Carolina Blue interview with Tyler Hansbrough
Show opens talking about the recent death of Tylers Grandma.
1. Talks about Nike Camp. He was very impressed with the players there, he said his teammate Andrew Bynum, 7 footer was the most impressive.
2. Enjoys and likes the recruits in the North Carolina class and the present teammates, especially Ray Felton
3. Looking for a good relationship with coach and teammates, as well as being comfortable at the school in weighing his decision.
4. Apparently close with Phil Ford, feels he could be a mentor(Isnt he the one with numerous DWI arrests)
5. Pretty sure he knows where he wants to go right now, paraphrasing the host ,"out of north carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and of course Missouri." Announces he has no definate leader and that he likes North Carolina alot
6. Decision to come in late July
7. Torn between announcing on Fox Sports or just announcing to get it over with
8. Attracted to the family like tradition of the program and the way Williams handles his relationships with his current and former players
9. Dad likes NC tradition
10. Coach Williams compares Tyler to LaFrentz, Collison, and Gooden
11. Tyler talks about NC recruits Hendrix and Brockman, loves playing with them doesnt know if they will end up playing together
12. Torn between college life and money. When it comes down to it he will go to college, not ready for NBA
13. Tyler continues to stress, "if I go to North Carolina."
That is about it take it as you will, send out a prayer for Tylers Grandma.
One last thing found this on the Louisville Courier Journal on 7/11/04, article about Nike Camp. Most of you will not like it, but this guy is considered one of the most knowledgable colleg hoops writers in the country. If you must curse someone curse him, not me. All right here it is.
There's no top shelf in Class of 2005
Pat Forde Louisville Courier Journal
INDIANAPOLIS — Jim Calhoun won his second national championship at Connecticut last spring. Then he watched Huskies juniors Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon go in the top three picks in the National Basketball Association draft last month.
All things considered, it was a spectacular couple of months for UConn in general, Okafor and Gordon in specific.
Think the top-shelf high school kids out there are dazzled by it? If you do, you haven't been paying attention.
"They're much more impressed with (Dwight) Howard (the No. 1 overall pick right out of high school) being drafted than Ben and Emeka," Calhoun said.
Calhoun said last week at the Nike All-America Camp that the Huskies had just stopped recruiting two high-level players who could not give UConn anything more solid than a conditional commitment. The condition, of course, was that they might bail for the NBA and forego college altogether.
"There will be no `conditionally,'" said Calhoun, who might have had enough of that dance last year when Charlie Villanueva flirted hard with the NBA before coming to school — and proving that he was nowhere near ready for The League.
UCONN is dumping blue-chip recruits. Rick Pitino, burned by Sebastian Telfair and Donta Smith, is sweeping up players generally considered outside the national top-10 prospects. Other coaches also are approaching the glamour-boy recruits with caution in the wake of watching eight high-schoolers being drafted in the top 19 picks.
But this might not be the year to boycott the big names. The Class of 2005 isn't much to look at.
(Nowhere, by the way, is it worse than in the formerly great state of Kentucky. For the first time in memory, there were no Kentucky players at the Nike camp. Pleasure Ridge Park point guard JaJuan Spillman was the only Kentuckian in Louisville-based recruiting analyst Clark Francis' pre-summer top 100.)
I've been a regular at the Nike camp since 1991, and this year was the low ebb. Part of that is the addition of a third concurrent shoe camp, further diluting the talent pool. But the other part of it is a simple lack of extraordinary players to choose from.
TEN YEARS ago the rising senior class was Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury, Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. This year the senior class would be tickled to have just one of those studs.
We arrived at Nike being told that Tyler Hansbrough, a 6-foot-8 power forward from Poplar Bluff, Mo., of all places, might be the best and brightest. Hansbrough is a nice player, but if he's the No. 1 recruit in the country, the country is slumping.
After watching him get outplayed by slick Floridian Keith Brumbaugh last Thursday night, one NBA scout called Hansbrough "a shorter Joe Wolf." While there are worse things to say about a player — the next Rashaad Carruth, for instance — it's not frothing praise.
Yet Hansbrough says what every elite player says: If the NBA is willing to throw money at him, why not catch it? He watched the draft with that very thought running through his mind.
"I looked at it like they're taking a lot of high school kids," he said. "If they're taking them young, I might have to try it."
RIVALS.COM recruiting expert Dave Telep said Brandon Rush is the only rising senior who can, at the moment, realistically consider going pro next year. Telep also gave Georgia guard Lewis Williams a chance if he can sustain his sizzling early showings this summer.
"The rest of these guys need to build some college resumes," Telep said. "But when you're the No. 1 power forward in the country and you're 6-8 or above, you have to look at the NBA. If you're the top big man, you have to look at it.
"You're slotted. That's the culture we live in."
You can reach Pat Forde at (502) 582-4373 or pforde@courier-journal.com. Submit questions at courier-journal.com/forde.
