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Barret Benson

CanadaHawk

HR All-American
Sep 22, 2006
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Looks like we've offered another center, 6'9", 245lb, Barret Benson. He's from Willowbrook, IL, a Chicago suburb and #89 in the Rivals 2016 national list. IL, IN, PD look like contenders for him.
https://rivals.yahoo.com/Iowa/basketball/recruiting/player-Barret-Benson-152037

I like the offer. Barret looks like a good shooter. He also has a nice base for establishing position in the post. I think he'd make a good pairing with Cook or Ward because of his shooting, or Rakocevic, because of his physical play, in both cases adding something the other player may lack. What does everyone else think?
 
People complain about Woody and his jump. In that video I saw his hands above the rim (barely) one time. And most of the time about a foot below. He does appear to have a better 12 foot shot than Woody tho. :)
 
People complain about Woody and his jump. In that video I saw his hands above the rim (barely) one time. And most of the time about a foot below. He does appear to have a better 12 foot shot than Woody tho. :)
I have a better 12 foot jumper than Woody; and I graduated in 1968
 
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yep. we want him and need his physical play.


Are you basing this off the video or have you seen him live? I ask because that video doesn't show much in terms of physical play. If you've seen something different, that's fine. Just wondering.
 
To be honest I thought I saw a young Guy Rucker. Now, folks can take that as a good thing, or bad. From an interview I read, he likes to get up and down the court with the guards, I thought to myself, "Our guards aren't going to wait for you." :D

But, that's from a short video, hardly worth making an assessment, and frankly the best course imo is to trust in Fran. It works more often than not.
 
he doesnt consistently play physically but the strength is there
 
Rich get richer. We'll get ours.

An out-of-state 4/5-star will have to be a special person to make that commitment. One that wants to be a leader; and forge his own path. Hard to find someone like that when the Kentucky, Kansas, MSU and UConn's of this world come calling. Hopefully, it happens...
 
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An out-of-state 4/5-star will have to be a special person to make that commitment. One that wants to be a leader; and forge his own path. Hard to find someone like that when the Kentucky, Kansas, MSU and UConn's of this world come calling. Hopefully, it happens...

I was gonna say that could be Santos but I see he was re-ranked as a 3 star. Speaking of which, what's going on there? Haven't heard anything in a long time besides that he's been hurt. If he was really as high on the Hawks as had been reported, you would've thought he would have committed by now. Maybe we backed off? We have been offering some prospects at his position.
 
Unfortunately after they get all their's, and ours we do get will be MUCH lower rated and their leftovers.

Those leftovers won twelve games in the Big Ten last year. That leftover Aaron White had a pretty good career.
 
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I'm still a little miffed. Other team's leftovers? That just doesn't seem like a fair thing to say considering the successes we've seen over the last five years.

I could care less if a player is ranked #75 or not ranked at all. McCaffery is doing something right. As to Ward, sure it would be great to have landed him, but we were one of twenty-one teams that offered.

As I posted, we'll get ours. And I am very shocked that anyone would call our guys leftovers.
 
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To be honest I thought I saw a young Guy Rucker. Now, folks can take that as a good thing, or bad. From an interview I read, he likes to get up and down the court with the guards, I thought to myself, "Our guards aren't going to wait for you." :D

But, that's from a short video, hardly worth making an assessment, and frankly the best course imo is to trust in Fran. It works more often than not.


Spot on Dan ...for me too as I watched the vid....a younger Rucker. Keep in mind this vid was probably a soph summer AAU vid going into his Junior year so his play is going to get better and he'll get stronger...big kid. He does have a nice 12 foot shot and Barrett along with Rakocevic would be a very good twosome.
 
I am going to be the optimist here, it was good to see iowa listed as 'other offers' on the Sports Center crawl for Ward,
Kids see those things and when you start making that short list it helps going forward.
 
I was gonna say that could be Santos but I see he was re-ranked as a 3 star. Speaking of which, what's going on there? Haven't heard anything in a long time besides that he's been hurt. If he was really as high on the Hawks as had been reported, you would've thought he would have committed by now. Maybe we backed off? We have been offering some prospects at his position.


