Sal updates
- Thread starter Ulla1
- Start date
Sal's team won to move on - will play again on Sunday. No mention of his name among the top scorers.
Well new here and my first post. Have to say I'm glad to find a group of fans who love Richmond basktball as much as I do. Wish I had found out about this when I was a freshman 6 years ago.
I'm excited about this kid. Plays a position we badly need depth at, but with that being said there's a reason we need depth at it. Don't have the best history at developing and recruiting guys who can actually play there. Lets hope this one rights the ship
I'm excited about this kid. Plays a position we badly need depth at, but with that being said there's a reason we need depth at it. Don't have the best history at developing and recruiting guys who can actually play there. Lets hope this one rights the ship
You must have been that one student sitting over there. Welcome aboard, bring more.
10 points 5 rebounds for Sal in a season ending loss for Iona Prep.
Looking forward to seeing you suit up next fall Sal!
Looking forward to seeing you suit up next fall Sal!
Lost to Archbishop Malloy whose roundball alumni include:
Kenny Anderson,Brian Winters,Kenny Smith,Kevin Joyce and Jim Larrañaga among others.
Frank McQuire’s recruiting grounds as well as Bobby Cremins.
https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/...nior-laden-iona-prep-molloys-hands/385440002/
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Just watched a nice "highlights" video from Sal's last game. He is #4, and is very active in the video, mostly scoring from inside. Click on the link in the post above to get a preview of #4. Enjoy!
Sal could be a strong candidate to play at the power forward (4) for UR this coming fall, and I'm hoping he can do some heavy-duty work in the weight room before then. It would be really helpful to have him up to 200+ pounds by the start of his freshman year, and the great food in our UR cafeteria could help out a lot.
Sal could be a strong candidate to play at the power forward (4) for UR this coming fall, and I'm hoping he can do some heavy-duty work in the weight room before then. It would be really helpful to have him up to 200+ pounds by the start of his freshman year, and the great food in our UR cafeteria could help out a lot.
I agree it would be nice to see him at 200+, but it’s probably unrealistic to expect him to add 25 pounds this summer
I like Sal, but as others have said, he has a very slight build and think his adjustment to the college game as a power forward will take time because of that.
+1. You can tell from watching his tapes that it is highly unlikely that he will be an immediate impact player as a freshman. Doesn't mean that he might not be a good player at some point. Time will tell.
What I saw in those highlights was a guy unafraid to go strong at a 7-2 McD's all-american and successful at it a few times. That is light years better than the vids we saw of say, Piotrowski shooting layups against a bunch of 6-1 South Jersey white kids.
Count me as more optimistic on Sal than Phoenix Ford and T. Verbinskis.
Count me as more optimistic on Sal than Phoenix Ford and T. Verbinskis.
I still have some hope for Phoenix AJ Ford and the two lefties. AJ is a big kid with athletic ability. A better coach could make him a basketball player. The two lefties can shoot very well and have some height. That along with Sal, Nate, JJ and player to be named later, maybe we can put together a decent bench. Being hopeful.
All ya need to see is the very first offensive possession by Iona where Sal takes the ball at the high post, turns (which a few of our players haven't figured out yet!), and takes a nice looking shot.
With GG down low... Wow... Not going to be easy for opposing teams.
Stepinac conquers the city, claims CHSAA championship
https://kdjblog.com/2018/03/12/stepinac-conquers-the-city-claims-chsaa-championship-video/
Some ballers in this game.On to the Federation championship.
https://kdjblog.com/2018/03/12/stepinac-conquers-the-city-claims-chsaa-championship-video/
Some ballers in this game.On to the Federation championship.
K that is the mystery for me, those 3 on the bench. Never having seen them in practiceI still have some hope for Phoenix AJ Ford and the two lefties. AJ is a big kid with athletic ability. A better coach could make him a basketball player. The two lefties can shoot very well and have some height. That along with Sal, Nate, JJ and player to be named later, maybe we can put together a decent bench. Being hopeful.
or games, what are they going to be able to contribute? If Sal is a decent defender like Cayo but
but better offensive threat, then our depth went up immediately.
From what I saw in practice, the two lefties can shoot the ball. Nice quick release and rotation on the ball. Both are thin and not exactly athletic but handle the ball well. AJ is physically solid and is not moved easily. He is good 5 feet in and finishes fairly well. Outside 5 feet will need some work, and no idea about his free throw shooting. I think he will be a defensive help first and the scoring will come later. Mooney is very very hard on him in practice, but that maybe what gets him going. Schneider was nursing a bad ankle this past fall so Thomas was the choice to be the red shirt stand by. In my opinion, Thomas is the most ready to play this coming winter.
I know all that is very vague and doesn’t help much, but I could only attend 4 practices.
