AUHoops hopes everyone is enjoying their holiday season, and we'll be right here with you as the men's basketball team gives us the great present of a few more wins before the New Year.
Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Holidays,
Josh
Showing posts with label jordan borucki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jordan borucki. Show all posts
Friday, December 10, 2010
Sharing the Holiday Hoops Wishes
As a part of the AU community, we'd like to join in sharing AU's first-ever holiday video card with our readers. It's really impressive, and does a great job encapsulating all the things that make us great. Don't miss basketball players Vlad Moldoveanu, Jordan Borucki, and Wayne Simon II at the 00:24 mark, giving us their wish for an NCAA Tournament run this March. Hey, that's our wish too!
AUHoops hopes everyone is enjoying their holiday season, and we'll be right here with you as the men's basketball team gives us the great present of a few more wins before the New Year.
Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Holidays,
Josh
AUHoops hopes everyone is enjoying their holiday season, and we'll be right here with you as the men's basketball team gives us the great present of a few more wins before the New Year.
Pro Deo Et Patria and Happy Holidays,
Josh
Monday, December 21, 2009
We Played the Penn State Nittany Lions, Some GOOD, BAD, and UGLY Things Occurred. Supply Your Own Pith
Goooooooood evening AU fans! Well, no surprises here my friends, the Penn State Nittany Lions (by the way, what in the name of all that makes Jeff Jones angry is a Nittany Lion?) handed our AU Eagles their 10th loss of the season. Well, I shouldn't say no surprises. I was a little surprised that we were only down by 6 at the half. Let me tell you what I wasn't surprised by. I wasn't in the least surprised by the 15-1 run that PSU started the second half with. I was going to save this for Thursday's Open Letter to Jeff Jones, but I feel it can't wait, so let me give you a little sneak peak.
"Dear Jeff Jones,
I'm not sure exactly what you do or say to our Eagles at halftime that makes them come out EVERY SINGLE GAME sluggish and awful at the beginning of the second half, but for the love of all that makes you angry and profane, please stop doing it. Make them sit on the bench for halftime or something. Anything to keep them focused on the game, which is apparently the antithesis of whatever is going on in the locker room at halftime.
Love and kisses,
Barechested Bender Bill"
Oh, and JJ? Here's your dose of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY for the Penn State game.
"Dear Jeff Jones,
I'm not sure exactly what you do or say to our Eagles at halftime that makes them come out EVERY SINGLE GAME sluggish and awful at the beginning of the second half, but for the love of all that makes you angry and profane, please stop doing it. Make them sit on the bench for halftime or something. Anything to keep them focused on the game, which is apparently the antithesis of whatever is going on in the locker room at halftime.
Love and kisses,
Barechested Bender Bill"
Oh, and JJ? Here's your dose of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY for the Penn State game.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
When you lose by 27 to your city's powerhouse team but it's not quite as bad as you thought it would be, there's GOOD, BAD, and UGLY
Gooooooood evening AU hoops fans! Well, our fateful road swing has begun, and it has begun just as we expected, with a loss, 73-46 to Georgetown at the Verizon Center. To read the recap, go here, and to find the box score, go here. Honestly, the game wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. For the firat 8 mminutes or so we hung with the Hoyas pretty closely. We even had a lead! Don't believe me? Here's proof, in two forms!
First, from contributor Vidulicious (5-4):
And then from our own Josh (7-6):
If only the game had ended after the first seven minutes, we would've had the upset of the year! Alas, we had to play the remaining 33 minutes. It was filled with the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY. Stick with us and see what those elements were!
First, from contributor Vidulicious (5-4):
And then from our own Josh (7-6):
If only the game had ended after the first seven minutes, we would've had the upset of the year! Alas, we had to play the remaining 33 minutes. It was filled with the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY. Stick with us and see what those elements were!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
ZOMG Nine Guards? What is this "T-Pain Goes to the Club Night" at Bender Arena?
It's been a long day, so forgive the title. Or laugh at it. I did. Oh, speaking of T-Pain, if you haven't seen AutoTune the News, you must. So fantastic.
So I think it's fair to describe what we currently have right now as a glut of guards. Bringing in four different freshman guards isn't a bad idea given that three of the four of them are highly touted (and were sought after by other Patriot League teams) but it's going to be very interesting how the coaching staff balances all this new young talent (assuming they live up to the hype) against what experience actually is on the team.
I'm going to cheat a little bit here because I just wrote an entry about Jordan Borucki, and I still don't have a ton of information on him. So for what I do have, please see this entry, and I'll try to get you some more info pretty soon.
