Bball....you got a scoring report for us?
Sorry for the delay.
A few things: With all the promising bigs coming in for MD last year and this year's class, Pankey still would have seen solid minutes as probably the first big off the bench, eventually ceding some time to Shaq Cleare as the 2012-13 season goes on.
I do think Ashton's mom is not feeling well lately (meaning it's legit, not the "family member ill cause it's not workin' for me" syndrome)
That being said, Stoglin (not liking school that much), Mychal Parker (not grasping systems well), and Ashton (too many bigs, inconsistent play) were the subject of the transfer rumor mill a lot of last season. The weed got Stogs and Parker suspended for next year, and Ashton may have simply needed to be there for his mom.
In my opinion, I liked what I saw in Ashton last season considering the multiple leg injuries, and liked what I could see Ashton's game becoming. He's agile, pursues rebounds hard with a nose for where the ball will be, and runs the floor well. Ashton's athleticism on D has always been his calling card, and on offense, he showed signs of a decent 8-12 foot jumper. Ashton sometimes wore his emotions on his sleeve, and many fans did not take to his body mannerisms on the court. That's not to say he didn't play hard about 80-90% of the time, but just that he's hard on himself and shows it. He seems like a solid guy (I've tweeted the past 2 years as fellow Bronx-ites (lol)).
I think Ashton could make an excellent backup C/PF, and if he plays hard all the time and gets his 20-25 minutes/game, can contribute on the glass quite a bit. I'd take a chance on Ashton since he has 3 years eligibility left w/ his medical redshirt of 2010-11 season.
Also, I'd like to see Ashton consider my alma mater Manhattan over Iona or Fordham - not a shred of D (sorry Baldi - u know it's true), and excessive losing would sway me away. Steve Masiello is intense about defense - Ashton would be a good fit there as well as St. John's. But make no mistake, I consider Ashton a Big East caliber player.
Oh, and a blog I'm doing for fun with a couple of Terps fans talks briefly not only about Pankey, but the supposed reappearance of Volodymyr Gerun, a 6'9" PF from Ukraine that was bandied about in the summer of 2011. When asked, Turgeon, on the job for all of 3 months, said he didn't know who he was - this right before Alex Len got on campus. Same type of thin, agile, fundamentally sound Ukraine kid as Len that is developing good in the Ukraine program. I hope Lavs starts working that circuit with St. john's having a similarly strong international presence like Maryland. I will not be surprised to see MD land a Chinese big in the years to come with the MTECH (MD Tech Enterprise Institute) International Incubator going full force in Beijing.
http://ontheinsideoftheshell.blogspot.com/2012/05/volodymyr-gerun-mds-new-pf.html