In State Recruit Updates

[iowaguy88]

From the official Hawkeye website:

helped lead Ensworth High School in Nashville, Tennessee, to three-straight state titles, earning all-tournament laurels on each championship team... a two-time All-State honoree, earning first team recognition as a junior and third team distinction his sophomore campaign... as a junior, was named Tennessee's Division II-AA Mr. Basketball and was tabbed the state championship Most Valuable Player... led the Region in scoring his sophomore (20.5 ppg) and junior (19.3 ppg) seasons..

That looks pretty dominating to me. Oh, and while he may not have started a lot of games for Oak Hill, every game I saw, Fleming was there at the end, so obviously his coach had a lot of faith in him to close out games.

First off, I never said anything bad about Fleming. I was actually being complementary by saying he was invited to join Oak Hill. But lets put into his perspective his 'dominance'.

Tennessee names 5 players Mr. Basketball, one in each division. Fleming played in a low division and went to a tiny high school. His high school was K-12 with an average graduating class of 80 people. Since divisions are generally determined by size I can only assume he competed against High Schools of similar size, 80 people. 19 PPG isn't overly impressive in High School to begin with, but considering the size of the school which would be comparable to 1A basketball in Iowa, it's not impressive at all.

Also, I watched Oak Hill play around 5x last year and never saw him finish a game unless the game was already in hand. Granted he played behind Dwyane Bacon but was around the 7th or 8th man off the bench for them and didn't even play half of any game.

 

[revkev73]

I did watch the game...but don't recall seeing him. No veiled shot at Williams...I know little about him, seldom see him. Someone said he was a stud...studs should be in the game, at least one minute, it seems.

 

[revkev73]

If I say "I don't recall seeing him" means...I didn't know if he played any minutes or not... No...I didn't know the answer...

 

[revkev73]

OK...

 

[HerkyHopeful]

Honest question. How can you call yourself "herkyhopeful" with a post like this? It is anything but hopeful, it is downright negative.
Williams is a stud. He just needs to get a little stronger and get some tuning up. He will be fine.

Since when has being realistic been called being negative? Williams a stud? He played small class Illinois ball and doesn't play now

 

[lovedwatchingLester]

Tons of ability, but well behind Sapp and MG in knowing when to push, when to back off, when to pass or take it all the way to the hole. When and where his teammates will be looking for the pass or crashing the boards. The time and place to learn and get ready is in practice. I would love to see him more too on the court and running the offense, but playing MSU the #1team in the nation that you have lost to throughout the careers of MG, Sapp, Woodbury, Uhtoff, and PJ is not the time to experiment. I don't believe the Hawks were ever leading by 20(19 for like 30 seconds) and despite Iowa leading all game I personally felt MSU wasn't out of the game until about 2 minutes left in the game. Time will tell but I also think Williams" the stud "will be just fine.

 

[revkev73]

Moderation in game situations for Williams makes sense...my hope is that we don't have a big "hole" at the PG position for a couple of years...athletes ready to run and gun, without the trigger...

I don't know enough about Williams to comment on his future or present...hopefully it will work out.

Agree...with the ISU meltdown in the recent past...and the history of failure vs MSU...and MSU's ability to come back...I never felt MSU was out of it...until the last minute...great that Iowa was able to buck up and win...

 

[paladinhawk]

15-20 point lead most of the game...with both seniors gone next year...might have been good for a couple of minutes...imho...

Well that's a relief....after your nice post about Gesell I was wondering if you had been abducted by aliens. Apparently not. Was it a comfortable 15 point lead for most of the game? Not IMO. If Williams had played and Mich St. went on a run then you'd complain about playing a freshman against the #1 team.

 

[revkev73]

You have yourself a good new year Paladin...hope things pick up for you...

 

[DanL53]

I think Williams is going to be a dang good point guard for Iowa. But. He played for class 2A Saint Teresa in Decatur. He missed half his senior season for some "transfer" rules problems. He didn't play point guard, more of a wing, in high school.