Moving on.
Let's get to know...Blake Jolivette
5'11", 170lb, St. Thomas High School, Houston, TX
One thing you can say about Blake Jolivette. The guy isn't discriminating about courts. Whether they be the kind you play basketball on or the kind I wind up in after leaving parties at the Berks, Blake likes them. Apparently he wants to be a lawyer and is really smart, given that he got 12 scholarship offers, some from Ivy League schools and two of the service academies. Impressive. He also turned down a scholarship offer from Holy Cross. That's not impressive, it's just smart.
Blake's rationale for winding up as an Eagle?
"I originally wanted to attend an Ivy League school because I have good grades, but they don’t offer athletic scholarships … I chose American because I was close with the coaches and they did a good job recruiting me. I like their philosophy pertaining to me and the fact that I will have a good chance to start my freshman year … and I really like the DC area because it is a perfect environment for law,” Blake said. Well how about that, told him he had a good chance to start eh? Tell that to the other eight guys, five of them with a year or more of experience. There's a pretty good reason for him to think he's got a good shot at starting though.
Rivals gives him two stars. ESPN grades him an 82 and says, "Jolivette has a good basketball body and is a strong lead guard. He has a good basketball IQ and takes care of the ball. He has the ability to run the team and is very steady...He makes excellent decisions in transition as well as in the half court and scores with his mid range game on dribble pull ups and slashes to the rim. He can keep the defense honest from behind the arc but his strength is running the team and finding the open man." Sounds like the skill set Mercer was so successful with for four years. At 5'11", he's got four inches on Mercer, now let's see if he's got anywhere close to Mercer's handle. If he lives up to the hype he could be the starting point guard by the end of the season, but he's got a lot of people to go through to get there, including junior Steve Luptak and also the guy behind door number two...
Let's get to know...Daniel Munoz
6'1", 175lb, St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Plantation, FL
Dan came remarkably close to being a Terrier up at Boston University. In fact, he committed to the university and would've been barking his little terrier tail (Dan, if you read this, seriously, think about it, you were going to be one of those dogs that snooty women carry around in dog purses, gross) up in Boston if it weren't for BU's coach Dennis Wolff becoming a member of the unwillingly jobless club. After Wolff was made to leave, Dan decided to decommit and signed with us. Munoz now becomes a key part of what could be a fantastically talented backcourt in a year or two, maybe better than Mercer/Carr. Munoz, according to AU Athletics' press release, was "named All-County by both the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald in his junior and senior seasons. He averaged 11.1 points and 7.0 assists per game in his senior year, helping to lead his team to a 17-8 record and a runner-up finish in the district." Jeff Jones offered him lofty praise saying, "Dan is a throwback, pass first-type player who makes everyone around him better. He's an extremely hard worker and a basketball junkie who will fit in well with our team and our incoming class."
That hard work is probably what helped turn him into a two-star Rivals recruit. ESPN gave him an 81 and said, "Munoz is a true point with a high basketball IQ. He is a fundamentally sound good athlete that is also gym rat. He is an excellent ball handler and passer that can find the open man when penetrating the lane or when running the half court offense. He does a great job of feeding the post as well. Munoz is an excellent decision maker in transition as well as in the half court. He can knock down the open jumper with range to the arc." My thought is that in a year or two the coaching staff tries to convert him to a solid-handling shooting guard since he seems to have, from the sound of it, better range than Blake. That hard work will serve him well I'm sure, though I don't know if being called a "gym rat" is a good thing. Should be a hell of a battle between Luptak, Jolivette, Munoz, and our last candidate...
Let's get to know...Josh Snodgrass
6'4", 220lb, P.K. Yonge High School, Gainesville, FL
Josh, yet another Rivals two-star recruit, got offers from six schools but ended up here at AU. I'm excited to have him because I think they could convert him to a solid 3-guy, which means that in two years you could potentially have the trio of Jolivette-Munoz-Snodgrass starting. That would be nasty. I'd put money on it now if gambling on sports wasn't so wrong (unless you're in Delaware or Las Vegas, in which case, track me down we'll get a wager going). Josh was named to the class 3A all-state first-team in Florida last year. That's just the beginning of a long list of accolades, though. Gainesville Sun Basketball Player of the Year. North Central Florida Class 3A player of the year. Hell, he finished third in class 3A Mr. Basketball voting behind Kenny Boynton (now at Florida, where Josh can give him hell in the game this season) and Brandon Knight (2009 Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year Award, ranked in the top 5 by Rivals, ESPN, and Scouts, Inc. in the NATION). Nah, Josh didn't do much in high school. Not much at all. Pffft.
