Just read it on the other board.. does anyone have any confirmation?
Can't confirm, but this whole conference clusterf*ck couldn't have happened at a worse time. He was on his official visit! Sucks for Buzz, it seemed like he was our highest priority and that could have tipped the scales in ND's favor just because they have a shitty football team.
Always a bridesmaid.
We are not "always a bridesmaid." The nature of recruiting is the many players you want are going to head elsewhere.
Would love to have Auguste, but after BUZZ gets Taylor and Burton this summer I think the "always a bridesmaid" is a little over the top. Lots of good guys still out there if true. Washburn, Nolan, Blaise, Prince, Bail,etc.
Time to get the 7 footer.
Restated:
Always a bridesmaid when it comes big men.
Quote from: Canadian Dimes on September 23, 2011, 09:06:38 AM
Would love to have Auguste, but after BUZZ gets Taylor and Burton this summer I think the "always a bridesmaid" is a little over the top. Lots of good guys still out there if true. Washburn, Nolan, Blaise, Prince, Bail,etc.
I haven't heard our name mentioned with Washburn, Bail or Ibeh for quite some time.
Bad news travels fast. He wants to be a leprechaun.
Quote from: 4everwarriors on September 23, 2011, 09:09:49 AM
Restated:
Always a bridesmaid when it comes big men.
Thankfully Gardner still has three years of eligibility.
Quote from: 4everwarriors on September 23, 2011, 08:57:02 AM
Always a bridesmaid.
Were you lobotomized since a few weeks ago, when we got Steve Taylor?
Quote from: 4everwarriors on September 23, 2011, 09:09:49 AM
Restated:
Always a bridesmaid when it comes big men.
Well we could start two very capable Big East players in Gardner and Otule this year and they are a Soph. and Junior respectively. Buzz was not a bridesmaid for them. I think you are letting the previous coach's inability to recruit cloud your judgement of this coach's. Buzz will sign a good big with one of his two remaining scholarships ( between this year and next).
I have absolutely complete confidence in that.
I have confidence in Buzz. There are a lot of options out there and Marquette's coach is relentless on the recruiting trail. He will also have the added ammunition of pointing to the development of Otule and Gardner -- two under the radar bigs.
Quote from: Jamailman on September 23, 2011, 08:53:15 AM
Can't confirm, but this whole conference clusterf*ck couldn't have happened at a worse time. He was on his official visit! Sucks for Buzz, it seemed like he was our highest priority and that could have tipped the scales in ND's favor just because they have a crapty football team.
I agree. MU is in limbo land conference wise right now. Certainly not a good thing recruiting wise as we really do not know how all this shakes out. Don't blame the kid at all to take a pass on MU.
Hold on....let's not blame the conference mess just yet. The guy was reported to be leaning toward ND for awhile. For some reason they left the picture, then returned. I don't think this is a terribly surprising development considering that background.
Quote from: The Sultan of South Wayne on September 23, 2011, 10:29:13 AM
Hold on....let's not blame the conference mess just yet. The guy was reported to be leaning toward ND for awhile. For some reason they left the picture, then returned. I don't think this is a terribly surprising development considering that background.
I am not saying that. But, if you think for a minute this does not hurt recruiting I think you are mistaken. We have been using our membership in the BE as a positive recruiting tool. If you think a diminished BE does not have an effect on a kids perception, then I would respectfully disagree.
I never said it wouldn't hurt recruiting. I'm just not blaming this specific loss on the conference instability.
This one hurts. Pretty sure Buzz and staff went HARD after Auguste this summer, and made him Priority Number 1 of available players.
All of the conference uncertainty certainly does not help matters - and it is easy for a Notre Dame or other school with a football team to throw out the question - where will MU be if there is further conference realignment/Big East breaks up?
Any inch a school can get in recruiting, they are going to use. If MU had the ability to do so, I'm sure Buzz and company would raise questions in a recruits mind about conference affiliation/stability - going to a school without football.
That said, Buzz still has a lot of cred on the recruiting trail, and MU should still be fine so long as Buzz stays. The bigger issue is, does MU potentially going to a potentially stepped down league change Buzz's commitment to MU/perception of MU? Let's hope not.
Auguste is by all appearances a solid kid and had great advisers. He played with the Albany Rocks in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball Leagus, but his base was the Mass Rivals, whose alumni are Carson Desrosier (Wake Forest) and Evan Smotrycz (Michigan). His mentor was Tago Palazzi, NBA Celtics and Holy Cross alum. I doubt conference mayhem was his deciding factor, but am guessing school and academic fit came into play more so.
Also, I doubt Buzz or MU "lost" him vs. ND "won" him over. A nice change of pace. Good luck to the kid.
The mid-week ND visit was never a good thing. I remember him being an Irish lean months ago, can't say it's shocking, but definitely disappointing. What is more disappointing is that Auguste had clearly become our top priority. Mbargorba hasn't been mentioned with us in awhile, no idea where we stand with him. Nolan is still a possibility, but it sounds like he has a great vibe with Clemson and Brad Brownell. Hope Buzz has a solid plan B in place, this is a disappointment.
Tons of time left over with 1 schooly open, transfers, spring recruiting, you have 12 for the following year,
can always bank it 2013. I am sure a sleeper is out there somewhere.
Quote from: BCHoopster on September 23, 2011, 11:50:03 AM
Tons of time left over with 1 schooly open, transfers, spring recruiting, you have 12 for the following year,
can always bank it 2013. I am sure a sleeper is out there somewhere.