Therefore; expecting him to come in and compete for minutes against two senior point guards like Gesell and Clemmons is probably expecting too much. Christian's best asset is the very high ceiling he presents with his ball handling for a 6'7" guard. His unselfish play and willingness to learn don't hurt either.

People are allowed to be doubtful on this site, of course, but after yet another season where it appears McCaffery knows how to coach and find talent I have to wonder why anyone would be overly concerned about Iowa having a point guard in 2016-17. Apparently Fran thinks we will have one.

 

[HawkLogic]

I think Williams is going to be a dang good point guard for Iowa. But. He played for class 2A Saint Teresa in Decatur. He missed half his senior season for some "transfer" rules problems. He didn't play point guard, more of a wing, in high school.

Therefore; expecting him to come in and compete for minutes against two senior point guards like Gesell and Clemmons is probably expecting too much. Christian's best asset is the very high ceiling he presents with his ball handling for a 6'7" guard. His unselfish play and willingness to learn don't hurt either.

People are allowed to be doubtful on this site, of course, but after yet another season where it appears McCaffery knows how to coach and find talent I have to wonder why anyone would be overly concerned about Iowa having a point guard in 2016-17. Apparently Fran thinks we will have one.

Hopefully he develops a jumpshot. I only have seen him play a few minutes but his form on jumpshots didn't look pure and he wasn't very close to making his shots. I'm sure he can play good defense and having a a big pg is an advantage in itself.

 

[hooper56]

People are allowed to be doubtful on this site, of course, but after yet another season where it appears McCaffery knows how to coach and find talent I have to wonder why anyone would be overly concerned about Iowa having a point guard in 2016-17. Apparently Fran thinks we will have one.

At some point it seems as if posters such as HerkyHopeful will just learn to trust our coach. Fran continues to prove, year after year that he knows how to recruit and develop talent.

 

[revkev73]

Agree about Fran's recruiting energy, talent eye, etc. and his ability to develop players...his inability to get top PGs here is a puzzle to me. Doesn't make sense.

 

[BBHawk]

15-20 point lead most of the game...with both seniors gone next year...might have been good for a couple of minutes...imho...

Come on, Kev, you know that's bull. The gam was closer than that. That and the good job the players on the floor were doing dictated that McC stay with his usual top 9. I am sure that if foul trouble or injury to either Gesell or Clemons would have happened, we would have seen Williams. As it was, IA had a chance to steal one. And they did.

 

[RocknRollface]

Calling Williams a stud is a stretch but I do think he will be a very good player in a year or two, (he actually kind of reminds me of Pierre Pierce) there just inst much reason to play more players than are currently in the rotation right now.

Ive always felt that a ball handler to be effective they need to play 15+ or not at all. Otherwise its just a wasted few minutes with a guy who is just trying not to make a mistake. You can have reboundners and shooters play a few minutes here and there but for a ballhandler there isn't time to develop any kind of rhythm playing spot minutes.

I do think that once the schedule gets a little easier Fran will be able to "waste" a few minutes on preparation for next year, but you don't do that against MSU.

 

[Ronman]

First off, I never said anything bad about Fleming. I was actually being complementary by saying he was invited to join Oak Hill. But lets put into his perspective his 'dominance'.

Tennessee names 5 players Mr. Basketball, one in each division. Fleming played in a low division and went to a tiny high school. His high school was K-12 with an average graduating class of 80 people. Since divisions are generally determined by size I can only assume he competed against High Schools of similar size, 80 people. 19 PPG isn't overly impressive in High School to begin with, but considering the size of the school which would be comparable to 1A basketball in Iowa, it's not impressive at all.

Also, I watched Oak Hill play around 5x last year and never saw him finish a game unless the game was already in hand. Granted he played behind Dwyane Bacon but was around the 7th or 8th man off the bench for them and didn't even play half of any game.

Well, I personally find it pretty impressive that Fleming won three state titles at any level before his senior year and won accolades each year. And getting accepted at Oak Hill is not a common occurrence. You have to be pretty elite to be considered. If your argument is that he can't be that good because he is from a small school, I think there are a ton of kids who would disprove that reasoning.