Along with Jeff Holton he has the highest ESPN grade of the new recruits (an 83), and ESPN's analysis of him was short, sweet, and positive:
"Josh is a solid shooter with good size. He has range to 22 feet. He has solid strength and should have no problem adjusting to the college game. He can do a little off the dribble but is mostly a shooter and a scorer. He is a great get for American."
The Gainesville Sun offers their own analysis: "Quite possibly the area's best inside/outside offensive player, Snodgrass is comfortable behind the three-point line, driving to the basket or using his 6-5 frame to post up smaller guards or forwards. Similarly to Gantt, he worked diligently throughout his career to build his once-slender frame into one resembling a muscular college guard."
Impressive.
The best thing about having all this talent on the team is that they all have to play each other in practice. They'll only get better having high caliber competition.
I'm all about it. If things turn sour this year (and God I hope they don't) but if they do, you better believe we have a solid foundation to build on for the future. Good Lord. Great work by the coaching staff to bring in a fantastic new class of seven after losing seven to graduation last year. So exciting. Well, that's that, now you've met the freshmen. What do we think of the class now that we know about them? Leave your comments!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
So I think it's fair to describe what we currently have right now as a glut of guards. Bringing in four different freshman guards isn't a bad idea given that three of the four of them are highly touted (and were sought after by other Patriot League teams) but it's going to be very interesting how the coaching staff balances all this new young talent (assuming they live up to the hype) against what experience actually is on the team.
I'm going to cheat a little bit here because I just wrote an entry about Jordan Borucki, and I still don't have a ton of information on him. So for what I do have, please see this entry, and I'll try to get you some more info pretty soon.
Moving on.
Let's get to know...Blake Jolivette
5'11", 170lb, St. Thomas High School, Houston, TX
One thing you can say about Blake Jolivette. The guy isn't discriminating about courts. Whether they be the kind you play basketball on or the kind I wind up in after leaving parties at the Berks, Blake likes them. Apparently he wants to be a lawyer and is really smart, given that he got 12 scholarship offers, some from Ivy League schools and two of the service academies. Impressive. He also turned down a scholarship offer from Holy Cross. That's not impressive, it's just smart.
Blake's rationale for winding up as an Eagle?
"I originally wanted to attend an Ivy League school because I have good grades, but they don’t offer athletic scholarships … I chose American because I was close with the coaches and they did a good job recruiting me. I like their philosophy pertaining to me and the fact that I will have a good chance to start my freshman year … and I really like the DC area because it is a perfect environment for law,” Blake said. Well how about that, told him he had a good chance to start eh? Tell that to the other eight guys, five of them with a year or more of experience. There's a pretty good reason for him to think he's got a good shot at starting though.
Rivals gives him two stars. ESPN grades him an 82 and says, "Jolivette has a good basketball body and is a strong lead guard. He has a good basketball IQ and takes care of the ball. He has the ability to run the team and is very steady...He makes excellent decisions in transition as well as in the half court and scores with his mid range game on dribble pull ups and slashes to the rim. He can keep the defense honest from behind the arc but his strength is running the team and finding the open man." Sounds like the skill set Mercer was so successful with for four years. At 5'11", he's got four inches on Mercer, now let's see if he's got anywhere close to Mercer's handle. If he lives up to the hype he could be the starting point guard by the end of the season, but he's got a lot of people to go through to get there, including junior Steve Luptak and also the guy behind door number two...
Let's get to know...Daniel Munoz
6'1", 175lb, St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Plantation, FL
Dan came remarkably close to being a Terrier up at Boston University. In fact, he committed to the university and would've been barking his little terrier tail (Dan, if you read this, seriously, think about it, you were going to be one of those dogs that snooty women carry around in dog purses, gross) up in Boston if it weren't for BU's coach Dennis Wolff becoming a member of the unwillingly jobless club. After Wolff was made to leave, Dan decided to decommit and signed with us. Munoz now becomes a key part of what could be a fantastically talented backcourt in a year or two, maybe better than Mercer/Carr. Munoz, according to AU Athletics' press release, was "named All-County by both the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald in his junior and senior seasons. He averaged 11.1 points and 7.0 assists per game in his senior year, helping to lead his team to a 17-8 record and a runner-up finish in the district." Jeff Jones offered him lofty praise saying, "Dan is a throwback, pass first-type player who makes everyone around him better. He's an extremely hard worker and a basketball junkie who will fit in well with our team and our incoming class."
