Giveth Again

So we have been noting the lack of big men on the MBB roster, and today there was an announcement about a truly BIG man coming to BG.  A giant man.  His name is Christ Essandoko, and he is 7'0" and 280 pounds. He is an interesting young man.

He is French... played a couple of years of HS there, then came to a school in the US.  He was a 3-star recruit with offers from St. Joe out of HS, along with Maryland, Providence, Illinois, NC State, Nebraska, Pitt, Rutgers, South Carolina, A&M, Wake Forest, South Florida, SEMO, NM, San Diego State, Wisconsin, DePaul, Seton Hall.

He announced he was going to Providence, but he ended up at St. Joseph's.  He had to redshirt due to being ineligible, and then played a year at St. Joe's.  Then he went back to Providence, where really big things were expected and did not happen.  He took responsibility for that and then went to South Carolina, where the results were even worse.

Everywhere he has gone, there has been praise for him before the season started.

Here is the coach at St. Joe's...

“He’s highly intellectual. He’s got great instincts. His feel for team basketball is outstanding, and that’s really the European way. He has an insatiable competitiveness. It’s off the charts...Then you throw on top of that a great personality, a connective personality, an amazing teammate, and the upside of him is really high.”

Here is what they said at Providence...

“Christ is seven foot, 280 — he’s an absolute load. He just moves people naturally with his girth and his strength, but he’s also our kind of player because he’s very skilled. He has a great feel for the game, he’s a great passer. We run our offense through our bigs a lot. They are almost like point guards to a degree. Josh was perfect for that, Christ is too, he’s just bigger, and he’s also a three-point shooter.”

And yet...

He had a good year at St. Joe's.  After a two-year layoff, he scored 8.5 per game and added 5.7 RPG and a block a game in 21 minutes.

At Providence, he played 12 minutes a game, 4.3 PPG and 3.9 RPG and about .75 blocks per game.

At South Carolina...for a bad team, he averaged 7.4 minutes a game, 2 PPG and 1.6 RPG. He was DNP for 10 of the last 20 games.  

He shot 29% from 2FG for SC last year. He made 65% for St. Joe's.  He can shoot 3's...34% for his career, 38% in two of his three years.  He's a 59% career FT shooter, but considerably lower than that the last two years.

He was called for 5.4 fouls per 40 last season. He was #11 in block% his first year at St. Joe, and nothing particularly special after that.

I don't mean to be negative.  These are just facts.  Here's another one...obviously, there's something there. The NFL draft is coming...he's all upside.  If he gets out of his head and puts it together, we have a guy who's dominating in this conference.  We have player-friendly coaches...why not now?

Also, for a little rabbit hole on your Monday night, click here and read about a man from the same town.

Giveth

The MBB team has picked up 2 more players...at least one a small forward.  The portal closes on the 21st, and you can still sign guys after that and there's JUCO too.  BTW, a Simon post indicates 3 players were acquired, but I'm not aware of who it is.

One is Tristan Beckford, who is transferring from South Florida.  He's from Ontario.  He played internationally with Canada--where they are increasingly competitive--during the U18 AmeriCup, where they finished 3rd.  He led the team in scoring and rebounding.

He's a small forward at 6'5".  He played for a Prep Team in Phoenix.  He was a 3-star recruit (247) from there, and was offered by Minnesota, Boise, Arizona State, Arkansas State, Iowa, Mississippi State, Oregon, Grand Canyon, Pepperdine, and Seton Hall. He went to South Florida, where Bryan Hodgson was, but he moved on to Providence.

He did not do much for South Florida, playing 7 minutes a game for a good team.  It's interesting...he played four games in December...Charleson, Alabama, UMBC and Georgia College...even excluding the non D1 game, he played 61 minutes, scored 30 points and had 13 rebounds.  That was while Wes Enis was injured.  But it does show some production.  After that, he went to the bench and played very little after that.

So, you have a guy who was widely evaluated as having talent who did not play much for an #11 seed in the Tourney.  FWIW, Hodgson used his bench sparingly, at 27% of overall minutes.

The other is Juan Cranford, Jr, a 6'4 G who played last at EKU.  He played at St. Francis (PA) before that.  At EKU, he scored 12 PPG on 49% and 36% shooting.  Also, 79% at the line.  

At. St. Francis, he was All-Rookie in the nEC and was the tournament MVP, where he led them to the NCAA Tourney. 

HS-wise, he went to Wayne High School in Dayton. He was conference player of the year his senior year and was 3-time all-conference. He was unrated and St. Francis was his only recorded offer at 247.

The roster limit is 15.  FWIW, I am counting Spurgin as not on the roster since he was in Senior Day and listed as a senior.  We remain G-heavy and without a rim-protector.

  Confirmed back (5)

• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Karel, F
• Goins, F
• Squire, F (Thanks to the commenter)

Incoming (5)

• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G
• Cranbrook, G
• Beckford, F

No News (2)

• Dedivanaj, G
• Adem, G

Football Verbal and Basketball Roster News

First news is a football verbal.  His name is John Johnson, and he comes from Archbishop Hoban in Akron. He's the 2nd Hoban player to commit to BG in the first four.  Sometimes that happens....this would be a great program to develop a pipeline with.  Their coach, Tim Tyrell, has won 5 state titles and has a 141-25 record.  He also won 3 national championships at Youngstown State, playing for...Jim Tressel.  So that could be a connection.