It sounds like Fran is still recruiting Santos pretty hard. However, he was hurt early in the season (I think he broke his hand) and either didn't play or barely played over the winter. Then he was hurt in an early AAU tourney and is out 4-6 weeks (at the time). I think he's been out for a couple of weeks now, so I'd think end of May or so he'll be back on the court. He may not be back to full strength/speed until HS season starts in the fall, though.

The injuries are why he fell in the rankings. If you're not seen, you can't get evaluated. He did nothing wrong, he was just out.
 
I'm still a little miffed. Other team's leftovers? That just doesn't seem like a fair thing to say considering the successes we've seen over the last five years.

I could care less if a player is ranked #75 or not ranked at all. McCaffery is doing something right. As to Ward, sure it would be great to have landed him, but we were one of twenty-one teams that offered.

As I posted, we'll get ours. And I am very shocked that anyone would call our guys leftovers.

Other team's leftovers is a bit harsh. But if Iowa wants to be what Michigan State is, or Wisconsin or OSU or Michigan, etc. are, they are going to need to land some of the highly ranked targets. Fran has of course proven he can take guys like Olaseni or White and turn them into very good B1G players. But it's not a stretch to say that the ceiling for what the program could accomplish would be higher if Fran were able to snag more Top 100 recruits.

All the other poster is trying to say is that he'd like to see Iowa land some higher ranked guys (that we offer and spend a lot of time recruiting). I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that.
 
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I love leftovers. chili is better the next day and the day after. sometimes you have to wait a while before you can enjoy and really appreciate some things in life...

Some of the best food takes time to prepare. And yes, it get's better with some age. Interestingly enough, relying on high school player rankings to determine if a team is getting good players might be comparable to cooking in a microwave. Sure, it doesn't take much time, or effort, but the results tend to be crud.
 
Other team's leftovers is a bit harsh. But if Iowa wants to be what Michigan State is, or Wisconsin or OSU or Michigan, etc. are, they are going to need to land some of the highly ranked targets. Fran has of course proven he can take guys like Olaseni or White and turn them into very good B1G players. But it's not a stretch to say that the ceiling for what the program could accomplish would be higher if Fran were able to snag more Top 100 recruits.

All the other poster is trying to say is that he'd like to see Iowa land some higher ranked guys (that we offer and spend a lot of time recruiting). I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that.
Ward is ranked #69, Benson is ranked #89. Ward is probably ranked higher because he seems more aggressive and bouncier. But Benson has some talents. He's a wide body, something we've lacked in recent years, who, paired with Pemsl, could allow us to occupy a lot of lane real estate. He also appears to be a better shooter than Ward. That versatility could be right up Fran's alley.
 
Ward is ranked #69, Benson is ranked #89. Ward is probably ranked higher because he seems more aggressive and bouncier. But Benson has some talents. He's a wide body, something we've lacked in recent years, who, paired with Pemsl, could allow us to occupy a lot of lane real estate. He also appears to be a better shooter than Ward. That versatility could be right up Fran's alley.

Benson has the size to play 4 or 5. He doesn't seem very athletic and needs to work on using his off hand, but his mid-range shot looked good.
 
Benson has the size to play 4 or 5. He doesn't seem very athletic and needs to work on using his off hand, but his mid-range shot looked good.
+

Finally, a voice of reason. I saw BB a couple of time in Chicago and agree with SunTimes Joe Hendrixsen that Barret is not the most athletic of big men but he can be a solid player. Benson is considered a step behind Rapolas and Rakocevic and maybe Zach Norvell for Mr. Basketball in Illinois. The 2016 class is little more shallow as there is a big drop off after the top four (Charlie Moore is maybe able to narrow the gap).

I really want to see Tyler Cook as a Hawkeye and then see if Santos can show his talents.
 
Unfortunately after they get all their's, and ours we do get will be MUCH lower rated and their leftovers.