That hard work is probably what helped turn him into a two-star Rivals recruit. ESPN gave him an 81 and said, "Munoz is a true point with a high basketball IQ. He is a fundamentally sound good athlete that is also gym rat. He is an excellent ball handler and passer that can find the open man when penetrating the lane or when running the half court offense. He does a great job of feeding the post as well. Munoz is an excellent decision maker in transition as well as in the half court. He can knock down the open jumper with range to the arc." My thought is that in a year or two the coaching staff tries to convert him to a solid-handling shooting guard since he seems to have, from the sound of it, better range than Blake. That hard work will serve him well I'm sure, though I don't know if being called a "gym rat" is a good thing. Should be a hell of a battle between Luptak, Jolivette, Munoz, and our last candidate...
Let's get to know...Josh Snodgrass
6'4", 220lb, P.K. Yonge High School, Gainesville, FL
Josh, yet another Rivals two-star recruit, got offers from six schools but ended up here at AU. I'm excited to have him because I think they could convert him to a solid 3-guy, which means that in two years you could potentially have the trio of Jolivette-Munoz-Snodgrass starting. That would be nasty. I'd put money on it now if gambling on sports wasn't so wrong (unless you're in Delaware or Las Vegas, in which case, track me down we'll get a wager going). Josh was named to the class 3A all-state first-team in Florida last year. That's just the beginning of a long list of accolades, though. Gainesville Sun Basketball Player of the Year. North Central Florida Class 3A player of the year. Hell, he finished third in class 3A Mr. Basketball voting behind Kenny Boynton (now at Florida, where Josh can give him hell in the game this season) and Brandon Knight (2009 Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year Award, ranked in the top 5 by Rivals, ESPN, and Scouts, Inc. in the NATION). Nah, Josh didn't do much in high school. Not much at all. Pffft.
Along with Jeff Holton he has the highest ESPN grade of the new recruits (an 83), and ESPN's analysis of him was short, sweet, and positive:
"Josh is a solid shooter with good size. He has range to 22 feet. He has solid strength and should have no problem adjusting to the college game. He can do a little off the dribble but is mostly a shooter and a scorer. He is a great get for American."
The Gainesville Sun offers their own analysis: "Quite possibly the area's best inside/outside offensive player, Snodgrass is comfortable behind the three-point line, driving to the basket or using his 6-5 frame to post up smaller guards or forwards. Similarly to Gantt, he worked diligently throughout his career to build his once-slender frame into one resembling a muscular college guard."
Impressive.
The best thing about having all this talent on the team is that they all have to play each other in practice. They'll only get better having high caliber competition.
I'm all about it. If things turn sour this year (and God I hope they don't) but if they do, you better believe we have a solid foundation to build on for the future. Good Lord. Great work by the coaching staff to bring in a fantastic new class of seven after losing seven to graduation last year. So exciting. Well, that's that, now you've met the freshmen. What do we think of the class now that we know about them? Leave your comments!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Monday, September 14, 2009
A 16th Eagle? Are you kidding? Ah well, what's one more. Also, some other analysis. Watch me analyze!
Much to my surprise when checking the men's basketball roster, there was an unfamiliar name. This recruiting is all well and good, but they're going to start running out of those chairs with the nice AU logo on them sooner or later, and then they're going to have to go into Hughes and grab one of those dingy chairs that I spilled cranberry juice on all through my freshman year. You know the chairs I'm talking about, they smell like your grandmother's house if your grandmother really let herself go after having her fantasy football season crippled last year by Tom Brady's injury...but I digress.
Let me be the first American University basketball blog... Back up. Let me be the first American University website (since my friends at AUEagles.com haven't gotten a chance yet) to welcome Jordan Borucki as the newest American University Eagle. Details are sparse (read: non-existent) about how Jordan came to be on the team, but let me tell you everything I know about him. He's listed as a 6'3" 180lb. guard. Now, because I'm ignorant, I thought that would make him the tallest guard on the team, but it goes to show you that people who know relatively little can still operate in the blogosphere (see: Huffington Post). It turns out that freshman Josh Snodgrass and sophomore Simon McCormack (both 6'4") and Troy Brewer (6'5") all have more height than young Eagle padawan Jordan Borucki.
So how did he come to play at AU? Google reveals (and Facebook confirms) that he has played for both Venice Senior High School in Los Angeles and the Kent School in Connecticut. Though his coach at Kent did this blogger no favors by not entering any game stats (that I can find), the diligent team over at VSHS did. Borucki, in 12 games in the '07-'08 season, averaged 11.6 points, 1.9 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per game. Not shabby for a junior year effort, though that 25% 3-pt percentage on 5-20 shooting makes me wince a little bit. Maybe he improved on that at Kent, but then again, for a point guard he doesn't need to be the second coming of Garrison Carr.
