Who Should St. John's Top (Realistic) Targets Be for 2011?

Especially for those of you who have seen some of these guys play, who should St. John's be targeting for the 2011? We know the hot names for 2010 - JayVaughn Pinkston, Doron Lamb, along with Devon Collier, Kadeem Jack, Shane Southwell, and others.  But what about 2011?

What's your opinion?

edit: Assuming St. John's gets a big in the next class, and the team opens 2011 with Stith, Omari, Quincy, and the big in the fold, I would assume the team would be targeting a JUCO big man and at least one JUCO wing (a sophomore if possible); a steady player who reclassifies from the class of 2010 (or two), and at least two high-impact players - one scorer, one forward. Not that they'll get all of those things, but that is along the lines of what they should be thinking.

It's just impossible to say now.  Everything hinges on this upcoming season. 

It's just impossible to say now.  Everything hinges on this upcoming season.

It's not impossible to say - some folks on the board are already watching 2011 talent in the summer camps.  And we've all got opinions on everything, so the possible targets can be spoken of and speculated on.

A legit BE point guard. I hope to God we find another option at the point to put Boothe on the bench. He is our weakest link. His inability to score, defend and stay out of foul trouble killed us.

If we're talking realistic, you'd have to eliminate any consensus top 40 players, any kids that do really well in school, and anyone outside of the region.

Desmond Hubert, Ryan Rhoomes (Cardozo), Achraf Yocoubou, Grace, Jabarie Hinds, Naadir Tharpe, Trevor Cooney (is from Delaware and does well in school, but plays for a Philly AAU program), Maurice Harkless (Queens), Myles Mack (for St. John's sake, you have to hope he doesn't grow another inch or two), Tyrone Johnson (Rutgers is all over him), Sidiki Johnson, Joey DeLaRosa, Blaise Mbargorba (7 footer, but was an eighth man on Dan Hurley's team). If you want to toss in Gibbs or Nunez, feel free.

If we're talking realistic, you'd have to eliminate any consensus top 40 players, any kids that do really well in school, and anyone outside of the region.

Desmond Hubert, Ryan Rhoomes (Cardozo), Achraf Yocoubou, Grace, Jabarie Hinds, Naadir Tharpe, Trevor Cooney (is from Delaware and does well in school, but plays for a Philly AAU program), Maurice Harkless (Queens), Myles Mack (for St. John's sake, you have to hope he doesn't grow another inch or two), Tyrone Johnson (Rutgers is all over him), Sidiki Johnson, Joey DeLaRosa, Blaise Mbargorba (7 footer, but was an eighth man on Dan Hurley's team). If you want to toss in Gibbs or Nunez, feel free.

if nunez matures his game he would be a huge get, imho. achraf would be good too.  joey delarosa would be terrible... he just looks like he hates basketballl when he's playing.  but i agree with marillac it's way too early to tell, we don't even know if norm will be the coach for the 2011 class

Good input!

Whether Norm is coach or not does not change the fact that it's time to start getting 2011 recruits in the fold; and it doesn't change the fact that whoever is the coach needs to recruit from the New York area; and it doesn't change the fact that the roster will be empty.  Some of the players may definitely mature. But some of the players have already become big recruiting names, and we are already talking about them on this board.

if nunez matures his game he would be a huge get, imho. achraf would be good too.  joey delarosa would be terrible... he just looks like he hates basketballl when he's playing.  but i agree with marillac it's way too early to tell, we don't even know if norm will be the coach for the 2011 class

Norm must operate as though he is going to be the head coach in 2011. He's very limited in the scholarship he has at his disposal for 2010, but he's got plenty of 2011 scholarships to pass out. He has to be proactive. This isn't 1989. Almost twenty percent of Telep's top 75 for the rising junior class have already given a verbal. The only two even listing STJ are Johnson and Youcoubou. DeLaRosa projects as a mid-major, but, as a 6'8" NYer, Norm still has to keep an eye on him. Looking at Fran Fraschilla doing drills last week reminded me of just how low my expectations have fallen for the caliber of players that the program can realistically hope to attract.

Quote from: Classof2013 on July 15, 2009, 01:18:25 PM

if nunez matures his game he would be a huge get, imho. achraf would be good too.  joey delarosa would be terrible... he just looks like he hates basketballl when he's playing.  but i agree with marillac it's way too early to tell, we don't even know if norm will be the coach for the 2011 class

Norm must operate as though he is going to be the head coach in 2011. He's very limited in the scholarship he has at his disposal for 2010, but he's got plenty of 2011 scholarships to pass out. He has to be proactive. This isn't 1989. Almost twenty percent of Telep's top 75 for the rising junior class have already given a verbal. The only two even listing STJ are Johnson and Youcoubou. DeLaRosa projects as a mid-major, but, as a 6'8" NYer, Norm still has to keep an eye on him. Looking at Fran Fraschilla doing drills last week reminded me of just how low my expectations have fallen for the caliber of players that the program can realistically hope to attract.

i remember grace saying he would like to play at st john's and listed us as the favorites.  but he may have maxed out his potential already.

