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This Year In BasketBuffs - The Recruits

Which recruit are you most excited to see next season?

  • Wesley Gordon

    Votes: 3 5.4%

  • Chris Jenkins

    Votes: 3 5.4%

  • Xavier Johnson

    Votes: 24 42.9%

  • Josh Scott

    Votes: 23 41.1%

  • Eli Stalzer

    Votes: 2 3.6%

  • Xavier Talton

    Votes: 1 1.8%
  • Total voters
    56
Goose

Goose

Hoops Moderator
Club Member
Junta Member
Now that we've looked over the returning players for next year's team, it's time to see who the new players coming in are. In the history of Colorado basketball, the program has only brought in 3 McDonalds All-Americans. While this year's recruiting class doesn't have a McDonalds All-American, it's safe to say that Tad Boyle has brought in the best recruiting class in the history of the program. The Buffs have two consensus Top 100 players -- including the best Colorado prospect since Chauncey Billups -- and a third who is ranked just outside of the Top 100 on Scout.com.

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Wesley Gordon
Forward/Center
6'8"
220 lbs.
Sierra High School
Colorado Springs, CO

2012-13: Gordon is quite possibly one of the top 3 shot blockers in the nation in high school basketball. He has an uncanny ability to alter shots and should be able to step in and provide solid defense in the post for the Buffs next season. He's an impressive rebounder as well and should combine with Dre, Josh Scott and Xavier Johnson to provide a quartet of rebounding that will pick up every missed shot on the court. Offensively, he's a little raw, but should be able to finish if he gets the ball in the paint. He'll provide decent minutes off of the bench and help combat some of the size that caused the Buffs trouble in 2011-12.

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Chris Jenkins
Guard/Forward
6'6"
190 lbs.
Univ of Detroit Jesuit High School
Detroit, MI

2012-13: A pure scorer who was first team All-Michigan, Jenkins might be a candidate for a redshirt in his first season at Colorado. Overlooked by the local schools in a big city, Jenkins is more of a slasher than a shooter who could probably use a little more bulk on his frame -- and if that reminds you a bit of Alec Burks, you're not alone. Jenkins will be a hard worker, and if he continues to improve his shot, it wouldn't surprise anyone to see him in the rotation from day 1 for the Buffs.

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Xavier Johnson
Forward
6'7"
205 lbs.
Mater Dei High School
Santa Ana, CA

2012-13: Johnson is quite possibly the most exciting recruit that CU basketball has had in years. A freak athlete who can play tenacious defense and grab tons of rebounds, Johnson was named Orange County Player of the Year -- over top 100 recruits such as Katin Reinhardt and Gabe York. The biggest question with Johnson is his drive, but if Tad Boyle can harness it, XJ could be a candidate to go pro rather quickly, cutting his time in Boulder short. He is that good. He's expected to be the starting small forward from day one, and should provide double digit scoring from the start.

JOSH-SCOT150T.GIF

Josh Scott
Forward/Center
6'9"
225 lbs.
Lewis Palmer High School
Colorado Springs, CO

2012-13: The highest ranking recruit in CU's class and the highest ranking recruit in Colorado since Chauncey Billups, Josh Scott is the centerpiece of Tad Boyle's 2012 recruiting class. A big man who can use both his left and right hands to finish, Scott has the ability to step in from day one and contribute to the team while providing a low post presence that hasn't been seen in Boulder for years. This past summer, Scott was matched up against a top 5 recruit in Baylor's Isaac Austin. Scott proceded to score 43 points, grab 12 boards and block 7 shots. He's not afraid of contact and should be able to open up things for some of the guards by drawing double teams against overmatched opponents.

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Eli Stalzer
Guard
6'3"
200 lbs.
Mater Dei High School
Santa Ana, CA

2012-13: A pass-first PG in the mold of Nate Tomlinson, Eli can best be described as a game manager. It's hard to get an accurate gauge on Stalzer mainly because he was in a starting lineup with four Top 100 recruits at MDHS, but his coach absolutely raved about him. He's a terrific defender and someone who can hit the open 3 when necessary. Right now it appears that both he and Xavier Talton will be competing for a spot in the rotation for next season with the other one likely to redshirt.

