The Basketball Signing Period Starts Today

[mslacat]

Today is the first day of Regular (or Spring) signing period for Men's and women's basketball. This period will end around May 18th. Since the professionals do not want to cover it here is an amateur's preview.

The Men: The Bobcats will initially sign two athletes in the first day’s of the signing period, and then there could be a week or two before any other players or signed. Michel Swita a 7-0 commit from France, by way of North Idaho committed last December and he will sign. Swita was one of two major targets the Bobcat’s identified for the November signing period, visited last October, but put off his decision until after the early signing period. I heard last fall he was getting recruiting attention from Eastern Washington and Tulsa. Brad Huse is very high on the long term prospects for Swita who will have 3 years of eligibility for the Cats. Swita has been slowed by a bone bruise in his knee most of the season at North Idaho. The other signee should be Colt Idol a 6-3 guard from Whitefish Montana. Colt also committed last December, with a couple day’s of Swita. The Bobcat coaches really thought Colt a hidden gem in Montana and really tried to keep their recruitment of Colt under the radar until he committed. If they would have had there way, I do not think they would have had Colt announce his commit until April 15th. These are the players we know about.

The Cats are also looking to sign at least one more (possibly two) more athletes this fall. There initial needs would seem to be a point guard to replace James Hennessy; it seems they are looking at the best players possible right now. I think you will see a tiered approach to their recruiting, and they are taking their time. I believe they have only had 1 or two athletes in this spring so far and those athletes were high priority/ instant impact (high school) guy’s. I think they are going to see where they land with these players before bringing in the second tier if you will players. They also have a couple players who should just now be receiving ACT/SAT scores back. It could be a few weeks before thing shake out.


The Women: I believe the Women may sign two athletes this fall and get it done rather quickly. The one commit who we know is scheduled to sign in the first few day’s is Highwood’s 6-0 power forward Rachel Semansky who committed last January. Semansky is a big signee for Binford’s Bobcat’s because Semansky is another top notch Montana athlete to chose the Bobcat women’s team and help Binford chip away at the strangle hold the Lady Griz have had on recruiting Montana. Semansky is also important because she plays a position that the Cat’s will need help with and she has the talent to contribute next year. The second signee, if Binford does indeed fills up her 15 scholarships, should be a post player, and I have heard a rumour that that player could come from Washington.

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[duelalumnicat]

Mslacat, thanks for the update.....

[TIrwin24]

I'm excited to watch Swita play! He'll definitely be a presence in the paint

[Old Skool Cat]

I'm excited to watch Swita play! He'll definitely be a presence in the paint

Get outta here, you mean we're gonna have somebody actually taller than 6'9" to play center?!!

[TIrwin24]

I'm excited to watch Swita play! He'll definitely be a presence in the paint

Get outta here, you mean we're gonna have somebody actually taller than 6'9" to play center?!!

Crazy ain't it?!?

[mslacat]

I'm excited to watch Swita play! He'll definitely be a presence in the paint

Get outta here, you mean we're gonna have somebody actually taller than 6'9" to play center?!!

Having to to have the big 6-10 to 7-0 center in the Big Sky conference is highly over rated. I would rather have the athletic 6-8 or 6-9 post man who can move around in the post than the 7-0 lead footed big man. Remember this if they are 6-11 and Athletic chances are they will be playing in the Pac-10. Players like Al Beye hare VERY hard to find and most of the times Big Sky schools have to settle on one or the other. Take a look at the teams in the conference over the past 5-10 years who have won the league or dominated conference play how many of them have had the Big 6-11 guy. Off the top of my head I can not think of one, but I suppose there most likely one or two that have. Most of these teams have had smaller (6-7 to 6-9), but very skilled centers. The other thing they tend to have is over all good depth.

Just my thought.

[TIrwin24]

I am going to throw Yao Ming out here for this argument.

Everybody thought he was going to come to the NBA and be absolutely dominated. It did take him a season to get adjusted to the speed of the game but he was never dominated in his initial season.

I am hoping Swita will do the same thing for the Cats as Yao has done for the Rockets.

[LTown Cat]

I'm excited to watch Swita play! He'll definitely be a presence in the paint

Get outta here, you mean we're gonna have somebody actually taller than 6'9" to play center?!!

Having to to have the big 6-10 to 7-0 center in the Big Sky conference is highly over rated. I would rather have the athletic 6-8 or 6-9 post man who can move around in the post than the 7-0 lead footed big man. Remember this if they are 6-11 and Athletic chances are they will be playing in the Pac-10. Players like Al Beye hare VERY hard to find and most of the times Big Sky schools have to settle on one or the other. Take a look at the teams in the conference over the past 5-10 years who have won the league or dominated conference play how many of them have had the Big 6-11 guy. Off the top of my head I can not think of one, but I suppose there most likely one or two that have. Most of these teams have had smaller (6-7 to 6-9), but very skilled centers. The other thing they tend to have is over all good depth.

Just my thought.

I agree, hell I think it is overrated at any level. Look at the teams in the final 4. With the exception of UConn I don't think any of them started a center over 6-10. UNC did have Zeller who is a 7-footer, but he only played sparingly. Hansbrough is 6-10 and Thompson is 6-9. I think overall team size can have a much bigger impact than having a single 7-footer in the middle. That and of course athleticism helps. Our 1996 team was loaded with athletes and therefore succeeded. Wasn't Lollis the starting center at a generous 6-9?

[Old Skool Cat]

I'm not saying that being 7'0" necessarily means that you're good and going to make an impact. We've had some good smaller centers at 6'9" like Mbunga and Quadre. However, if you have a center at 6'11" or 7'0" who can hold his own and be somewhat good, that opens up more possibilities for the smaller man to take advantage of that power forward position. I look at Mbunga as a perfect example. Because the Cats had no one else to adequately fill in at center, we placed Mbunga there. Now while he did an effective job at shot-blocking and rebounding, we never were able to utilize his scoring abilities. Why not have a bigger guy at center that can do those things that Divaldo did, but let the more athletic Divaldo take the power forward spot and do his shot blocking and rebounding, but take advantage of also being able to post up against guys who might be smaller or less athletic, or even drive and score?

I guess I'm not asking for a Shaq or Kareem, because I understand that big men like that are going to play at higher levels. But I would like to see more emphasis on getting a BIG man to come in, do some things that the coaches ask, and open up possibilities for our more athletic guys.

[mslacat]

Lollis was listed at 6-7 and it was generous
Hansbrough was listed at 6-9 but was closer to 6-8

Don't get me wrong I would love to another Tryg Johnson, or Al beye, if given the choice between a Greg Walters (sorry Greg) or a Quadre Lollis, or Nate Holmquist I am going with the latter. In the program we Do have 6-10 Cody Anderson and the coaches are tickled to death with his progress but, I don't know if a kid that big (270lb) will ever be a 32 minutes a game player, maybe I am wrong. In today's game talent wins. A little shorter, and more talent beats bigger and less talented every time.

Getting back to Swita, what can anyone tell me about a bad bone bruise. Originally I heard Swita had a knee injury, and I thought it was an ACL kind of thing but now I hear it is was a very bad bone bruise in his knee. As I understand it, this type of injury is very painful and takes months to heal. That said it sounds like something that should heal up and not be a nagging injury, or re-injury type of thing.