Thomas Recruits -- Season 30
Thomas Dublin -- SF Needless to say, I'm shocked I got this guy. I'd love to know the full history. Division 1 player who played 23 minutes a game as a true freshman then was redshirted as a sophomore which I'm guessing is what turned the work ethic into a 1. Barely played as a sophomore and either transferred or was cut.
Dublin appeared on my list from the get go but I think he was a drop down to the list prestigious teams. There were very few junior transfers so I went after him. Had him locked up and as I already noted a day later somebody else wanted him. That guy quit on him but then another team jumped on board and another one did as well. I wasn't about to spend a lot of effort on a guy that wasn't any good so I was prepared to have him go somewhere else. But nobody else surpassed my efforts in that first cycle and he ended up signing with me.
As much as I have been bad mouthing him he actually has the potential to help out quite a bit. I have a void at the small forward position. And he actually has some skills in all the categories. He's worst is perimeter and even that is a 31. And while I don't think Dublin will ever be a good player he might help fill in the gaps. Additionally, Dublin has a very good defensive rating of 59 and with my zone that should help make up for some of the others that couldn't defend a man one on one if their life depended on it.
Dublin came to Thomas knowing the zone so I think he can be ok on the defensive end. He doesn't know the Flex and with that 1 WE I'm guessing he'll be a huge liability on the offensive one. I'd prefer he rarely see the court but we're a bit short of talent right now at Thomas so he probably will get quite a few minutes.
Richard Goulding -- SG Another transfer, Goulding is a sophomore. I haven't completely balanced by classes out yet but instead of having a 6 man freshman class, I'll just have 4 instead. Just like Dublin, Goulding has a work ethic of 1. He is a DIII transfer so I'm guessing that a promise or two wasn't met. He only played 2.5 minutes as a freshman. Or maybe he always was this lazy.
Goulding comes to Thomas knowing both the flex and the zone (at least at C- level) so it was a bit easier to swallow three seasons of this below average player. Goulding does have very good speed and athleticism and a very good passing rating as well. I really don't see him helping out much but like Dublin I'm hoping that when he's on the court he doesn't lose games.
With just two returning guards, Goulding should get a fair amount of playing time. I'm hoping he really doesn't see the court when he's a senior.
James Hively -- C Maybe the star of the recruiting class. Maybe not. He is redshirting so hopefully so. Hively has top notch athleticism (57) but unfortunately matches it with terrible speed (14). I don't have experience with a guy like this but I know Lasell sort of did a few seasons ago with David Lavender. He's #1 on the field goal percentage list for Lasell and #16 in all of DIII history. He also didn't shoot much. So I'm not actually sure he'll be a good player but I rolled the dice when most of my preferred options went elsewhere.
In addition to the great athleticism, Hively has solid rebounding and low post numbers that should be excellent after five seasons with the 63 work ethic. He doesn't shoot free throws well so I can't see him ever being a star. That's not good for what is probably the gem of the $24,000 recruiting class. After the redshirt, Hively will come off the bench for a season and then likely start for three seasons.
Charles Grafenstein -- C Panic signing. Can't say I like much about him although as I type this up he looks a bit better. As I noted with Hively, all my top targets went elsewhere. Nobody really slipped through the cracks and we were about 15 hours from the end when I went after Grafenstein. I never bothered to check if anybody better dropped after I signed him. I didn't want to know and there wasn't anybody explicitly on my radar.
I really didn't like signing a center that has only so-so speed and athleticism. I really don't like adding to that a pretty bad low post rating. But that said, he does have a decent work ethic, an excellent rebounding rate, and a very good defensive rating. (If you couldn't figure out with last season's two man class, I've given up on the abandon defense experiment. I'm not sure why considering how good I was defensively last year but I am changing strategy.)
It will be interesting to see if Grafenstein ever starts. Never good to sign a player that you say that about but that's what happens when you let a lot of good players go by in the hopes that the excellent ones are going to skip past the A+ programs. That didn't happen (which is why they are A+ programs) and that led to me settling for a guy like this.
Ralph Gray -- SG Gray is probably the most talented player in this recruit and probably deserves the redshirt. He didn't get it since the theme of this season's class is balance and I didn't want to have my classes get to be too heavy with post players in one and perimeter players in another. I'm guessing it won't happen but there is an outside chance I'll try and redshirt him after this season.
Gray brings great sped to the table and solid ratings in a bunch of other categories. But nothing besides the speed is anything special. With the 62 work ethic, those solid ratings probably could be special with a 5th year. As it is he should be a solid starter as an upperclassmen.
Gray is already a A- free throw shooter. With the WE what it is, I suspect he'll be at A+ by the time he's a starter.
Kenneth Lobb -- SG Seems fitting to finish with this guy. I threw out a phone call to Lobb at the beginning and when he indicated he might drop down I took another look at him and really didn't like what I saw. Needless to say he dropped pretty quick. I didn't want him so I waited for the better players. Then they started to go to other teams. And there were few and fewer players . More than a day after he dropped to me, I took the plunge on him. I'm slightly surprised a C- team didn't go after him in the meantime.
Lobb's work ethic is terrible (21). I can't imagine him ever being a good player but I'm hoping he can be a role player. Regrettably I already have one of those in this class -- and one is already probably too many. Lobb has very good speed and athleticism and a pretty good defensive rating as well. His guard skills are in the 34-42 range. Perfectly fine for a good work ethic player. Not so fine for this guy.
Lobb also has 20 rankings in low post and rebounding. On this year's team that will put him 3rd on the depth chart for SF. Not going to develop those skills however.
Summary
The point of this year's class was to achieve balance. I think I did that as best as possible. I inherited a lopsided team at Thomas and when I wasn't knowing better made it even worse. That led to a team five seasons ago that had four senior guards, a team a season later that had three senior post players, and last year's team of 6 seniors. I wanted that to change.
I think I did a pretty good job of that. Thomas will now have 2 seniors, 3 juniors, 2 sophomores, 4 freshmen, and a redshirt freshman. Not perfect but a lot better than what it was.
Of course, balance is great and all but it doesn't win games on the court. And I'm not happy with the quality of talent that I brought into Thomas. I'm not overly disappointed with anybody in particular. But at the same time I don't know if I'd rank this in my top 5 classes at Thomas. Given that at best I'd been recruiting in the past with B prestige and this time I had A- prestige, that's disappointing. I think there is enough talent in these players that I should be able to get to the NT when they are seniors. But I doubt they are good enough to win the conference.