Chicago Marshall star Ryan Hare verbals to SIU

[Da Coach]

Ryan Hare was visiting Southern Illinois this weekend. Tonight he made a verbal commitment to the Salukis. It has been reported that hare has not yet qualified.
SIU is already over the limit of scholarships, further confirming that multiple players are leaving.--

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

http://yourseason.suntimes.com/boys_basketball/892867,041308bbkhare.article

[Da Coach]

Ryan Hare retook the ACT yesterday (4/12) to try to get a qualifying score--

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/highschool/boysbasketball/cs-080410-ryan-hare-southern-illinois,1,1971596.story

[Lakeview Brave]

SIU has an amazing recruiting class, alot of very good four year players. They may be down a little next year but they are going to be really good in 2.

[BradleyBrave]

Is it safe to assume that SIU has decided to 'play the game' with the Chicago Public League?

[Da Coach]

SIU has an amazing recruiting class, alot of very good four year players. They may be down a little next year but they are going to be really good in 2.

Not so fast-- it depends on how many of them qualify.

But they do fit the SIU mold. Good, athletic guards that can't shoot.

Note- Bradley had recruited Ryan Hare, but they dropped him from their recruiting list weeks ago.

[Da Coach]

Is it safe to assume that SIU has decided to 'play the game' with the Chicago Public League?

I think Lowery is playing that game. The proof includes the fact that he just put Lance Irvin on the payroll.

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=8158&highlight=irvin

[Lakeview Brave]

True they all need to qualify but if they do make it to the floor the combonation of Dillard, Roundtree, Booker and Hare will be scary in a few years.

[BradleyBrave]

True they all need to qualify but if they do make it to the floor the combonation of Dillard, Roundtree, Booker and Hare will be scary in a few years.

That class certainly has a good 'national' look to it. I think it's a reflection of both SIU's and the conference's success the last few years. I think the level of talent being recruited league-wide is rising, and I think SIU's class is a reflection of that. I think ours will be too.

[tornado]

Per a report on the Illinois premium board,
"Hare took the ACT yesterday and needs to improve his score to be eligible"

...he has apparently taken the test 3 times and not achieved a qualifying score, so this probably explains why schools have stayed away from Hare.
Apparently this is the plan, though for Lowery, to go after the non-qualifiers, find a way to get them into school and get tuition paid, then get them qualified while on-campus. This is what they did to get Justin Bocot.

[BradleyBrave]

Per a report on the Illinois premium board,
"Hare took the ACT yesterday and needs to improve his score to be eligible"

...he has apparently taken the test 3 times and not achieved a qualifying score, so this probably explains why schools have stayed away from Hare.
Apparently this is the plan, though for Lowery, to go after the non-qualifiers, find a way to get them into school and get tuition paid, then get them qualified while on-campus. This is what they did to get Justin Bocot.

That can be a risky proposition. If I was an SIU fan I am not sure how I would feel about going after all of these non-qualifiers. SIU could get burned very easily if a kid doesn't hack it in the classroom.

[tornado]

A couple things I noted when I checked SIU's stats from last season...

In all 15 of their losses they scored 63 or less,
in 12 of them they scored 55 or less,
and in 9 of their losses they scored only 51 points or less...so they need to find a way to put more points on the board.

SIU's 59.7 points allowed per game was very good defensively, but they also failed to score that many 14 times! So they had better land some scoring!

SIU's FG%, 3-pt FG%, and FT% are all among the lowest in the league.
SIU's rebounding totals were surprisingly low.
Their 31.8 rpg as a team was only 0.2 rpg better than the 9th best team in the Valley (Indiana State), and they lose their best rebounder with the graduation of Falker.

So if they are going to get back to their top spot in the Valley, they need both shooting accuracy and more rebounding.
Most of what they have coming in are guards who do not shoot well from outside.
Dillard is good from outside, but in the Valley, it is not often a sub-6-footer is atop the scoring leaders' chart.
Daniel Ruffin (at 8th) is the only sub-6-footer among the top 28 scorers in the Valley (all the way down to 9.1 ppg)
Also, utilizing freshmen (SIU will have 6-7 true freshmen and redshirt freshmen) is risky, as only ONE freshman was among
the top 30 scorers in the lague, and NOT one freshman was among the top 25 rebounders in the league.
The freshmen will NOT instantly make them a better team, and too many freshmen will lead to unhappiness about playing time.
I wouldn't expect all the freshmen to be happy and at least one will leave before the first season is over.

Lastly, BU has also had some experience recruiting those who were acadmically questionable, like DeAaron Williams, Xavier Crawford, Buycks, and even throw Jeremy Fears in there......
I would rather if we go after anyone else with our present scholarship or for 2009, 2010 I would like to see us land high schoolers (who'll have four years of eligibility) who are not questionable with grades and qualifying.
We need more like Sam Maniscalco, Anthony Thompson, Will Egolf, and Andrew Warren, etc. In the final analysis, it has been the four year guys like Ruff, Crouch, JJ Tauai, and Cellus (even tho he was only 3-yrs) have worked out very well for BU, and I would like to have more guys like them.

