oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Oct 1, 2010 11:16:21 GMT -5
i was just thinking the other day about highly anticipated incoming aggie recruits and which ones panned out versus which ones who turned out to be a bust. i can think of several aggie recruits who didn't live up to the hype and some who actually met or exceeded the hype. this year, we've got highly anticipated recruits like ray lester and thomas cooper for men's basketball. alex mitchell is a highly anticpated transfer recruit for women's basketball. cj frederick and eric young were highly anticipated recruits for football. how many past and present aggie athletes lived up to the hype?
in my opinion, examples of highly anticipated former aggie recruits who met or exceeded expectations would be;
amber calvin, wbb
tweet cook, wbb
lewis kindle, fb
martin mayhew, fb
steven rush, mbb
examples of highly anticipated former aggie recruits who didn't or haven't met expectations would be;
larry raper, fb
austin witter, mbb
tony coles, fb
nakia deblanc, wbb
thomas coleman, mbb
i'd also add jee sams (wbb) to that list but i didn't because she's been one of our best players but the hype she got as an incoming recruit was so very high, she would have to be a consistently dominant player to meet her hype. but she's certainly nowhere remotely close to being a bust. she's probably our very best player this year, but she just had extremely high expectations to meet.
what examples do ya'll have? who met the hype and who didn't? who turned out to be a bust?
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Post by Bornthrilla on Oct 1, 2010 11:22:33 GMT -5
Sams would have to be in the exceeded expectations group.
She has won a MEAC championship every year she has been at A&T and been one of our best postseason players each year. Plus she is the top player this upcoming season.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Oct 1, 2010 11:27:07 GMT -5
Amber Bland and BTJ both were transfers who lived up to the hype.
Tierra Thomas would have to be considered a bust now that she is no longer on the team.
The jury is still out on Raper. He was injured in week one of this season but he had some nice plays in the NCCU game.
All of our receiver recruits have been busts, but that is mostly due to our poor QB play.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Oct 1, 2010 11:43:02 GMT -5
the only reason i "considered" jee sams as not meeting expectations is because she was highly acclaimed as a top 85 "national" recruit. that places her in "big time" d1 category. players of that stature that are ranked so highly belong on an acc, big east, or sec type team and should "dominate" the meac. she's a very good player and i'm a big fan of hers. but she doesn't meet the expectations of a top 85 recruit. clearly she's a superior meac player, but she doesn't rise to the level of a top 85 player.
i didn't categorize btj and ab because i didn't see a lot of anticipated hype for them. partly because i wasn't a bdv member back then. so i didn't have any hype to measure them against.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2010 11:47:50 GMT -5
Also add Austin Ewing and Stephen Rush to met or exceed expectations list. Those two were Men's Basketball in 2006 - 2008.
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Post by krazykev on Oct 1, 2010 12:46:01 GMT -5
the only reason i "considered" jee sams as not meeting expectations is because she was highly acclaimed as a top 85 "national" recruit. that places her in "big time" d1 category. players of that stature that are ranked so highly belong on an acc, big east, or sec type team and should "dominate" the meac. she's a very good player and i'm a big fan of hers. but she doesn't meet the expectations of a top 85 recruit. clearly she's a superior meac player, but she doesn't rise to the level of a top 85 player. i didn't categorize btj and ab because i didn't see a lot of anticipated hype for them. partly because i wasn't a bdv member back then. so i didn't have any hype to measure them against. I cannot agree with you on Sams because, she has stepped when we needed her too. She also took the back seat so, that Tweet and other players could shine without even complaining. Amber Bland was a Top 50 out of High School and Ohio Player of the year. She started as a freshman at Penn State until things went south between her and the head coach. |
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Oct 1, 2010 13:01:26 GMT -5
Also add Austin Ewing and Stephen Rush to met or exceed expectations list. Those two were Men's Basketball in 2006 - 2008. i listed rush as meeting expectations. there's a lot of aggie athletes who met or exceeded expectations but i've only listed the one's that i heard about "before" they arrived at a&t. again, i'm not appraising aggie athletes who i did not know of "before" they arrived at a&t. and current athletes like raper and thrilla's boy, "the future", still may eventually live up to the hype. but as of today, raper hasn't and gould hasn't either. doesn't mean they won't, just that they haven't so far. i would've listed donte payne as having met the hype, but since he's no longer with our program, i excluded him. another aggie recruit who has exceeded the hype is alex grubb. dude has excelled in two sports, football and basketball.... |
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Post by Bornthrilla on Oct 1, 2010 13:19:31 GMT -5
What hype did Alex Grub have prior to coming to A&T?
