2017 Recruiting

[mslacat]

https://twitter.com/pgabriel15/status/778634952069873664

This would be a great pick up for the Bobcats. I think possible the second best recruit Fish has signed in his tenure. Bonton committed to Portland last January, but when they fired their coaches last March he re-opened his commitment. BTW he was recruit at Portland by current Bobcats Assistant coach Eric Jackson at the same time Brandon Lincoln was recruiting him

[Grandmaster Cat]

Bonton sounds like a great get. Congrats to Coach Fish and to the young man for making a wise choice!
Should make for a talented backcourt next year with Hall, Worthy, Bonton, Frey and Klines. Any insights on to whether Hall might slide back to shooting guard with Bonton on board? Also, will be interesting to see the friendly competition develop between Frey and Bonton over the next few years. Now if we can only land a talented big guy or two. Sigh...

[blueandgoldblitz]

When is the next signing period?

[mslacat]

When is the next signing period?

November 9th thru the 16th for Men's and Women's basketball

[mslacat]

Well The Bobcats got their first commit a week ago, from Bonton one of 5 recruits they had in for official visits during the first two Home football games of the season, and it seems they are in a holding pattern until they hear what the rest of the recruits are up to. This past week end as far as I can tell the Coaches had not recruits in for visits. As of right now of the five recruits who have visited only Howard (to EWU) and Bonton (to MSU) have committed leaving 6-1 PG Jaize Lottie, 6-7 PF Clashon Gaffney and 6-9 PF Andrease Jackson still uncommitted. Jackson took an official trip to Dartmouth two weekend back and I think he had a trip to American University last week-end. I thought we might start hearing something one way or another this past Monday or Tuesday. Gaffney has been getting a late push from Southern Methodist and has had an official visit to Sam Houston for basketball. There is actually also a lot pressure from big time football for him, as he is considered a better football prospect than basketball, but he enjoys round ball. I was wondering when PG Bonton committed to the Bobcats whether they would pull their offer to Lottie given they only have possibly 2 scholarships to offer, but I am getting all the indications that they still have an offer out to him. Lottie seems to be on a slow cook in making up his mind and would not surprise me if he waited until late October or even to the spring to commit/sign. All of these prospects are three star basketball recruits and I feel could make solid contributions as true freshman. I think the coaches brought in their top recruits and just decided to wait a little until the bring in the next round of prospects and again with them only needing to sign two prospects (one spot already committed) they have that luxury. Besides it never hurts to have a scholarship available in the spring. Personally I would really love to see the coaches land either or both Gaffney or Jackson this fall. They have proven they can recruit Guards and wings and our cupboard is stocked with quality players their but we really could use a top notch big man or two especially at the freshman level. While we do have two scholarships guaranteed to be open for this recruiting class there is also a possibility of a third scholarship if the NCAA rules Konner Frey eligible to play this year. So if the basketball god were to smile upon the Bobcats we could actually sign 2 of the remaining prospects this fall.

[mslacat]

According to Parker Gabriel yesterday on Twitter, 6-10 Luke Shultz from Kerrville TX Is on campus today as well as yesterday, for an official visit. Again earlier on in this thread I did a write up on Mr. Shultz you can take a look at. The one thing I appeared to have gotten wrong in that write up was his stats. According to MAX preps he averaged 17.7 points and 13.8 rebounds and 6.6 blocks a game. He has offers from and has taken or will be taking official visits to Dartmouth, Cornell, Fresno State and Montana State. He is more of a true center type who might have a little growing left in him.

[msu_agfan]

Luke might be a great Center prospect for us. We say and hear how it would be nice to have a Center, well here he is.

[bobcatfan4life]

Yes, a center would be great for sure! It does look Bonton is a great get as well. Excited for where basketball program is going.

[mslacat]

Luke might be a great Center prospect for us. We say and hear how it would be nice to have a Center, well here he is.

We have 6-10 (some say 6-11) Devin Kirby on the team who everyone is telling me looks very good so far this year. Down the road though I think we could play both on the floor at the same time in certain situations. Kirby played quite a bit at forward in high school and AAU ball and can shoot it out to 20 feet. He also has the quickness to guard out there.

[msu_agfan]

I've heard Kirby is quite tall. I wonder if he has much meat on him though. I found an interesting video of Luke Schultz. Talks a little about how we approach recruiting him. Seems like a nice kid. Scroll down to Sept 26th for the video and story about Luke from the local newspaper the Kerrville Daily Times. https://www.facebook.com/kerrvilledaily ... CH&fref=nf

[bobcatfan4life]

Kirby is tall and I personally like where this team is headed and what Coach Fish and his staff are doing.

