Recruiting

[bbtds]

Here is a very good video interview with Peters about his decision. Peters would be a perfect fit for VU, and I think he would be the crucial piece to succeed Rowdy and assure at least a couple of Valpo visits to the NCAA tournament during his tenure at VU:

http://www.cinewsnow.com/sports/Washingtons-Alec-Peters-on-Recruiting-163485226.html

The interview of Alec Peters is from a Peoria TV station so that is why they talk about Illinois State as much as they do. This TV station also reaches Bloomington/Normal.

[covufan]

Isenbarger.  Has to be related to a name I remember from IU football, right?

Be careful ... you're showing your age!    His uncle John was on IU's last Rose Bowl team in '68.  Dad Phil was on IU's '81 National Championship basketball team.  Jack's a good player and better kid ... glad to see him doing so well.

Not really.  As a high school student I went to a few IU games, and was reading the records.  Isenbarger was all over the rushing records, at least until AT.  Forgot about the '81 team and his father.  If Jack were 6'8", I'm sure his recruiting would have been different!

[VU75]

Be careful ... you're showing your age

You would be showing your age if you recalled the "punt John punt, punt John punt" chant.

[covufan]

Be careful ... you're showing your age

You would be showing your age if you recalled the "punt John punt, punt John punt" chant.

I don't remember the chant or even hearing about it.  I take it the offense was Isenbarger left, Isenbarger right, Isenbarger up the middle, then punt.  The fans wanted Isenbarger to punt as well.

[zvillehaze]

Be careful ... you're showing your age

You would be showing your age if you recalled the "punt John punt, punt John punt" chant.

I don't remember the chant or even hearing about it.  I take it the offense was Isenbarger left, Isenbarger right, Isenbarger up the middle, then punt.  The fans wanted Isenbarger to punt as well.

I know John, but I'm a little too young to remember him at IU.  I'd never heard about the chant, but here's the story behind it.  (Sorry for getting off topic, but it's the summer!)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1080545/1/index.htm

[LaPorteAveApostle]

I'll be honest, Haze, I initially thought that was the most irrelevant link posted in a recruiting topic, but it was the funniest thing I've read in a while.  Thanks for that.

[justducky]

You would be showing your age if you recalled the "punt John punt, punt John punt" chant.

Since we are way off topic I wonder if VU75 can remember an Isenbarger quick-kick which was probably a call from the bench but buried maybe Purdue? in a big hole?  One of you old timers must have told me about it, otherwise I would have no recollection of the event. If memory serves me correctly I think John might have played maybe 5 years with the 49ers and may have done a little punting there also. 
If you guys get tired of talking IU football we could always switch to swimming or gymnastics because I don't think anybody is going to refocus on VU basketball until after the closing ceremonies.

[valpo64]

what does this have to do with Valpo b-ball recruiting??

[zvillehaze]

what does this have to do with Valpo b-ball recruiting??

Not a thing ... my apologies for wandering off track.

On the recruiting front, Alec Peters (Valpo offer) received an offer from Butler today. 

[valpopal]

 6'3 2013 PG/SG A.J. Riley reports he is transferring from Peoria Manual HS in Illinois to attend La Lumiere Prep in LaPorte, Indiana. Riley is a Rivals 3-star player who has received a number of offers already, including one from Creighton, and who I know has been under consideration by Valpo. Perhaps the near proximity to Valpo and strengthened academics at La Lumiere will convince Riley and the Valpo coaches that he will be a better fit at VU.

Apparently, he will be joining Jalen James at La Lumiere, who is a 6'2 2013 3-star PG with offers from places like Illinois, to create an all-star back court.

[mrvalpo]

I'm in Valpo vacationing and seeing a friend.

I saw Vashil Fernandez at the ARC working with some kids at a basketball camp (along with other VU players including Rowdy). His footwork looks much improved but his outside shot still needs lots of improvement. Although I do realize that most only expect him to rebound, block shots and make occasional put backs, it would be nice if he could hit the jumper.

[sectionee]

Not to many 6'10" guys have an outside jumper besides Kevin Love and KG.

[valpofan11]

I'm in Valpo vacationing and seeing a friend.

I saw Vashil Fernandez at the ARC working with some kids at a basketball camp (along with other VU players including Rowdy). His footwork looks much improved but his outside shot still needs lots of improvement. Although I do realize that most only expect him to rebound, block shots and make occasional put backs, it would be nice if he could hit the jumper.