Show opens talking about the recent death of Tylers Grandma.
1. Talks about Nike Camp. He was very impressed with the players there, he said his teammate Andrew Bynum, 7 footer was the most impressive.
2. Enjoys and likes the recruits in the North Carolina class and the present teammates, especially Ray Felton
3. Looking for a good relationship with coach and teammates, as well as being comfortable at the school in weighing his decision.
4. Apparently close with Phil Ford, feels he could be a mentor(Isnt he the one with numerous DWI arrests)
5. Pretty sure he knows where he wants to go right now, paraphrasing the host ,"out of north carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and of course Missouri." Announces he has no definate leader and that he likes North Carolina alot
6. Decision to come in late July
7. Torn between announcing on Fox Sports or just announcing to get it over with
8. Attracted to the family like tradition of the program and the way Williams handles his relationships with his current and former players
9. Dad likes NC tradition
10. Coach Williams compares Tyler to LaFrentz, Collison, and Gooden
11. Tyler talks about NC recruits Hendrix and Brockman, loves playing with them doesnt know if they will end up playing together
12. Torn between college life and money. When it comes down to it he will go to college, not ready for NBA
13. Tyler continues to stress, "if I go to North Carolina."
That is about it take it as you will, send out a prayer for Tylers Grandma.
One last thing found this on the Louisville Courier Journal on 7/11/04, article about Nike Camp. Most of you will not like it, but this guy is considered one of the most knowledgable colleg hoops writers in the country. If you must curse someone curse him, not me. All right here it is.
There's no top shelf in Class of 2005
Pat Forde Louisville Courier Journal
INDIANAPOLIS — Jim Calhoun won his second national championship at Connecticut last spring. Then he watched Huskies juniors Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon go in the top three picks in the National Basketball Association draft last month.
All things considered, it was a spectacular couple of months for UConn in general, Okafor and Gordon in specific.
Think the top-shelf high school kids out there are dazzled by it? If you do, you haven't been paying attention.
"They're much more impressed with (Dwight) Howard (the No. 1 overall pick right out of high school) being drafted than Ben and Emeka," Calhoun said.
Calhoun said last week at the Nike All-America Camp that the Huskies had just stopped recruiting two high-level players who could not give UConn anything more solid than a conditional commitment. The condition, of course, was that they might bail for the NBA and forego college altogether.
"There will be no `conditionally,'" said Calhoun, who might have had enough of that dance last year when Charlie Villanueva flirted hard with the NBA before coming to school — and proving that he was nowhere near ready for The League.
UCONN is dumping blue-chip recruits. Rick Pitino, burned by Sebastian Telfair and Donta Smith, is sweeping up players generally considered outside the national top-10 prospects. Other coaches also are approaching the glamour-boy recruits with caution in the wake of watching eight high-schoolers being drafted in the top 19 picks.
But this might not be the year to boycott the big names. The Class of 2005 isn't much to look at.
(Nowhere, by the way, is it worse than in the formerly great state of Kentucky. For the first time in memory, there were no Kentucky players at the Nike camp. Pleasure Ridge Park point guard JaJuan Spillman was the only Kentuckian in Louisville-based recruiting analyst Clark Francis' pre-summer top 100.)
I've been a regular at the Nike camp since 1991, and this year was the low ebb. Part of that is the addition of a third concurrent shoe camp, further diluting the talent pool. But the other part of it is a simple lack of extraordinary players to choose from.
TEN YEARS ago the rising senior class was Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury, Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. This year the senior class would be tickled to have just one of those studs.
We arrived at Nike being told that Tyler Hansbrough, a 6-foot-8 power forward from Poplar Bluff, Mo., of all places, might be the best and brightest. Hansbrough is a nice player, but if he's the No. 1 recruit in the country, the country is slumping.
After watching him get outplayed by slick Floridian Keith Brumbaugh last Thursday night, one NBA scout called Hansbrough "a shorter Joe Wolf." While there are worse things to say about a player — the next Rashaad Carruth, for instance — it's not frothing praise.
Yet Hansbrough says what every elite player says: If the NBA is willing to throw money at him, why not catch it? He watched the draft with that very thought running through his mind.
"I looked at it like they're taking a lot of high school kids," he said. "If they're taking them young, I might have to try it."
RIVALS.COM recruiting expert Dave Telep said Brandon Rush is the only rising senior who can, at the moment, realistically consider going pro next year. Telep also gave Georgia guard Lewis Williams a chance if he can sustain his sizzling early showings this summer.
"The rest of these guys need to build some college resumes," Telep said. "But when you're the No. 1 power forward in the country and you're 6-8 or above, you have to look at the NBA. If you're the top big man, you have to look at it.
"You're slotted. That's the culture we live in."
You can reach Pat Forde at (502) 582-4373 or pforde@courier-journal.com. Submit questions at courier-journal.com/forde.
