The Jarelle Reischel Saga

6’6″ swingman Jarelle Reischel from Point Pleasant Beach HS announced his college destination last night at a press conference at his school. It recapped quite an abnormal recruitment process for any PSU prospect (at least, basketball-wise) in a long time. He played his recruiting process close to the vest, but at the beginning of the fall, it was noted he was down to 5 schools – Georgetown, Penn State, Temple, Seton Hall, and Rice. As far as I know, he only ended up visiting PSU, SHU, and Rice officially. Temple was mentioned a lot, but I don’t know how mutual the interest was and it seemed like Reischel just wasn’t feeling them. If I had to guess, probably because of the city-like campus, because that was quoted as being a critical aspect of his decision. Georgetown seemed to fall off his radar after they picked up a commitment from 6’5″ Jabril Trawick, so it could be the Hoyas stopped recruiting him.

His 3 finalists were SHU, PSU, and Rice. He visited Penn State the weekend of Halloween, during the UM football game. For a guy who hammered home how big of a factor campus life was, he could not have visited on a better weekend. From all accounts, it seemed like Reischel was blown away by his visit (which was the last of his 3). Penn State seemed to be the leader.

The next 2 weeks were kinda quiet. Some thought Reischel would’ve been a Nittany Lion by then, but it clearly seemed like Reischel didn’t know what he wanted. All he knew was that he was going to make a decision before his senior year. Then, the announcement was set for the 17th (the last day of the signing period) at 6:45 ET at his high school.

When yesterday came, despite all kinds of rumors about how high he was on Penn State, it became clearer and clearer that no one had a freakin clue what this guy was thinking. I usually like to creep hard on twitter for recruiting news because it’s just the best way to find out info. Local news guys, national recruiting gurus, coaches, fans of other teams, they all tweet about recruiting. So here’s the twitter recap of yesterday:

• 11:00 am – Joseph Duarte, a Rice beat writer for the Houston Chronicle, hints that Rice is Reischel’s destination. I didn’t really know what to think of this, because I couldn’t find anything that would tip this guy off. Maybe he had his sources, but what would a Houston reporter know about a NJ recruit? Then I found it. This tweet from Dylan Ennis, a fellow Rice commit, already broke the news.
• 2:30 pm – Then sources from Seton Hall claim that Reischel would be committing to Penn State that night. This came from Piratecrew.com – Seton Hall’s Rivals affiliation. They have had sources close to Reischel’s situation all along, so it certainly seemed legit.
• 5:00 pm – The Seton Hall rumors that he was going to PSU began to spread like wildfire across twitter, including from myself. I tweeted against my better judgment because I suspected something fishy was going on all along, especially when established recruitniks TheRecruitScoop and Adam Zagoria basically admitted that they had no clue.
• 6:45 pm  - The decision came and Adam Zagoria broke the news that Reischel was going to sign with Rice. That was a shock for a lot of people on the ‘net, and there was a lot of backlash and backtracking. But apparently the real story is this – No one misreported anything, the kid just wouldn’t make up his mind. He was going to sign with Rice last night, then changed his mind and told the SHU coaches he was going to Penn State after alerting them he wasn’t going to SHU, but in the end, he switched back to making his commitment to Rice. That was the cause for all the confusion.

Now that Reischel has finally made his decision I can express my feelings – I didn’t want him. The staff thought he was worthy of a scholarship and he was certainly being courted by other big programs, but I just felt like with PSU’s situation, they should have high standards for this last scholarship. Reischel, I’m sure, is a talented baller and I hope he has a great career at Rice. But I wanted PSU to either get a bonafide recruit, which is unlikely, or bank it for the 2012 class. I didn’t want a guy who still seems unsure of his decision taking a scholarship away from this program. He reminded me of Bill Edwards, who didn’t make his decision until one of the last few days of the spring signing period. I don’t think Bill was ever sure he knew where he wanted to go and picked PSU. Then, lo and behold, it didn’t seem like it was the place for him and he transferred back home.

With or without Reischel, Penn State next year is going to be young (already 10 underclassmen) and they aren’t going to be very good. However, they have a nice balanced roster right now, with options at every position. I would rather have 2 scholarships going into the 2012 class than just 1. First reason would be to try to even out the classes a little bit and two, there are a lot of quality recruits in PA next year. You gotta recruit studs to compete. Maybe the staff considered Reischel a stud, but unless he would’ve been able to come in and have the talent to start (which, who knows, he might’ve), I’m content for now with the 2011 class.

