Verbal commits

[Anchorage]

Not that verbal commits is the end all in recruiting news but it's a pretty darn good website to find out what's going on. Last year I said Western Oregon was getting crushed in recruiting based on verbal commits, and it was correct.

Once again we're having a recruiting season with no one signing, no news out there because our athletic department is a locked vault, one decent player transferring out. Not many decent players last year. Half the team didn't suit up.

I'm not sure how this basketball program continues with the current coaching staff if they don't sign quality players, don't tell their fans when they sign quality players, and don't build anything within their local community, which is the state of Oregon and the Willamette Valley.

I guess they just collect their checks. The athletic director appears to be good with it, which is stunning to me. Meanwhile Central Washington and others are signing players left and right. We are just getting crushed in Monmouth. I don't get it.

UAA isn’t off to a blazing start here either, watching guys sign with conference rivals instead of them.

The latest is Sullivan Menard from UAA’s back yard. A former Alaska Gatorade POY, they recruited him heavy only to watch him go to DePaul as a walk on. When he transferred from DePaul they went after him heavy and he chose Western Wyoming JC instead. He got injured badly and had to sit a year and found himself at Whitworth college a D3 school. He had a breakout year this year and finally looked like himself again. I can only assume that UAA was after him once again very aggressively…but he just signed with Northwest Naz instead.

No one signed and it coming up on May after losing 5 key seniors to graduation.

[tsull]

I'm not sure what Western Oregon strategy is recruiting I think they got a guy from Lane Community College in Eugene, he has modest statistics. I believe they got a prep from Longview, Washington, I know nothing about him. I really hope they can have a great recruiting class with a mixture of high school, JC guys and maybe a portal guy or two. I'd like them to see a refocus to the Northwest, which it appears they are doing.

I'm fairly cynical on the program but I really do want coach Pifer to succeed. I think he's a good guy and cares about his players and academics. I don't want to see him fail, I don't want to see the program continue to struggle. I'm just not sure what the plan is, or what happened last year when half the team did not suit up. I would have liked it if it was just said in a press release that guys were injured, or there was some personal issues. It was all a big mystery. I hope they can turn it around.

[tsull]

UAA isn’t off to a blazing start here either, watching guys sign with conference rivals instead of them.

The latest is Sullivan Menard from UAA’s back yard. A former Alaska Gatorade POY, they recruited him heavy only to watch him go to DePaul as a walk on. When he transferred from DePaul they went after him heavy and he chose Western Wyoming JC instead. He got injured badly and had to sit a year and found himself at Whitworth college a D3 school. He had a breakout year this year and finally looked like himself again. I can only assume that UAA was after him once again very aggressively…but he just signed with Northwest Naz instead.

No one signed and it coming up on May after losing 5 key seniors to graduation.

I always wonder what athletes are thinking when they do something stupid like walk on at a bad program like DePaul halfway across the country for no money. Then I wonder why they go to something like Western Wyoming Junior College, when he could have gone to a school in the Northwest or just transferred to a D2 without having to sit out since there's no sit-out rules anymore. I always wonder who is chirping in these guys ears. That circuitous route he took ending up at Northwest Nazarene is very cringe-worthy. He obviously thought he was too good to play in Alaska, why not just sign with a GNAC school out of high school and call it a day and work on your degree and your internships? It's very weird out there right now in recruiting.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

Whitworth's Sullivan Menard is transfering to NNU. Averaged 16 ppg with 39.5% 3-point shooting last season

[Anchorage]

I always wonder what athletes are thinking when they do something stupid like walk on at a bad program like DePaul halfway across the country for no money. Then I wonder why they go to something like Western Wyoming Junior College, when he could have gone to a school in the Northwest or just transferred to a D2 without having to sit out since there's no sit-out rules anymore. I always wonder who is chirping in these guys ears. That circuitous route he took ending up at Northwest Nazarene is very cringe-worthy. He obviously thought he was too good to play in Alaska, why not just sign with a GNAC school out of high school and call it a day and work on your degree and your internships? It's very weird out there right now in recruiting.

yeah, I never understood the decision to pay a ton of money to walk on at a D1 to be practice team fodder over securing playing time and a scholarship. Makes no sense. I too am surprised no adults in his life didn’t steer him in another direction.

[tsull]

yeah, I never understood the decision to pay a ton of money to walk on at a D1 to be practice team fodder over securing playing time and a scholarship. Makes no sense. I too am surprised no adults in his life didn’t steer him in another direction.

Agree, sometimes the parents/adults are the worst ones. Who is telling the latest SPU guard to go to four high schools and four colleges in 8 years? I think his dad was on here once saying it's a great thing to do.

Since ZERO of these guys are making the NBA and few are making any kind of worthless/low paying overseas league, why not work on your internships, faculty/professor/staff connections at your school? I can't imagine going to college and not getting an internship or developing those key connections to get a good start on the job market. I really don't get the 3- or 4-school portal moves at any college, especially D2 on down. What are these guys looking for?