I was at the VU camp this past week and Ryan Fazekas from Michigan City Marquette who is a 6'6 sophomore was at the ARC talking to Diebler, Gore, and Drew. Fazekas is a very good player who has more good things ahead of him at MCM. Fazekas also confirmed he is staying at MCM, and not returning to Chesterton, which had been spread through some rumors. Fazekas has only one offer so far and that is from VU.

[vuweathernerd]

Not to many 6'10" guys have an outside jumper besides Kevin Love and KG.

must be a kevin thing. durant can do it too.

[covufan]

what does this have to do with Valpo b-ball recruiting??

One of the recruits is named Isenbarger, whose father played IU basketball and uncle played IU football. 

[wh]

2013 potential recruit Alec Peters continues to build an impressive list of offers:


COLLEGE CHOICES
School   Interest   Offer   Visit   Recruited by
Albany   Medium   Offered   None   
Boston Coll.   Medium   Offered   None   
Butler   Medium   Offered   None   
Drake   Medium   Offered   None   
Green Bay   Medium   Offered   None   
Illinois St.   Medium   Offered   None   
IPFW   Medium   Offered   None   
Loyola Chicago   Medium   Offered   None   
Wis. Milwaukee   Medium   Offered   None   
Rice   Medium   Offered   None   
Saint Louis   Medium   Offered   None   
San Diego St.   Medium   Offered   None   
Southern Ill.   Medium   Offered   None   
Ill. Chicago   Medium   Offered   None   
Valparaiso   Medium   Offered   None   
W. Michigan   Medium   Offered   None   


I also read that Washington State offered him a couple of days ago.  As several posters have noted, he would make an excellent addition to an already very strong Crusader recruiting class.

[valpopal]

According to the NWI Times, VU recruit Nick Davidson's former Andrean teammate, center Josh James (6'9", 220 lbs), has decided to spend a year at prep school rather than attend St. Joseph's and has re-opened his recruiting for 2013:

"Former Andrean basketball standout and Times All-Area selection Josh James has reclassified and will not be attending St. Joseph's College to play basketball. The 6-foot-9 James is attending Quakerdale Prep School in New Providence, Iowa, and will now be considered a member of the class of 2013. He has re-opened recruiting immediately."

James was a 3.8 gpa student at Andrean, so he apparently is going to the prep school to work on preparing his game for a division I program rather than because of his grades. He was averaging more than 14 points and 8 rebounds per game alongside Davidson at Andrean. Perhaps a year of refinement and strengthening would make him someone to consider joining Davidson again for VU.

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/high-school/boys-basketball/maturity-faith-family-help-andrean-s-josh-james-endure/article_9e6ccbd5-d113-5c1f-ba56-7b3a8cbf817f.html

[wh]

Peters visiting BC:

Boston College Basketball: Wing Alec Peters Visiting Campus This Weekend
by Brian Favat on Aug 19, 2012 3:56 PM EDT in Boston College Basketball

Alec Peters, a 6-foot-7 power forward from Washington, Illinois, is on campus this weekend for his official visit. The wing plays for Washington High School (IL) and the Peoria Irish AAU team. Peters claims offers from over a dozen programs, including Butler, Loyola Chicago, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Rice, Saint Louis, San Diego State, Southern Illinois, Illinois-Chicago and Valparaiso.

The Chicago Sun-Times ranks Peters as the #10 local prospect in the Class of 2013.

Plain and simple, he's the best shooter in Illinois. Yes, he's limited athletically. But when you're 6-7, fundamentally sound with a good I.Q., crafty and can shoot the ball the way he does, you're a wanted man. He plays the game right and is a must-get recruit for any mid-major plus type program involved with him.

Donahue and the Eagles don't have anyone signed to the Class of 2013 just yet, but do have offers out to seven non-committed players -- Peters among them. The other non-committed players on BC's radar include SF Wayne Selden (Boston, MA), C Kennedy Meeks (Charlotte, NC), SG Sindarius Thornwell (Lancaster, SC), SF B.J. Johnson (Ardmore, PA), SG Sam Singer (Miami, FL) and PF Samuel Dingba (Salisbury, CT).

