Illinois State signs another highly rated player

[Da Coach]

Illinois State lands MiKyle McIntosh, a highly regarded Canadian wing forward-

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/isu-basketball-lands-mcintosh/article_17f2d7c2-be45-11e2-8afd-0019bb2963f4.html

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-MiKyle-McIntosh-145999;_ylt=Aq.sWTYvmKXaAeBQoewQHKbXO5B4

[mvcfan]

On film and paper he appears to be the real deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdheU_2-gX8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqL6ZHg4suA

[BeBrave]

What do you mean "another" highly rated player?

What other highly rated player have they signed?

[tornado]

the guy they just signed was being recruited (reportedly) to Kentucky by Calipari..and was MVP of the Kentucky High School All Star Game

http://www.nationofblue.com/could-there-be-a-new-addition-to-the-2013-class/

http://kentuckysportsradio.com/?p=13...y+Sports+Radio)

[BeBrave]

the guy they just signed was being recruited (reportedly) to Kentucky by Calipari..and was MVP of the Kentucky High School All Star Game

http://www.nationofblue.com/could-there-be-a-new-addition-to-the-2013-class/

http://kentuckysportsradio.com/?p=13...y+Sports+Radio)

He wasn't recruited by Kentucky.

MiKyle McIntosh @MervM_22 2h
"Contrary to reports, I have not been in contact with kentucky or have they reviewed my transcripts. The info given has been false."

[mvcfan]

http://maryklineclassic.com/senior-roster/

He will be playing in this all-star game with some pretty good talent.

[Monmouth_Bradley_Fan]

Big time signing for the Birds. They have been holding their breaths on this one for a while. Not sure who else was actually recruiting him other than Seton Hall, Fresno state, and Oregon. Many teams "look" at players. None-the-less, definitely a good get for the Birds.

[Da Coach]

What do you mean "another" highly rated player?

What other highly rated player have they signed?

I am no expert on ISU recruiting, but they have signed :
Zach Lofton, a juco stud who is one of the highest scoring freshmen in the NJCAA and who had interest from several high major schools.

They also signed big man Michael Middlebrooks who is ranked on several lists of Top junior college players and was one of the top shot blockers in the country, as well as ranked near the top of all juco players in shooting percentage.

They signed Bobby Hunter, who also was on most lists of Top juco players and averaged over 25 ppg at his junior college, second in the entire country among juco players.

And I think they signed another high-scoring juco guard named Daishon Knight, who is also ranked on a couple Top 100 juco player lists and averaged about 20 ppg at a high level juco.

There might be more, but I don't have time to look them up right now. On paper, I think most people would have to admit their recruiting class looks pretty impressive- all of these guys are starters on their teams, most are leading scorers or rebounders, and they all average more than 8.5 points per game.

[BeBrave]

I am no expert on ISU recruiting, but they have signed :
Zach Lofton, a juco stud who is one of the highest scoring freshmen in the NJCAA and who had interest from several high major schools.

They also signed big man Michael Middlebrooks who is ranked on several lists of Top junior college players and was one of the top shot blockers in the country, as well as ranked near the top of all juco players in shooting percentage.

They signed Bobby Hunter, who also was on most lists of Top juco players and averaged over 25 ppg at his junior college, second in the entire country among juco players.

And I think they signed another high-scoring juco guard named Daishon Knight, who is also ranked on a couple Top 100 juco player lists and averaged about 20 ppg at a high level juco.

There might be more, but I don't have time to look them up right now. On paper, I think most people would have to admit their recruiting class looks pretty impressive- all of these guys are starters on their teams, most are leading scorers or rebounders, and they all average more than 8.5 points per game.

They signed a couple OK JUCOs. Many of them had low to medium interest from other quality schools. No highly rated players.

Paris Lee from Proviso is probably their second best pickup after McIntosh.

I don't even think any of the guys over on redbirdfan are calling any of those JUCOs "highly rated".

[BeBrave]

but I didn't see the Pantagraph run a column by their beat writer claiming it was one of the best recruiting classes of historical proportions....
or one of the best 2 or 3 recruiting classes at ISU since the 80's

Because before today their class was sub-par! Dumpster diving for JUCOs. It's still not that great. Swopshire is rated higher on ESPN than McIntosh on ESPN.

[AZ BU Fan]

Are you sure McIntosh isn't a (left or right) wing-er?

