Christopher Obekpa - PF - Our Savior New American - Centereach, NY - ST. JOHN'S

“@eamonnbrennan: Steve Lavin still recruiting Red Storm well http://t.co/RZ2RDwlj”

“@eamonnbrennan: Steve Lavin still recruiting Red Storm well http://t.co/RZ2RDwlj”

Lots of love for Lavin on ESPN.  This is the 3rd article on the resurgence of Lavin and SJU since yesterday.  Of course, being a former employee who left on good terms doesn't hurt.  In any event, the program is getting tremendously postive, nation-wide pr for Lavin's recruiting wonders.     

The comment below evidencing one Bearcat's bitterness over Obekpa was made to the ESPN Insider's story of Obekpa's commitment and Lavin's remarkable recruiting run this year:

Bearcats1969:  Bottom tier and mediocre is what I see.  Obekpa went to St J cause Bearcats told him no to all his garbage from his peeps and he still isnt eligible.   Sampson is from Ohio and not 1 Ohio school recruited him.  OSU, UC, XU all told
him no thanks cause he has no postion.  He is a 4 man who dont rebound and cant shoot and dont play hard,  he looks the part but he wants to shot jumpers and cant play the 3 spot.   I cant wait til St Johns comes to the Shoe and Big O is getting tormented while he sits on the  the bench to a sellout crowd.   hey if he wants the "mecca" and empty gyms he went to the right spot....

Talk about sour grapes!!

The link to the story is below, but you need to be an "insider" to access the full story. 

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncbrecruiting/national/post?id=2333

Why read something written by someone from Cincinnati? It's a thug school. Who cares what they think?

Quote from: DFF6 on June 12, 2012, 05:00:38 PM

The comment below evidencing one Bearcat's bitterness over Obekpa was made to the ESPN Insider's story of Obekpa's commitment and Lavin's remarkable recruiting run this year:

Bearcats1969:  Bottom tier and mediocre is what I see.  Obekpa went to St J cause Bearcats told him no to all his garbage from his peeps and he still isnt eligible.   Sampson is from Ohio and not 1 Ohio school recruited him.  OSU, UC, XU all told
him no thanks cause he has no postion.  He is a 4 man who dont rebound and cant shoot and dont play hard,  he looks the part but he wants to shot jumpers and cant play the 3 spot.   I cant wait til St Johns comes to the Shoe and Big O is getting tormented while he sits on the  the bench to a sellout crowd.   hey if he wants the "mecca" and empty gyms he went to the right spot....

Talk about sour grapes!!

The link to the story is below, but you need to be an "insider" to access the full story. 

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncbrecruiting/national/post?id=2333

Why read something written by someone from Cincinnati? It's a thug school. Who cares what they think?

You're right Poison.  I shouldn't care.  I was just taken aback by the ignorance of the post.

Is anyone hearing that he picked St John's over Uconn?  Uconn's defections cost them. 

Beating out Uconn is much cooler for SJU.  We may finally be seeing St John's and Uconn reverse fortunes.

Perhaps the decision Chris made will have an impact on the future of both programs.

Is anyone hearing that he picked St John's over Uconn?  Uconn's defections cost them. 

Beating out Uconn is much cooler for SJU.  We may finally be seeing St John's and Uconn reverse fortunes.

Perhaps the decision Chris made will have an impact on the future of both programs.

Few thoughts:

1) Is that a rumor you heard somewhere because by all accounts Cincy was his other choice?

2) Ultimately any team not chosen is the second choice and

3) I don't care if SJU beat out UCONN or Yukon Cornelius for this kid. 

Fordham,

1) By all accounts Cincy was his first choice

2) All losers do not come in second.  If so, I'd be cashing a lot of tickets at the track.

3) If this kid wound up choosing Uconn I would get sick. 

He had 238 blocks in 28 games as a senior.  He also shot 58% from the field.

Fordham,

1) By all accounts Cincy was his first choice

2) All losers do not come in second.  If so, I'd be cashing a lot of tickets at the track.

3) If this kid wound up choosing Uconn I would get sick. 

He had 238 blocks in 28 games as a senior.  He also shot 58% from the field.

