MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[hasanova]

Thanks, sludge!  Great information.  Good luck to Ben! 

[hasanova]

Ben Strong is training, has added weight, and looks great.  He's signed with an agent and is looking for opportunities overseas.  He'll probably know more by September.

Meantime, he also plays in the Rusty LaRue Pro-Am league, will be at the Pete Newell camp, and who knows what else.  (Word is Chris Paul made a big splash in the Rusty LaRue league last night).

There's an encouraging mention of Ben in the current issue of SLAM magazine as an "under the radar" player with a pro career ahead.

***
I think some new names for Guilford next year might be
  Eric High
  Luke Knief
  Gabriel Lowder
  LaBradford Monroe
  Justin Stafford
I don't have anything on these guys, though.

I can't find too much, either, but it looks as though Knief is from NY state and Lowder is definitely from N. Forsyth HS (Winston-Salem).  As a 6'2" #2G, Lowder  averaged 17.2 ppg for the 4A Titans in 2007-08.

[HSCfan]

Justin Stafford (from Cavalry Baptist in, I believe Winston-Salem, NC) could develop into a good player for the Quakers as well. At about 6-9, 250, Stafford is long and was a pretty good defender in high school - blocking shots and rebounding. His offensive game will improve over time, and if it improves quickly enough, the Quakers may once again have a huge one-two punch in the paint. Nonetheless, he's another space-eater on the Guilford roster...like they need another one of those!

[hasanova]

Justin Stafford (from Cavalry Baptist in, I believe Winston-Salem, NC) could develop into a good player for the Quakers as well. At about 6-9, 250, Stafford is long and was a pretty good defender in high school - blocking shots and rebounding. His offensive game will improve over time, and if it improves quickly enough, the Quakers may once again have a huge one-two punch in the paint. Nonetheless, he's another space-eater on the Guilford roster...like they need another one of those!

Thanks, HSC fan.  I've noticed Palombo's tendency to bring in a 6'9"-6'10" post man every two years or so.  Often, when a DIII player has that size, he's been overlooked by DI for one reason or another.  Calvary Baptist probably plays in some sort of Independent Athletic Association with spotty competition.  Let's get him to Pete Newell's Big Man Camp this summer and see if he can make the same sort of progress as Strong and Sanborn!  You're right, Guilford needs the twin tower space-eater concept!  Yes, after some thought, I like it!    Thanks again.

[baselinejam]

What'd up with all the "size" matriculating at Guilford?

[hasanova]

What'd up with all the "size" matriculating at Guilford?

I don't know.  A few years ago (during the Butch Estes coaching era), it was DI guys transferring in when that didn't work out as they hoped ... such as Aron McMillian - WFU/ODU and  Brandon Clifford - UNCW ... but Strong, Sanborn and Stafford entered as freshmen.  In all five cases, however, they are local players who have family and prep ties in the Piedmont area of NC.

In my era, the tallest guy I can remember for the Quakers was Ray Massengill ('75) of Four Oaks, NC, a 6'10" starter on the 1973 NAIA national championship team with Lloyd (World B.) Free, Greg Jackson and M. L. Carr, all future NBA players.   (The other starter, by the way, was a 6'6" 28 year old freshman forward named Steve Hankins who spent ten years in the Marines before attending college!  I don't know this for a fact, but I heard he was an 18 year old pallbearer for JFK in Nov. '63.)  What a team!

I think Palombo has made a recruiting focus for tall "marginal" guys who aren't going to get a serious DI bite and, if they do, will spend a lot of time on the bench.  Get them in and send them to Pete Newell's Big Man camp every year!  Better to be a developing starter and impact player in DIII with your family able to attend every game than possibly languish at 5 minutes per game on a DI team.

[old_lion]

Better to be a developing starter and impact player in DIII with your family able to attend every game than possibly languish at 5 minutes per game on a DI team.

Great point.

[ODACHOOPS]

Great point, but unfortunately in today's day and age EVERY high school basketball player in the country thinks they are D1 material and think they can play D1 and laugh at the idea of playing D3 ball.  Guilford has been very fortunate to get kids like strong and sanborn who just love the game of basketball so much that they just want to go somewhere and play regardless of what level it is.  If you truly love the game of basketball like so many high school kids today swear they do, then you will play at whatever level will take you regardless of what it is.  So many kids just quite the game of basketball all together after high school if they can't go D1, or go sit the bench for 4 yrs at some D1 school just because they think playing at any other level is not worth it.  My hat goes off to kids like strong and sanborn, you know it has to be tough to be 6"10-6"11 and end up playing D3 ball, but again if you have that deep, burning desire to play college basketball, then you will play wherever you can.