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A Look Back – Recruiting History

Before the season gets too far underway, I wanted to finish this Look Back series on Ed DeChellis’ recruiting. The 2008, 2009, and 2010 classes are still in or just beginning their careers so it’s impossible to evaluate them yet. I would just like to add in these recruits for the sake of completeness

2008 Class

• Billy Oliver – Fall 2007 – Chatham, NJ
• Chris Babb - Spring 2008 – Arlington, TX
• Cammeron Woodyard - Spring 2008 – Westminster, MD
• Andrew Ott - Transfer from Villanova – Abington, PA

2009 Class

• Jermaine Marshall - Fall 2008 – Lewisberry, PA
• Sasa Borovnjak – Spring 2009 – Belgrade, Serbia
• Tim Frazier – Fall 2008 – Houston, TX
• Bill Edwards – Spring 2009 – Middletown, OH

2010 Class

• Taran Buie – Fall 2009 – Albany, NY
• Tre Bowman - Spring 2010 – York, PA
• Jon Graham – Spring 2010 – Baltimore, MD

Comprehensive List (from 2004, 2005, and 06/07)

2004 Class

• Geary Claxton – Spring 2004 - West Haven, CT – A
• Travis Parker - Spring 2004 – Greenville, NC – B+
• Danny Morrissey - Fall 2003 – Cleveland, OH – C+
• Brandon Hassell – Spring 2004 – Farmersville, OH – D
• Mike Walker - Fall 2003 – Camp Hill, PA – C

2005 Class

• Jamelle Cornley - Fall 2004 – Columbus, OH – A-
• David ‘Mooch’ Jackson - Spring 2005 – Gaithersburg, MD – C
• Maxwell Dubois - Spring 2005 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – F
• Milos Bogetic – Spring 2005 - Podgorica, Montenegro – F
• Nikola Obradovic – Spring 2005 – Belgrade, Serbia – F
• Joonas Suotamo - Spring 2005 – Espoo, Finland – F

2006/2007 Class

• David ‘DJ’ Jackson - Fall 2005 – Farrell, PA – B-
• Andrew Jones - Fall 2005 – Philadelphia, PA – C
• Talor Battle – Fall 2006 – Albany, NY – A
• Jeff Brooks – Fall 2006 – Louisville, KY – C+
• Stanley Pringle - Spring 2007 – Virginia Beach, VA – B+
• Schyler King – Spring 2007 – El Paso, TX – F

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Recruiting Roundup – Fall 2010

I’ve spent some time looking back on analyzing past recruiting classes, but we’re just wrapping up fall recruiting before the season starts. It’s time to get caught with all that is happening on the recruiting trail today.

When I last blogged about recruiting, the staff had filled 2 of 5 open scholarships for the 2011 class – Trey Burke and Peter Alexis. However, Burke has since decommitted and gave his pledge to Michigan. He cited coach insecurity as the reason and then went to Ann Arbor. Pretty big loss because the guy is going to be a monster. I just don’t quite understand the seemingly lateral move from PSU to UM. Especially as a Columbus, OH kid. Whatever. He’s old news.

This fall has been a busy one for the coaching staff, as they’ve tried to recapture some recruiting momentum they lost with last year’s subpar season. Alexis has been solid from day one. There’s not too much out there on the guy because he’s from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. Not a prime location for AAU ball, so I’m not sure how much time he’s spent on the circuit.

The staff has since landed 3 other prospects (there will be much more on them later)

• Trey Lewis – Another PG prospect from OH. His recruitment dropped off once Burke was committed, but PSU went after him hard again. A plan B recruit, but I’ve liked a lot from what little I’ve seen from Lewis. He’s a great, vocal kid, who can be a nice ambassador for the program. Trey committed back in early August. Here are a couple Youtube Vids.
• Pat Ackerman – 6’11″ 215 lb C prospect from Worcester, MA. Ackerman was somewhat of a late bloomer, raising his stock in the AAU circuit this summer. In this interview with UMHoops, you can get a sense for Ackerman’s game (defense and rebounding) and how his recruitment went. Pat committed in early September after visiting the weekend of the first football this season.
• Ross Travis – Probably the most hyped recruit so far, Travis is a 6’7″ SF prospect from MN. He has been ranked as the best prospect in MN this year. He’s had health issues with his back recently, so that could’ve stunted his recruitment a little bit. From what I’ve gathered, he’s an athletic and versatile wing who could use some work on his shooting range. Youtube

So that’s where the class stands right now. Some decent prospects that are going to be depended upon to contribute right away. The staff still has one scholarship available for this class. Some past targets that they were after hard, but have already committed elsewhere are George Fant (Western Kentucky) and Keaton Miles (West Virginia). One prospect that has an offer is Jarelle Reischel, a 6’6″ F from NJ by the way of Germany. It sounds like he will be deciding between PSU and SHU in the next week or so, but if not, he will wait until the Spring period.

Reischel’s decision will not make or break this recruiting class. If you check out the scholarship matrix, the Nittany Lions already have a youthful, balanced roster for next season. I would almost rather the staff keep the scholarship for 2012. The way certain occurrences have fallen (mostly Oliver and Borovnjak’s injuries), there’s not much balance among the classes, which makes transitioning from season to season much harder. Some 2012 prospects to keep an eye on, since they have visited this fall are Savon Goodman, who would be the biggest recruit in this school’s history, Matt Christiansen, and Sean Sheldon.

Fall signing day for the 2011 class is a week from today (Nov. 10th), so these 4 verbals should be making it official then.

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A Look Back – 2006/2007 Recruiting

Previous Installments – 2005 class, 2004 class (includes Grading Criteria)

I decided to combine these two classes, since they will be graduating together at the end of this season.

