Illinois State loses 2 players

[DannyCooksey]

but I have indeed seen claims that guys like Vianney and Dinma were solid, in DO's case had international playing experience and would help the team right away.
And there is a reason Fortes didn't get off the pine until the Valley season was done and sealed for the 'Birds, and it is because of completely absent, porous defensive abilities.

solid, yes. "Great"......never. there is a big difference.

Odiakosa made faster progress than Vianney did. Odiakosa started quite a few games and was a help defensively and on the glass. He is further along, but far from a finished product. The international playing experience, while valuable, is blown way out of proportion. His time playing the game is very short compared to American players. he has some nice tools to work with, the staff is trying to help him use those tools consistently. I believe in many instances, Odiakosa did indeed help the team right away. This didn't show in more wins unfortunately, but outside of Tunnel at Indy St., I can't think of a better freshman inside player in the league last year.

I agree on Fortes. He said so in many late season interviews that the reason he wasn't playing earlier was his poor defense. He blamed no one but himself for that fact. With Porter, if you can't defend, you can't play. This will not change, but we should be able to have more of a scoring punch next season. we surely can't get worse.

[collegehoopjunkie]

..., I can't think of a better freshman inside player in the league last year.
.

Can't really disagree, but only by default as the Valley is not at all strong with freshman big guys.
But even though he only played 7 games,
freshman Sam Singh scored 2.4 points, 2.3 rebs in 8 min/game, compared Odiakosa's 1.3 points, 2.1 rebs in 9 minutes/game.

In other words, even though Odiakosa played three times as many minutes as Singh, he only scored 7 points more than Singh who redshirted.

[tornado]

Mark Kruse has already received his release from ISU and has committed to Division II University of North Dakota, which plays in the same conference as Minnesota-Mankato who BU played last year. He joins at least one of his prior juco teammates there.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/sports/colleges/university_of_north_dakota/14210130.htm

[DannyCooksey]

but only by default as the Valley is not at all strong with freshman big guys.

I agree with this. I will be interested to see the development of both Singh and Dinma and how they compare over 4 years.

In regards to the production by Dinma, I hate to beat a dead horse, but our PG play was soooooooo poor last year that it would have been hard for anyone to make any impact on the blocks. We are all hopeful this situation gets rectified once and for all this coming season.

We have a talented junior from Minnesota who will sign in the Fall with us that's a true PG, so hopefully we will finally get that albatross taken care of. A JUCO bridge for a couple seasons until Alex Rubin is ready to take over. I never thought I'd miss Vince Greene and Randy Rice so much.

[cpacmel]

First of, cpac, read the link you provide!!
It starts off with an interview with a junior college coach who calls the column writer out for writing stuff that just isn't true!!
The whole thing pretty much calls into question the credibility of this guy "Mike Mitchell" who writes this silly blog for some paper out in the boonies of Southeast Missouri.
But OK, if you want to use him as your source......

I have learned that when you hear the statement "being pursued by" or "being recruited by" all it means is that the kid has gotten a call from one of the coaching staff or they have been out to see him.
Clearly it doesn't mean the kid got an offer, because if you just look a bit further down in your same link, you find this:
"As for Dom Johnson, he wants to go to Mizzou. He's just waiting on the scholarship offer."

Obviously that actual offer never came, and the kid is weighing other possible offers such as ISU.
Have you not seen stories on recruits who list 12-15 different BCS programs as interested or offering, then the kid ends up going to North Dakota State or somewhere similar.
Just goes to show that those kids were blowing smoke about "offers" and I think that's the case with this kid Johnson.
If he ends up at Illinois State, I guarantee you it does NOT mean Porter beat out Missouri, Auburn, and Bradley.

Any way, can you tell me why Porter Moser would even want another NON-point guard who has as many turnovers and he has assists? Isn't that exactly what you have so many of that they are transferring elsewhere.
And do you think ISU still any chance of signing Hannah?

First of all junkie, Don't kill the messenger. If you read the link, it never said "being recruited by" or "being pursued by".

It SAID is being courted by. Take that for whatever you want. Just don't be a jag about it.

As far as the source, it's a newspaper in SE Missouri. Why are you taking it so personal? It doesn't say anything about Johnson being Bradley's #1 target or anything like that. The article is also alittle old, since it quotes the SEMO coach who is no longer at SEMO.

Johnson averaged 29 points a game his senior year in high school. He was all-state in 3 of his 4 years in high school. If that's under the radar, okay.

[MickeyT]

Looks like ISU will get a Dominitrix--
Three Rivers guard Dominitrix Johnson made an official visit to Illinois State over the weekend, and confirmed Wednesday that he gave a verbal commitment to the Redbirds. He said he won't take a final scheduled visit to Bradley.

http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/sports/entry/10205/

http://interact.cstv.com/recruiting/pros_card_frames.cfm?recruit_id=1105&sport=basketball&dbyear=05

[BU fan]

According to JuCo Junction, his only offer came from ISU. It sounds like Bradley was also recruiting him, but he took the offer over last weekend when the ISU coach made it.

http://jucojunction.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?Sport=2&pr_key=50778

He sounds like a score-first type of guard. According to the Pantagraph article he averaged 15.8 points, 88 assists and 80 turnovers his soph year at Three Rivers CC.

Does this mean ISU is no longer after Stefhon Hannah?

[DannyCooksey]

Does this mean ISU is no longer after Stefhon Hannah?

No it doesn't mean that at all. Porter has said he wants 2 PG's for the 3 scholly's. Dom is a guy that can easily slide over to the 2-spot.

I would say we are still pursuing him. I hope we are anyway. The thing is, Stef had such a huge year that he may be bound for a BCS league. I hope we can still land him, though.

That said, I am pleased with this commit as we desperately need a guy who can run the show and also score points.

[user1]

A brand new article on the premium side of jucojunction says Stefhon Hannah (ever source spells Stefhon's first name differently!) is getting BCS type looks and that Greg McDermott's action of hiring one of the Chipola coaches as his Iowa State assistant is for the sole purpose of getting an inside line on signing a couple of the Chipola kids, so look for Iowa State to maybe get Hannah and Michael Taylor.

[DannyCooksey]

yeah i saw that too. I couldn't access the premium article, but I figured that was the deal.

McDermott would be smart as that Chipola roster is loaded with talent.

I hope the Redbirds can still land Hannah, however.