Sobo vs Kaminsky

[elgatoloco]

Something's been driving me nuts over the past few broadcasts. At some point there always seems to be a comment about how the Sobo commitment was a huge get for NU at the time and that Kaminsky was considered no big deal. I found that hard to believe. My memory was that Sobo had a ton of offers from mid-majors and had a stellar high-school career, but I don't remember any conversation that he was going to put the NU program on his back. He was rated three stars by this site and two stars at the other site.

I didn't really follow Kaminsky's recruitment, but I find it very hard to believe a 6'10" player at an elite AAU program was considered an afterthought (in the coaching community) relative to Sobo's recruitment. Am I wrong here?

 

[PURPLECAT88]

Are you talking about the TV broadcast, the radio broadcast or what? I have no recollection of Sobo being considered anything special as a recruit. Kaminsky was considered a bit of a project, but I seem to remember a lot of posters lamenting when we got Sobo that we couldn't get his tall teammate too.

 

[thewildcat2011]

Sobo wasn't a "huge" get, but he did have many more offers than Kaminsky.

Kaminsky was offered by Bradley, DePaul, NIU, NU, Southern Illinois, and Wisconsin. Sobo had something like 19 offers, but you're right that they were mostly Ivy or mid-major.

 

[elgatoloco]

TV. It was Bardo, I think.

 

[Windy City Cat Fan]

TV said (or alluded to) something about Sobo being regarded more highly than Kaminsky and just as highly as Anthony Davis from Kentucky and that expectations and hopes were high when he committed to NU and that was a great recruiting get.

 

[Walker Fan]

The story was that Kaminsky grew a 6-7 inches during high school (maybe before his junior year) and moved from a guard to center. Carmody missed Kaminsky's visit on campus and offered him on a speakerphone from a vacation. Kaminsky, shocking, was not impressed and when Nanu Egwu turned down Bo Ryan's Buckies to star (or not) at Illinois, Ryan scooped up Kamisky and then used his hall of fame great basketball wisdom to bench him for the next two years and then fall into an all Big 10 performer his junior season.

On another note, most college programs value height over point guards. So I doubt that a 5'9" Sobo was more highly rated than a 7' Kaminsky. Anthony Davis was a top 5-15 recruit out of high school and Sobo was not in his galaxy. Anthony Davis' dad told a Sun-Times report that there was 180,000 reasons why he went to UK. UK threatened a lawsuit but never sued. So you figure out the math. So he was highly rated.

Oh yeah, anyone disputing that Chris Collins is a rising star in the coaching community like I said a week ago.

 

[thewildcat2011]

No one said he was rated as highly as AD. They said he finished 2nd in Illinois Mr. Basketball voting to AD. That's a fact. That he had more offers than Kaminsky is also a fact.
That you said "star" and not "rising star" is a double bona fide fact.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[thewildcat2011]

Frank and Sobo were both 3 stars per rivals.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[NUHockey]

Per ESPN, Kaminsky was a 4 star and the 11th best player in the state while Sobolewski was a 2 star and the 26th best player. I don't think he can be considered a "big get" at all.

Can we take a moment to acknowledge how great this group of recruits from Illinois was? Anthony Davis, Quincy Miller, Wayne Blackshear, Sam Thompson, Ryan Boatright, Chasson Randle, Nnanna Egwu, Tracy Abrams, Kaminsky, Roosevelt Jones, Jamari Traylor, and I guess I'll toss Sobo's name into the ring. Illinois high school basketball is up there as one of the best states in the country, and this year is no different.

 

[Katatonic]

Neither was highly recruited nationally, but Sobo had more local acclaim.

Ryan thought Kaminsky was a total project, but needed a big and was wiling to take the gamble.

BC went hard after Egwu, but he ended up w/ the pumpkinheads - who didn't recruit Kaminsky at all (probably much to their chagrin as Kaminsky has turned out to be the much better player).

BC usually is pretty good at snapping up under the radar talent (which is why Ryan snapped up 2 recruits from under BC's nose when a spot opened up), but think he got too enamored w/ the prototypical center size and/or greater athleticism thing.

While Kaminsky still had to get used to his new height and learn how to play a position that was still pretty new to him - being a former SG, Kaminsky had the skill set to be a very effective PO center.

Rowley and Mirk had much better offer lists, but that had a lot to due w/ their size (esp. Rowley).

Take skill over size.

More likely that a player can pack on a few pounds than develop skill (esp. a big).

 

[pawildcat]

I think it's pretty safe to say that nobody thought Kaminsky would be anything close to a contender for national Player of the Year honors by his senior year. Most probably wouldn't even have thought that after his first year or two in college.