[mslacat]

I've heard Kirby is quite tall. I wonder if he has much meat on him though. I found an interesting video of Luke Schultz. Talks a little about how we approach recruiting him. Seems like a nice kid. Scroll down to Sept 26th for the video and story about Luke from the local newspaper the Kerrville Daily Times. https://www.facebook.com/kerrvilledaily ... CH&fref=nf

Boy it sounds like from that video that the Bobcats were the favorite pre-visits! Lets hope they are the choice post visits!

[msu_agfan]

Boy it sounds like from that video that the Bobcats were the favorite pre-visits! Lets hope they are the choice post visits!

They have just put out an updated story for Luke Schultz in it he stated MSU was his top choice thus far (before his visit here) was quoted "“I want to major in mechanical engineering and they have a great program. They have the D1 basketball facilities I dream of. And it is the ‘Dream Dome’ center court in front of 8,000 people it’s the best thing you can imagine,” Schultz said. http://dailytimes.com/promotions/articl ... bbaab.html

Hope he enjoyed the trip. He seems like a solid young man and wont make any decision too hastily. he's checked out lots of opportunities.

[Hawks86]

https://twitter.com/pgabriel15/status/783139048529403904

[LTown Cat]

https://twitter.com/pgabriel15/status/783139048529403904

[RickRund]

https://twitter.com/pgabriel15/status/783139048529403904

Sounds good.

[thefrank1]

Fish and his team rock! This is great.

[msu_agfan]

Welcome to Bobcat Nation Luke!

[imacat]

Welcome to the Bobcat family Luke!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mslacat]

Really happy with both recruits Issac Bonton and Luke Schultz. I know Fish and Lincoln have been after Bonton for about three year and when he committed to U or Portland last year they were disappointed, but they got another bite of the apple and got him this time. The other thing I liked is that when you look at the guys we went after they were all high caliber three star prospects. In the past it seemed our coaches would go after maybe one "I hope we can convince him" three star caliber player and then drop down a level for 1 or 2 "OK this is a more our level" prospects and finally if those did not work out our 3rd or 4th option was "OK we can fill a roster spot" type recruits. Fish would not settle and even more so those higher level recruits took him seriously and he was able to bring in recruits who could make an impact as true freshmen. We did miss out on Howard, and I think that was very disappointing. I thought he could have an impact on the team like Payton Ferris has on the women's team. Not exactly the prototypical size for their position but they will out hustle and out work their opponents and bring energy to the team. Despite not getting Howard I am tickled and impressed with the 5 other players Fish brought in and not down at all with this small class. At the guard he brought in two Bonton and Lottie. They are both great point guard prospects, both have been predicted by some to be the best college prospect in their state this year, but Lottie is less of a scorer than Bonton, more of a true pass first Point , while Bonton is an explosive scorer in the vein of Marcus Cobert. I kind of like Bonton for a Brian Fish team, but their are other who would/could argue for Lottie. I would have been tickled if Lottie had committed first. At the big man position it is tough to gauge who was/is a better recruit between Gaffney, Jackson, and Shultz as they were all three slightly different big men, but all could run the floor, score and rebound. Gaffney at 6-7 was more of a pure power forward and of an athletic level we don't see in the Big Sky. Jackson was more of a 6-8ish power forward/center hustle guy. Shultz is very similar athletically to Jackson (who has received a lot more national publicity) and a solid 2 inches bigger and has a huge wing span at 7'-3" something Fish loves in players. I wish we would have had the scholarships to grab more than one. Of the 6 guys we had in three have committed (Howard to EWU; Bonton and ShultZ to MSU). I am hearing Jackson, Lottie and Gaffney may wait until spring to sign, thus we might get another opportunity.

As of this date it appears we only have the 2 scholarships available this year, but that might change come Spring. If Konner Frey is ruled eligible for 16-17 that would open up another scholarship plus it seems that every D-1 program looses at least 1 underclassmen every year, so there is always the chance that 1-2 could open for that reason. Brian Fish pattern is to recruit freshman at the early period and JC in the late period. I would really hope that we could see less JC recruits if scholarships were to open up and hopefully he can grab a another quality freshman instead. It just seems to me that Fish has had far far better results in recruiting high schoolers than JC recruits, and in the long run it leads to a better program to have players who are contributing earlier and longer in the program.