S38 Recruiting Overview (Class of 42)

Thought I'd start this season out right and try writing some sort of preseason predictions for a rapidly improving Conference 16. While the top team St. Louis may not be able to repeat on three consecutive 23+ win seasons, this conference is definitely improving from the middle of the pack up.

Cinci, Peoria, Dayton, Youngstown, and St. Louis all landed decent to great classes and all seemingly have their programs on their way to contention. This makes things much harder in conference however, where many of the past easy victories may soon become very hard fought rivalry games.

Overview of Recruiting (From Best to Worst):

St. Louis Masqueraders: 2/3

Coming off there incredible run with the loss of there final pieces to there two class dynasty that lead them to a 67 game win streak, Coach JB was in need of some new talent that could come in and somewhat make up for the loss of three spectacular starters. While these guys definitely won't have the chemistry or experience to come in and right away replace the three SRs from last year, they may actually have very similar talent, which is very scary considering the guards St. Louis returns. Faustino Horn could very easily in time be a star for this team. If he can come in and right away be a solid low post scorer and not make to many mistakes this team is going to be on its way to another Conf 16 title. The other two frosh could well be starters for this team and with time, they could both grow up into real solid role players on what could be another St. Louis NTT champion squad.

Peoria War Eagles: 29/21

Peoria pulled in their second strong class over the last three years with this top 25 class of all mid sized players. It will be interesting to see where these guys fit into Coach Balla's lineup this year. With one definite solid scorer in Rafeal Mace (23ppg), Peoria has upgraded some on offense even with the loss of SG Jeremy Espinal. Mace would also fit nicely as the teams PG with his solid apg numbers. This could allow JR Drew Low to slide into the SG spot and maybe let the remaining to incoming Frosh fight over the SF spot. Both these guys seem capable of playing in the SF role and maybe even the PF slot if called upon, but that will be up to Coach Balla to decide.

Dayton Fightin Ags: 31/40

Dayton barely edges out both Youngstown and Cinci as the third overall combined rankings class. Dayton brings in two very nice guards in Wayne Carrol and Brandon Vaughn as well as a probabl career NA in Keegan Larson. Vaughn will be a four year starter at SG as he brings some potent scoring from his 26-1 HS team on which he scored nearly 22 a game. Dayton is hoping that his scoring will come close to replacing recently departed Cody Dollard's scoring. Carrol brings some very neat PG skills to a team that had an absolute abundance of TOs last year. Here's hoping he lives up to his talent and HS numbers and finds his niche as Dayton's PG this year so that I can play him along with SR Larry Graves who could move to SF this year.

Youngstown Jazz: 54/19

The Jazz bring in a very well rounded class to continue its revival started last year begun under new hot shot coach Ospete for whom the Youngstown Athletic Department spent an enormous amount to hire. This class adds some valuable hieght to this team, as any signs of a post player left after last years SRs departure. Two if not all three of these players could see significant time as starters for Youngstown this year. Hopefully Ospete can compliment this class and last years star FR John Williams with another solid class this cycle to continue in its revival. This team should come close matching the Youngstown team of 4 or 5 cycles ago that was so much fun to "watch".

Cincinatti Hitmen: 50/22

Cinci brings in its third straight top 50 class. Something that singnals the soon coming of a more than just fringe NTT team. Cinci landed two PG prospects and a solid looking post player. One of the Frosh will likely start at point this year as last year Cinci struggled with TO's. However this class fails to replace the lack of hieght and especially the loss of big time C Eric O'Connell who was a true force down low for all of the last four years. His massive presence will be missed until, hopefully next year, Cinci can find a low block player or two. This team does look on its way to building a solid team but I don't know if they can contend for any conference control this year. However, I have definitely seen Coach JBayer do some incredible things with his teams and seemingly put under talented teams in the right positions to make run after run to the NTT, so I am not gonna doubt the chance of this team doing some really good things this year.

The Rest of the Confernce:

Sioux City simpletons: 133/118- Landed a decent 6-10 guy and an ok looking guard, shouldn't get any worse but I don't know if they improved very much over last years 9-15 squad.

Milwaukee athletics: 97/93- A top 100 class is not bad for a bad CPU program. There is definitely a decent guard between those guys however they desperately needed hieght and didn't get any of real signifigance. Milwaukee shouldn't be that good this year again.

Pontiac D-stroyers: 200+- This doesn't help the perennial whipping boys of Conf 16. Nothing kills a program worse than an absolutely inactive human coach that somehow maintains control over his team. Maybe Coach Vidic will wake up from his longggg slumber or maybe the CPU will finally take Pontiac over.