[TDizzle21]

Great point, but unfortunately in today's day and age EVERY high school basketball player in the country thinks they are D1 material and think they can play D1 and laugh at the idea of playing D3 ball.  Guilford has been very fortunate to get kids like strong and sanborn who just love the game of basketball so much that they just want to go somewhere and play regardless of what level it is.  If you truly love the game of basketball like so many high school kids today swear they do, then you will play at whatever level will take you regardless of what it is.  So many kids just quite the game of basketball all together after high school if they can't go D1, or go sit the bench for 4 yrs at some D1 school just because they think playing at any other level is not worth it.  My hat goes off to kids like strong and sanborn, you know it has to be tough to be 6"10-6"11 and end up playing D3 ball, but again if you have that deep, burning desire to play college basketball, then you will play wherever you can.

I wouldn't say every high school player thinks there D1 material, I coach a high school summer league team and I got 5 seniors and only one of them will go D1(6'7 guard) the other ones know that there best bet will be to play D3 ball if they can even make it there, but I agree with the rest you said

[ODACHOOPS]

Your right, I didn't mean to single out the select group of kids that know their talent level and know what level they can play at and what level they can't.  I just meant that most kids to some degree think they are better then what they really are and thus think they can play at a higher level then they are capable of.  I think a lot of high school kids suffer from being able to distinguish the difference between "what level they can play (contribute) at" and "what level they can play (meaning sit the bench) at."   

[hasanova]

I think Guilford got really lucky with Strong on several fronts:  1) he was relatively unheralded in HS and, due to his later development and growth, went under the DI radar 2) Ben grew about 2 inches after arriving at GC 3) when he attracted some DI interest after a breakout sophomore season, Ben kept his four year commitment to the Quakers 4) Guilford was able to work him into the line-up more slowly ... he was not a starter his freshman year 5) he had considerable talent, but also responded well to development and training  6) his middle school and HS guard (Kimbrough) came with him

I don't think Sanborn will be the type of player Strong was, but ... Tyler made a lot of progress from freshman to sophomore year.  It'll be interesting to see how he responds when he's the "go to" guy.  Stafford is an unknown to me, but, as the old basketball adage goes, "you can't teach height" and that's a considerable asset, especially in DIII.

[hasanova]

I've been doing some checking on Justin Stafford and it sounds as though his prep competition may have been a little tougher than I originally thought.  Calvary Baptist regularly plays schools such as Greensboro Day School (trust me, they recruit talent to win against the best 4A schools in the state as well as the nationally ranked private academies), Christ School in Arden (the Plumlee brothers play there - Miles 6'10", Mason 6'11" and Marshall 6'8" - Miles is headed to Stanford this fall), Mt. Zion in Durham (Tracy McGrady played there) and Oak Hill, VA (need I say more?).  Stafford is 6'10", but isn't the best player on the Cougars - one of his teammates was apparently being heavily recruited by WVU.

[tigers]

Agree that not every high school player thinks he can be a D1 prospect.  But, if you are coaching in the middle-to upper end of the ODAC, you only want to be recruiting kids who end up "settling" for D3.  Otherwise, you are going to be in a lot of trouble...

[TDizzle21]

Agree that not every high school player thinks he can be a D1 prospect.  But, if you are coaching in the middle-to upper end of the ODAC, you only want to be recruiting kids who end up "settling" for D3.  Otherwise, you are going to be in a lot of trouble...

Mostly true but I also think you are gonna need a couple of players that are fine going D3 b/c they are the ones that work their butts off in practice and are the hustlers in games b/c they know playing time is not guarnteed and they can easily be replaced

[ODACHOOPS]

I don't know if most coaches (in the upper odac or wherever) have the liberty of recruiting only or even mostly kids that are "settling" for D3.  Don't get me wrong though, if you get a kid that is "settling" for D3 then more times then none you have gotten a "steal" and a real potential star.  There are a lot of "good" players in the upper odac or wherever it may be in the country for D3, but even the best aren't necessarily "settling" for D3, their playing D3 because their either not tall enough at their position, don't weight enough, or whatever it may be. (yes there is a small select group of kids that are "settling" due to the better academics or would rather win games as appose to having losing seasons).  It's easy to look at a kid who's a jr. or sr. and has really improved over his career and say "he must have settled for D3", but rarely does a kid come in right from the start as a fresh and you say "wow he really settled for D3."