 

[JournCat]

I think we may have come in 2nd or 3rd on Gasser, Brust and Kaminsky ... 3/5 of a Final Four team.

 

[willycat]

JC, ,maybe had the HC been on campus for Kaminsky's visit one of the three would have ended up playing in purple. But, I guess we all need a vacation, especially during recruiting season.

 

[NJCat83588]

If memory serves me correctly, Gasser was a Cat until someone either backed out of a commitment or transferred and he got the Wisconsin offer.

 

[NJCat83588]

Certainly not Rivals, Scout or 247, all of whom had Frank the Tank a 3* and not even the best prospect in the 2011 class. Jared Uthoff was marginally higher rated.

 

[NUCat320]

Gasser was never a NU commit, though it was conventional wisdom, at least on this board, that he was a Cat unless a Badger offer came along. The Wisconsin offer came late - he was a late September commit just before the fall signing period. (This is Google, not memory.) The spot came available because Vander Blue de-committed and went to Marquette instead. (There's an ESPN magazine article from last spring, also via Google, that mentions 10 head coaches and eight teams in nine months, because of overseas, NBA, and NBDL stops...)

Gasser got a triple-double on NU. (Did Will Sheehy of Indiana get one also? Sheehy was a lot like Gasser, though he was just looking for anything better, in his mind, when he chose IU.)

With Brust, I feel like NU actually cooled on him. He was an Iowa commit originally, then moved to Wisconsin after what must have been Lickliter's firing (Alford's? No, too long ago, I guess.)

 

[Walker Fan]

When I looked it up, I saw Ryan Boatright from UConn and Chasson Randle from Stanford as the 2011 H.S. Players of the Year and Wayne Blackshear as Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year in 2011. Anthony Davis who was the most highly rated player was not the Illinois Player of the Year. If you compare any of these players to Sobo, it is not a contest. Maybe the local Naperville paper or the Daily Herald (a suburban centered newspaper) had him as the player of the year runner up. But from a basketball standpoint those players had way more athleticism than Sobo, even though Blackshear's career has not lived up to the hype even though he has a national championship ring.

As for your shot about Collins being a coaching star. My evaluation of coaches goes like this: 1. Recruiting, 2. Player Development, 3. Strategy - both in game and being able to adjust to team's strengths and 4. Motivation - being able to keep team chemistry and attitude strong even through the inevitable ups and downs of a season. I believe Collins scores high on all those fronts and based on his basketball pedigree (background with his dad in NBA as Bulls' coach under Michael Jordan, Illinois H.S. Player of the Year - McDonald's All-American, experience playing and coaching at Duke who most would argue is the premier college basketball program over past 20-25 years with 4 national championships, coaching experience with NBA stars on the three Olympic teams) means he is a coaching star in my opinion. You may disagree, but I believe that will change in a couple of seasons or less.

 

[thewildcat2011]

NAME, SCHOOL, TOTAL, 1st, 2nd, 3rd[/B]Ryan Boatright, East Aurora, 257, 35, 23, 13Chasson Randle, Rock Island, 257, 35, 20, 22Wayne Blackshear, Morgan Park, 198, 15, 33, 24Anthony Davis, Perspectives-MSA, 120, 16, 10, 10David Sobolewski, Benet, 90, 10, 10, 10

TV and my memory wrong on this one. Sobo did finish behind AD, but was not "runner up" as they said.

This post was edited on 2/28 4:06 PM by thewildcat2011

 

[thewildcat2011]

Collins has the pedigree to be a coaching star. You can even call him a "rising star."

But you called him a legitimate coaching star as it stands right now. There's only one way you become a coaching star...you win games and you win a lot of them.

With a career record of under .500, he's not there yet. However, Coach K didn't have a winning record at Duke after 3 years either.

 

[mikewebb68]

Where was Kaminsky on this list?

Originally posted by thewildcat2011:



NAME, SCHOOL, TOTAL, 1st, 2nd, 3rd[/B]Ryan Boatright, East Aurora, 257, 35, 23, 13Chasson Randle, Rock Island, 257, 35, 20, 22Wayne Blackshear, Morgan Park, 198, 15, 33, 24Anthony Davis, Perspectives-MSA, 120, 16, 10, 10David Sobolewski, Benet, 90, 10, 10, 10

TV and my memory wrong on this one. Sobo did finish behind AD, but was not "runner up" as they said.

This post was edited on 2/28 4:06 PM by thewildcat2011

 

[thewildcat2011]

11th
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