Unless ISUR is going to let their MBB players use hockey sticks, jury will be out on any Canadians playing MBB in the US...

[tornado]

Swop might be a fine player but his ratings are affected by tons of hype and publicity when he was a sophomore - most of which has dropped way, way off and every recruiting service knows it - all except ESPN who virtually never upgrade anything -
as proof - they still have Devon Hodges rated at the same level he was when he verballed to Wisconsin..and Hodges is way, way higher than Swopshire!

anyway - ESPN's rankings on most kids are the worst of all the rating services...they have Michael Tucker at one of the worst rankings they ever give any kid - while ranking some players like Moussa Gueye who has been a horrific flop and didn't even play his last year before going to Alabama- he's ranked sky-high!

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/databaseresults?firstname=mike&lastname=tucker&class=2014&starsfilter=GT&stars=0&ratingfilter=GT&rating=&positionrank=&sportid=4294960524&collegeid=&conference=&visitmonth=&visityear=&statuscommit=Commitments&statusuncommit=Uncommited&honor=&region=&state=&height=&weight=

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/databaseresults?firstname=moussa&lastname=gueye&class=2011&starsfilter=GT&stars=0&ratingfilter=GT&rating=&positionrank=&sportid=4294960524&collegeid=&conference=&visitmonth=&visityear=&statuscommit=Commitments&statusuncommit=Uncommited&honor=&region=&state=&height=&weight=

[Da Coach]

They signed a couple OK JUCOs. Many of them had low to medium interest from other quality schools. No highly rated players.

Paris Lee from Proviso is probably their second best pickup after McIntosh.

I don't even think any of the guys over on redbirdfan are calling any of those JUCOs "highly rated".

I can't agree- all their juco sophs are listed in Top 150 rankings, and considering there are 10,000+ kids playing junior college basketball, that puts them in some highly rated territory. And Lofton may be better than the others, but isn't listed because he is a freshman. I think Muller has done a great job of filling his roster with kids who will contribute right away.

I can't say what the guys on Redbirdfan are saying, since I don't read that board, but my opinions wouldn't be based on what they think anyway. I suscribe to a number of recruiting sites that cover high school and junior college, and my opinion is based more on objective info from the people who have seen these kids, or know much more about them.

[mvcfan]

I can't agree- all their juco sophs are listed in Top 150 rankings, and considering there are 10,000+ kids playing junior college basketball, that puts them in some highly rated territory. And Lofton may be better than the others, but isn't listed because he is a freshman. I think Muller has done a great job of filling his roster with kids who will contribute right away.

I can't say what the guys on Redbirdfan are saying, since I don't read that board, but my opinions wouldn't be based on what they think anyway. I suscribe to a number of recruiting sites that cover high school and junior college, and my opinion is based more on objective info from the people who have seen these kids, or know much more about them.

Yeah, dumpster diving for Jucos is not what is going on. The Samuel kid is the only real head scratcher. You guys couldn't be more right on about ESPN. Their recruiting info is not even worth reading unless they are top 25 talent.

[Mikovio]

I give more credence to offers on the table than anything because the way I see it, the 340 D-I staffs have more on the line when scouting than some guy who's hawking magazines in his spare time. Anyway, ISU's class looked pretty mediocre until their last two signings of Knight and McIntosh. This is courtesy of Redbird Recon on MVCFans:

Hunter- Iona, Coastal Carolina, Jacksonville
Middlebrooks- None
Lofton- Duquesne, UW-Milwaukee
Samuel- UMKC
Lee- SIU, Loyola (IL), UW-Green Bay, Western Michigan
Wills- None
Lynch- Missouri State, Drake, La Salle, Northeastern
Knight- SLU
McIntosh- UCLA, Miami (FL)


You can tell me that one of these players averaged 30 ppg in JUCO, but if they can do that while only getting an offer from Iona, that should raise some eyebrows. It looks like a good class now though, but I still think ours is better. Hopefully BU and ISU are duking it out for Valley titles and Dance cards in the near future.

For comparison, Bradley recruits' reported offers:

Swopshire -- VCU, George Washington
Fields -- Stanford
Grier -- None (canceled visits to Xavier and Colorado)
Barnes -- Detroit (canceled visit to Colorado State)
Blake -- Boston U., Wofford (canceled visit to Colorado State)
Taylor -- Kansas State
Shaw -- Tennessee, DePaul