Baylor's new PG finally committed!

S

SL Xpress

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And it's AJ Walton out of Arkansas.

Maybe he's a relative of the Walton family, and it's being done to tap financial resources to help bring John Wall on board.

Otherwise, it makes me think Baylor sees the writing on the...well...wall, when it comes to John Wall's recruitment.
 
In completely unrelated news, Dwon Clifton has been fired as head of player development at Baylor.





He hasn't really been fired yet.
 
Good guys as in Texas? None. Would you even want to get involved in that mess? In any case, I don't see Texas doing so. They recruited him at one time, but that was a long time ago, and many things have become apparent about John Wall's recruitment since then.

If I had to guess, I'd say another school got to the Word of God Academy high school coach, and that's mucking up the waters a bit. We'll see where John Wall ends up. Maybe it's to Baylor still, but this new development doesn't bode well for the Bear faithful, IMO.
 
SL express...... you are wrong about this. Walton means absolutely zero in terms of John Wall's recruitment.

Baylor is about to be a bit low on guards. Aaron Bruce just graduated and there are two seniors gone after this coming season--Henry Dugat and CJ Jerrells. And Tweety Carter will be a senior the season after that.

You are really jumping to conclusions if you assume that Baylor is only going to take one guard in the 2009 class. There will be at least 2 of them and possibly 3.

TC
 
We'll see.

AJ Walton was recruited hard by Arkansas for a long time as their starting PG. Now all of a sudden he commits to Baylor to be Wall's backup?

You call it jumping to conclusions. I call it analyzing the situation and offering my thoughts. There are rumors floating around out there that do not bode well for Wall to Baylor. Maybe nothing comes of it. Maybe he does end up at Baylor. Honestly, I've been rooting for Wall to end up at either Baylor or OSU because I'd love for him to play in the Big 12, the same way I was excited when KSU got Michael Beasley. I think it's terrific for the conference.

It would be ironic if after the Darrell Arthur screw up of getting friendly with the high school coach only to see the AAU coach drive the recruitment, if in this situation Baylor/Scott Drew did what it took to get the AAU Clifton brothers on board, only to see the HS coach mess things up.

But I'm rooting for you guys.
 
John Wall may come to Baylor or he may not. I honestly do not know at this point.

However, AJ Walton is a non-factor with Wall. I can promise you that 100%.........Not 99%, but 100%.

I have no idea what you are trying to say with the Darrel Arthur thing. I have no idea how that could be relevant here. Sounds like you are taking a cheap shot at Baylor. Perhaps you think that the BU staff was unaware of Jazzy's influence in that situation? They knew. Baylor worked with everyone connected to DA...... his HS coach, the AAU coach, his family, you name it. The relationship that the Baylor coaches developed with the high school coach is not what caused Arthur to turn down Baylor, if that is what you are trying to say.

Anyway, I do not see why you would want to bring that up or how it applies here. Different people, different situation, different time, different everything.

TC
 
Well, let me spell it out to you, then.

First of all, accepting the commitment of another point guard --- a quality point guard who is good enough to start for the vast majority of Div I basketball programs --- is completely relevant to the John Wall situation as far as I'm concerned. I can't help it if you're either unwilling or unable to grasp the obvious, but AJ Walton is not going to the same school John Wall is unless it's some kind of Eric Dickerson/Craig James deal, any more than Raymond Penn will be at OSU if John Wall ends up there.

The irony with Darrel Arthur is exactly what I said it was. Baylor was (and is) in tight with the South Oak Cliff head coach. Read into that what you want. I don't have a high opinion of James Mays and his ethical standards, and I don't think Baylor and Scott Drew's association with him have been entirely on the up and up, but I don't have any cleared checks to show you, either. I will say that James Mays ethical standards are a matter of public record, and he's been stripped of a few state titles because of it.

I'm not trying to say Arthur didn't choose Baylor because of Baylor's relationship with James Mays. I'm saying Arthur almost chose Baylor --- hell, he did choose Baylor --- but before he could make his announcement, Jazzy Hartwell cancelled the press conference to helpfully induce Arthur's famous dream.

Whatever Baylor's awareness of Jazzy's influence, they didn't work Jazzy as well as KU did, while KU didn't work James Mays as well as Baylor did. In the end, Jazzy won out in that recruitment.