I'm really psyched at getting CO.   But I do temper it a bit by remembering the best shotblocker a my other school in the past 40 years has NOT been a major impact guy,  Anthony Stover as a high school senior blocked 342 shots leading his team to the California state title.   But he managed only 6 minutes a game as a redshirt freshman, and only 8.4 this past season as a Soph.   He still managed to finish 4th in the pac 12 in shotblocks, even at only 8 minutes a game. 

Just trying to keep in mind that there's more needed for floor time than just one specific skill.    Unfortunately in the hightlight reels, shotblocking is the main emphasis.  Hoping the other (unshown in the vids) skills are there, and he's MAJOR impact.
 

Hope so too.  On the downside his free throws were south of 50%. 

He is coming to play for a staff that will work him like no other.

I also think he improves Gifts game big time.  Gift will be going against him in practice.  Then when the games begin and he comes off the bench he'll be able to go strong from the bell.

Quote from: Chilleb on June 12, 2012, 12:15:56 PM

My concern with the upcoming season is if the opponent shut down dLO where does the offense come from?

I thought Garrett made significant progress offensively. He could make a jump.

I'm with you on this poison, I really like Garrett also. He seems like the kind of player who has a lot of potential to create with the ball if he responds to our coaches. I like his quickness combined with his length and ball handling ability. I feel like he will be a guy who can use his first step to get next to his defender, and then from that point he needs to really work on a 1 dribble pull up and a little hesitation step back jumper like James Harden. If he can become consistent in that 15-18 foot mid-range area, I think he can use head and ball fakes from there to get opponents up in the air or off balance and use his length and athleticism to get layups and get to the line. Garrett is also a pretty decent distributor for his position.

I'm really not worried about what we can do offensively.  Outside of D-Lo, Phil is a really good scorer who we saw maybe thrown off slightly with his adjustment to full-time PG.  Thought he improved in that aspect as we got into February and he's a pretty good scorer.  Also I would expect that Dom makes a jump from some of his pure raw length to some more polished offensive abilities, as freshmen to soph year is usually when that happens.  Same for Amir.

As for our freshmen, JaKarr has really improved the consistency on his midrange game from last year to this year so look for us to use him to try and get in the particularly when teams zone us. Orlando Sanchez also has a really nice touch and can knock down jumpshots and Bourgeault is obviously our shooting specialist if/when we need one.  Even though D-Lo is the primary engine, I'm really not all that worried about our scoring unless D-Lo gets into a lot of foul trouble or something.

Fordham,

1) By all accounts Cincy was his first choice

No SJU was his first choice, that is why he is a Johnny.  Cincy at one point could have been his first choice as long rumored but since he NEVER verbaled there and ultimately the only schoo he publically verbaled to and signed papers with was and is SJU then it is safe to say that SJU was and is his first choice. 

Quote from: Tiznow on June 12, 2012, 10:08:04 PM

Fordham,

1) By all accounts Cincy was his first choice

No SJU was his first choice, that is why he is a Johnny.  Cincy at one point could have been his first choice as long rumored but since he NEVER verbaled there and ultimately the only schoo he publically verbaled to and signed papers with was and is SJU then it is safe to say that SJU was and is his first choice.

Well said.  There were also tons of rumors of him bent ineligible and other things.  Doesn't really matter at this point.  His first and only choice is SJU.  Seems he just wanted to take as much time as he needed to decide.  Lavin was smart to wait it out and not pressure him.  That is a hallmark of our staff's recruiting strategy.  Looks like Mick Cronin didn't have the patience to wait Obekpa out forever if needed.  The final result is that we landed the prize.  A young gazelle of a center who we desperately needed as a piece of our puzzle and he's fully qualified.  Kudos to our staff for having the wherewithal to stick it out until the very satisfying end.

Quote from: fordham96 on June 13, 2012, 09:12:55 AM

Quote from: Tiznow on June 12, 2012, 10:08:04 PM

Fordham,

1) By all accounts Cincy was his first choice

No SJU was his first choice, that is why he is a Johnny.  Cincy at one point could have been his first choice as long rumored but since he NEVER verbaled there and ultimately the only schoo he publically verbaled to and signed papers with was and is SJU then it is safe to say that SJU was and is his first choice.

