Iowa State/Greg McDermott land Decatur Recruit

[tornado]

Class of 2007 Decatur Christian senior Lucca Staiger has verbally accepted a scholarship offer from iowa State.

http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/stgerisu.html

Decatur Christian has updated their basketball roster page, and this kid Staiger must be well under the radar, as he isn't even listed on thier roster page.
http://decaturchristian.net/Page.aspx?id=1820

[Bravesguy]

Not sure if any of the present players were there last year, but here's how Decatur Christian finished 2005-2006
The were 14-15, and only 4-8 in their conference against some pretty soft opponents. I saw both Judah Christian and Normal Calvary play, and they are both very, very weak.

http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/ECIC/boys%20basketball/basketball%20index.htm

[chitownBUB]

Here is the 2005-2006 Decatur Christian roster.
Most of the current players were not there

Decatur Christian Varsity Boys Basketball 05-06
Players name Class Jersey# Position Height Weight

Darin Schoonover Sr 50 C/F 6' 2 195
Matt Thacker Sr 22 G 5' 11 155
Josh Artime Sr 20 G 5' 10 150
Adam Bone Sr 12 G/F 6' 160
Blake Wharton Sr 32 F 6' 2 175
Ian James Sr 23 G 5' 8 145
Brad Clark Jr 3 G 5' 8 160
John Taylor Jr 42 G 5' 8 135
Brian Bond Jr 35 F 6' 130
Joel Johnson So 13 G 5' 7 110
Michael Grady Fr 40 C/F 5' 9 150
John Reimer Fr 33 G 6' 125
Michel Ellis Fr 10 G 5' 9 120

[collegehoopjunkie]

Lucca Staiger has never attended any school in the US before.
He is highly touted in international play and did well at a few camps this summer in the US, thus prompting him to look for a school in the US to play at this year.
He might turn out to be a fine player, but he is indeed under the radar.
If he does enroll and play at Decatur Christian, then he still needs to come up with a transcript that is sufficient for Big XII and NCAA qualification.
And just how challenging is it going to be for a BCS-type basketball recruit to play that level of competition, like Normal Calvary Baptist and Judah Christian. Didn't NCB even have one girl on their baseball team a couple years ago?
Calvary Baptist's and Judah Christian's basketball teams are roughly on par with most junior high teams.

[tornado]

There is an article this morning that says this commitment by Staiger could indirectly help out a certain Valley team.
Here's how---
Another very fine eastern prep school player, P???‚¬?„?Allen Stinnett (THREE-STAR), had Iowa State at the top of his list.
Stinnette is a 5th year SG presently at Brewster Academy (same place Dodie Dunson went),
and since Iowa State just got Staiger--who will be a SG for McDermott, Stinnette might just want to reconsider his choice.
His other choices are said to be,
"Idaho, Creighton, Arizona State, and Seton Hall, that???‚¬?„?s it right now. I???‚¬?„?m going to visit Creighton and I???‚¬?„?m still talking with ASU."

Then when asked " the fact that Iowa State just signed a guard, does that have an impact on your decision?"....

His answer:
"I don???‚¬?„?t really know what???‚¬?„?s going on now. Of course it does."
(per Dave Telep).

So it sounds like this is a nice situation for Creighton to step in.

[squeaky]

I thought Creighton was out of scholarships for 2007?

[tornado]

That's interesting.
This interview with the 3-STAR Stinnette is obviously quite current as it includes a question about the verbal to Iowa State by Staiger, so surely Stinnette would know what Creighton's situation is, and yet he says he's going there soon, and lists Creighton right at the forefront of his short list.
Hopefully one of the Bluejay fans lurking will help us out.



By the way, I am not a full believer that Grag McDermott is a great recruiter.
He gets the most of his players, and is a good in-game coach, but he has had to do it with players who are not the tops in the Valley, and maybe a bit overachievers.
But I just don't think he will be able to pull off the same trick at a BCS/Big XII school. Now he will have to land the best, top level talent. For starters, players like Dodie Dunson and Lucca Staiger are in the same mold as midmajor players.

The McDermott record:

5 years at Northern Iowa:

2001-2002 through 2005-2006.
Overall record: 90-63
MVC Tourney record 5-4
NCAA Tourney record: 0-3.


He never won a regular season Valley title.
He won one Valley Tournament, but was 2-4 in the other 4 years in the Valley tourney.
He never won an NCAA game.
He never had a single year at UNI that he didn't lose double digit losses. (5-year avg was 12.2 losses per year)

[tornado]

I thought Creighton was out of scholarships for 2007?

That's interesting.
This interview with the 3-STAR Stinnette is obviously quite current as it includes a question about the verbal to Iowa State by Staiger, so surely Stinnette would know what Creighton's situation is, and yet he says he's going there soon, and lists Creighton right at the forefront of his short list.
Hopefully one of the Bluejay fans lurking will help us out.



By the way, I am not a full believer that Grag McDermott is a great recruiter.
He gets the most of his players, and is a good in-game coach, but he has had to do it with players who are not the tops in the Valley, and maybe a bit overachievers.
But I just don't think he will be able to pull off the same trick at a BCS/Big XII school. Now he will have to land the best, top level talent. For starters, players like Dodie Dunson and Lucca Staiger are in the same mold as midmajor players.

The McDermott record:

5 years at Northern Iowa:

2001-2002 through 2005-2006.
Overall record: 90-63
MVC Tourney record 5-4
NCAA Tourney record: 0-3.


He never won a regular season Valley title.
He won one Valley Tournament, but was 2-4 in the other 4 years in the Valley tourney.
He never won an NCAA game.
He never had a single year at UNI that he didn't lose double digit losses. (5-year avg was 12.2 losses per year)

Now the news is being reported that one of Dana Altman's new recruits this year, D'Angalo Jackson has apparently left school.
Not sure of the details, but this seems to answer the question of where Altman was going to get that extra scholarship to give to Stinnett.
Too bad for Jackson, as he has not played even one minute in a game yet.