| 1996 | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Jan | Feb | Mar | April |
05/31/97 - I was told that MSU signee Tyrus Boswell will go to Winchendon Prep School (Ma.). Why a Mass. Prep School I don't know. No matter, he will be a Bulldog the fall of 1998.
05/30/97 - According to a souce of mine, Memphis recruiting guru Keith Easterwood of WHBQ radio, said Miss State had a consensus top five basketball recruiting class. My source also said Keith is putting on a basketball all-star game in Memphis on June 7th at Shelby State CC. The main event will be at 8:00 p.m. which will feature many Midsouth high school stars, including MSU signees Tyrus Boswell, Tang Hamilton and Marckell Patterson. Hope some of you Memphis Bulldogs get a chance to go and see this game. Tell me what your impressions are. I'll pass it along to all the other Bulldog fans.
05/27/97 - It is official, MSU forward Terry Lawyer has signed with Gulf Coast CC. With Tyrus Boswell not meeting freshman eligibility requirements, MSU will now have 13 players on scholarship next season.
05/24/97 - Miss State's recruiting efforts were ranked the 6th best in the country by Recruiter's Handbook. According to RH, "Coach Richard Williams has shown with his recruiting this year that Mississippi State will be tough to beat in the future." RH has Tyrus Boswell rated 45th in the nation and Tang Hamilton 98th. Two of the Jucos, Detrick White and Oral Roberts, are rated 6th and 31st nationally.
05/09/97 - My mistake, Shannon Foreman, not Shannon Long, signed with Memphis.
05/09/97 - According to The Commercial Appeal, Shannon Long, a player Miss State recruited early in the recruiting process, signed with Memphis this week.
05/09/97 - Chris Albritton a small forward from Laurel, Mississippi, has quit the UAB basketball team to concentrate on his studies. He, supposedly, will transfer to Miss State to study engineering. Since he wants to concentrate on his studies, it would surprise me if he walked on, but you never know. Keep an eye out for him next basketball season.
05/09/97 - Clark Francis now has our basketball recruiting class up to 2nd in the country. However, if you take out Boswell and Gholar, both of whom will not qualify, we would be ranked 12th. Francis is an OK recruiting guru, but the one national recruiting guru I have the highest opinion of is Bob Gibbons. How he ranks our efforts will be fun to read. Remember, take all these rankings with a grain of salt. They are fun to read, but they are only opinions. As I have posted on my page once before, the best player evaluators are our coaches.
05/07/97 - According to recruiting guru Clark Francis, Miss State's basketball recruiting efforts are the 7th best in the nation. He does not include Oral Roberts in our class. If he did, we would have the second best class in the county, trailing only Iowa State. I have to agree with Rusty Hampton of The Clarion-Ledger, this is a heavenly class.
05/07/97 - I was looking back at one of the Dawgs' Bite issues prior to the start of the basketball season and I noticed this quote by Richard Williams:
"I think we have some players that with time, will be very good. I'm not sure we have a player in our freshman class who is going to be a great player-just a standout player. But we have some very good players. Horatio has the chance to be an all-league player, but he has to make some progress and there are some things he has to do better. I like the potential of this team. Now that potential might not be realized this year, it might be a year or two away. I don't know-I hope it is before this season is over."
Looks like Richard hit it right on the money, folks. How many days until basketball season? What the heck, I can hardly wait until all three seasons start; football, basketball and baseball. MSU sports is truly in an up-swing mode my friends.
05/05/97 - The info that follows is from the Sunday edition of The Clarion-Ledger, Rusty Hampton is the author:
The baseball team is approaching playoff time and coach Jackie Sherrill expects his football team to be much improved this fall. Bulldog fans, though, can't seem to quit talking about the men's basketball team.
Coach Richard Williams capped off what appears to be a heavenly recruiting class last week with the signing of Oral Roberts, a 6-7, 250-lb. forward from the Carribean island of St. Vicent's who played the last two years for Bossier Parish (La.) Community College.
For what it's worth, State's class should be ranked as one of the best in the Southeastern Conference by all the people who keep track of such things. Williams tries not to put much stock in the ratings -- he loves to point out that one of State's best plaeyrs ever, Darryl Wilson, was not highly ranked coming out of high school -- but he does think this class has great potential.
"We really helped ourselves in some areas where we needed it," Williams said.
Roberts, who is not related to the evangelist of the same name, is a power forward who can shoot from 18-20 feet. Williams said Roberts is similar to last year's leading scorer, Horatio Webster, except that he is a more explosive, quicker jumper.
Williams signed six players and has nine scholarship players returning. NCAA rules permit 13 scholarship players, meaning some subtraction must occur before school begins in August.
Here's the most logical scenario: Signee Tyrus Boswell of Mountain Brook (Ala.) High School doesn't qualify academically, and sophomore forward Terry Lawyer transfers.
Boswell has yet to make academic eligibility requirements. Williams said if Boswell doesn't qualify to come to State, he hopes Boswell will attend prep school instead of going to a junior college. Williams wouldn't comment on the possibility of Lawyer transferring.
05/04/97 - In the latest Purple & Gold, "the inside source for LSU sports", MSU signee Oral Roberts was mentioned as a possible LSU recruit. As we now know, they lost out to MSU, but I thought you would be interested in what they thought of him. They said "he is a legitimate low post threat....who can defend taller players by using his strength to keep them away from the basket. Roberts has a nice touch from outside, and he handles the ball well for a player his size. Roberts averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds per game." BTW, if any of you are interested in the Purple & Gold, you can find it in Biloxi (Bookland - Edgewater Plaza Mall and Edgewater Newsstand), Hattiesburg (Books-a-Million) and Jackson (Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million). They are also on the Internet at Purple & Gold. It never hurts to know what your competition is doing.
05/02/97 - According to someone who talked to Dontae' Jones recently, Dontae' will get his timing back while playing in the Los Angeles summer recreation league. A lot of NBA and CBA players play in this league. Dontae' also said he keeps in contact with Richard Williams, as well as with several of his former Bulldog teammates. He was very complimentary of everything about Miss State and his time there. He also said he has a three year contract with the New York Knicks and he looks forward to next year, when he is completely healed from his foot injury. He stays with former Bulldog Eric Dampier when the Knicks are in Indiana and vice versa when the Pacers are in New York.
05/01/97 - It looks like Tyrus Boswell will be heading to prep school next year and will be a Bulldog the year after. At least he will be a Bulldog, just a year later than we hoped. This news was emailed to me by someone who heard it on an AM radio station in Memphis.