Well said.  There were also tons of rumors of him bent ineligible and other things.  Doesn't really matter at this point.  His first and only choice is SJU.  Seems he just wanted to take as much time as he needed to decide.  Lavin was smart to wait it out and not pressure him.  That is a hallmark of our staff's recruiting strategy.  Looks like Mick Cronin didn't have the patience to wait Obekpa out forever if needed.  The final result is that we landed the prize.  A young gazelle of a center who we desperately needed as a piece of our puzzle and he's fully qualified.  Kudos to our staff for having the wherewithal to stick it out until the very satisfying end.

But is it really the end ? Anyone else even mildly concerned that he signed a letter ( not an LOI, which he couldn't sign ) that apparently gives him the right to back out of the ship without permission of the school and with no penalty ? Just asking !

As a result of his waiting to make a decision, it was the only thing he could sign.

As a result of his waiting to make a decision, it was the only thing he could sign.

Yes but he controlled the timing of that decision. That's my point.

Quote from: MCNPA on June 13, 2012, 09:24:09 AM

Quote from: fordham96 on June 13, 2012, 09:12:55 AM

Quote from: Tiznow on June 12, 2012, 10:08:04 PM

Fordham,

1) By all accounts Cincy was his first choice

No SJU was his first choice, that is why he is a Johnny.  Cincy at one point could have been his first choice as long rumored but since he NEVER verbaled there and ultimately the only schoo he publically verbaled to and signed papers with was and is SJU then it is safe to say that SJU was and is his first choice.

Well said.  There were also tons of rumors of him bent ineligible and other things.  Doesn't really matter at this point.  His first and only choice is SJU.  Seems he just wanted to take as much time as he needed to decide.  Lavin was smart to wait it out and not pressure him.  That is a hallmark of our staff's recruiting strategy.  Looks like Mick Cronin didn't have the patience to wait Obekpa out forever if needed.  The final result is that we landed the prize.  A young gazelle of a center who we desperately needed as a piece of our puzzle and he's fully qualified.  Kudos to our staff for having the wherewithal to stick it out until the very satisfying end.

But is it really the end ? Anyone else even mildly concerned that he signed a letter ( not an LOI, which he couldn't sign ) that apparently gives him the right to back out of the ship without permission of the school and with no penalty ? Just asking !

Not worried.  Practice starts real soon.  Obekpa was real deliberate about choosing his school and took a long time.  It doesnt sound like he was manipulating in any way.  It seems he just took a long time to make an informed decision.  Like I said, practice/summer workouts start any day now.  I don't think he has plans of going anywhere else.  He'll be packing and getting ready to room with Felix.

For any of you fine folks in this NYC-area and interested: Chris Obekpa will be playing at Dyckman tomorrow (Thursday) night at 8:15PM.  Get there early if you decide to go.

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere, but Zags claims Chris will have no problem qualifying.

‏@AdamZagoria
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I'm told ‪#stjbb‬ commit Chris Obekpa is qualified and does well academically in high school.

Quote from: Poison on June 12, 2012, 01:49:23 PM

Quote from: Chilleb on June 12, 2012, 12:15:56 PM

My concern with the upcoming season is if the opponent shut down dLO where does the offense come from?

I thought Garrett made significant progress offensively. He could make a jump.

I'm with you on this poison, I really like Garrett also. He seems like the kind of player who has a lot of potential to create with the ball if he responds to our coaches. I like his quickness combined with his length and ball handling ability. I feel like he will be a guy who can use his first step to get next to his defender, and then from that point he needs to really work on a 1 dribble pull up and a little hesitation step back jumper like James Harden. If he can become consistent in that 15-18 foot mid-range area, I think he can use head and ball fakes from there to get opponents up in the air or off balance and use his length and athleticism to get layups and get to the line. Garrett is also a pretty decent distributor for his position.

I agree with the both of you.  Hard not to like Garrett.  Some think he'll be behind Dom because he's playing baseball this summer.  I don't see it that way.  Amir got better with each game.   I think he'll continue to improve.   That midrange jump shot is key.