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Oct 1, 2010 15:16:36 GMT -5
What hype did Alex Grub have prior to coming to A&T? not very much, which made it easy for him to exceed expectations. again, i'm only judging athletes based on their incoming expectations. just because someone exceeds expectations doesn't mean they're all world and just because someone doesn't exceed expectations, doesn't mean they're not outstanding athletes. i'm just comparing performance to anticipated expectations. jee sams is a perfect example. in no way am i saying she's not a premier meac women's basketball player. hail, she very well could lead the conference in scoring this season. all i'm saying is that the hype she got as an incoming freshman made it difficult for anyone to meet those expectations. she was billed as a major d1 big time player because of her top 85 national ranking. jee is one of my favorites (i think she's cute too), but she hasn't lived up to major d1 big time standards. she meets or exceeds mid-major to low-major standards, but not big time major d1 standards... |
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Post by thefriscotxaggie on Oct 1, 2010 15:52:41 GMT -5
true but it has more to do with knee problems / conditioning than anything else. hope she is ready to have a dominating sr year
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Post by faithfulaggie on Oct 1, 2010 16:49:55 GMT -5
How about Herb Miller? He didn't.
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DECKS
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Post by DECKS on Oct 4, 2010 22:48:07 GMT -5
the only reason i "considered" jee sams as not meeting expectations is because she was highly acclaimed as a top 85 "national" recruit. that places her in "big time" d1 category. players of that stature that are ranked so highly belong on an acc, big east, or sec type team and should "dominate" the meac. she's a very good player and i'm a big fan of hers. but she doesn't meet the expectations of a top 85 recruit. clearly she's a superior meac player, but she doesn't rise to the level of a top 85 player. i didn't categorize btj and ab because i didn't see a lot of anticipated hype for them. partly because i wasn't a bdv member back then. so i didn't have any hype to measure them against. Sams wasn't a top 85 national pick. She was the #33rd ranked player at her position. Regardless, shes lived up to expectatations so far. |
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Oct 6, 2010 15:53:39 GMT -5
by the way, another aggie recruit who exceeded my expectations is jaquayla berry. i didn't think she would have the impact that she actually had last year. she got some decent hype before arriving to greensboro, but not the kind of hype that would steer me to believe she'd start multiple times and lead the team in scoring on occasion like she did last year. her offensive game reminds me a little of btj, just not as tall. berry clearly exceeded my expectations and will be a key to the team this season...
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Post by faithfulaggie on Oct 7, 2010 4:10:52 GMT -5
by the way, another aggie recruit who exceeded my expectations is jaquayla berry. i didn't think she would have the impact that she actually had last year. she got some decent hype before arriving to greensboro, but not the kind of hype that would steer me to believe she'd start multiple times and lead the team in scoring on occasion like she did last year. her offensive game reminds me a little of btj, just not as tall. berry clearly exceeded my expectations and will be a key to the team this season... I agree |
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Post by numberonebrave on Oct 7, 2010 16:10:30 GMT -5
should "dominate" the meac......very glad she is a team player and did not look to take the shots Bland, Taylor-James, Cook, Smalley, and Calvin took so she could dominate in the MEAC
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