More on recruits:Childs, Baxter and Harding

Basketball
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http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/school?id=252&slug=byu-cougars

All three of these kids are 4 star recruits.

Childs is listed at 6’6 and a center-think about that

Harding is 6’6 and a shooting guard. Looks slow to me but what do I know.

Baxter is local and skinny but very tough. has great touch and a great shot.

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A friend in the BYU athletic dept texted me this when I asked him about Childs: “He is a MAN.” Everyone in that office loves Baxter.

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I’m sure Jim will have something to say about this local talent, Larimer…Everything I see about the program points to Rose getting over the hump of true talent vs: mid-major stuff we have seen in the past. I say we compete at the highest level with what we have in the pipeline. What say you?

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We will be good this year. I think if we get any consistently good guard play at all outside of KC (who is a given), I think we can be great.
2016? I can’t wait!! Emery/TJ/Dastrup/Mika/Childs/Baxter…plus Aytes/Davis/Kaufusi? haha! So at least according to ESPN, we will have one of the most talented rosters in the country next year. And most all of them from Utah. I am a little surprised, but mostly just that a small state is turning out so many 4 star players. Oregon has 2 million more people but it seems we hardly ever have ESPN top 100 recruits. ESPN spends a lot of money generating their projections, and they want to be right. They factor in where a kid is from and who he plays against. I accept their judgment, but also know that a kid has to fit academically and socially at BYU. I have a very close view into BYU’s basketball program in the past several years, and know that Rose cares A LOT about whether a kid will “fit.” The BB staff wants to focus on making kids better BB players, and not have to constantly be screwing around with HC and academic stuff. Even 1 kid with trouble on a 12 man team is a major distraction and takes a lot of resources and attention. A high ranking BYU AD official said to me, and I’ll never forget it: “It’s really, really hard to find 100 kids who are great football players who can embrace BYU’s academics and HC. But we can for sure find 10 great basketball players who can do it.” Knowing what I know about the BB program, when I see a kid has committed, I automatically assume he is a good kid, a good student, and understands and intends to follow the HC. So I think that makes Rose more careful about who he offers, and kids with BYU ties, be it genealogical or geographical, lower the risk factor.

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And I didn’t even mention Chatman. I have not seen Chatman play since HS, but he was the WA 4A POY against seriously good competition and I’d guess a 4 star recruit. If somebody says, “you can sign the POY next year from a state with 7 million people,” I think I’d be ok no matter who his dad was. Yes we missed on Jabari, and, even more painfully so, on Frank Jackson. But I would honestly rather have TJ haws for 4 years than Frank Jackson for one year.

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Yes… I do have something to say.

If TJ is so great, why would he stick around for 4 years? In fact, that goes for all of these supposed 4 star recruits. Why would they stick around when they could move on to Europe or the NBA?

Lastly, I will say what I should have been saying for the last 10 years. I will not buy into the hype because every time I do, BYU underwhelms. They rarely live up to what fans believe or anticipate they will accomplish. When it comes to important games or potential big wins… those games that can prove what everyone says is actually real, they fall short. It happened last year, the year before, etc…

How are all these great players going to share and play within the team concept of winning more than just 20 games, a runner up finish in the conference tourney and a first round exit in the ncaa dance? Who can guarantee they will get there anyway?

I would love to see it happen, but I can’t buy into the hype… again. How did last years team lose twice to Pepperdine? How did they lose so many close, winnable games? I don’t know the answers, I just know it happened… like it does every year.

Get back to me guys… when they actually live up to the hype. :wink:

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no need to wait…Rose said it himself, “when Austin went down with the hammy, we were left with inserting Winder or Halford at the 4 and that exposed us down low. Now we have the luxury of not one but three red shirts that are all great low post defenders.” I include Austin in that red shirt argument. Aytes, Davis and Austin all say you are wrong about BYU being the same ol wantabes.

I also listened to the interviews specifically Kaufusi and Austin where they said that Quincey Lewis has worked everyone, top to bottom on defense. I’m not asking for BYU to leap from 300th worse in defense to a top ten but I do think we can move from piss poor to better than average. That right there will win us another 5 games or so. A 30 win season is achievable and would get BYU a 5-6 seed and a chance to roll into second or third round of the Dance.

There are two guys I have questions about (Shaw and Ainge) only because of Athleticism. Ainge you could say was recruited as a favor but then I hear he has been a gym rat all his life and will most likely serve as a player coach. Shaw just looks like a beanpole me.

