MSU Offers 2013 TX C Dominic Woodson
We figured there would be more post prospects emerging for 2013 and Woodson had one of the best summers of any relative unknown. He received lots of twitter comments like this one and yet another one here. Woodson's mentor is Ray Jackson and that may actually help MSU in this case with an in-state connection. He has interest or offers from numerous Texas schools with Maryland and UConn also trying to get involved.
10 months ago
intrpdtrvlr
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Is it me...
…or has Dantonio’s recruiting been focusing more on line players? It just seems to me that he’s working pretty hard on stocking up on both lines. I hope I’m right about that because even though I’m no Vince Lombardi, if you have strong o and d lines you can get a lot of things done on the field. This particular bit of news interests me because in my opinion center may be the most underappreciated position. So at least in my mind Dantonio is working on the things that should bring good results in games. Who knows with my mind though….
I have a recruiting question about bball and figured I’d post it here, maybe it can be addressed later. I’ve recently read that Izzo offered a kid named D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, who’s a 5 star (I know, I know) SG out of Virginia. He recently de-committed from Xavier is the story I think. I’ve seen this on two different sites. Could be nothing, but I’m interested because he’s class of 2012-same as Gary Harris. Izzo wants Harris badly. So if (IF, IF, IF) this is true, perhaps Izzo is fairly certain Harris isn’t coming, OR that someone else will be gone and he can bring in both. Anyone know anything about this?
And I apologize if I shouldn’t have posted a bball matter within this post. Table it for later if you guys want.
Um
This is a basketball post LOL. Dominic Woodson plays center on the court, not the gridiron.
LOL ha!!! I was thinking the same thing at first – Texas center I just assumed OL, especially with the name Dominic (only BC Raiola has been Lions center for last decade). And obviously Izzo rarely recruits outside of the upper midwest footprint – really, only Chris Allen, who had an MSU connection through his family, and maybe Maurice Joseph, who is from Montreal.
On a related note, the tweet from @TexasGymRats comments that, “Dane Fife has been all over this one.” Intrptrvlr (or one of the other TOC recruiting gurus), what can you tell us about what DF brings to the table in terms of recruiting? He’s obviously a midwest guy, too, HS in Clarkston, college ball at IU, coached there & IPFW. Do you think his job will be to increase MSU’s national recruiting footprint, or strengthen things even further in the midwest?
re: Fife
Hard to know exactly how unless you’re really close to the program and its recruiting but it’s pretty clear that having Dane Fife has changed things. Does MSU pursue a guy like Woodson (or DSR) without Fife? Maybe not. Appears to be a good thing.
It’s definitely going to help with players from Central Indiana.
"And how much are intangibles worth? 10%? 20%?" - kj@theonlycolors
I don't think anyone
Has a good idea of where Harris is leaning. Apparently Indiana fans think they are in the lead despite the numbers concerns they have. I had heard that Purdue was not really in the running for him early, but now a friend sent me this from Evan Daniels at Scout:
*Right now when it comes to the recruitment of Gary Harris, it is beginning to become clearer. Michigan State and Purdue seem to be the two schools on top, though there is some debate to the order. After those two is a chase group that includes Indiana, Louisville, and Notre Dame. Kentucky did evaluate Harris in Orlando, but they didn’t go back up to Ft. Wayne to watch his team, so their interest can only be described as lukewarm. Harris is absolutely not on a timeline, and will take multiple official visits before deciding. Right now the plan is a fall decision, but don’t be completely shocked if this goes into the spring as taking visits will be tough considering his football schedule.
Seems like Harris and those close to him are keeping this pretty close to the vest.
by trivialstuff16 on Aug 5, 2011 9:12 AM CDT up reply actions
whoa
I guess i don’t know how to use block quotes. The second one is my commentary.
by trivialstuff16 on Aug 5, 2011 9:14 AM CDT up reply actions
2013 Class
It seems like this might be significant in a lot of ways.
1. As noted previously, Izzo hasn’t recruited Texas or anywhere that far away very often. Not going to try and suggest that this represents some type of change in philosophy or anything, but I think it is interesting.
2. To me this could be an additional signal that Izzo feels very comfortable with the projected backcourt going into 2013. Maybe giving a little more credence to the theory that he is not going to look to try and take a pg in that class. So far we appear to have two concrete offers out to guys for this class, Woodson and Parker, both “Bigs” (unless I am missing someone). Obviously this is only speculation and it is very early, but Izzo is likely to only take 2 guys (maybe 3 if some kind of attrition occurs), so I would expect he will be a little bit stingy with his offers. Says something about what he thinks of this guys potential to have an offer already.
Gotta get in Early
That’s a big thing nowadays, recruit early to have a chance when they’re seniors.
I’m pretty sure if you take a drive through Indiana this fall you’ll see Crean and/or Painter hanging out at middle schools.
That doesn’t apply to Calipari who only seems to recruit seniors but uses keywords like NBA, draft, lottery and MVP to get commitments.
Though I’m also skeptical of recruiting outside of the midwest, you have to find a big somewhere. The team will be stocked with guards and wings and you lose Nix. What if the NBA decides it actually wants to stay in business and Payne flashes that NBA potential (I think he has) and decides to leave early? Ruh-roh…
I don’t think a team with Gauna and Costello as the only bigs would go very far.