Barring any roster attrition, Boston College has 1-2 scholarship roster spots available for the 2013 recruiting class.

[IndyValpo]

Per the Indy Star...

Butler, Peters move on
Written by David Woods

It doesn't appear that Alec Peters, a 6-foot-8 wing from Washington, Ill., will become a Butler basketball player.

Peters' high school coach, Kevin Brown, said in an e-mail that Butler's offer "had some strings attached with it due to them needing 2013 scholarships for other positions." Translated, that means coach Brad Stevens is targeting guards now that two post players, Nolan Berry and Andrew Chrabascz, have committed to the Bulldogs.


Butler almost always has a surplus of guards, so it's possible the Peters situation could be revisited. For now, Butler is seemingly looking at the 2013 guards mentioned previously –5-foot-8 point Tahj Shamsid-Deen, Decatur, Ga.; 6-foot-1 Kyle Davis, Chicago, and 6-foot-2 Jaylon Tate, Chicago.

Peters played for the Peoria Irish summer team. He originally had mostly mid-major offers but is now attracting attention from high majors.  A Chicago blogger labeled him "the best pure shooter" in Illinois' 2013 class. He comes from the same high school as former Indiana University 3-point specialist Matt Roth.

Peters visited Boston College last weekend and has visits scheduled to Valparaiso, St. Louis and Illinois State. His high school coach said Peters turned down offers from Air Force, Utah and Washington State and has picked up interest from Tennessee and Missouri.

Of Peters, coach Brown wrote:

"Coach stevens was very honest with us and we all have a tremendous amout of respect for him. He is an incredible coach and person. At this time as much as he likes coach stevens and butler he is looking at his other options with immediate scholarships. I do not want to go into exact details with scholarship."

[valpopal]

I understand Peters is scheduled to officially visit VU again on the weekend of Sept. 15. He would be a perfect fit at Valpo.

[wh]

Per the Indy Star...

Butler, Peters move on
Written by David Woods

It doesn't appear that Alec Peters, a 6-foot-8 wing from Washington, Ill., will become a Butler basketball player.

Peters' high school coach, Kevin Brown, said in an e-mail that Butler's offer "had some strings attached with it due to them needing 2013 scholarships for other positions." Translated, that means coach Brad Stevens is targeting guards now that two post players, Nolan Berry and Andrew Chrabascz, have committed to the Bulldogs.


Butler almost always has a surplus of guards, so it's possible the Peters situation could be revisited. For now, Butler is seemingly looking at the 2013 guards mentioned previously –5-foot-8 point Tahj Shamsid-Deen, Decatur, Ga.; 6-foot-1 Kyle Davis, Chicago, and 6-foot-2 Jaylon Tate, Chicago.

Peters played for the Peoria Irish summer team. He originally had mostly mid-major offers but is now attracting attention from high majors.  A Chicago blogger labeled him "the best pure shooter" in Illinois' 2013 class. He comes from the same high school as former Indiana University 3-point specialist Matt Roth.

Peters visited Boston College last weekend and has visits scheduled to Valparaiso, St. Louis and Illinois State. His high school coach said Peters turned down offers from Air Force, Utah and Washington State and has picked up interest from Tennessee and Missouri.

Of Peters, coach Brown wrote:

"Coach stevens was very honest with us and we all have a tremendous amout of respect for him. He is an incredible coach and person. At this time as much as he likes coach stevens and butler he is looking at his other options with immediate scholarships. I do not want to go into exact details with scholarship."

This article tells "the rest of the story" but not the full story.  When Peters was offered at the end of July there were 2 scholarships available.  They were looking for one front court player and one back court.  Had Peters accepted then (which he didn't), he would be a Bulldog right now.  Instead, 4 days later another similar type player from RI accepted, which left Peters out in the cold.  Happens all the time- first come, first serve. 

I point this out because the article makes it sound like they made him some sort of conditional offer, which they did not.

[zvillehaze]

Per the Indy Star...

Butler, Peters move on
Written by David Woods

It doesn't appear that Alec Peters, a 6-foot-8 wing from Washington, Ill., will become a Butler basketball player.

Peters' high school coach, Kevin Brown, said in an e-mail that Butler's offer "had some strings attached with it due to them needing 2013 scholarships for other positions." Translated, that means coach Brad Stevens is targeting guards now that two post players, Nolan Berry and Andrew Chrabascz, have committed to the Bulldogs.


