xTitan wrote:You beat me to it! Mike what can you tell us about Diamond??? Hopefully he is not to rough
..that was bad. I believe UW has 1 schollie left for 09, some kid from Minnesota already committed and what I understand he is a bit of a project. I also heard that the Wilson kid from Racine won't commit until 1 year from today, thats a long time to wait, does UW have a chance for him? I also caught some of the Eau Claire/Tosa East game last night and that Soph Evan Anderson is going to be a beast....any word on him yet?
Here is some info on Diamond Taylor. This comes from over the past summer when Diamond first started to really make headway up the rankings. It's written by Joe Henricksen, who has been covering Illinois High School basketball with the Suburban Hoops Report for 13 years.
There will be people out there that may call it ludicrous, but the Hoops Report now believes Taylor is, along with Bertrand, one of the two best college prospects in the Class of 2009. This is a kid some people don't even have in their top 10 in the class of 2009. After watching Taylor for two days at the Illinois Satellite Camp at Moody Bible Institute, Taylor showed he is without question the most complete scorer in the junior class. He has a beautiful stroke and rotation on his shot from three-point range, has already developed a mid-range game with a nice pull-up jumper for a prospect with his amount of experience and, despite his slight build, he's not afraid to take it to the basket.
While his slender frame and overall lack of strength is still clearly his biggest drawback and often prevents him from finishing around the basket consistently, his scoring mentality and capabilities are so far above and beyond the other top players in this class. He still has work to do and he knows it, whether it be improving as a ballhandler, getting a stronger off-hand or adding weight and strength. Nonetheless, Taylor, who played minor minutes off the bench for St. Joe's last season, will be a coveted high-major prospect after playing this summer with Mike Mullins' Illinois Wolves and Gene Pingatore's young St. Joseph team.
Following tournaments over the past holiday season (i.e. more recent), this was Joe's updated list of the top prospects in Illinois. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 are Illinois commits. Bertrand, 2, was a major UW target.
1. Brandon Paul, 6-4, 2G, Gurnee (Warren)
2. Joseph Bertrand, 6-5, 2G/WF, Sterling
3. Diamond Taylor, 6-3, 2G, Westchester (St. Joseph)
4. D.J. Richardson, 6-3, PG/2G, Peoria (Central)
5. Jack Cooley, 6-8, PF, Glenview (Glenbrook South)
6. Chris Colvin, 6-2, PG, Chicago (Whitney Young)
7. Jordan Prosser, 6-8, PF, Eureka
8. Dyricus Simms-Edwards, 6-1, PG, Washington
9. Michael Haynes, 6-6, WF/PF, Chicago (Washington)
10. Marcus Jordan, 6-2, 2G, Chicago (Whitney Young)
11. Darius Smith, 6-2, PG, Chicago (Marshall)
12. Nik Garcia, 6-5, 2G, Skokie (Niles West)
13. Kyle Rowley, 6-11, C, Lake Forest (Academy)
I went down through number 13 for a reason. It's largely believed that Rowley is shooting up Illinois Prep lists because of his size and work ethic. Most reports I've read maintain that he's still very raw, though. He does have UW interest.
Finding info on Diamond can be a real pain in the ass. All recruiting services have had a hard time getting a hold of him, and it's been hard to get a hold of his stats. I would assume he wants to stay away from it all, which I wholeheartedly respect, but it makes armchair analysis a bit more difficult.
I've always taken a liking to Diamond, mostly because his legendary coach (Gene Pingatore) speaks so highly of him. He doesn't tout his kids up needlessly either - the ones he praises have generally become solid-to-great players for power conference teams. Evan Turner, who considered Wisconsin before choosing Ohio State, comes from the same school. Before the season he sort-of appointed Diamond as the guy that needed to step up and take control of the team.
Reports I've read say it's been a learning process so far. He still has development to do in many areas, mainly gaining strength as he really is a scrawny kid. At 6'3/6'4, 160 pounds is pretty slight. That said, it has been said that he has been trying to bulk up in preparation for college play, and I would assume he has gained weight since I last saw the numbers. 160 is probably a low estimate now.
He's quick and athletic. He has the tools to be great on perimeter defense, but as said he really needs to gain the proper strength to pair with lateral quickness. But he's able to apply his quickness when driving to the hoop, which it sounds as if he does quite well despite underdeveloped ball skills. IIRC, I believe he was going to be taking on more point guard duties this year (though not total PG responsibilities). In the past that has not been the case and he has been more of a pure 2-guard. But make no mistake about it, by all accounts I've read he has a complete scorers mentality. Good shot from deep, has developed it midrange, and able to finish at the hoop. It sounds as if he'll best be able to flourish when kept in that role.
He has habitually gotten compared to Devin because of the way he plays and the interest he has always had in Wisconsin. We have long been his leader, even before Illinois obtain commits from the other in-state players (meaning it was no longer an option for Diamond). I saw this commit as an eventual inevitability, to be honest. I'm glad he pulled the trigger when he did, but with one more scholly likely left for the 2009 class (and as they continue to pursue another 2008 swingman), it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. If Williams gets his grades in check and wants to come to Wisconsin, I have a hard time believing Bo would say no in order to wait it out on Jamil for another year. Because if Wilson ends up going to Marquette like many believe, we're left out to dry. That's very late in the game to be searching for another major contributer. Best not to do that two years in a row.
Moving to 2010, it's largely believed that we are Anderson's favorites at this point, and he has expressed his desire to make an announcement before his Junior season. It would be a good start to the 2010 class, which I also want to eventually add Vander Blue to. I hope to catch more of the tournament today to see some of these guys for myself. At this point I haven't heard much great praise for Evan despite the high rankings, but it seems to largely be a ranking based on potential more than anything else. I think it's likely he just needs to add strength, and take more control of the team when he becomes an upperclassmen.