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Its time to buy in Jim. There is talent here that BYU has never had before. We will get a glimpse this year of this talent. Next year you will see the real value of team scheme and the talent of what we have. Watch and listen carefully.
Jeff

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LOL I think Jim feels like the victim in a Utah land swindle deal and I can understand that. I think BYU has under achieved since Jimmer graduated. But it’s difficult to figure in injuries and their impact on a team. Winder at this best as opposed to Austin at his best-tough call. We could argue coaching all day long and I DO believe Rose is a good coach, but there has been puzzling moves made in the last few years. BYU has almost always had good shooters so if you want to know how the season is going to pan out-take a look inside and see who is pushing and who is getting shoved around. I don’t mind losing if we are holding our own defensively and rebounding well, but when we rely on shooting lights out to win then much of what Jim described is going to happen. But I’m hoping the inside game is going to be productive this year.

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Thank you Dr. SR Burton, for understanding me and being patient. Is there a fee involved for your analysis and prescription? :wink:

I am willing to take the medicine and wait to see if it happens. I am only basing my thoughts on what I have seen in the past, from beginning to end and preseason hype to end of season shortfall.

and how did you know I was the victim of a Utah land swindle deal? Been there and done that yourself? Is there a club for us? :smile:

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I love having to defend my posts to you, because I think you know what you are talking about. Couple points:

  1. Let me clarify what I meant by “great”:. I think that Jimmer’s senior year was what I’d call a “great” season: 30ish wins, dominating good teams, feared nationally, making the sweet 16, etc. Since then I think we have had 4 “good” seasons. But I do believe that our current roster can produce a sweet 16 team, because I think that we can compete in the paint with anyone–last year we had a good year and couldn’t stop a high school team in the paint. So I think we can be great–last year I never thought that because we were terrible inside. Haws covered up a lot of blemishes, but at the end of big games we couldn’t limit teams to one shot or stop them at the rim.
  2. I think TJ will be all that and a side of fries. My answer to “why would he stick around 4 years” is that the smart money for these kids is to play 3-4 in college, because more one and dones flame out than succeed. I agree 100% with what you have said many times, which is that $$ is ruining much of what we love in college sports. The “one and done” thing in basketball makes a COMPLETE mockery of college sports and college in general. Many of those kids flunk literally every class for the one semester they are enrolled. They have no business being in college. But they also often don’t help their own program as much as a kid with great but lesser ability who winds up there 4 years as a kid you can build around. I know Tyler Haws, and I hope TJ shares the same values. Ty could have gone to Europe 3 years ago and made a ton of money. But you know what? He LOVED being at BYU; it mattered to him to represent BYU (and the church); it mattered to him to play with his friends; he took his studies seriously; and he knew the EuroDollars would always be there, so he would never have left BYU early for the NBA unless he was a surefire lottery pick. In short, if TJ is a preternatural talent, maybe he only stays one year. But he’s an idiot if he leaves and is not a sure lotto pick, and he’ll be too smart for that. So maybe he will just be a borderline All American for 2-4 years like his brother, teams up with the most heavily recruited BYU roster in history and has a couple GREAT BYU seasons, and then he will get paid somewhere, somehow, to play ball when it’s over.
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Shaw is guilty of beanpolitis until he proves otherwise.

But speaking of guys who are NOT beanpoles, I am told that Davis is strong and he fights for every inch of the paint like he owns it and takes it personally if you even TRY to get in his kitchen. I’m also told that Aytes is all that PLUS a well developed faceup and midrange game. Seems there have already been some epic battles in the paint between those two.

Fish: I am as excited as you are about this bunch.
Hawkman: I may sound like I’m too far out over my skis, but I’m often accused of being too positive in general. I think what I’m most excited about is that we have the personnel to be a REAL team with many strengths, instead of last year’s 4 guard rinky-dink lineup that was so talented on offense but played like a ratball team at the other end.

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gotta to be a club for us somewhere-guess I was never bright enough to think up the scams-I was too busy making ends meet and playing ball with my kids

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Jim says," I am willing to take the medicine and wait to see if it happens". That, may friend. is all we are asking for.

Rose has finally got the horses and baring injuries, should start getting us over the hump. All the tea leaves and sticks are lining up…BYU got those early practices before jetting off to Spain, played four games, and the team says that they are tight as a team, focused. You hear the new guys all saying that they are willing to do whatever the team needs. You hear KC and the seniors talking about stepping it up and understanding the moment. You hear about the defensive workouts Lewis is putting them through and it all just sounds like this team is going to be special.

This I do know…Proven leaders that have been through the wars, been to the big games and tasted success as well as failure know what it takes and these guys are all ready.