Author Topic: Aaron Bowen - Second Thoughts? (Read 14892 times)

nyg · « **on:** April 19, 2009, 01:53:09 PM »

From the Rivals site. Thought Buzz's staff got the verbal from this kid.

Aaron Bowen (Jacksonville Lee Bulls) – An athletic wing with exceptional speed, Bowen applies constant pressure on the opposition with his aggressive defensive a fearless attacking of the basket on offense. Presently committed to Marquette, Bowen is in the process of figuring out his standing with the program now that Buzz Williams is in charge of the program and the assistant that recruited him is at a new location.

cheebs09 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 19, 2009, 01:58:45 PM »

Quote from: nyg on April 19, 2009, 01:53:09 PM

From the Rivals site. Thought Buzz's staff got the verbal from this kid.

Aaron Bowen (Jacksonville Lee Bulls) – An athletic wing with exceptional speed, Bowen applies constant pressure on the opposition with his aggressive defensive a fearless attacking of the basket on offense. Presently committed to Marquette, Bowen is in the process of figuring out his standing with the program now that Buzz Williams is in charge of the program and the assistant that recruited him is at a new location.

Didn't he commit after buzz had been coach for a little while? I don't think Buzz being in charge of the program now would make him change his mind. Either way hopefully he still comes, he sounds like he could be a nice player.

Blackhat · « **Reply #2 on:** April 19, 2009, 02:02:37 PM »

Dale Layer was his lead recruiter.... Loss of Layer is going to hurt more than because of his offensive coaching prowess...was a pretty good recruiter too.

Nukem2 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 19, 2009, 02:13:58 PM »

Ummm. Buzz was in charge when Bowen committed. The writer seems confused..

ChicosBailBonds · « **Reply #4 on:** April 19, 2009, 02:31:44 PM »

Quote from: Nukem2 on April 19, 2009, 02:13:58 PM

Ummm. Buzz was in charge when Bowen committed. The writer seems confused..

Maybe the writer felt Buzz wasn't in charge of the program

Here's the history per Rosiak

Aaron's recruitment was one that seemingly came out of nowhere. Can you describe what it was like?

The people that were heavy on Aaron were Florida, Auburn, Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech, Jacksonville and Marquette, obviously. The way it happened was Coach (Dale) Layer, before he was at Marquette, he was at Liberty, and he came down over the summer to watch us work out another one of our players, Chris Rozier, who was a low-D I player, for Liberty. We asked Aaron to come to the workout, just for a chance for another coach to see him. Well, after the workout, Coach Layer said, 'Well, we could really use Chris at Liberty, but Aaron's too good for us. We can't get Aaron -- he's really special.' So then Coach Layer got the job at Marquette, and he remembered Aaron, and that's how the marriage started.

Because of that knee injury this past summer, Aaron dropped off the AAU circuit but between Layer's connection and the look the coaching staff got at Aaron at its Elite Camp, it seems as though MU almost stole a player who was really destined to become a big-time recruit once he got healthy. Would you agree?

That's a good way to put it. We shut Aaron down for the summer on the first Friday in June because he was going to have his meniscus cleaned up. He played with us 1-2 games the first week of June, then it was, 'That's enough. You're in too much pain. You're done.' We arranged for a doctor to clean it up, so he played no AAU ball. So he didn't get seen much, and a lot of coaches are just coming onto him. And in the recruitment process, Marquette was just way ahead of them. So far ahead it was unbelievable. And what I'll tell you about the coaches up there is they did it the right way. I've sent close to 40 kids to college, and Marquette did it the right way. They absolutely recruited him perfectly.

Had Aaron not committed, and assuming he has the kind of season you're expecting out of him, what do you think his recruitment would have been like?

There's no doubt that Florida State and Miami were big on him. Especially after the word got around when he scored 41 in the district semifinal. That's when everything started taking off. He had 41 points and missed two shots the whole game. Right after then, you knew he was going someplace special.

His ninth-grade year, we put him on varsity but we didn't play him a lot. He was there as a learning process, so last year was really his first year playing with us, and putting it all into motion. We could see him getting better and better and better. Last night we had a practice game and me and my assistant coach looked at each other and go, 'How did he do that? How did he split those defenders and get in there?' He does something every game where we just look at each other and go, 'Wow, he's special.'

