LATEST HEADLINES

Friday, June 29, 2007
Navy gets reinforcements
Billy Lange has finalized his incoming recruiting class. The Midshipmen will add five new faces to their defection-depleted roster, four of whom will be eligible to play this season.

The new Midshipmen include two centers, a 6-10 true freshman and a 6-9 kid who spent a stash year redshirting at Navy's prep school. Lange hopes both can contribute immediately for the post challenged Mids, who lost two of their big men, including all-rookie pick Tret Stanton, in the off season.

The Middies also are adding another Navy prep stashee, a 6-4 swingman, another 6-4 kid out of high school and point guard O.J. Avworo, an Idaho transfer who will not be eligible to play this season.

Another point guard, Steve Silverthorne of Woodson H.S. in Northern Virginia, has announced his plans to attend USNAPS this season with plans to play for the Mids next season.

Labels: ,


Read Full Post
Published at 6:54 AM by Hoop Time.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Update on HC's dynamic duo
Keith Simmons and Torey Thomas continue to work out for NBA teams in advance of next week's draft.

Jerry Dianis, the pair's Washington, D.C. based agent, sent along this e-mail message Wednesday:
Keith Simmons also had a workout with Golden State Warriors today. Torey worked out with Knicks/Nets today.
Thomas told The Journal News about his session, reporting his shot was falling and he felt good about his workout for the Knicks.

Labels:


Read Full Post
Published at 9:58 AM by Hoop Time.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Simmons gets NBA looks, too
Torey Thomas is not the only Holy Cross player getting a look from the NBA. Patriot League Player of the Year Keith Simmons is also working out for NBA teams.

Simmons worked out Tuesday for the Utah Jazz. Monday, Simmons showcased his game for the Boston Celtics. The Celtics had Thomas in for a workout yesterday. There is also a report that Simmons had a workout last week at a joint session held by the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets.

Labels:


Read Full Post
Published at 9:40 AM by Hoop Time.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Thomas chasing NBA dream
Holy Cross' recently graduated point guard Torey Thomas is getting a look from NBA teams.

Thomas, the league's defensive player of the year and a first team all-league pick, worked out last week for the Utah Jazz and is also expected to get a workout with the Boston Celtics, reports his hometown paper.

Thomas plans to play in next month's Nike Summer Pro League and hopes to land a spot on an NBA team's summer league squad. Acknowledging the NBA this season is a long shot, Thomas' contingency plan is to take his game overseas to play professionally in Europe should no NBA job come about.

Labels:


Read Full Post
Published at 8:11 PM by Hoop Time.
Stanton bails on Navy
The Patriot League all-rookie forward Trey Stanton is the latest to leave Billy Lange's program. Stanton's decision seems to more than offset the decision of an Idaho point guard to transfer to the academy.

For Stanton, the decision came down to the military commitment. Stanton told the Annapolis Capital's Billy Wagner:
"It's just that I realized during the past year that the military wasn't for me. I couldn't see myself as a Naval officer for five years."
An all-rookie choice last year, the 6-10 Stanton was the most accomplished member of Navy's 2006 recruiting class, starting 29 of 30 games, averaging 28.4 minutes. His 8 points per game were third on the team, his 3.9 boards were topped only by Greg Sprink (4.8 rpg).

Stanton was a late bloomer, who began his high school career as a 6-3 guard. While he had yet to develop much of a post game, Stanton was comfortable on the perimeter and had three-point range (37 treys, 34.9 percent from the arc) on his jumper.

In addition to Stanton, 6-8 sophomore Bobby Fenske has also decided to leave Navy's program. Senior point guard Corey Johnson previously announced he was giving up basketball and is trying to earn a spot in the defensive secondary with the Navy football team.

Stanton's decision deflates a little of the excitement from last week's announcement that guard O.J. Avworo planned to transfer to Annapolis from Idaho.

Avworo, a 6-0 point out of Texas, told Wagner he decided to leave Idaho, where he had started 24 games and played 28 minutes per game last season, because:
I was not surrounded by the type of players I wanted to be associated with and I did not feel I would accomplish all the things I set out to accomplish while in college.
Avworo will sit out this season, but has three years of eligibility remaining.



Labels: ,


Read Full Post
Published at 6:37 AM by Hoop Time.
Billbe in big exhibition
Recent American graduate Brayden Billbe led all scorers in a big exhibition game in Seattle.

