Jeff Jones is the best coach in CUSA. He has the best staff in CUSA too. He is building a sleeping giant here in Norfolk. Something scary is brewing on Hampton Blvd. For the second straight year we poached our rival's best player. Trey Porter (6'10" 200) from George Mason is traveling south! This is on the heels of our second top 100 national commitment of the offseason, Austin Colbert (6'9" 210) by way of Illinois. BJ Stith (6'5" 205) was our first top 100 national commitment this offseason.

Skipping to the '16-'17 season, here is what ODU is working with:

Carver SO (RS FR?)
Caver SO
Porter RS SO
BJ Stith RS SO
Talley RS SO
Colbert RS JR
Brandon Stith RS JR
Vassor RS JR
Baker SR
Taylor SR
Mosley RS SR

Players with notable recruiting profiles are linked. Next season is Trey Freeman's RS SR year and many ODU fans are already looking forward.

Great news.

CUSA needs to get more than 1 team in the NCAAs on a regular basis and additions like this is one way to get it started.

Couple things to note:

1. My opinions are only representative of me, not our fan base. Feel free to disagree and explain way.

2. The '16-'17 team will have the highest redshirt rate I've ever seen in a basketball team.

(05-08-2015 01:32 PM)usm99 Wrote:  Great news.

CUSA needs to get more than 1 team in the NCAAs on a regular basis and additions like this is one way to get it started.

Nice. I was afraid that Freeman would be done after this year and he'd miss out on playing with the other players you have coming in. ODU could be really, really good in 2016.

People that have been around basketball around long enough know it is never good to get too excited about recruits or transfers. Let's see if translates to some road wins for ODU

We've been around good basketball long enough. And we are excited about our new kids.

A new Stilljonesing?

(05-08-2015 02:21 PM)nastybunch Wrote:  A new Stilljonesing?

Well... I am really excited about Brandan Stith!

(05-08-2015 02:05 PM)Dawgxas Wrote:  People that have been around basketball around long enough know it is never good to get too excited about recruits or transfers. Let's see if translates to some road wins for ODU

I honestly don't get "it" when someone see a P5 name behind the kid and all of a sudden think that player is going to come in to CUSA and do 10x more than they did at their other school. Of course it's possible but more than likely if a kid averaged 3 or 4 ppg and shot poorly over a couple years at their last stop....

they are going to be a role player doing just about that and of course just like ALL PLAYERS they will grow as they get to their Jr and Sr year.

But lets looks at all of this excitement as it stands today...

Trey Porter played 14mpg and scored 3.5ppg on a 9-22 team so I doubt that's GM's best player even with only winning 9 games

Austin Colbert over 2 years of playing at the college level avg 7.7mpg (this year) 1.7ppg and 5.5mpg along with 1.3ppg his fr season

B.J. Stith barely could get off the bench on a loaded Virginia team playing in 14 games and 4.8mpg along with 1ppg. Mostly mope up minutes when UV was up 20 on a team

I understand fans getting excited but till any of these players actually SHOWS...not a star rating from 2 to 3 years ago but shows something on the court.....

I wouldn't be naming Jones the best coach in the world just yet. Sooner or later he's going to run out of Virginia transfer players and as of yet he really hasn't shown he can recruit anything but transfers. Then again with a 40% transfer rate in college basketball transfers are just about to replace JUCO recruiting as a way to jump start a team.

(05-08-2015 02:34 PM)Fatalisk Wrote:  

(05-08-2015 02:21 PM)nastybunch Wrote:  A new Stilljonesing?

Well... I am really excited about Brandan Stith!

beetlejuice beetlejuice beetlejuice

This isn't unlike the workplace. People can be miserable at work. People are underappreciated all the time. When people don't like their current job, they find new ones. A place that has a better workplace environment. That can make all the difference in the world.