[BradleyBrave]

Lastly, BU has also had some experience recruiting those who were acadmically questionable, like DeAaron Williams, Xavier Crawford, Buycks, and even throw Jeremy Fears in there......
I would rather if we go after anyone else with our present scholarship or for 2009, 2010 I would like to see us land high schoolers (who'll have four years of eligibility) who are not questionable with grades and qualifying.
We need more like Sam Maniscalco, Anthony Thompson, Will Egolf, and Andrew Warren, etc. In the final analysis, it has been the four year guys like Ruff, Crouch, JJ Tauai, and Cellus (even tho he was only 3-yrs) have worked out very well for BU, and I would like to have more guys like them.

Very well said. Agree 100%. I'm hopeful we get some good news in that department this week!

[mportsch]

You really shouldn't use "per game" stats to compare teams, since tempo plays such a huge role in those numbers. SIU played extremely slow - their adjusted tempo was 305th in the nation, out of 341 teams. Obviously, when there are fewer possessions in a game, you'll have fewer points, rebounds, assists, etc.

When adjusted for tempo, SIU was actually the 24th best defensive rebounding team in the nation. In offensive rebounding, they weren't as good, but they weren't terrible either - they ranked 145th in the nation. Rebounding wasn't a problem for SIU this year.

That being said, your ultimate points are still valid - SIU will need scorers and rebounders to emerge next season. They are going to really miss Shaw and Falker, who were both excellent rebounders in their own way. Shaw ranked 35th in the nation in defensive rebounding, while Falker ranked 14th in offensive rebounding. Carlton Fay showed some solid rebounding ability in limited minutes, but there still figures to be a big dropoff here. They'll need Booker to step up on the glass immediately.

On the offensive end, Falker is going to be the big loss. He shot 55% from the floor, got to the foul line a ton, and shot 69% on FTs. He was by far the best player on the team.

Scoring is clearly the biggest question with SIU for next season. Mullins is a good PG, but no one else on the team has shown that they can be an asset offensively. Lowery has to hope that some of the newcomers can provide an offensive spark without hurting the defense too much.

[Out of Balance]

A couple things I noted when I checked SIU's stats from last season...

In all 15 of their losses they scored 63 or less,
in 12 of them they scored 55 or less,
and in 9 of their losses they scored only 51 points or less...so they need to find a way to put more points on the board.

SIU's 59.7 points allowed per game was very good defensively, but they also failed to score that many 14 times! So they had better land some scoring!

SIU's FG%, 3-pt FG%, and FT% are all among the lowest in the league.
SIU's rebounding totals were surprisingly low.
Their 31.8 rpg as a team was only 0.2 rpg better than the 9th best team in the Valley (Indiana State), and they lose their best rebounder with the graduation of Falker.

So if they are going to get back to their top spot in the Valley, they need both shooting accuracy and more rebounding.
Most of what they have coming in are guards who do not shoot well from outside.
Dillard is good from outside, but in the Valley, it is not often a sub-6-footer is atop the scoring leaders' chart.
Daniel Ruffin (at 8th) is the only sub-6-footer among the top 28 scorers in the Valley (all the way down to 9.1 ppg)
Also, utilizing freshmen (SIU will have 6-7 true freshmen and redshirt freshmen) is risky, as only ONE freshman was among
the top 30 scorers in the lague, and NOT one freshman was among the top 25 rebounders in the league.
The freshmen will NOT instantly make them a better team, and too many freshmen will lead to unhappiness about playing time.
I wouldn't expect all the freshmen to be happy and at least one will leave before the first season is over.

Lastly, BU has also had some experience recruiting those who were acadmically questionable, like DeAaron Williams, Xavier Crawford, Buycks, and even throw Jeremy Fears in there......
I would rather if we go after anyone else with our present scholarship or for 2009, 2010 I would like to see us land high schoolers (who'll have four years of eligibility) who are not questionable with grades and qualifying.
We need more like Sam Maniscalco, Anthony Thompson, Will Egolf, and Andrew Warren, etc. In the final analysis, it has been the four year guys like Ruff, Crouch, JJ Tauai, and Cellus (even tho he was only 3-yrs) have worked out very well for BU, and I would like to have more guys like them.

Tornado, very well said! As for the acadmically questionable ones above, to BU credit non dressed or took the court!! As for the four yr. guys mentioned I would add Danny Adams to that list. I know there are meny more but by adding Danny to that list, that makes 4 out of 5 from Peoria and JJ now makes Peoria his home.
How many times (in a period of time,less then a yr.) can a player take the ACT test? And I ask you this, if for some unanswered reason on the 3,4,5,6,7,8, ect. time a player (be comes educated, that 12 yrs. of school hadn't done) passes, he can make it as a full time student in college and play basketball at the same time?
It sounds and looks to me that SIU is willing to risk very thing, to field group of uneducated players. just for the sake of winning b-games! I know and hope BU would never stoop to this level.

[BradleyBrave]

It sounds and looks to me that SIU is willing to risk very thing, to field group of uneducated players. just for the sake of winning b-games! I know and hope BU would never stoop to this level.

Sorry to disappoint Out of Balance, but we already have stooped to that level - See Xavier Crawford, DeAaron Williams, and Dwight Buycks. Thankfully it seems that we learned our lesson with Crawford, Williams, and Buycks, and landed Eddren McCain before Daniel West got added to the list.