Here's my 2cent on Rodney Williams....
Fantastic talent and would be a great addition to anyones class. Mac has a knack for identifying talent and creating relationships with the kids that ultimately bring them to ames or not. But, we have a couple of things in our favor. Close to Minny, his parents could drive for games instead of some of the schools that will (WILL) be recruiting him. He's a 2009 prospect, recruiting has started big time for the twiner schools, the big boys don't amp up their recruiting until the season draws to a close, then, you will see the UNC, the Duke, the Kansas, the Kentucky, etc etc come calling thats the way it works. Case in point, Tyler Zeller, we were all over him as a 3*-4* kid and then as the AAU season kicked in, here came UNC, Duke, etc etc and where did he end up.....UNC.... This kid will blow up on the recruiting front during this summers aau circuit mark my words.....if we get him we will be extremely lucky.....we have some advantages, but, until you can show them we will be in the tourney and on tv, they have to follow the big boys....
On a brighter note......from a very reliable source close to the basketball's upper levels, the PG we've all been saying we need so bad is already signed....From everything the coaches have said, Dominique Buckley is the real deal. They're so excited that he didn't get the pub during the summer, because they really felt his stock on the AAU circuit was going to rise and they might be out on him. Were lucky to have him, and right now, he's one of four being considered for Player of the Year in Michigan.....well anyone knowing basketball knows that anyone that wins that title from Michigan can play....and when his coach says he's a more polished player then Rumeal Robinson was when he came out of high school, thats a statement.
I think our PG will be in good hands next year, and having not one but two three point marksmen in Staiger and Eikmeyer, suddenly those defenses won't be saggin back to defend the penetration from garrett and buckley. We cannot underestimate the losses of Taylor and Staiger, we have those two players this year, IMO we're on the bubble for the tourney if not a lock. I think our focus really needs to be a big for 2009, otherwise we will have Mann, Hamilton, Johnson and Brackins to fill the 4-5 spots. We need a Kelvin Cato in the middle, i loved watchin him play, it was fun to have a force in the middle - that would help our defense and our rebounding, no offense to Jiri, he's a decent player, we need that next level of player in the middle.
