Drake's top recruit fails to qualify

[Da Coach]

The top rated recruit for Drake for 2007 was Wendell Faines, a 6'8" forward from Omaha. He was a 3-star recruit who had gotten interest from Illinois and several major schools.--

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4053

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=2&pr_key=48537

But he apparently has failed to qualify and won't be enrolling at Drake. He will probably go to a juco.
Here is the 2007-2008 roster that was just posted on the Drake site--

http://www.godrakebulldogs.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=15700&KEY=&SPID=8121&SPSID=71123

Their other incoming recruits are--
Josh Parker- a freshman 6' combo guard
Ryan Daniels- a 6'1" juco guard who will be a sophomore
Alex White- a 6'6" juco forward
John Michael Hall- a 6'5" juco wing guard

[real fan]

Looks to be a small sized team.

[DUBulldog]

Re: Drake's top recruit fails to qualify

The top rated recruit for Drake for 2007 was Wendell Faines, a 6'8" forward from Omaha. He was a 3-star recruit who had gotten interest from Illinois and several major schools.--

Drake fans started hearing rumors of this about 6 weeks ago.....and we figured it must be true when it was announced that Adam Templeton was transferring from UCI to Drake....if Faines was coming, there wouldn't have been a scholarship for Templeton.

Suspicions were further raised when Faines didn't play in the summer league here....the listing of the roster a couple of days ago confirmed it.

Despite his *** rating at Rivals.com, he almost certainly would have redshirted this season (from VERY good sources). He has good size, he is athletic, but he is far from being a finished product.

Just as an FYI....he's actually from Lincoln, not Omaha.

[chitownBUB]

DUBulldog, I know your guys don't play in the same summer league as the Creighton guys do, but tell me a little about these summer leagues where several guys from the same college team can play together.
It seems like this defies logic. Wouldn't you think if all the guys from Creighton, including Anthony Tolliver, all played on the same team, that they'd beat up on just about anyone else in the league?
Instead, I read this article in the Omaha World-Herald that the Creighton guys lost to a team full of players from a D-II school in South Dakota, and yet the writer says that "didn't matter".
Are these summer league games any measure of what's going on?

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1200&u_sid=10078839

I guess what I wonder is you can't have it both ways.
If losing to a bunch of D-II guys doesn't matter, then how can anyone be so "giddy" as they say in this article, even if some of their players look good, since there isn't much defense being played in these 121-117 games.

[DUBulldog]

DUBulldog, I know your guys don't play in the same summer league as the Creighton guys do, but tell me a little about these summer leagues where several guys from the same college team can play together.
It seems like this defies logic. Wouldn't you think if all the guys from Creighton, including Anthony Tolliver, all played on the same team, that they'd beat up on just about anyone else in the league?

The way I understand the NCAA rule is that you can have no more than 2 returning players from the same school on the same summer league team. In the Des Moines league, the teams split up the Iowa State and Drake returning players in such a way that there's no more than 2 from each school on any given team.

But, you can apparently then add as many incoming recruits from one school as you want to any given team. I think the "Creighton" team in the Omaha summer league consists of 2 returning players, several incoming players and several former players. So, it's not truly the Creighton team.

You can't make too many solid conclusions from watching these summer leagues. You can tell if a kid has athleticism, and you can see what their shot looks like.....but, you can't really judge their game on what is basically a glorified playground game.

The average score in the Des Moines league is probably about 105-95, which is actually down quite a bit from a few years ago. It isn't that there is no defense being played, but there is little to no team defense being played. If you beat your man off the dribble, you can pretty much go in unmolested.

The defenders also don't typically get right out on the shooters. Or, you might see a guy from Iowa State or Drake being guarded by a high school kid, or a D-3 player. So, you might see a guy make 8-10 three-pointers in a summer league game, and then not make that many the entire season.....it's a whole different thing when they're out on you and you have to get the shot off quickly.

But.....I still enjoy watching the games, and I enjoy getting a chance to see Drake's incoming players.

[PTTB]

I agree with what DUBulldog said. You can't tell much from these games, but it gets people excited. It gives people a chance to talk about UNI or Drake basketball in the summer when it's usually pretty quiet. It definitely builds interest in the programs. It also gets the incoming players used to playing at the next level without beating their brains in! They get enough of that when they play pickup ball. Plus, they get to face other competition. For UNI in the PTL, it took the novelty off of facing the guys from Iowa. When they took the floor that November/December, they really weren't phased. They knew their opponents weaknesses, knew that they were just as good if not better than most of the Iowa players, and just built confidence. These are fun leagues, but not alot of stock should be put in them.

[LincolnJay]

Also, it's a D1 rule only and the D2's, NAIA's can have their entire team there - and they do - about 4 or 5 of the teams are entire college teams. Not only that, but their coaches can show up and watch - and they do. D1 coaches can't be there.

The South Dakota team is pretty good and they actually run real offensive and defensive sets. The D1 and pro kids are chuckin' 3's and making And1 plays.

VERY entertaining and you can certainly get a feel for the games of some of the new kids and their potential but you really can't draw any conclusions. That said, the Creighton team has beaten the Nebraska team 2 out of 2 this year and that's a good thing!

[DUBulldog]

This article from the Lincoln Journal-Star makes it sound like it was an athletic decision, as opposed to an academic one.

http://journalstar.com/articles/2007/07/30/sports/prep_extra/doc46ad64dca7286022688697.txt

The prep school craze hasn???‚¬?„?t fully reached Nebraska yet.

Maybe Wendell Faines can be the pioneer, as the former Northeast basketball star will attend Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Va., this year.

Faines was planning on playing for Drake this season, but instead is going the prep school route.

This doesn???‚¬?„?t mean the 6-foot-8 forward has abandoned Drake. Faines said he still is planning on playing one day for the Bulldogs and that Drake initiated the idea of him playing at a prep school.

???‚¬?“I???‚¬?„?m still committed to Drake,???‚¬?? Faines said. ???‚¬?“I wanted another year to mature a little more. I want to mature my game.???‚¬??

From what I hear, Drake had intended to redshirt Faines next season anyway. This way, he can play ball in the 2007-08 season and still have 4 years of eligibility. If he is telling the truth about still being commited to Drake, he'll sign a letter of intent this fall.