After bringing in 11 players over the last two classes, there weren’t many ‘ships available for these classes. The 2006 class only had 2 scholarships – Travis Parker’s and Cilk McSweeney’s (former walk-on who was awarded one that was not filled during the year). The 2007 class originally had 2 scholarships (Ben Luber’s and Mooch Jackson’s), but ended up with 4 after the transfers of Milos Bogetic and Max Dubois.

2006 Class

• DJ Jackson (Farrell, PA) – DJ has had an inconsistent career so far. He redshirted his first year because of a stress fracture in his left femur.He had an OK freshmen year, a pretty terrible stretch his sophomore year, but he bounced back last year and proved himself to be the 2nd leading scorer on the team. He had a decorated career in high school and had a decent amount hype surrounding him. Despite some other critics’, I do believe he has Big Ten starting talent. He has an all-around game and shoots at a solid %, but he just needs to be more assertive on offense…which we could see this year. Overall, DJ has been one of DeChellis’ better recruits.
  Career – 103 GP (71 GS) 6.4 PPG, 45% FG%, 3.7 RPG
  Signing Period – Fall 2005
  Grade (thus far) – B-
• Andrew Jones (Philadelphia, PA) - Jones has been PSU’s best big man under DeChellis, but that’s not saying much. He came to PSU raw, only having played organized basketball for 3 years. But other than a few stretches (like the NIT run), he has had a pretty frustrating career with mindless fouls and stone hands. He’s improved in those areas, but he has never shown the ability to call for the ball in the paint and then get a bucket. If he can have a Jason Love-like senior year (11.8 PPG, 8.7 RPG), it would have a tremendous impact on PSU’s season this year.  (Love was a former HS teammate of Jones’, someone some PSU fans wished we landed instead)
  Career – 100 GP (83 GS) 5.5 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 55.1% FG%
  Signing Period – Fall 2005
  Grade (thus far) – C

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A Look Back – 2005 Recruiting

Previous Installments:  2004 Class

With a multitude of scholarships available because the transfer train was still rolling at the time, the staff brought in a 6 man recruiting class in 2005.

2005 Class

• Jamelle Cornley (Columbus, OH) - Undersized (only knock), but an absolute warrior. Tremendous leader, who fought through so many injuries and setbacks.  Not really much more you can say. Too bad he was only 6’4″, but then again he probably wouldn’t have been a Lion if he was taller.
  Career – 122 GP (110 GS) 33.2 MPG 12.9 PPG 6.2 RPG
  Grade – A-
  Signing Period – Fall 2004
• David ‘Mooch’ Jackson (Gaithersburg, MD) - Junior College transfer, who chose PSU over Auburn. Mooch had a decent stint here, but nothing special. He was brought in as a combo guard at a time where PSU was desperate for a playmaker at PG. He started 51 games here but wasn’t an impact player, proving that he was a Big Ten bench player at best.
  Career – 60 GP (51 GS) 27.0 MPG 6.7 PPG 2.6 APG 3.1 RPG
  Grade – C
  Signing Period – Spring 2005
• Maxwell Dubois (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - Max was recruited as an explosive SG. He suffered a few injuries and never contributed much of anything in his 2 years here. He eventually transferred at the end of the 2006-2007 season, claiming ‘the coaches don’t have plans for me’. Hard to say that this wasn’t a wasted scholarship.
  Career – 8 GP (0 GS) 3.5 MPG 1.9 PPG
  Grade – F
  Signing Period – Spring 2005

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A Look Back – 2004 Recruiting

Everybody knows recruiting is the greatest determinant of any collegiate athletic program’s success. So how has Penn State recruited under Ed DeChellis? Well, let’s just say it hasn’t been great, and it is reason #1 this program has had very little success under this coaching regime. Inspired by my ADD in a lecture one day, I have decided to look back and analyze/grade each recruiting class this staff has hauled in (which, if you ask me, is a much more productive and concrete idea than say, projecting college prospects and how they will do in the future). This is the first installment of this series that will look into Ed’s first full recruiting class – the class of 2004.

The Grading System will be based on this 4.0 scale, 3 credits per player

Grade	Points	Caliber
A	4.0	All Big-Ten
A-	3.67
B+	3.33	Big Ten Starter
B	3.0
B-	2.67
C+	2.33	Big Ten Bench Player
C	2.0
D	1.0	Mid-Major Player
F	0.0	Are you serious?

*A sidenote before I begin, DeChellis was hired in April 2003 and actually pulled in his first recruit in the 2003 Spring signing period. That player was Marlon Smith – a guard who hailed from New York. Marlon was an unfortunate sacrificial lamb for Ed DeChellis’ first year. A depleted roster during the transfer years left coach D with just 2 scholarship guards – Smith and Ben Luber. Smith actually had a decent year that year, considering the circumstances (playing 90.1% of the team’s total minutes). He averaged 13.1 PPG and shot 34% from 3. However, midway through his sophomore year, he was diagnosed with some condition. I forget what happened, but I wanna say he passed out during practice, and it was found that he had some sort of blockage with his bloodflow to his brain. Basically, the condition ended his career at Penn State, so his grade is incomplete and isn’t worth factoring in.

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