Not sure exactly where Jeff Jones is going to play Borucki. I figure Luptak is going to start and be backed up by either McCormack or Joe Hill. Borucki will really have to impress the coaching staff to try to get even a couple of minutes, but he'll face stiff competition from the plethora of other freshmen guards: Snodgrass, Daniel Munoz, and Blake Jolivette (CORRECTION: Munoz and Jolivette are BOTH Rivals 2-star recruits in the Derrick Mercer archetype, yes I said it, now pray that one or both of them lives up to it).
The bad news for the huge freshmen recruiting class (seven of them!) is that I think they'll be very well acquainted with the bench by the end of the season. Either that, or they'll get quite a lot of playing time because the games won't be close enough to keep the starters in (which would be much worse than them not playing at all as far as I'm concerned). I couldn't even begin to accurately guess what the AU depth chart looks like right now, but hopefully I'll get a clearer picture soon.
One last note before I leave you all to mull this post is that I owe an apology tonight. This apology goes to Matthew Wilson. Why? Because I had it in my head that the team had no seniors, but au contraire, mon frère, there is a lone standard bearer for Class of 2010. I'm not sure where Wilson will fit into the lineup because Vlad the Impaler will definitely start at small forward once he becomes eligible (which my sources have informed me will be in time for the DePaul game). Wilson doesn't have the size to play at the 4 or 5 slots, and barring something bizarre, Hendra and Luptak will be the starting backcourt. Anyway, Matt Wilson, I'm glad you're here to be a senior. Make us all proud!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Let me be the first American University basketball blog... Back up. Let me be the first American University website (since my friends at AUEagles.com haven't gotten a chance yet) to welcome Jordan Borucki as the newest American University Eagle. Details are sparse (read: non-existent) about how Jordan came to be on the team, but let me tell you everything I know about him. He's listed as a 6'3" 180lb. guard. Now, because I'm ignorant, I thought that would make him the tallest guard on the team, but it goes to show you that people who know relatively little can still operate in the blogosphere (see: Huffington Post). It turns out that freshman Josh Snodgrass and sophomore Simon McCormack (both 6'4") and Troy Brewer (6'5") all have more height than young Eagle padawan Jordan Borucki.
So how did he come to play at AU? Google reveals (and Facebook confirms) that he has played for both Venice Senior High School in Los Angeles and the Kent School in Connecticut. Though his coach at Kent did this blogger no favors by not entering any game stats (that I can find), the diligent team over at VSHS did. Borucki, in 12 games in the '07-'08 season, averaged 11.6 points, 1.9 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per game. Not shabby for a junior year effort, though that 25% 3-pt percentage on 5-20 shooting makes me wince a little bit. Maybe he improved on that at Kent, but then again, for a point guard he doesn't need to be the second coming of Garrison Carr.
Not sure exactly where Jeff Jones is going to play Borucki. I figure Luptak is going to start and be backed up by either McCormack or Joe Hill. Borucki will really have to impress the coaching staff to try to get even a couple of minutes, but he'll face stiff competition from the plethora of other freshmen guards: Snodgrass, Daniel Munoz, and Blake Jolivette (CORRECTION: Munoz and Jolivette are BOTH Rivals 2-star recruits in the Derrick Mercer archetype, yes I said it, now pray that one or both of them lives up to it).
The bad news for the huge freshmen recruiting class (seven of them!) is that I think they'll be very well acquainted with the bench by the end of the season. Either that, or they'll get quite a lot of playing time because the games won't be close enough to keep the starters in (which would be much worse than them not playing at all as far as I'm concerned). I couldn't even begin to accurately guess what the AU depth chart looks like right now, but hopefully I'll get a clearer picture soon.
One last note before I leave you all to mull this post is that I owe an apology tonight. This apology goes to Matthew Wilson. Why? Because I had it in my head that the team had no seniors, but au contraire, mon frère, there is a lone standard bearer for Class of 2010. I'm not sure where Wilson will fit into the lineup because Vlad the Impaler will definitely start at small forward once he becomes eligible (which my sources have informed me will be in time for the DePaul game). Wilson doesn't have the size to play at the 4 or 5 slots, and barring something bizarre, Hendra and Luptak will be the starting backcourt. Anyway, Matt Wilson, I'm glad you're here to be a senior. Make us all proud!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
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