I don't view Grace as a difference maker. Youcoubou, at least, has the potential to move us up the BE food chain. I think the 2011 class is very top heavy and lacking in elite level NYers, which isn't a good combo for STJ.

If we're talking realistic, you'd have to eliminate any consensus top 40 players, any kids that do really well in school, and anyone outside of the region.

Desmond Hubert, Ryan Rhoomes (Cardozo), Achraf Yocoubou, Grace, Jabarie Hinds, Naadir Tharpe, Trevor Cooney (is from Delaware and does well in school, but plays for a Philly AAU program), Maurice Harkless (Queens), Myles Mack (for St. John's sake, you have to hope he doesn't grow another inch or two), Tyrone Johnson (Rutgers is all over him), Sidiki Johnson, Joey DeLaRosa, Blaise Mbargorba (7 footer, but was an eighth man on Dan Hurley's team). If you want to toss in Gibbs or Nunez, feel free.

sidiki will be top 40 when its all done. and so will gibbs

It would be good that both Kadeem Jack and Ryan Rhoomes could reclassify to the class of 2011.

Kadeem Jack has expressed it (http://w3.nbebasketball.com/2009/06/27/class-of-2010-riser-kadeem-jack/) and Ryan Rhoomes is only 16.

Honestly guys, when was the last kid we actually tracked that we ended up with?  It seems every kid we get is a surprise:  DJ Kennedy, Evans, Hardy (nobody knew of that one), Stith (both times), Paris Horne...the list just goes on and on.

I guess Justin and Omari were guys we were looking at for a while and talking about, but that is two guys out of the hundred or so we've speculated on.

I am optimistic for the outlook this season--I think we'll win 20 games--but I just cannot get excited looking at recruits with Norm as our coach. 

I'll never hold out hope again for a Syl or Lance or Levance.

Well from the current roster alone you can add Booth, Rob T & Dele
 to the recruits we tracked & ended up with.

But I agree we, (& many teams) only end up with less than 1 in 10 of recruits that we follow, but thats because kids often list over 10 schools that they're interested in.

Hey- it gives us something to discuss while my Mets flounder.

I too, would much rather discuss the upcoming year, but it's the thread of the day.

We can talk about both Steve. We can focus more attention on the 2010 guys but fact remains that 2011 is by far more important to the team.  I love that our posters are becoming more informed fans by reading on the site here.

top targets wise you're right. i don't remember the last time st john's got the marquee name they went after, so it's hard to ever be confident. 

if we get sidiki johnson, nunez and achraf i would be very happy.  but, looking at their college lists and st john's history in recruiting, i can't really be optimistic.

roger dorn...hes more of a baseball player, and quite old in age, but i think he could really contribute down low in the post, as well as a mentor to the younger players...he showed real maturity by the end of clevelands championship season, and i think he'd be a fine addition to the team...on a lighter note, how about talking about the class for 2030 while we're at it...we could start recruiting lebron james baby batter...gotta get em early ya know

Honestly guys, when was the last kid we actually tracked that we ended up with?  It seems every kid we get is a surprise:  DJ Kennedy, Evans, Hardy (nobody knew of that one), Stith (both times), Paris Horne...the list just goes on and on.

I guess Justin and Omari were guys we were looking at for a while and talking about, but that is two guys out of the hundred or so we've speculated on.

I am optimistic for the outlook this season--I think we'll win 20 games--but I just cannot get excited looking at recruits with Norm as our coach. 

I'll never hold out hope again for a Syl or Lance or Levance.

I don't see how anybody can hold out for a top talent with Norm as the coach.  I understand that he's in a difficult position right now because he can't land great players without winning, but he can't win without great players.  But in the same respect, you thought that this so-called "great recruiter" would've convinced at least 1 top recruit to take a chance on St. John's.  However, 5 recruiting classes later, he still has been unable to land any sort of difference maker on the court.

People can go ahead and talk about these great recruits, but it's time to accept the fact that we'll never be in that position until we make the NCAA Tournament.  And even if everything goes right this season, I don't see that happening with this group.  At most, I see 20 or 21 wins and I'm not sure that'll be enough to get them in.  Keep in mind this will probably be a down year for the conference and the idea of getting 7 or 8 teams in is hard to believe.