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Xavier Talton
Guard
6'2"
185 lbs.
Sterling High School
Sterling, CO

2012-13: Talton is a recruit that, in my opinion, hasn't gotten the attention he deserves. He was named Colorado's Mr. 4A Basketball two seasons ago -- over both Josh Scott and Wesley Gordon. He has a solid all-around game as he can score, distribute to his teammates and will pull down an above average number of rebounds for a PG as well. He has a solid outside shot, but it'd be nice to see him improve it a little while at CU as well. Honestly, I think Talton is going to end up being a steal for the Buffs, but he might take a little longer to pay off than the other members of the class of 2012. He and Stalzer will be competing for a spot in the rotation, and it wouldn't surprise me if Talton redshirted this season before joining the rotation with a serious impact in 2013-14.
 
I said Wes Gordon mostly because I feel that he is a big question mark for me, Is he going to be a superstar? is he going to be a guy off the bench?

I think Scott will be a stud, Johnson will be a stud, and the other 3 will be role players their freshman year (but I could be suprized)

Gordon seems to have the physicalness to be a stud, and seems like he could fit in Tad's system very well, so I am really curious how he will preform?
 
This decision was really tough. Want to see what Jenkins looked like (he said his pull-up jumper was great and he is 6'7"). The kid just sounds like he can't wait to come in and work as hard as he can to be great. Then you have XJ who played on a great team and was their best player. An elite talent that we haven't seen in a long time. Then we have Gordon who plays amazing defense (like my boy Dre) and is a great rebounder. I had to settle on Scott, since I have never seen us have an elite big man and so excited to see how that changes our team.
 
Damm Boyle put together a hell of a class. Just reading the individual recruit threads I missed the forest for the trees. It is so ****ing awesome to be excited about CU basketball.
 
ElCunado said:
Goose, wasn't David Harrison a consensus top 20 player?
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There was a debate over that when we signed XJ (although I'm having a hard time finding it in his thread right now) because Scout was saying we had never signed a "Top 100" talent but this year we landed two. I think what ultimately was agreed was that Scout just wasn't ranking people when Harrison was a recruit. But he was a 5* recruit, I know that, so I would imagine he was top 20-25.
 
Goose said:
There was a debate over that when we signed XJ (although I'm having a hard time finding it in his thread right now) because Scout was saying we had never signed a "Top 100" talent but this year we landed two. I think what ultimately was agreed was that Scout just wasn't ranking people when Harrison was a recruit. But he was a 5* recruit, I know that, so I would imagine he was top 20-25.
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There was an article I just read that said that prior to this year we had 3 Top 100 recruits in our history. Chauncey Billups and David Harrison, plus Martice Moore (who came in as a transfer).

It goes to show how much recruiting matters. Before this season, the only times in the past 20 years we'd been in the tourney were with the Billups/Moore team and the Harrison team. I believe the highest rated guy on this year's roster was Spencer (Top 150 guy), so that's more evidence of the scouting and coaching job that Tad and his staff are doing.
 
Harrison was a McDonald's all american in 2001. He was ranked anywhere between 10 and 20 that year.
 
I saw Gordon and Scott in person near the end of the HS season and both are impressive. I didn't get our the measuring tape but I have heard from some good sources down here in the Springs that both are more like 6'9"- 6'10" than the shorter heights reported elsewhere and both may still have some growth left in them.


Looking at the profiles along with the rest of what has been posted on this site (and thanks to Goose for his great work on it) I am intrigued by Talon. You see all the recognition and the high ratings for the rest of the class and it is obvious that Boyle and his staff can bring in high quality recruits. They had options and yet went after Talon early and hard. I have not seen him play and know very little about him but in context to everyone else we are bringing in Tad must think that there is something very special there. He has been right in the past enough to make me very interested to see how this turns out.
 
Talton jumped out at me when I saw that Pepsi Center Colorado All-Star game on tv last year. I'd had my eye on him since last spring. I saw it as a great sign that, coming from a small HS program, his game elevated when he was playing with and against better talent.
 
I wonder what kinds of rotations we are going to see early on. Seems like all these freshman are very talented along with a lot of talent we already have on the team, I imagine it is going to be difficult to pair it down. Simular to what we saw early in the season last year, we may see a 10 man rotation in my opinion with only the strongest surviving.

This would definatly be a year that I would be interested to have Open practices, or some kind of Midnight maddness scrimmage. (Although I enjoyed what they have done the last two years, I am looking to see them play a bit more than they have)
 
MtnBuff said:
I saw Gordon and Scott in person near the end of the HS season and both are impressive. I didn't get our the measuring tape but I have heard from some good sources down here in the Springs that both are more like 6'9"- 6'10" than the shorter heights reported elsewhere and both may still have some growth left in them.