Sal had a slew of really quality offers, including several A-10 offers from Minnesota and Seton Hall. Phoenix had offers from Mississippi Valley State and American as a 6'8 big man recruit, that should tell you about his development. Verbinskis only had like 3 mid major offers.
I'm much more optimistic on Sal as well and was in the group that Phoenix and Verbinskis were nothing more than roster filling selections when Mooney's first choices turned him down.
We are all excited by Bryce Golden and justifiably so, but the fact of the matter is Sal was rated higher (#28) than Bryce (#42) by Rivals, had more offers (18 vs 10), and his offers were a bit better. Think we got a really good one here.
https://n.rivals.com/position_rankings/basketball/2018/PF
https://n.rivals.com/position_rankings/basketball/2018/PF
I'm not saying he's going to be an all-world player, but your statement about Tomas isn't true. He sat on an offer from us for a long time. May have been conditions attached to it, but he held an offer from UR (going off the top of my head here...) since September/October of '15. It was a year later that he took his official but had an offer pretty early.
Bryce will be physically ready to play and contribute in 18-19.Not so sure about Sal.
You may be right, K, but Jayson Tatum was similarly built and contributed as a freshman. I was told that Sal is now 6’9”, extremely long, and handles like a guard. Let’s see.
I think it's a fair assumption that there were conditions attracted to that first offer. Seemed like a placeholder kinda deal, then we ended up both needing a dance partner 18 months or so later and he signed. Could be totally wrong, though.
I understand your statement but I think Sal will bring something we really need...a skilled high post player. He'll have limitations just like everyone else but he'll contribute next year. I think he'll rebound better than you may think and maybe even swat a few shots back as well.
Agreed. I know he had that offer early, but we offer a lot of players, a lot more than we can take. And as Eight said, I presume their is some type of pecking order and conditions with those offers. I am doubting that a 6'7 players with only 2 other D-1 offers was at the top of our board when we offered.
I hope Tomas is a great player for us, but also am not going to play the fool because I've seen these type of redshirt, underrecruited, recruits from Mooney not pan out far too often, to get excited about another one (or three as is the case with AJ, Tomas, and Bryce).
Check out @IonaPrepBBall’s Tweet:
This is why I'm not sure what we have with Sal. Second team all Westchester/Putnam County, NY, for a guy allegedly ranked as the with best power forward in the country and 17 spots ahead of Bryce Golden? Something doesn't add up. Not sure who was on the first team though, so maybe it was a bunch of 5-stars.
This is why I'm not sure what we have with Sal. Second team all Westchester/Putnam County, NY, for a guy allegedly ranked as the with best power forward in the country and 17 spots ahead of Bryce Golden? Something doesn't add up. Not sure who was on the first team though, so maybe it was a bunch of 5-stars.
https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/.../boys-basketball-all-stars-2017-18/455908002/
This says he was selected first team for the region, 2nd team all chsaa, not sure what that means.
Trying to find info on the chsaa, not much out there. At least one of the people on the first team is a 4*, that is all I can find so far.
Edit: found some info. Here is the 1st team:
Alan Griffin -> Illinios commit
Bryce Willis -> Stanford commit
Tyrese Williams -> Quinipiac commit (offers from SLU and Bonnies)
Cole Anthony -> 5* Junior (offers from Duke, Kansas, Georgetown, UCLA)
Joe Toussaint -> 3* Junior
RJ Davis -> Unranked sophomore
Not too shabby of a lineup. Probably 4 or 5 of the 6 are going to P5 schools eventually.
2nd team includes:
Kofi Cockburn -> 4* junior (offers from Cincinnati, Syracuse, St. Johns, Cal, Auburn)
Khalid Moore -> Georgia Tech commit
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The Catholic High School Athletic Association or CHSAA is a high school athletic association made up of Catholic high schools based in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester. It is the largest Catholic high school athletic league in the United States.
Some former players from this league included: Chris Mullens, Eric Mobley, Kemba Walker, Mke Dunleavy, Sr., Lew Alcindor, Len Elmore, Ron Artest, Dick Ambrose, Lamar Odom, Sue Bird, Jamal Mashburn, Kenny Smith, Kenny Anderson, Olden Polynice to name a few...
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Looks like a very high power league. Even the 2nd team (where Sal is) has P5 talent.
Looks like the league itself is pretty strong. The list I cited is a newspaper-selected team, it appears, so not the league-selected team. Not sure how different they are or how many of the league teams are in the same two counties.
Nowhere did I say or even insinuate that he's no good. Just pointing out that it's tough to get a read on a guy who is rated all over the map, played for a team that didn't score a lot and wasn't one of the top 5 players in a two-county region in New York. I think he'll be on the level of Cayo next year, if I had to guess, which I would take.
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