What position does he play for you, and will he be a 2-3 in college, in your opinion?

Yeah, and in the offense we run here the 2 and the 3 are interchangeable. When we need a three, the point guard just decides who the better three-point shooter is. It could be Aaron, it could be somebody else. He starts at the 2 for us. When we put our big lineup in, where everyone's 6-5 and over, he'll start at the 2. When we put our small lineup in, he starts at the 3.

What are his strengths at this point?

His strength is his explosiveness, taking the ball to the hole. He's a better-than-average three-point shooter. He gets in zones and he's very good. Everybody needs to work on their three-point game, but his is OK. It's acceptable for that level, but because he's so long and he can get up on his shot so high, he can get that shot whenever he wants it. We're working with him now on penetrating a little bit more, taking the ball to the hole, because on our team right now we've got two kids who can shoot threes a little better than Aaron. He's a better-than-average three-point shooter, but he's an extremely good penetrator.

What does Aaron still need to work on? He appears pretty slender at 185 pounds.

I'm not too worried about his physical appearance because I know that we're working on that right now. I've seen him get stronger from his ninth- to his 10th-grade year, and I know that we'll get him bigger and Marquette will get him bigger, so that's not an issue at all. Defensively, like a lot of kids today, he just needs to learn the game a little bit more. Just learn the game of basketball a little bit more, become a smarter basketball player. No shortcuts on defense. I see that in a lot of kids today -- they just don't study the game and they don't know the game like they should know it. In high school, we're working on teaching him the game. I learned the game by listening to Al McGuire. He taught me how to be a basketball coach, because I would listen to him every day he was doing those games on TV, listen to him explain things and how it was done, and that's what we're doing with Aaron -- we're teaching him the game because they don't get it at a younger age. He's getting it. We see improvement all the time. Aaron's weakness as I'll tell you right now is he's too nice a guy. He's such a great kid. He's too polite, too well-mannered. I'd like to see him get a little meaner, a little more killer instinct in him. But our team is pretty loaded, and sometimes he just feels, 'Well, I'll let Brett score, or I'll let Charles score.' I'd like to see him take over games a little more, like he did in that semifinal district game where he got the 41 points. His mom and dad just raised a really nice kid.

How is he in the classroom?

He's an average student; he needs to work on that a little bit. He's about a C-B student right now. I'd like to see him be a B-A student and up his core a little bit. We're still waiting for his test results to come back. But personal-wise, he's once of the neatest kids. You've going to love talking to him. He's got a smile on his face all the time. Has a quirky sense of humor, but I think he gets some of that from me. But he's a great kid. You know, there's a lot of kids I would not leave at my house if I went somewhere. I would leave Aaron at my house and I wouldn't even worry about it when I came back. He's well-mannered, mom and dad have done a great job with him. He's a yes-sir, no-sir type of guy.

Is it rare to send a player this far north from your area in Jacksonville?

It is. I had a kid named Kenny Walker who played at Alabama. He played 2000-'03, around there. Alabama would come in and my assistant coach went up to him and said, 'You're not going to steal a Florida kid and take him to Alabama.' I looked at my coach and said, 'You better watch out what you say, because it's all about recruiting them the right way.' They out-worked Florida for Kenny, and Marquette out-worked everybody for Aaron. We send our junior-college kids out to Trinity Valley in Dallas, Texas. We don't send them to the local ones because (Trinity Valley) takes care of the kids better. I'm from New Jersey, so I have no allegiance to the Florida people at all, even though I went to school at Jacksonville University. I love Marquette; I'm a closet Marquette fan. Once Marquette got involved, that was almost a done deal as far as I was concerned.

You said Auburn was looking at Aaron today. Since he can't sign until next November, do you expect schools to continue to try to change Aaron's mind?

That seems to be part of the business these days. I would be stunned if he didn't go to Marquette, I really would be. His dad's in love with every part of the process and what Marquette did. If I was a betting man, I'd be betting he'll be at Marquette with no problem at all. Now, Auburn has said, 'We're still going to recruit him.' And I guess that's their job, to do that. But he's going to be at Marquette.

mviale · « **Reply #5 on:** April 19, 2009, 03:35:00 PM »

Auburn or Florida St?