Looking at the profiles along with the rest of what has been posted on this site (and thanks to Goose for his great work on it) I am intrigued by Talon. You see all the recognition and the high ratings for the rest of the class and it is obvious that Boyle and his staff can bring in high quality recruits. They had options and yet went after Talon early and hard. I have not seen him play and know very little about him but in context to everyone else we are bringing in Tad must think that there is something very special there. He has been right in the past enough to make me very interested to see how this turns out.
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his last name is Talton.
 
I'm really hoping that the stories I'm hearing about Jenkins' ability to shoot are true. That's the one thing we really missed this year. We gotta have a guy who can light it up from beyond the arc to help keep us in games where our inside game is not producing.
 
sackman said:
I'm really hoping that the stories I'm hearing about Jenkins' ability to shoot are true. That's the one thing we really missed this year. We gotta have a guy who can light it up from beyond the arc to help keep us in games where our inside game is not producing.
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from what he said last night is he didn't take a lot of 3 point shots since his team kinda had him play out of position as like a 4 or 5. I am not sure what kind of range he has on his shot and he might be better at the 10 to 15 foot jumper than than 20 footer since that is where he plays in his offense.

Since we haven't seen him play yet we don't really know the speed of his shot or how fast he can square his shoulders to the basket.
 
tante said:
from what he said last night is he didn't take a lot of 3 point shots since his team kinda had him play out of position as like a 4 or 5. I am not sure what kind of range he has on his shot and he might be better at the 10 to 15 foot jumper than than 20 footer since that is where he plays in his offense.

Since we haven't seen him play yet we don't really know the speed of his shot or how fast he can square his shoulders to the basket.
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Mid-range is said to be his specialty, at least at this point. Could certainly develop into more of an outside shooter pretty quickly now that he'll have more of an opportunity to roam the perimeter
 
tante said:
from what he said last night is he didn't take a lot of 3 point shots since his team kinda had him play out of position as like a 4 or 5. I am not sure what kind of range he has on his shot and he might be better at the 10 to 15 foot jumper than than 20 footer since that is where he plays in his offense.

Since we haven't seen him play yet we don't really know the speed of his shot or how fast he can square his shoulders to the basket.
Click to expand...

This would help a lot as well. With the 3 point line a lot of teams seem to defend the paint and the 3 point line but are vulnerable to the mid-range shot, in part because it seems to be a bit of a lost art in the game. Someone who can consistently score from this range can do a lot to loosen up the middle of a defense.
 
I thought we were missing the mid-range more than the 3 pointer this season. We shot a pretty good percentage behind the arc.

Where we need to improve is to be able to get some points out of the low and high posts. Also, from the wing, Carlon's game really went to the next level when he went to the mid-range instead of every shot being either a 3 pointer or dunk attempt.
 
for the guys that listened last night did he say mid-range pull-up jumper or just mid-range jumper? A pull-up shooter would be nice to attack a zone if he can also do a dribble penetration, I think that was something that was missing from Burks arsenal. We already know that he finishes pretty good around the basket.
 
tante said:
for the guys that listened last night did he say mid-range pull-up jumper or just mid-range jumper? A pull-up shooter would be nice to attack a zone if he can also do a dribble penetration, I think that was something that was missing from Burks arsenal. We already know that he finishes pretty good around the basket.
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I'm not sure. I think I read that he came into high school under 6 feet tall and under 150 lbs. If true, I have to assume he learned the game as a guard. Most of what I have seen out of scouting reports, though, is more about him hitting mid-range jumpers as a step back from the post. That may be more about him having to play PF his junior year than it is about his natural skill set.
 
I know that Jenkins and XJ are coming in on June 4th to take classes and work out over the summer. Has anybody heard if the other 4 are coming in this summer?
 
jgisland said:
I know that Jenkins and XJ are coming in on June 4th to take classes and work out over the summer. Has anybody heard if the other 4 are coming in this summer?
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This is just a guess, but don't they have to be enrolled at some point this summer for the France trip?
 
the trip is in August, and this makes it sounds like all our recruits will be there. You want them there early in the summer so they can learn the offense and defense:

The Buffs have already signed five players to join the team for next season and "get their feet wet" in France: Wesley Gordon (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sierra HS), Chris Jenkins (Detroit, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit HS), Xavier Johnson (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS), Josh Scott (Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer HS), and Xavier Talton (Sterling, Colo./Sterling HS).​
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http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=205402891
 
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