, 6, or even 8 games in a day! How can you judge the kid's talent or the strength of the competition he's playing against in such a team camp -- it's impossible.

-second...Coach probably NEVER would have even been at the juco event nor offered the scholarship, save for the fact it was a "leftover" scholarship that became open suddenly and unexpectedly with the departure of Rashad Austin.... Thus Coach Les wanted to fill it and not waste it for 2008-2009.
In this Nathan Buss situation, the kid won't even be on campus until fall of 2010! The coach has absolutely NO SUCH urgency about finding someone to take this scholarship to UNI! This is a totally different setting where maybe even a better player could emerge in the interval...plus, just read the story...sounds like the kid would have still gone to UNI, as that's where he wanted to go, even if the scholarship wasn't offered until next spring...or maybe he could have had the kid as a walk on....!

See, I think this is a difference in philosophy. UNI really tries to identify guys early in the process that they think can be molded into their team approach. UNI hasn't had a guy average close to 20 points per game, and that probably won't change with Jake as coach, no matter how good of an athlete he is. UNI's philosophy is not to wait around and string kids along with false hopes of scholarships or talk of walking-on, but rather to offer if a kid is worthy of a scholarship, and be honest if he's not. Will they lose a guy or two along the way? Probably...but I think Jake would rather be known as a coach who is up front and honest rather than allowing a kid to pass up other offers if he knows UNI probably won't offer a scholy. If a kid is good enough to get a UNI offer, then he's probably good enough to get other very competitive offers from D1 schools. No use in playing games an ruining relationships if the kid is good enough. UNI has gone to the walk-on route before, but usually it's a 4-for-5 or 3-for-5 route. True walk-ons aren't usually brought in until after the HS senior season is done. Most of UNI's walk-ons end up getting scholys eventually, and I think that's one reason they have had success with having program sustainability and continuity. They haven't really had the revolving door like other schools have. Sure, 1-2 kids will leave per year, but there are not mass exodus'.

At UNI, guys like Matt Schneiderman, Pete Schmit, Jared Josten, Jake Koch, Matt Morrison, and Brian Haak have been walk-ons who have gotten scholarships after 1-3 years in the program.

This camp that Buss played at was 3 games per day (Sat/Sun). He played against competition from larger schools in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Is it AAU ball? No, but it was solid competition nonetheless. As stated earlier, he has played AAU ball and been successful (see his St. Louis Eagles Invitational All-Tourney team). UNI didn't need to have a sense of urgency with the kid, but his play speaks for itself, and when he gets to more national/regional tourneys, I think he will turn some more heads. UNI has one more 'bigs' scholarship. They can be more selective if they want, but UNI usually has multiple offers out there, and they let each one know that it's first come, first serve. Things will happen probably quicker now that there is only one scholy for grabs, with about 4-5 having reported offers.

UNI doesn't go the Juco route as much as Bradley does, so I'm not sure if that's where the difference in philosophy lies. I'm not sure if the Juco connections allow Bradley to be more selective than UNI, but you also have to realize that UNI's a totally different school than Bradley, too. We don't have the metro area, the rich HS and JC talent in our back yard, nor the history to reel recruits in. UNI's more recent history has been better and more consistent, IMO, than Bradley's, but UNI cannot afford to get guys in the spring, as they don't have the best luck with those guys (Jon Montgomery, Matt Culliver, and Michael Williams to name a few). Our early signee guys typically do alot better.

[tornado]

wow-- all I said was that it was quite unusual for a coach to offer and get a verbal from a kid unexpectedly at a camp...and other than the couple kids I noted that also happened at a UNI camp, I doubt you can find another example of it happening anywhere.
Remember....both Buss & Dunham said flatly it was a complete surprise, and the older articles on Davis said the same thing...a complete surprise.
In fact I recall one of the articles on Davis also said he had never heard from the UNI coaching staff even one time prior to getting the offer.
Eglseder is a completely different story-- as he had said openly and publicly that he wanted to go to UNI ever since he was in 8th grade, and of course the coaching staff was well aware of him.
In this discussion, I am only talking about the really obscure kids who are totally surprised by the offer because they had no idea the coaching staff was even recruiting them. I suppose most kids, especially a 14 or 15 year old, would be "surprised" by their very first offer ever, but almost always it comes from a coach that's been watching and tracking the kid for quite some time!!

[PTTB]

Eglseder was a 14 year old kid who had just completed his freshman year of HS, where he played exactly one varsity minute. He never publicly said he wanted to go to UNI prior to his commitment. He liked UNI because it's where his HS hero (Robbie Sieverding) went. He didn't play AAU ball. He is just like the other 2, if that's how you want to categorize them. I just wanted to clarify the truth there.

Yes, both Dunham and Buss were surprised, but for Dunham (who didn't have any offers at that point), wouldn't you be surprised when you get your first offer...not knowing when it's going to come, but fully working towards it? These kids don't have the sense of entitlement that is so prevalent in today's society. There is something very impressive and encouraging, IMO. Buss was getting other offers per his AAU Coach on Twit, but I don't know at what level. He was being known about, as stated before. Regardless of that, both Dunham and Buss were not completely 'unknown of'. Dunham knew there was UNI interest, but when he's going to be a junior in HS (in early June), there is not alot of true recruitment that can take place as coaches can just begin to start calling I believe. Not a big deal, but I felt the need to clarify some of the inaccuracies.