Pleassseee! MU has a better bball and academic program!

ChicosBailBonds · « **Reply #6 on:** April 19, 2009, 03:42:25 PM »

Quote from: mviale on April 19, 2009, 03:35:00 PM

Auburn or Florida St?

Pleassseee! MU has a better bball and academic program!

Yes, but it doesn't snow in Florida or Alabama and those two places are also much closer to his home.

tharocket · « **Reply #7 on:** April 19, 2009, 09:31:36 PM »

The Bleacher Report:

Bowen Opens Up Recruiting

After giving a verbal commitment to Marquette, 2010-2011 recruit Aaron Bowen has reopened his recruiting to other teams.

Bowen, the 6′4″ shooting guard was recruited strongly by Dale Layer, but after his departure to Liberty University, he has backed out.

Marquette is still on his list and this hardly means Marquette will lose out on Bowen, but it is worth noting that he is entertaining some other school’s offers.

The Jacksonville native was being recruited by many Florida schools when he first chose Marquette, including Florida State, Jacksonville, Florida, and Kansas State.

______________________________________________________________________

I wonder if potentially losing this recruit is a big issue for Buzz and Marquette? I really don't know much about him.

Let's get Latavious Williams!

YoungMUFan4 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 19, 2009, 09:35:28 PM »

Bowen is still committed at this point. That part about Bowen was a misinterpretation of the Rivals article

MuMark · « **Reply #9 on:** April 19, 2009, 09:44:12 PM »

You got to love the internet.

Some kid reads an article on Rivals, adds his own interpretation and then writes it in a blog as if its news.

detroitwarrior · « **Reply #10 on:** April 19, 2009, 09:45:06 PM »

Quote from: tharocket on April 19, 2009, 09:31:36 PM

The Bleacher Report:

Bowen Opens Up Recruiting

After giving a verbal commitment to Marquette, 2010-2011 recruit Aaron Bowen has reopened his recruiting to other teams.

Bowen, the 6′4″ shooting guard was recruited strongly by Dale Layer, but after his departure to Liberty University, he has backed out.

Marquette is still on his list and this hardly means Marquette will lose out on Bowen, but it is worth noting that he is entertaining some other school’s offers.

The Jacksonville native was being recruited by many Florida schools when he first chose Marquette, including Florida State, Jacksonville, Florida, and Kansas State.

______________________________________________________________________

I wonder if potentially losing this recruit is a big issue for Buzz and Marquette? I really don't know much about him.

Let's get Latavious Williams!

I wouldn't put much stock in what the genius who wrote that Bleacher Report writes. He seems to think Latavious Williams is a guard for goodness sake.

tharocket · « **Reply #11 on:** April 19, 2009, 09:46:49 PM »

"The Jacksonville native was being recruited by many Florida schools when he first chose Marquette, including Florida State, Jacksonville, Florida, and Kansas State."

He also thinks Kansas State is a Florida school.

Picky, picky...I know.

madtownwarrior · « **Reply #12 on:** April 19, 2009, 11:02:43 PM »

the site has corrected it's information...

mviale · « **Reply #13 on:** April 19, 2009, 11:22:25 PM »

Quote from: ChicosBailBonds on April 19, 2009, 03:42:25 PM

Yes, but it doesn't snow in Florida or Alabama and those two places are also much closer to his home.

One more reason in our favor - farther from home!

ChicosBailBonds · « **Reply #14 on:** April 19, 2009, 11:40:57 PM »

Quote from: mviale on April 19, 2009, 11:22:25 PM

One more reason in our favor - farther from home!

A lot of kids don't like that....it's an advantage for some and not for others, depends on the kid.

ChicosBailBonds · « **Reply #15 on:** April 20, 2009, 12:33:43 AM »

Quote from: detroitwarrior on April 19, 2009, 09:45:06 PM

I wouldn't put much stock in what the genius who wrote that Bleacher Report writes. He seems to think Latavious Williams is a guard for goodness sake.

The author has corrected the piece and apologized. I give him credit for that.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/158830-quick-marquette-notes