Forrester Lands First Commit at SIUE

[scout4126]

http://www.midstatehoops.com/articles/2007/garriottcommits.html

Aaron Garriott of Bloomington Central Catholic. He was actually considering BU as well.

[Big Mike]

I think Forrester will do fine @ SIUE!

[tornado]

Lennox Forrester has already landed recruits, but Garriott is the first one for next year.

http://www.siue.edu/ATHLETIC/MBB/20072008/0716.html

http://www.siue.edu/ATHLETIC/MBB/20072008/0621.html

http://www.siue.edu/ATHLETIC/MBB/20072008/0413.html

[scout4126]

Pretty impressive. A little bit on the recruits that I know a good deal about.

Garriott - Was recruited by a lot of mid major schools during the high school season but didn't garner many offers. A lot of schools weren't sold on him but did have a good amount of interest. Denver and North Dakota were the other two to offer him. Bradley had a high amount of interest but didn't get to evaluate him until the BU Elite Camp and didn't see him much after that so they couldn't offer only having seeing him play on one occaision. Utah State was high on him as well. Loyola-Chicago, Wright State, Indiana State, and Lehigh were other schools seriously involved.

Williams - Terrance Williams had offers from seven D1 programs including MIZZOU, Southern Illinois-Carbondale, New Mexico, Wyoming, Fresno State, Ball State, and Illinois-Chicago. Indiana and Oklahoma also had a good amount of interest as they saw potential but never got around to offering him. He was an absolute STEAL for Lennox and crew!

Gray - Gray is small but has a great game. In his first season at Western Illinois he caused havoc for the UI guards defending him. He's a quick point guard that was underrecruited out of high school. He landed at UIC after having complications with the relationship with his coach at WIU (which a lot of players seem to have). UIC was just too rough and didn't have enough discipline off the court making it hard to win on the court so he decided to transfer to SIU-E. He will be a D2 all-american this season, mark my words.

Don't know much about Parker or Bundalo and we all know about Saihou.

[Braves4Life]

Thanks for the great info Scout

[tornado]

More on Garriott to SIU-E ...Garriott had four D-I offers, but still chose
SIU-E because of Lennox Forrester and the opportunity for early playing time.

http://pantagraph.com/articles/2007/08/28/sports/doc46d33ab529cd5510897509.txt

[BUBraves06]

It looks like Coach Forrester is off to a great start.

[Cavan Walsh]

I have talked to Aaron many times and text message him often. I was not able to break his commit for other reasons, but I have talked to him about it. Him and his dad went for a visit he really liked how the visit went the day before. The next morning at breakfast Aaron told Coach Forrestor that he was commiting Lennox stood up and gave him a big hug. Garriot has longed for an opportunity to play for a college within the state lines. Other that Coach Forrestor at SIU-E he will get it done what makes it an enticing option is that they proposed 3 million dollars in gym rennovations. When it got to the chancellor he more than doubled it raising it 7 million in gym upgrades. Look for more surprises when it comes to SIU-E recruiting!

[tornado]

Thanks Cavan, your expertise is always welcome here.
BTW-- were you and Daniel buddies before your days of covering prep basketball?

[bert notorius]

A college coach promising early playing time as a recruiting tactic???? What a novel idea! Garriot may be part of the last dominant class out of BCCHS with Wulbrun stepping down and lots of internal power-struggling going on.

[tornado]

A college coach promising early playing time as a recruiting tactic???? What a novel idea! Garriot may be part of the last dominant class out of BCCHS with Wulbrun stepping down and lots of internal power-struggling going on.

They certainly have had a lot of great talent over there in Bloomington, but I am still puzzled why nobody from the Bloomington area has made it downstate in recent years.

BHS lost to Richwoods in the Supersectional in 2006 but fell short of making it to Peoria, but before that you have to go back to 2002 when BCC lost in the quarters to Pleasant Plains.

With all the talent, the last time Bloomington HS made it beyond their regionals before 2006 you have to go all the way back to 1975! And the time before that was (seriously) 1930!
U-High had some great success in the 90's but has fallen off also.

[scout4126]

Bloomington-Normal has had a lot of talent over the past few years.

Bloomington-
Justin Bocot - SIU (07)
Dodie Dunson - Iowa State (05)
Brandon Holtz - Illinois State (05)

Central Catholic-
Brandon Dunson - Chattanooga (07)
Aaron Garriott - SIU-E (0
Justin Safford - Missouri (06)

Normal West-
Tom Howland - Ball State (03)
Warren Moore - Arkansas Pine Bluff (07)

And these are just the DI players. It doesn't include Kevin Ratszch of BHS who is an all-conference player at a DII in the Dakotas, Delano Robinson of U-High who is playing at a DII in Minnesota, Matt Pelton of BCC whose getting major minutes at Augusta and many others. Also, the players that transferred away have succeeded as well. Kevin Woods is now at Utah Valley State, last I heard Jordan Smith who went to BHS had a few DI offers as well. Plus there are a lot of up and coming DI candidates-D'mitri Riggs (BHS), Tywon Howard (BHS), Tom Norton (BCC), TJ Riggs (BHS), Javon Bell (NCWHS), and a few others.

The problem is coaching! No reason BHS shouldn't be at state on a YEAR IN YEAR OUT basis! Also, BCC should have been to state these past 2 seasons but have been there the most recent out of any B-N area schools.

[tornado]

You might be right.
The BHS team from 2005 had four future D-I kids and two more solid D-II players,
and still couldn't even get out of their home-court regional, losing to a mediocre
Normal Community team that didn't have anyone who was going to be playing either D-I or D-I, and who went right on and lost their next game.

[scout4126]

You might be right.
The BHS team from 2005 had four future D-I kids and two more solid D-II players,
and still couldn't even get out of their home-court regional, losing to a mediocre
Normal Community team that didn't have anyone who was going to be playing either D-I or D-I, and who went right on and lost their next game.

Josh Bronke did go NAIA from that team and Chris Drennan went DIII but that's no excuse. And honestly, the reason was not talent...The NCHS coach is not a very good coach at all and still won which should give you an indication of how good BHS's former coach was. By the way, he had the worst record at IWU than they've had in the last decade in his debut season.

[collegehoopjunkie]

That's too bad, I think he's from right here in Morton