“Iowa State, Cincinnati, Penn State, Temple and VCU,” replied Samuel when asked what schools were recruiting him the hardest.
In the past we would have been in that group. I can't wait to see us land a MCD's AA point guard.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say Kyle and Gathers will both be McDonald's AA's.
I think Kyle is a lock. Ricardo - I'm not so sure. There are SO many good bigs this year - the McD folks are likely to have to pick some guys listed as Centers as PFs to make up the squads: Bigs rated ahead of Ricardo include centers Drummond, Austin, Coleman, McGarey, Tarczewski, Bidley, Robert Carter, Tony Parker, Shaquille Cleare and Robert Upshaw. PFS ranked higher include Brandon Ashley, Anthony Bennett, Amile Jefferson, Jarnell Stokes, Perry Ellis, Shaq Goodwin and Grant Jarrett (tho some classify Jarrett as a 5)....
That's a lot of bodies. It will be intersting to see if the SJU mojo has attained enuf Gravitas under Steve to push Ricardo over the top when it comes selection time....
I believe that Gathers has a real good shot... 28 points and 13 rebounds against Mr. Drummond tells me so.
A Lavin signee named Sean Phaler once hung 55 on Lenny Cooke - didn't get him a McD bid.. That was at the old Addidas Big Time Tourney in Vegas back in 2001. Phaler was the tourneys leading scorer, and made 1st team all-tourney along with Cooke, Carmelo, Ray Felton and Taquan Dean. Others who DIDN'T make 1st team: Trevor Ariza, Mario Bogans, Brad Buckman, Paul Davis, Jason Frasor, Elija Ingram, LeBron James, Drew Neitzel, Leon Powe, Alan Ray, Anthony Roberson, Brandon Roy, Mustafa Shakur, Josh Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Michael Thompson, Matt Walsh, CJ Watson, Deron Williams, Antoine Wright...(it was a BIG tourney back in the day).
I'm just not sure Ricardo comes in with enuf gravitas to make the cut. Doesn't mean he's not as good or BETTER than kids that might make it ahead of him. We'll have to see. Some voters are going to look at his Profile on Scout or Rivals and say - No Duke in his list of schools? No UNC? No Kentucky? No Ohio State? No Florida? No Michigan State? No UCLA? No Arizona? How can he be McD quality?