(05-08-2015 02:38 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(05-08-2015 02:05 PM)Dawgxas Wrote:  People that have been around basketball around long enough know it is never good to get too excited about recruits or transfers. Let's see if translates to some road wins for ODU

I honestly don't get "it" when someone see a P5 name behind the kid and all of a sudden think that player is going to come in to CUSA and do 10x more than they did at their other school. Of course it's possible but more than likely if a kid averaged 3 or 4 ppg and shot poorly over a couple years at their last stop....

they are going to be a role player doing just about that and of course just like ALL PLAYERS they will grow as they get to their Jr and Sr year.

But lets looks at all of this excitement as it stands today...

Trey Porter played 14mpg and scored 3.5ppg on a 9-22 team so I doubt that's GM's best player even with only winning 9 games

Austin Colbert over 2 years of playing at the college level avg 7.7mpg (this year) 1.7ppg and 5.5mpg along with 1.3ppg his fr season

B.J. Stith barely could get off the bench on a loaded Virginia team playing in 14 games and 4.8mpg along with 1ppg. Mostly mope up minutes when UV was up 20 on a team

I understand fans getting excited but till any of these players actually SHOWS...not a star rating from 2 to 3 years ago but shows something on the court.....

I wouldn't be naming Jones the best coach in the world just yet. Sooner or later he's going to run out of Virginia transfer players and as of yet he really hasn't shown he can recruit anything but transfers. Then again with a 40% transfer rate in college basketball transfers are just about to replace JUCO recruiting as a way to jump start a team.

No disagreement here, but we're still excited. Get enough 3 and 4 star guys on your team, some of them will eventually pan out.

(05-08-2015 03:07 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  This isn't unlike the workplace. People can be miserable at work. People are underappreciated all the time. When people don't like their current job, they find new ones. A place that has a better workplace environment. That can make all the difference in the world.

Of course landing somewhere else can make a difference because sometimes a system just doesn't fit a kids skills. But till it's shown on the court....

you don't know

I've seen kids sit the bench at Western for 3 years and then breakout their Sr year..not stars but become a important part of winning. I've see kids transfer and still never see the court..or become anything more than what the natural growth of a player usually is.

you don't know and can't tell till it happens...no star rating is going to change that but I can understand getting excited. That's what the off season and new recruits are for. If they pan out it's good for Western, just as if Westerns recruits pan out it's good for ODU and the conference. All of us need to feel that excitement...going into March :)

Often guys at bigger programs simply get overshadowed and don't get off the bench much.

DeMario Mayfield scored like 1 ppg at Georgia. He was a great player for us when he finally got an opportunity to play.

Braxton Ogbueze couldn't get off the bench at Florida. He did pretty well for us last year. 9.6 ppg, 40% from 3, 83% from the FT line.

Benas Griciunas didn't do anything at Auburn, but all reports have been that the has looked very good in practice.


Sure, every player from a power conference team isn't going to come to CUSA and do better, but you shouldn't always hold their performance against them, especially if they got limited opportunity to play. If a guy was getting a lot of playtime and still not performing, then by all means, trash away, but a guy like BJ Stith was a freshman behind one of the best back courts in the country. Of course he wasn't going to get much playing time. Doesn't mean he isn't good.

Might be a since of inflated excited because historically we've never had splash recruits. Our former coaches always looked for projects and took 3-4 years to develop into a decent player. At least in my time as a follower I don't ever remember us ever having this many players with *s after their name?

Charlotte was in a different place than ODU at the time DeMario Mayfield played your talent level was down...

someone is going to score...that's a fact.

So was his numbers because of the talent level at that time/ or would they been 3 to 5 point a game less if he was playing on a better team, with more talent? I don't know that answer and I don't think any of us can answer that other than his Sr year when he shot 50%.

I'm sure there's been players for Charlotte that's scored 10 or 11 points a game for a year or two but when you look back over time ....you would say, wow, he's a 15mpg player at best on the good teams in our history. I know that's been the case at Western.

Now if a kid comes in and is scoring 10 or more ppg on a good team you can make that judgement. Or if a 6'10 comes in and changes the team on defense but only scores 5 to 7 ppg you can still make that judgment that he was a difference maker.

But as you said you can't judge a player on not playing...can't do that till he gets the minutes

Heck, I wish we even looked good on paper!