Johnson is a good one.  Too early for him to be rated, but he plays both ways and is listed as a WR. He had offers from Kentucky, James Madison, Kent, Liberty, Miami, Toledo and WMU....so three of the usual MAC powers, a P4, and two top-level G5.

He was second-team all-state for their basketball team that reached the state semifinals, and he had some big games along the way.

BG's four verbals to date are a QB and three playmakers.  I think anyone would agree that we have been short of playmakers for a long time...we've had one or two...but UT (for example) brings them in waves.

Welcome John.

Next is some basketball news.  Kimbrough, Goins, Karel, and Leach have all announced that they are returning to the team.  This is not nothing.  We have had players like Karel, who maybe didn't play much, blow the coup after one year.  Getting guys back really matters.....a full off-season of weight training....

We have 10 guys.  As I understand it, the scholarship limit has been replaced with a roster limit of 15. No surprise we are guard-heavy, but we have spaces for front-court guys.

Confirmed back (4)

• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Karel, F
• Goins, F
• Squire, F (Thanks to the commenter)

Incoming (3)

• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G

No News (3)

• Dedivanaj, G
• Adem, G

Taketh....and Leaveth

 A couple more events from the portal...

First, outgoing.  Jason Kimbrough entered.  He came to BG with a pretty decorated JUCO career, but never got traction, playing only 46 minutes against D1 competition.  Given BG's stronger guard roster, I assume he saw the writing on the wall.

Next, staying.  Josiah Shackleford, who was 3rd on the team, scoring 11.3 PPG. He's one of those guys...shot 45% from 3FG the year before BG and 35% at BG.  Nonetheless, he is welcome back and should improve in his second D1 year. 

Here is where things stand now..that's 10 guys, which means as many as 5 can be added.  Need front court help, for sure.

Leach, G

Shackelford, G

Dedivanaj, G

Squire, F

Karel, F

Adem, G

Goins, F

Torbert, G

Howell, G

Simmons, G

Happy Easter From the Falcon Nation

 

It is the season of new beginnings.

Giveth....

The portal has given...Zach Howell, a 6'5" G from Drury University, a DII school in Springfield, MO.  He played HS ball in Springfield and was highly effective, leaving as the all-time leading scorer and an all-state player.

He went to Milwaukee, where he played two years.  His FR year, he played 29 games and averaged 2.7 PPG. In his second year, he was making 44% from 3FG until he was injured in the 10th game of the season.

He returned to Springfield to play for Drury where he was very productive.  You'll be most interested in his second year, where he scored 17 PPG and made 44% of his 3FG.

That's right.  That was number 8 in DII.

By the way, he wasn't a highly selective shooter.  He took 225 attempts. 

Clearly, this is interesting.  We have brought in other guys who had big percentages, and they have generally failed to reproduce those numbers at the Stroh Center.  No player with representative attempts has shot 40% from 3FG in the Simon era.

So, as of today, here is the roster.  The portal isn't open yet, but 30 players from the MAC have already entered.  BG has only 2...Pardon and Wol...and we expect Campbell.  We shall see.   I'd think we would need to invest something in a big man to help out the rotation down low.

• Kimbrough, G
• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Dedivanaj, G
• Squire, F
• Karel, F
• Adem, G
• Goins, F
• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G

Welcome to the Falcons, Zach.

Taketh and Giveth, March 29

Taketh:

Jaxon Pardon has entered portal.  It's a sad day for Falcon fans, who hoped to see the second generation of the Pardon family lead the Falcons.  This one did not work out.  He played 24 minutes and scored 5 points.  He was injured for all of the 25-26 season.  The Pardon family is in the Falcon family forever, so we wish Jaxon only the best moving forward.

We are at a point of uncertainty here.  John Groce is leaving the MAC for College of Charleston (allegedly), and there is talk that a number of coaches are considering lateral moves out of the MAC.  So who knows.  We can see where it stands now.

Players for next year:

Kimbrough

Leach

Shackelford

Dedivanaj

Squire

Karel

Adem

Goins

Torbert

Giveth:

Actually, not a portal move, but a HS player for 27. His name is Colin Boff, a QB from Harvest Prep in Columbus.  He's unrated, but there's clearly something there...he has offers from UC, Syracuse, KSU, Miami, and UT. 

He's listed at 6'3" and 225 pounds.  Stats as reported on his twitter handle.

• Only 8 Games Played
• 2,734 Yards | 26 TD | 341 YPG | 63% 
• School record for game and season (every passing category) 
• 1st team all State, District and Conference

Despite the name, Harvest Prep is a co-ed HS.  They do play in Division V of Ohio HS football.  Notwithstanding that, they are putting players into FBS programs.

Welcome to the Falcons, Collin.