I'd like to see Buzz get involved again with JUCO's
I wanted Auguste, but I always worried what effect his signing would have on Anderson and Taylor. With Wilson, Anderson and Taylor we have three good switchable forwards for two years before Wilson graduates. No doubt Auguste is a more impact player, but I thought in the long run Blaise MB....... might be fill a greater need. However, that only happens, if he signs and develops. I suspect whether we are in the Big East or not is less important to him as to a team that can develope him. I think Blaise playing behind Otule for one year and Gardner for two would be the perfect timeline for him to develope. Nolan would have a greater initial impact, but again he is apparently a forward and not a center.
Here's the link to the article in the South Bend Tribune from this morning confirming his choice.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/sbt-notre-dame-mens-basketball-auguste-chooses-irish-20110923,0,2526851.story
I think people need to remember that if we get excited about a recruit on these boards, Buzz likely has a quite different perspective on our chances of getting him. How many players has he signed that we never talked or knew about? He may have effectively moved on from a player long before his commitment to a different school. We just don't know.
Quote from: Ruby on September 23, 2011, 12:51:26 PM
I think people need to remember that if we get excited about a recruit on these boards, Buzz likely has a quite different perspective on our chances of getting him. How many players has he signed that we never talked or knew about? He may have effectively moved on from a player long before his commitment to a different school. We just don't know.
In this case, I highly doubt it, considering that Auguste was on campus a week ago.
I don't think that's true in this case -- there were only 3-4 days between his visits to us and ND. A pretty small window, given how most official visits are spaced at least a week apart.
Can't exactly blame the kid. If we're honest ND has its academic perks and being on that campus in the fall can be captivating. Plus their b-ball team has been on the rise. Still stings a bit though, just cause he's a big.
Not long ago Zach Auguste had to let the Notre Dame coaching staff know he was moving in another direction with his recruitment.
It didn't necessarily come easy to the four-star power forward from New Hampton, N.H., but he had chosen to move on with a group of Florida, Georgia Tech, Marquette and West Virginia. Turns out Irish head coach Mike Brey and his staff were having none of it.
"The next day coach (Anthony) Solomon called me," Auguste said, "and he was like 'Zach, listen, I'm can't let you drop Notre Dame. We need you, we want you and this is the place you've gotta be.' He said, 'I'm gonna prove it to you.' I was like, 'OK, coach.' At first I was shocked. I was like, 'OK, a school I told no to is still coming at me.' It just meant a lot."
It meant enough to get Auguste on campus.
Last weekend Marquette hosted Auguste and not long after word started to trickle out that his next stop would be to Notre Dame, a school many thought was dead in the water. Auguste arrive on campus Wednesday night to begin his official visit.
Not long after dinnertime Thursday the Irish had received a commitment from the No. 93 rated prospect in the most recent Rivals150.
"I was looking for a program like New Hampton where I was going to develop as a player as well as a person," Auguste said. "On and off the court. Coach Brey and the other coaches, they look to get their players better on and off the court. I just felt like it was a perfect fit for me."
Auguste joins four-star small forward Cameron Biedscheid and in-state forward Austin Burgett in the current Notre Dame recruiting haul.
Biedscheid, who is the No. 30 prospect in the Rivals150, and Auguste give Notre Dame two top 100 commitments for the first time since the Class of 2005. That group featured Ryan Ayers, Kyle McAlarney and Luke Zeller.
After a strong summer Auguste shot up the rankings.
"I think Zach has tremendous upside and is a player who is still on the rise," Rivals.com analyst Eric Bossi said. "He's a fluid big man who can shoot to about 15 feet and take other bigs off the dribble while also being a high rate rebounder."
Notre Dame was one of the first high major schools to noticed that kind of potential in the 6-foot-9, 220-pound prospect.
Brey offered Auguste a scholarship last fall and continued his pursuit into the season, at one point flying to the East Coast between games to watch New Hampton play against Northfield Mount Hermon and one-time target Evan Cummins.
That the coaching staff stuck with him for so long left an impression on Auguste, as did their refusal to let him slip through their grasp.
"It was really important," Auguste said. "The best part about it is when I told them I cut them off the list they wouldn't give up. They didn't want to stop. They kept coming at me and that really meant something to me."
Quote from: Stone Cold on September 23, 2011, 04:26:23 PM
"It was really important," Auguste said. "The best part about it is when I told them I cut them off the list they wouldn't give up. They didn't want to stop. They kept coming at me and that really meant something to me."
If only women rewarded such persistence in a similar fashion.
It would have been nice to get him, but the odds are he will just be the next Wesley Green, Femi Ibikunle, Dashonte Riley...big guys bust more than they boom!
I am higher on Nolan anyways. Plenty of length to play center, probably the best athleticism of the 3 we were on, and the best all-around skills with a long range J in his arsenal. He sounds like a Joe Smith type and that kind of player could be deadly at MU, a team composed of dangerous slashers. A versatile guy like that opens up lanes with their threat outside of the paint.
Quote from: DomJamesToTheBasket on September 23, 2011, 05:17:17 PM
It would have been nice to get him, but the odds are he will just be the next Wesley Green, Femi Ibikunle, Dashonte Riley...big guys bust more than they boom!
I am higher on Nolan anyways. Plenty of length to play center, probably the best athleticism of the 3 we were on, and the best all-around skills with a long range J in his arsenal. He sounds like a Joe Smith type and that kind of player could be deadly at MU, a team composed of dangerous slashers. A versatile guy like that opens up lanes with their threat outside of the paint.
Zach Auguste picked Notre Dame and that fit him from what he thinks and I really hope he does well. Auguste is better than Nolan skill wise right now and I think Auguste would give minutes right away at Marquette. There's a reason Buzz targeted Auguste. Buzz was at the game where Auguste outplayed Nolan this summer.
http://www.newenglandrecruitingreport.com/news/article/2084/What-We-Learned-in-Las-Vegas.php
That said, if Buzz thinks Phillip Nolan is the next best option, I hope he lands him.