I'm hoping Crawford has a similar impact at Manhattan to what another tall former St. Thomas Moore player, Adam Jones, had for us a few years ago. In other words, a major disappointment.
It will be interesting to see how the 6-9 Lakoju develops vs 2 other CT Prep school players that signed with MAAC schools ...... 6-8 Chaise Daniels (Putnam) with Quinnpiac and 6-8 Calvin Crawford (STM) with Manhattan. Daniels and Crawford's rankings are higher than Lakoju in NERR, but they did not get any Post Season Honors. All players are similar level, but if we want to be the top of the MAAC, Lakoju has to turn out better than Daniels and Crawford.
I saw that Ami attended a reception for Magis Scholars. He has to be a bright kid. But it does raise the question whether he is receiving a basketball scholarship and whether that impacts our scholarship availability?
Lakoju did sign an LOI for a Basketball scholarship. If Lakoju plays next year, then I think he has to be on a Basketball scholarship, per NCAA rules because he signed an LOI. If Lakoju does not play for the Stags next year because of something like going to Prep school, then he would not take up a scholarship.
Also JS, Samuel Dingba of Salisbury School to Quinnipiac. Rated higher than them all at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately a couple of injuries followed by surgeries knocked him out of action for the year. Will he come back healthy and be ready to contribute to the Bobcats right away? If so I"m afraid Tom Moore will really have a strong freshmen class with he and Daniels (an accomplished player already) as a foundation.
It will be interesting to see how the 6-9 Lakoju develops vs 2 other CT Prep school players that signed with MAAC schools ...... 6-8 Chaise Daniels (Putnam) with Quinnpiac and 6-8 Calvin Crawford (STM) with Manhattan. Daniels and Crawford's rankings are higher than Lakoju in NERR, but they did not get any Post Season Honors. All players are similar level, but if we want to be the top of the MAAC, Lakoju has to turn out better than Daniels and Crawford.
JoeStag, Any particular reason you left out Rider signee Kenny Grant in your post (6'9" from the Hyde School in Woodstock,CT) who made 1st team Class C while Lakoju made 2nd team?
It will be interesting to see how the 6-9 Lakoju develops vs 2 other CT Prep school players that signed with MAAC schools ...... 6-8 Chaise Daniels (Putnam) with Quinnpiac and 6-8 Calvin Crawford (STM) with Manhattan. Daniels and Crawford's rankings are higher than Lakoju in NERR, but they did not get any Post Season Honors. All players are similar level, but if we want to be the top of the MAAC, Lakoju has to turn out better than Daniels and Crawford.
I missed the 6-9 Grant going to Rider. He is actually rated higher in NERR than Lakoju, Daniels and Crawford. Grant's Hyde school beat St Lukes in the NEPSAC playoffs, and grant had 25 pts.
Hyde 67 St. Luke's 58 *Kenny Grant scored a game high 25 points
All four of these players are similar in Height, and would likely be going head to head at a C/PF role. Dingba is listed at 6-6 but is also a PF, and he is a top flight recruit. His description reminds me of Darren Phillip. Those are the guys that Lakoju will be battling for 4 years.
Post by nashvillestag on Mar 24, 2014 16:01:21 GMT -5
Nice video up right now of an interview with Kevin Degnan upon receiving the Lower Hudson Valley Mr. Basketball award. (type in MSG Varsity- Kevin Degnan). A couple of minutes long, he discusses not only his HS career, but also his anticipation of his move to Fairfield next year and what the coaches have told him to work on in the off season.
Coaches told him to work on Footsped, Shooting, and if he works hard, he will get PT.
Can anyone describe what exercises or drills allow someone to increase one's footspeed? If our coaches told him he needs to work on his footspeed, I sure hope Kevin knows the appropriate drills he should be doing to make that happen. If not, he'd have to wait until the start of summer session to find out what those drills are, I'd imagine.
Coaches told him to work on Footsped, Shooting, and if he works hard, he will get PT.
Can anyone describe what exercises or drills allow someone to increase one's footspeed? If our coaches told him he needs to work on his footspeed, I sure hope Kevin knows the appropriate drills he should be doing to make that happen. If not, he'd have to wait until the start of summer session to find out what those drills are, I'd imagine.
Imagine this was kind of a generic comment by Kevin in regards to an aspect of his game that he needs to improve on in order to quickly become a good collegiate player. I'm sure specific drills have been passed along to him. And I would also bet his HS coach Jerry Houston has also offered advice in this area, probably with consultation with the Fairfield staff..
Can anyone describe what exercises or drills allow someone to increase one's footspeed? If our coaches told him he needs to work on his footspeed, I sure hope Kevin knows the appropriate drills he should be doing to make that happen. If not, he'd have to wait until the start of summer session to find out what those drills are, I'd imagine.
Imagine this was kind of a generic comment by Kevin in regards to an aspect of his game that he needs to improve on in order to quickly become a good collegiate player. I'm sure specific drills have been passed along to him. And I would also bet his HS coach Jerry Houston has also offered advice in this area, probably with consultation with the Fairfield staff..
I think footspeed drills are the most popular Basketball drills that are done, especially the ones that focus on lateral movment. I thought KJ really improved his lateral movement on defense this year, But he still was not as good as Needham, Wade or Nickerson. We did not have a lot of team Team Quickness this past year, so Degnan is not the only one that has to improve in that area. There are tons of video on Footspeed and agility on the internet..... like the one below.
Degnan will be expected to be able to cover forwards that can take him off the dribble in College.
JS -- Thanks for providing the link to the youtube video showing the variety of popular drills which can improve one's footspeed. I hope Degnan is diligent about doing the drills so he won't be a defensive liability as a freshman, just as I hope all those players who will playing for us next year are already working on the aspects of their game which need improvement.
Everyone coming back needs to improve significantly and our new players have to be D1 ready by our opening game for us to dramatically improve our won-loss record next season. I bet I'm not the only alum who doesn't want to go through another 7-25 season.