Agree on being practice fodder when one is a walk-on. The biggest scam in collegiate atheltics is the "preferred walk-on" which is used to get good athletes to campus without paying them. Football uses this and trots out the few examples of walk-ons who worked out, not mentioning the other 500 guys, who didn't work out. Friend of mine's kid was a good football player, a Pac-10 school offered him a preferred walk-on spot. Luckily his position coach in high school, who played in the Pac-10 and professionally, told him he'd be insane to do that, you'll just be a tackling dummy in practice. He instead went to Linfield, started for 3 years, won a ton of games, had a great experience. He also developed key relationships at the school, got a nice internship, now works in the finance sector and most likely makes a lot more dough than the portal jumping guys.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

6'7" Jaxon Nap (Hazen HS) is transferring to SPU from Montana. Appeared in 62 games in 2 seasons as a reserve.

[Anchorage]

Looks like UAA signed John McFadden, 6’8 post from
Saddleback College in Orange County. He averaged 15 pts 9 rebounds for the 17-14 squad of the California community college league.

[Anchorage]

Agree, sometimes the parents/adults are the worst ones. Who is telling the latest SPU guard to go to four high schools and four colleges in 8 years? I think his dad was on here once saying it's a great thing to do.

Since ZERO of these guys are making the NBA and few are making any kind of worthless/low paying overseas league, why not work on your internships, faculty/professor/staff connections at your school? I can't imagine going to college and not getting an internship or developing those key connections to get a good start on the job market. I really don't get the 3- or 4-school portal moves at any college, especially D2 on down. What are these guys looking for?

Agree on being practice fodder when one is a walk-on. The biggest scam in collegiate atheltics is the "preferred walk-on" which is used to get good athletes to campus without paying them. Football uses this and trots out the few examples of walk-ons who worked out, not mentioning the other 500 guys, who didn't work out. Friend of mine's kid was a good football player, a Pac-10 school offered him a preferred walk-on spot. Luckily his position coach in high school, who played in the Pac-10 and professionally, told him he'd be insane to do that, you'll just be a tackling dummy in practice. He instead went to Linfield, started for 3 years, won a ton of games, had a great experience. He also developed key relationships at the school, got a nice internship, now works in the finance sector and most likely makes a lot more dough than the portal jumping guys.

it’s absolutely a total scam. They give the guys a false sense of the coaching staff really believing in them when in reality they just want practice players. And you hit the nail on the head…few ever earn a scholarship and always get recruited over. Most figure out pretty quickly they’ve been duped out of tuition expenses and a year of eligibility.

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

https://nwacsports.com/sports/mbkb/2...kobeparlinfk8r

Lower Columbia College guard Kobe Parlin has signed with CWU! Last season he earned NWAC All-Region Freshman of the Year honors after averaging 17.1 ppg, 49.7% FG, 39% 3FG, 85% FT! The last Wildcat to also play at LCC? Samaad Hector!

Wildcats now how a loaded group of sophomore guards in addition to their 7'2" and two 6'9" bigs

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

CWU signs 6'5" wing from Garfield Jamari Harris. Central has a pretty nice looking recruiting class

[Goods]

Worst part of all these recruit updates is having to wait another 6 months to see the new team on the court, especially with last year's success.

[tsull]

CWU staff has done a nice job getting players.

I'm more encouraged with the WOU off-season. Most of the recruits haven't been announced and certainly not on verbal commits, except for one. I'm trying to stay positive. I like coach Pifer and want him to succeed. Last year was a disaster, I'll count that as a one-off. Just hoping they're competitive next year, I don't have super high expectations.

* Does anyone else think it's odd that D1 portal guys seeking more playing time don't drop down to D2? I'm not a portal fan, but I'd think if you wanted to get some minutes and play quality ball, play in the GNAC, or PacWest, or CCAA, if you're from the West. I always find it amusing with the 3 or 4 school portal guy who keeps going from mid-major D1 to another mid-major and just sits on a bench in a different town. Oh well.

[Anchorage]

UAA has signed a slew of players from the California JC league. Another Utah as well. Tough to list them all as VC has some that UAA hasn’t announced and UAA has announced a few that VC doesn’t have, Looks like 3 guards and two forwards one 6’6 and a 6’8 PF.

The Alaska movement appears dead as no signees or offers I've seen are in Alaska players.

Another interesting note, Dillon Barrientos is no longer on the UAA roster, And he’s disappeared from VC as well. VC doesn’t even show him as transferred like they normally do, he’s just gone. That’s a big loss if he’s moving on, I believe he had another year of eligibility. He played well last year.

[Anchorage]

CWU staff has done a nice job getting players.

I'm more encouraged with the WOU off-season. Most of the recruits haven't been announced and certainly not on verbal commits, except for one. I'm trying to stay positive. I like coach Pifer and want him to succeed. Last year was a disaster, I'll count that as a one-off. Just hoping they're competitive next year, I don't have super high expectations.

* Does anyone else think it's odd that D1 portal guys seeking more playing time don't drop down to D2? I'm not a portal fan, but I'd think if you wanted to get some minutes and play quality ball, play in the GNAC, or PacWest, or CCAA, if you're from the West. I always find it amusing with the 3 or 4 school portal guy who keeps going from mid-major D1 to another mid-major and just sits on a bench in a different town. Oh well.

Following VC on Twitter, I think they are dropping down. I just don’t think we are seeing them in the GNAC for whatever reason. I’m not sure if the GNAC coaches prefer JC kids who have been through the grind over D1 drop downs that think they are too good for D2? Or if they just haven’t been attracted to GNAC schools. The last D1 drop down UAA had was 3 years or so ago with Darius Guinn who quickly found himself out of the rotation and not playing. I’m not sure what the deal was but he never looked happy at UAA and left after one season.