"the game is out there, and it's play or get played. That simple" - Omar
One reason you’ll see Crean and Painter in middle schools is that their first available scholarships are for the class of 2019.
by SpartanBoiler on Aug 5, 2011 2:05 PM CDT up reply actions
Cal's keywords
You forgot “You don’t have to go to class”, “I’ve got someone who’ll take your exams for you”, and the most important “How’s a few thousand for starters?” as Calipari’s keywords in recruiting.
One thing that puzzles me about the original post, now that I know what we’re actually talking about-obviously I was confused to begin with-is how Ray Jackson as his mentor helps. That’s former u of m player Ray Jackson, correct? How does that help?
I'm thinking that doesn't help at all
But he’s from Texas and…
Wait, that doesn’t help either.
Sounds like Coach Fife Dog is trying shake things up on the recruiting trail.
Maybe it’ll work, we’ll find out in a year or so.
"the game is out there, and it's play or get played. That simple" - Omar
Well, you have to ask yourself
What connections to the state of Michigan would a Texas player need to help facilitate a relationship with MSU? Jackson could help in that regard. Also, if you give Ray Jackson the benefit of the doubt to be a good mentor, wouldn’t you want MSU interested in him especially if he’s not a great fit for Coach Beilein’s offense? If you look at football and basketball, lot’s of guys have had mentors who have steered them to a rival. Brandan Kearney received advice from his cousin Braylon Edwards, including positive things about MSU.
You’re right though, it’s nowhere near obvious.
"And how much are intangibles worth? 10%? 20%?" - kj@theonlycolors
I'm sure Jackson could sell the kid
on the state of Michigan, and you’ve got a good point about mentoring, but I don’t know. Izzo’s never been exactly secretive about his feelings on the fab five “legacy” and we all know those guys think their contribution of black socks to college bball is akin to what the internet has done for society.
Then again I know that Izzo and his staff know what they’re doing so I don’t sweat this stuff much. It’s fun to discuss though.
There’s even an extremely small possibility that Izzo offered just to irritate u of m, which would be so cool. Hey, u of m fans have their delusions, let me have mine!
I disagree
I think that Gauna, Costello and a stud freshman big (perhaps woodson, farmer, hamilton or someone else not necessarily Parker) would be a pretty solid front line compared to some of the other bigs we’ve been succesful with, i.e. going to the championship game with Suton and two freshman as our most productive centers/forwards.
But having Payne would certainly help. I doubt he’ll leave until after his junior year anyways, providing he doesn’t have some huge breakout in the tourney.
I hope there is a stud freshman big that year
If Payne leaves as a junior, we might need 2 of them.
Gauna and Costello may prove to be every bit as good as Suton the senior but his team had more depth. Ibok, Gray and Herzog were all available along with the two freshman. That’s a lot of big bodies.
Not sure Gauna, Costello and stud freshman to be named later would have enough fouls.
"the game is out there, and it's play or get played. That simple" - Omar
Nothing against those guys but
Gray and Herzog provided little. I’m not saying that to be mean but they never got it going at MSU. It was pleasantly surprising to hear, from this site I believe, that Gray has been doing well playing in Europe. He’s always been physically capable of being a contributor. Ibok was a valuable player.
Hopefully Payne does blow up to be good enough to leave after 3 years as that will likely mean very good things for us the next 2.
Kaminski is big enough to handle the 4 periodically
especially if Byrd is at the 3. Plus its almost a certainty that we’re adding a freshman big judging by the amount of offers/interest for players 6’7 and above in 2013.
My hopes are still of Jabari Parker and James Young, but Izzo knows what he’s doing and if he skips out on MSU for Wash or Illinois, I think that Woodson could maybe be as good an option as Hamilton if Izzo offers him this early.
I'm very anxious to see the day we get another Chicago kid
If Hamilton doesn’t blow up and end up at one of the big 5, he’ll be at Illinois.
They’re in on all of those kids. The really high major prospects leave the state, the next group goes to Illinois.
Same is true for Parker.
"the game is out there, and it's play or get played. That simple" - Omar
Wow
This kid is a complete unknown. I looked him up on Rivals and there was no ranking and the only school of interest listed was Tulsa. Very interesting to see Izzo going so grassroots on someone so far away. If Woodson blows up similar to other recruits Izzo has targeted without any big nat’l buzz (Costello, Kaminski and Valentine all jumped ridiculously once they signed and got more attention) and turns into a top 100, top 70 center (dare I say top 50?), then I think this definitely helps the image of Izzo as a Nat’l recruiter. I know that national ranking aren’t the end all be all, but it still is a factor in terms of prominence with recruits who are outside of your target area. I’d like to see this kid in action and hear a little more analysis on what he brings. Hopefully he’ll be on the updated hotlist, whenever that comes (HINT HINT lol).
Thanks for the reminder!
I don’t think Woodson is going to quite have an Anthony Davis-like jump in the rankings but he appears to be one of the guys (see the links and others) who had a MAJOR uptick in interest. I don’t know where he’ll be ranked; it’ll be something to see.
"And how much are intangibles worth? 10%? 20%?" - kj@theonlycolors
Done!
http://www.theonlycolors.com/2011/6/6/2189911/2013-msu-basketball-recruiting-hotlist
"And how much are intangibles worth? 10%? 20%?" - kj@theonlycolors
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