Hansen ... IMO, recruiting is a legitimate frustration point. On one hand, hard to argue too much with the results. Fran has done a great job at finding and developing those players that have helped make Iowa relevant again. But recruiting Top 150 players has been a challenge. Part of it is location, Iowa fans can never discount that part of it. However, I would also like to better understand how Fran approaches the recruiting process versus, say Bo Ryan, Chris Collins or even an Izzo. Curious how different they are; and if it's contributing to falling short in some of these recruiting battles. (I don't count Ulis - Kentucky is in a whole different stratosphere)
 
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Finally, a voice of reason. I saw BB a couple of time in Chicago and agree with SunTimes Joe Hendrixsen that Barret is not the most athletic of big men but he can be a solid player. Benson is considered a step behind Rapolas and Rakocevic and maybe Zach Norvell for Mr. Basketball in Illinois. The 2016 class is little more shallow as there is a big drop off after the top four (Charlie Moore is maybe able to narrow the gap).

I really want to see Tyler Cook as a Hawkeye and then see if Santos can show his talents.


This is true about the 2016 class in Illinois. It is pretty weak. The class of 2017 is loaded, though. Might be 8-9 of the top 100 players in the country in that class. Mr. Basketball could come from that class. It is not always a senior who wins it.

Cook is a major target of Illinois, too. Benson is probably a Purdue lean. Both his parents are Purdue alums. I hate to say that someone is injury prone, but Santos has hardly played in the last two years. He is a very good talent, but he doesn't seem to be able to stay on the court.
 
+

Finally, a voice of reason. I saw BB a couple of time in Chicago and agree with SunTimes Joe Hendrixsen that Barret is not the most athletic of big men but he can be a solid player. Benson is considered a step behind Rapolas and Rakocevic and maybe Zach Norvell for Mr. Basketball in Illinois. The 2016 class is little more shallow as there is a big drop off after the top four (Charlie Moore is maybe able to narrow the gap).

I really want to see Tyler Cook as a Hawkeye and then see if Santos can show his talents.
I think it is hard to tell how he would do against some taller boys since he looked like he was 4-6" taller than anyone on the court.
 
Basing solely on how he looked in the posted video, Barret looks slow footed and does not seem very explosive. He barely got over the rim on multiple dunks. He does appear to be able to shoot from the outside, but it looked like he was playing against shorter players. I would be curious to see how he handles a player with length.
 
Basing solely on how he looked in the posted video, Barret looks slow footed and does not seem very explosive. He barely got over the rim on multiple dunks. He does appear to be able to shoot from the outside, but it looked like he was playing against shorter players. I would be curious to see how he handles a player with length.
This sounds a lot like a current player on our roster.
 
Looks like hes got great hands and a nice touch.. Doesnt look like he could jump over a phonebook but neither can zach randolph.. We'd be lucky to get him
 
Looks like hes got great hands and a nice touch.. Doesnt look like he could jump over a phonebook but neither can zach randolph.. We'd be lucky to get him

Why would you accept a shorter version of Woodenbury? Painter and Cook are better options. Brock Bertram is a bit taller at 6'11". C'mon CornHolely-o, get your head out of of the crap. Pass him on to Purdue. A 6'8" big guy with some vertical and who can run the floor would be better than Barret.
 
Why would you accept a shorter version of Woodenbury? Painter and Cook are better options. Brock Bertram is a bit taller at 6'11". C'mon CornHolely-o, get your head out of of the crap. Pass him on to Purdue. A 6'8" big guy with some vertical and who can run the floor would be better than Barret.
Benson has a better base than Woodbury and Bertram. Barret is not likely to be pushed out of position like Adam has in the past. That's a big difference. Plus, with Purdue getting Swanigan, Barret could be a possible option. Sure, Cook would be an obvious 1st choice. Perhaps Painter would be better. But both of them would make a good pairing with Benson and might be more enticed to come to Iowa with a declared center there. You can't have too many bigs who can shoot it too, especially with the sunami of big bodies coming into the B1G right now.
 
Rakocevic is up to 6'11 and 215 lbs per ESPN. and is a 4* and rated 75th overall by Rivals, what's the matter Rak to white for some of you?

a top 100 player and he is not good enough?
Cook is a 4* by both and is rated 79th by Rivals.
 
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