1st half: 11/21, 100 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs. Defensive line waiting for him in the backfield on every play. Showed scrambling ability, but made some poor decisions on the run and took a couple sacks. Team trails 20-7.
3rd quarter: 12/12, 253 yards, 5 TDs. Breaks a potential Clowney tackle on his first TD pass, and things just started rolling from there. Team leads 42-20
4th quarter: Does not throw a single pass, as his team runs out the clock on a 42-20 victory. ESPN announcers drooling over him while claiming that Tennessee fans are the happiest people in the country. Worley named player of the game.
A 'tweetpic' from BigCountyPreps1 showing an ad in a Tampa newspaper on Wednesday.
James Wilder Jr. will let the world know where he intends to play college football during a news conference scheduled to start at 5 p.m. at Plant High School in Tampa.
I’m thinking it will probably be closer to 5:30 p.m. before we hear the actual news. Bright House Sports Network, a cable station out of Tampa, is carrying the announcement live but it is scheduled to show a 30-minute special on Wilder — aptly called “James Wilder: The Decision” — before that. So I’m thinking it’ll be toward the end of that program before the news is revealed.
Of course, a lot of people think they know what Wilder is going to say. Brett McMurphy of FanHouse famously — or infamously — reported on Tuesday that sources tell him that Wilder will select the Bulldogs. McMurphy is a 22-year veteran reporter covering college athletics in Tampa. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, MaxPreps.com reported that their sources are 80 to 90 …
Florida International’s tumultuous rebuilding process under second-year coach Isiah Thomas has hit another snag.
Dominique Ferguson, a consensus top 100 prospect and the centerpiece of Thomas’ first recruiting class at FIU, will sit out the fall semester due to academics, multiple sources told FoxSports.com’s Jeff Goodman. The 6-foot-9 Indianapolis native still has a chance to play for the Panthers next season beginning in mid-December.
The signing of Ferguson was a tremendous coup for an FIU program that finished 7-25 in Thomas’ first season and is in dire need of a talent overhaul. Ferguson originally committed to Kentucky before Billy Gillispie got fired and had also drawn interest from the likes of Florida, Indiana and Arizona.
Questions about Ferguson’s attitude and academics caused many of those marquee programs to take a wait-and-see approach to his recruitment, so perhaps it’s no huge surprise that he’ll have to sit out a semester at FIU. Ferguson transferred from Lawrence North High in Indianapolis to Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia for his senior year of high school in order to address some of those issues.
"The first month or so I tried every excuse I could think of to come home," Ferguson told the Indianapolis Star last year. "The first night after my parents dropped me off I had to get up and go outside at 6 a.m. That was a big wakeup call."
Although Ferguson is easily the highest profile recruit Thomas has landed thus far, the Panthers do have a handful of other promising incoming freshmen who will try to keep the season afloat for the first six weeks. The other newcomers include point guard Phillip Taylor (Wheeler, Ga.), shooting guard Richaud Pack (Seaholm, Mich.) and junior college shooting guards DeJuan Wright (Detroit) and Eric Fredrick (Oklahoma City).
Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports three veteran players on the Minnesota Vikings were not at Tuesday morning’s practice or team meetings.
Zulgad adds that All-Pro defensive end Jared Allen, Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson, and kicker Ryan Longwell are believed to be headed to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to convince quarterback Brett Favre to return for the 2010 season.
Coincidentally, today is the one-year anniversary of Favre announcing he would return from his second retirement to play for the Vikings.
The Vikings open the 2010 regular season in 23 days, and head coach Brad Childress believes that Favre needs a couple of weeks of practice time if he’s going to be able to play in that game. Allen has also been vocal about the need for Favre to announce his decision out of fairness to the team, and in particular to quarterback Tarvris Jackson, who would start if Favre retires.
Favre had surgery on his left ankle, and last Thursday made a quick trip to Gulf Breeze, Florida to be examined by Dr. James Andrews, who performed the operation.
One of the best coaching jobs from last season was what former Nevada coach Mark Fox (right) was able to maneuver at hampered Georgia.
The Dawgs finished 14-17, which is about five or six wins more than many expected the depleted team to tally. (There were also close, competitive losses to Kentucky, Mississippi State and South Carolina.)
Lalanne, who jumped to as high as 33 on one scouting website’s rankings, was the first big recruit Fox wrangled upon taking the Georgia job. He dipped in rankings as last year’s recruiting circuit winded down, eventually ending up as a three-star player in Rivals.com‘s evaluations.
"We did not anticipate it," Fox said. "Our people thought everything was going to be fine."
Georgia now has three players in its 2010 freshman class – forward
Marcus Thornton, junior college guard Sherrard Brantley and forward
Donte Williams.
As for Fox, it’s an arduous process that still lies ahead; trying to
climb the hill up to the tier below where Kentucky resides. He’s going to need to start bringing in recruits that can rival what Paul Hewitt has done, even if Hewitt can’t seem to win big with all that talent.
According to a June 6 police report, Allieri was recently arrested for “breaking into his girlfriend’s house, stealing $ 8,775 worth of jewelry, and killing ”Pepper,’ the family’s 9-pound miniature dachshund.”
Make that ex-girlfriend.
Allieri has been officially charged by Boon Township Police with, “theft, burglary and animal cruelty.”
But Allieri isn’t going quietly, despite being offered a plea deal that included no jail time.
Allieri was charged on June 26. Defense lawyer Marcy McMann on Tuesday in state Superior Court, Morristown, rejected a plea offer extended to Allieri that calls for probation and 364 days in the Morris County jail.