Billbe put up 20 points in the game, which was played at 11-foot baskets -- a foot taller than normal.

The game was put together by Tom (son of Pete) Newell to demonstrate how rule changes might help eliminate the dunk-and-3-pointer nature of today's game.

Labels:


Read Full Post
Published at 6:35 AM by Hoop Time.
Bryant an expansion candidate?
Could the Bryant Bulldogs be the New England travel partner Holy Cross has never had?

Apparently that is a possibility. The Smithfield, R.I. school is exploring a move to Division I (they currently compete in D-II), and the Providence Journal reports Bryant has had informal talks with the Patriot League, along with other conferences.

Bryant's basketball team has been to the D-II National Tournament the past two seasons.

According to Bryant's Web site, the
"average accepted student had mid-range, combined SAT scores between 1080-1180 and the average GPA was about 3.4 (on a 4.0 point scale)."
That would seem to indicate a less than ideal academic fit.

Read Full Post
Published at 6:35 AM by Hoop Time.
Bayer's career ends prematurely
Former Lehigh recruit Paul Bayer's plans to play at Olivet Nazarene have been scrapped after he was diagnosed with a rare heart condition.

Bayer, a 6-5 guard out of Moline, Ill., never got on the floor for the Mountain Hawks last season. Sidelined by severe shin splints in the preseason, Bayer ended up transferring to NAIA power Olivet Nazarene after the first semester.

Now he credits his injury (and others) with possibly saving his life after being diagnosed with what is being called a "rare structural defect in his heart."

Bayer told Quad Cities Online:
"I'm very thankful they found this ticking time-bomb in my body, and, by the grace of God, it never went off . . .

I could have ended up like Hank Gathers or Reggie Lewis and collapsed and died on a basketball court. So there are bigger tragedies in this world than never being able to play basketball again."
The report indicates Bayers is taking medication for the condition and hopes to avoid surgery. His playing days are likely over.

Labels:


Read Full Post
Published at 5:53 AM by Hoop Time.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Navy gets early commit
John Corrigan, a 6-6 rising senior at Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg, Pa., has accepted Billy Lange's offer to play his college hoops at the Naval Academy.

According to The Patriot-News, Corrigan has a 4.2 GPA and plans to major in pre-med. He averaged 11.1 points per game last season for a sub-.500 Crusaders team.

Corrigan chose Navy over Princeton, Lehigh, Lafayette, Columbia and Yale.

Labels: ,


Read Full Post
Published at 6:38 AM by Hoop Time.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Catching up
Any spare time we found the last few weeks was spent tying flies and getting ready for our annual fishing trip. Here's a look at a few tidbits we missed while doing the stuff most fly fishermen do during hoops season.

  • Bison to host Albany in their home opener. According to a story in the Albany Times Union, the Danes will visit Lewisburg Nov. 10. The game is the second half of a home and home series that started last season at Albany.

  • Sad news from Annapolis. Former Navy coach and player Dave Smalley has passed away after a battle with cancer. Smalley was 72. Joe Gross, the longtime sports editor at the Capital in Annapolis, shares some memories of Smalley in this column.

  • Just back from his team's 4-0 road trip to Italy, Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon will serve as a "court coach" during the U.S. team trials for the Pan American Games. Head coach for the U.S. team, by the way, will be Bucknell grad Jay Wright, the Villanova head coach.

  • American has announced its incoming recruiting class, leading to the question: Are any juco players left to sign with any other schools? O.K., that is a slight exaggeration. But Jeff Jones's six incoming players include a total of four from the juco ranks.

  • Lehigh is also bringing in six recruits, all from the prep ranks. Four are scholarship kids, two, including another 7-foot project, are invited walk-ons. The most curious signing is a 5-8 point guard, Prentice Small, from Long Island, given the Mountain Hawks' outstanding point guard Marquis Hall will be just a sophomore. Hall is a fine three-point shooter, but he is just 5-11. Even in the Patriot League, there won't be many times Billy Taylor will be able to get away with playing the two together, as Jeff Jones discovered with Derrick Mercer and Garrison Carr.

    Labels: , , , , , ,


    Read Full Post
    • Published at 7:55 PM by Hoop Time.
    Help Hoop Time