Butler almost always has a surplus of guards, so it's possible the Peters situation could be revisited. For now, Butler is seemingly looking at the 2013 guards mentioned previously –5-foot-8 point Tahj Shamsid-Deen, Decatur, Ga.; 6-foot-1 Kyle Davis, Chicago, and 6-foot-2 Jaylon Tate, Chicago.

Peters played for the Peoria Irish summer team. He originally had mostly mid-major offers but is now attracting attention from high majors.  A Chicago blogger labeled him "the best pure shooter" in Illinois' 2013 class. He comes from the same high school as former Indiana University 3-point specialist Matt Roth.

Peters visited Boston College last weekend and has visits scheduled to Valparaiso, St. Louis and Illinois State. His high school coach said Peters turned down offers from Air Force, Utah and Washington State and has picked up interest from Tennessee and Missouri.

Of Peters, coach Brown wrote:

"Coach stevens was very honest with us and we all have a tremendous amout of respect for him. He is an incredible coach and person. At this time as much as he likes coach stevens and butler he is looking at his other options with immediate scholarships. I do not want to go into exact details with scholarship."

This article tells "the rest of the story" but not the full story.  When Peters was offered at the end of July there were 2 scholarships available.  They were looking for one front court player and one back court.  Had Peters accepted then (which he didn't), he would be a Bulldog right now.  Instead, 4 days later another similar type player from RI accepted, which left Peters out in the cold.  Happens all the time- first come, first serve. 

I point this out because the article makes it sound like they made him some sort of conditional offer, which they did not.

Agree with wh ... kids know that offers may go away if other players accept first.

As for Peters, I've heard very good things about him and think he'd be a really nice player at Valpo.  I thought he would've been a good fit at Butler, but they just ran out of scholarships.  In one of his earlier interviews, he mentioned that he wanted to have a chance to play right away.  With Valpo graduating Broekhoff, KVW and others, there should be an opportunity to sell him on the chance for immediate playing time.  Good luck.

[lowposter]

Is it just me, or does it seem that Butler is really expanding their recruiting to a national level?  Granted they played in 2 NCAA championship games and that does open the doors to national recruiting, but Butler always had a ton of Indiana players on their team. 

Perhaps the move to a tougher conference is opening the doors for that level of player, but there sure wasnt anything wrong with the players they recruited.

Best of luck to them and if they are expanding their recruiting to more of a national level, this should open the door to more quality Indiana and Illinois players to VU and others.  Example is Alec Peters.

lowposter

[vu72]

Is it just me, or does it seem that Butler is really expanding their recruiting to a national level?  Granted they played in 2 NCAA championship games and that does open the doors to national recruiting, but Butler always had a ton of Indiana players on their team. 

Perhaps the move to a tougher conference is opening the doors for that level of player, but there sure wasnt anything wrong with the players they recruited.

Best of luck to them and if they are expanding their recruiting to more of a national level, this should open the door to more quality Indiana and Illinois players to VU and others.  Example is Alec Peters.

lowposter

They had a Florida kid on their roster now for a couple of years, but I understand your point.  Valpo certainly has recruited much further away than Butler with our international history, although Butler now has a kid from Australia as well, just not at the level of Rowdy.

I think the "breakthrough" recruiting wise may belong to Valpo in that we seem to now be able to attract kids locally or from Chicago which we have failed at previously.

[historyman]

Quote from: lowposter on Today at 05:47:46 AM

Is it just me, or does it seem that Butler is really expanding their recruiting to a national level?  Granted they played in 2 NCAA championship games and that does open the doors to national recruiting, but Butler always had a ton of Indiana players on their team. 

Perhaps the move to a tougher conference is opening the doors for that level of player, but there sure wasnt anything wrong with the players they recruited.

Best of luck to them and if they are expanding their recruiting to more of a national level, this should open the door to more quality Indiana and Illinois players to VU and others.  Example is Alec Peters.

lowposter

Maybe we should get a section just for Butler talk. I thought it was a good idea to purposefully try and limit the Butler talk since they left our conference. It is no more relevant to talk about Butler than it is to talk about Evansville or Notre Dame, both Div.1 schools in the state of Indiana, not run by the state,  who are not in the Horizon League, at least not yet.