The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office will now present the case to a grand jury for possible indictment.
This afternoon, I’m really happy to pass along a strong piece of journalism that’s focused around a sad subject.
Michael Gilchrist, the 2011 recruit who’s verbally told Kentucky he’ll wear Big Blue when his college days arrive, opened up about his life to the Star-Ledger.
Each time Gilchrist toes the foul line, he closes his eyes for five
seconds and thinks about his father. He also wears jersey No. 31 — the
number his father donned in high school.
Gilchrist lost his father 14 years ago today, when the elder Michael Gilchrist was killed by way of multiple gunshot wounds. When he picked UK publicly, he did so on April 14 — his late father’s birthday.
The top-rated recruit lost his dad after he began to get involved with drugs following his time with the United States Army. For the namesake, his strongest memories — less than three years worth — with his father are related to "The Lion King."
Fittingly, that movie features a cub that has to go on, persevere and build the legacy of his family after his father dies when he’s young.
The
couple’s only son was born in 1993, but the frequency of the elder
Gilchrist’s drug use increased and he lost his job at Cooper [University Hospital in Camden] in May
1996. … He was killed that summer around 2
a.m. at 135 N. Dudley St. in East Camden, according to Jason Laughlin,
the spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Camden County. The police
investigation concluded Gilchrist was shot while he was inside a 1995
Hyundai Elantra; he was then pushed out of the car and to the street and
the car was taken.
No one has been charged with the homicide; the case remains open.
It’s not uncommon that a talented prospect grows up without a father, or lives out his adolescence in poverty/high-crime areas/etc. But when a player can openly admit to struggling without having a dad, or whenever a young man or woman truly overcomes their surrounds … why wouldn’t we publish and trumpet any and every such story?
If Gilchrist is able to dominate at future levels the way he has at the high school and prep ones, you’ll know the big reason why.
Memphis recruit Will Barton can score from anywhere on the court. He’s a killer in transition, has an excellent mid-range game and his three-point shot is what some might call ‘wet’. The Baltimore native also has good court vision and the size and intangibles to harass opposing wingmen on defense. Oh, and you already know this if you watched the above video, but word is that he can finish above the rim as well – ferociously.
Unfortunately for the 6-foot-6 swingman, it seems that the top-ranked shooting guard in his class won’t be eligible to play for the Tigers this upcoming season.
“It dont get no worse than this,” Barton posted on his Twitter account Wednesday evening. “The hardest thing I ever had 2 face is here. Need vision cuz everything blurry now. Where do I go from here?”
As Wolken notes, the talented scorer has two options if he’s unable to win an appeal to the NCAA to regain his eligibility.
If he is not cleared to play this season, it is unlikely he will ever see the court for Memphis. Barton would have opportunities to play in Europe or the NBA Developmental League next season before entering the NBA draft next June.
This is where it gets interesting.
As talented as Barton is, he’ll almost certainly be a first round pick in the NBA next season – regardless of which option he chooses to pursue next season.
As Barton’s Twitter bio states, he’s “focusing on making my dreams come true & being the best. NBA is the ultimate goal. SACRIFICE & DEDICATION. B.asketball I.s Life.”
With the ultimate goal of the NBA in mind, the NBA Development League might be his best option – especially to further develop his game as Draft Express noted in their scouting report that he does have a few fixable flaws.
His ball-handling skills first and foremost need plenty of work, as he shows very little ability to operate with his left hand and struggles in general to create his own shot in the half-court and get all the way to the basket. His decision making and shot-selection were very questionable throughout the course of the weekend, particularly when his team started falling behind and they needed him to make good decisions. He did not look like a particularly efficient scorer in the games we saw, being quite turnover prone as well.
In the NBA Development League, he’d be able to get solid coaching focused on his development (see Williams, Latavious), play against NBA-level competition (note the record amount of call-ups to the NBA last season) and showcase his wares in front of NBA scouts on a night-in-night-out basis. Really, that’s everything a burgeoning NBA player that isn’t eligible to play in the NBA could ever want, right?
Well, not quite.
If Barton were to forego playing domestically this season and instead spend a year abroad, a la Brandon Jennings, he’d probably be able to make roughly the same $ 1.2 million that Jennings did while playing in Rome as both were high-profile players ranked at the top of their position in their class.
While the extra million dollars is certainly tough to turn down for a player coming right out of high school and looking at a $ 26,500 salary in the D-League as his only other option, Jennings wasn’t exactly happy in Europe when he talked the New York Times midway through his lone season.
“I’ve gotten paid on time once this year,” Jennings said in an e-mail message. “They treat me like I’m a little kid. They don’t see me as a man. If you get on a good team, you might not play a lot. Some nights you’ll play a lot; some nights you won’t play at all. That’s just how it is.”
While Jennings’ situation turned out positive, I don’t know that it necessarily would have been any different had he joined the D-League instead of playing in Rome. If anything else, his stock probably would have been higher as it’s possible some teams were worried about his attitude in Europe as well as his spotty minutes without much of an explanation. Being a lottery pick is nothing to scoff at, obviously, but things can always be better.
As I said earlier, there probably isn’t a wrong choice for where Barton goes next – and I really hope he’s able to become academically eligible at Memphis if that’s what he thinks is best for him.
That said, it’d be an interesting case study to watch Barton develop firsthand in the D-League as well.
Florida International’s tumultuous rebuilding process under second-year coach Isiah Thomas has hit another snag.
One of the best coaching jobs from last season was what former Nevada coach Mark Fox (right) was able to maneuver at hampered Georgia.
his afternoon, I’m really happy to pass along a 