I agree that the number of stars a kid had in high school can at times be misleading as to how good a kid will actually turn out once he gets into college. I think you have to look at the track record for recognizing talent of the coaching staff as well as the track record of the coaching staff for developing both the individual player skills, and the team to play their best together. That said, I have quickly come to see enough in this coaching staff to trust them. Jones has only been here for 2 seasons and took over a team that was coming off 5 wins for the year. He has achieved waaaaay more than any one of us ever expected any new coach could have in that short of a time. I say with prejudice as well as observation that I would not swap ODU's coaching staff for that of any other in C-USA.

B. J. Stith is one of the youngest son of one of the ODU assistant coaches (Bryant Stith). Bryant coached this son along with his oldest son Brandon (transferred to ODU from ECU) in high school to 2 Virginia state championships. As a 4* recruit he ended up going to UVA where his father is still the all time leading scorer. The UVA head coach (Bennett) didn't turn that program around without having a good eye for talent so I feel really good about this one. After a red shirt year he will have 3 seasons to play.

Colburn is a local guy that was also a 4* recruit coming out of high school. It's not unusual for freshmen and sophomores to get little playing time at P5 schools because they have juniors and seniors playing ahead of them that were also 4* and 5* guys. He had far too many significant schools recruiting him (both during high school, and as a college transfer) for all of them to be missing the boat on him. While we all agree it isn't a guarantee, I think most anyone here would take him on their team in a heart beat. After a red shirt year he will have 2 seasons to play.

By the end of the season, Porter was starting as a true freshman over a more experienced bruising center at George Mason. He was selected as the Gatorade high school player of the year in Virginia and was strongly recruited out of high school by Jones (ODU). After a red shirt year he will have 3 seasons to play.

My honest hope is that EVERY school in C-USA will routinely bring in a similar mix of recruits to their men's basketball team. That is what the conference needs along with some big OOC wins.

I'm excited about the potential of all the new recruits, but none of them have proven anything yet. I think they'll be good... I really do, but I'll wait to brag about to fans of other schools once they've proven it on the court.

(05-08-2015 05:27 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  I agree that the number of stars a kid had in high school can at times be misleading as to how good a kid will actually turn out once he gets into college. I think you have to look at the track record for recognizing talent of the coaching staff as well as the track record of the coaching staff for developing both the individual player skills, and the team to play their best together. That said, I have quickly come to see enough in this coaching staff to trust them. Jones has only been here for 2 seasons and took over a team that was coming off 5 wins for the year. He has achieved waaaaay more than any one of us ever expected any new coach could have in that short of a time. I say with prejudice as well as observation that I would not swap ODU's coaching staff for that of any other in C-USA.

B. J. Stith is one of the youngest son of one of the ODU assistant coaches (Bryant Stith). Bryant coached this son along with his oldest son Brandon (transferred to ODU from ECU) in high school to 2 Virginia state championships. As a 4* recruit he ended up going to UVA where his father is still the all time leading scorer. The UVA head coach (Bennett) didn't turn that program around without having a good eye for talent so I feel really good about this one. After a red shirt year he will have 3 seasons to play.

Colburn is a local guy that was also a 4* recruit coming out of high school. It's not unusual for freshmen and sophomores to get little playing time at P5 schools because they have juniors and seniors playing ahead of them that were also 4* and 5* guys. He had far too many significant schools recruiting him (both during high school, and as a college transfer) for all of them to be missing the boat on him. While we all agree it isn't a guarantee, I think most anyone here would take him on their team in a heart beat. After a red shirt year he will have 2 seasons to play.

By the end of the season, Porter was starting as a true freshman over a more experienced bruising center at George Mason. He was selected as the Gatorade high school player of the year in Virginia and was strongly recruited out of high school by Jones (ODU). After a red shirt year he will have 3 seasons to play.

My honest hope is that EVERY school in C-USA will routinely bring in a similar mix of recruits to their men's basketball team. That is what the conference needs along with some big OOC wins.

* really dont mean squat. The best player in CUSA had zero offers out of high school. And I have seen it time and time again. The under recruited players blossom in to the best players in college.