Season wrap and look ahead

[yotemeal]

Wanted to post my congrats and thanks to Kendall Cutler and Mitchell Bouie, our lone seniors, for their dedication and contributions to the basketball program. I think JUCO guys are sometimes unfairly stereotyped. It's fair to say both of these guys had a positive impact on our program. Mr. Cutler especially showed great passion, energy and love of the game.

Found a couple of articles I hadn't seen before regarding our incoming point guard, Nimrod Hilliard:

Signing day video: host.madison.com/vmix_50f18138-308d-11e0-ad77-001cc4c002e0.html

And a short piece that indicates Mr. Hilliard plays with a great deal of energy and personality (not to mention a knack for scoring): www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=32186

I also read that our other signee, Terrell Brown out of Colorado Springs, was picked to play in Colorado's annual high school all-star game. I believe I've posted this before, but here is an excerpt from an ESPN player evaluation on Brown:

"Brown is a strong wing with excellent fundamentals. He attacks the rim and finishes well and also has one of the best mid-range shots in the country. He is a standout perimeter defender and rebounds very well for his position. One to keep an eye on this winter for the mid-major level."
espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/117442/terrell-brown

Any further word on the big(s) were chasing?

[usdlaw]

Good post. And thanks to Cutler and Bouie as well. I was happy to see Bouie have such a good GWC tourney. I'm sure Cutler feels bad about the free throws at the end of the UND game, but he played a great game. No reason to hang his head on that performance.

For as much as people thought this was a lost season, I really don't think it was. Look back and USD lost a lot of close games at the buzzer or in the last minute. We had so many of those go our way last year it was almost like karma it happened to us this year. With maturity those hopefully turn into close wins next year. Keep in mind we were quite young this year. For Gruis to play as well as he did for a freshman that was great.

[wileycoyote]

Who is on the radar for the next season?

[Coyote Fan]

The basketball season was not bad, not great, just middle of the road average. The Yotes won't have as big of a hit with the players losses this off season which will be an advantage. It would be nice if every player shooting less than 80% from the stripe could go out and shoot at minimum 1,000 free throws a week for the entire off season but especially those below 65%.

[yotemeal]

While I don't necessarily consider these sites comprehensive or totally reliable, the Rivals sites do provide some information on players we are allegedly recruiting.

For whatever reason, I can't direct link to the USD list, but it's pretty simple to find.

1. Clink this link: jucojunction.rivals.com/default.asp?type=4

2. Go to "recruit search & database" in the top white toolbar.

3. Scroll down the page to the "college" section and find "South Dakota."

4. Click search at the bottom of the page.

Not seeing a lot of size on this list, but like I said, I don't consider this the Gospel.