So here we are with John Wall, who by every indication has had his recruitment run by the Cliftons for a couple of years now. Baylor won the bidding war for Dwon Clifton, which was supposed to deliver John Wall, but now there are all kinds of rumors out there that the Word of God high school coach is mucking up things by convincing the Mom the Cliftons do not have her son's interests first in their mind --- plus, John Wall apparently is not completely enamored with the idea of playing for Baylor, Clifton or not Clifton.

As I said before, the irony is Baylor did win out on the AAU front, but apparently is losing out on the high school front --- the exact opposite of what happened with Darrel Arthur.

I have no idea why I have to spell it out to you so blatantly, but there it is. You can read into that anything you want --- you're certainly proving yourself capable of it.

Like I said, I hope John Wall ends up in the Big 12. I'm just glad Texas isn't involved in this circus --- just like I was glad Texas never became engaged in the Darrel Arthur circus. It's highly entertaining for me to follow as an interested third party observer. It would be pretty gut wrenching for me to follow as a fan. Good luck with it.
 
This situation is identical to the Shawn Williams/Jordan Hamilton situation. Walton has been a Baylor lean for nearly a year now and had come close to pulling the trigger several times prior to yesterday, much like everyone in the world knew Williams was a huge UT lean prior to his commitment. UT didn't take Williams' commit b/c they knew they weren't getting Hamilton. Williams' commit has nothing to do with Hamilton and in fact Hamilton is still in all likelihood headed to UT. The same goes for Wall. Baylor was always looking to sign more than 1 PG in 2009 and Walton's commitment has nothing to do with Wall, who in all likelihood is still coming to Baylor.

As TC said, Baylor insiders have known Walton was headed to Baylor for a long time and Wall to Baylor is still most likely going to happen.
 
Baylor is the one that has been holding off on taking Walton, but Arkansas and Kentucky were closing fast. It was a matter of taking him now, or risk losing him to Pelphrey or Gillispie.

The rumblings regarding Wall are irrespective of Walton committing. At the same time, it's my opinion if Baylor had Wall in tow they wouldn't be taking Walton, and Walton wouldn't be coming.

If both Wall and Walton end up signing with Baylor, then I'll admit I was wrong. We'll wait and see.
 
And now Baylor is bringing in a freshman PG transfer from a major conference program.

Yeah, but none of this has anything to do with what's going on with John Wall. Riiiiiiiight.
 
Walton is a very good prospect, but he isn't in the same stratosphere as Wall and is likely at least a 3 year college guy.

Walton likes BU, and I think he'd still be coming even with Wall. Wall will be a scorer at BU, Walton isn't.
 
The rumblings regarding Wall are irrespective of Walton committing. At the same time, it's my opinion if Baylor had Wall in tow they wouldn't be taking Walton, and Walton wouldn't be coming.

Look at the Baylor depth chart. Point guard is about to be the thinnest area on the team unless action is taken now. Aaron Bruce is already gone. Dugat and Jerrells will both be gone 7 months from now(before Walton or Wall could even set foot in class). Tweety Carter will be a graduating senior the following year. At that point, who's left at PG? Nobody. Unless Baylor makes a move to replenish the backcourt right now then the program will be running low on guards(particularly point guard).

Baylor needs a point guard of the future. Wall cannot be counted on for that because he might not come at all or even if he does come he is expected to leave immediately after his first year.

TC
 
So the bu boys are saying Walton would rather back up Wall his first year rather than start for Arkansas? Hmmm......I mean, I know Arkansas is no Baylor, but that does seem weird. Waco is a beautiful town I suppose.
 
SL,

In Baylor's offense, exactly who is the point guard and what role does he play?

Reality is that in a more traditional offense, yes, having 2 PG's of this caliber doesn't work, but in Baylor's offense which features guards galore on the perimeter attempting to penetrate, no biggie.

If you look at Baylor's team these past few seasons, there is nobody who fits the traditional mold of "PG" in the sense that they are looking, initiate the offense, involve their teammates and pass before scoring. If you look at BU's roster, although there are all a bunch of guards capable of knocking down shots, the only guy that could have played a more traditional SG role was Aaron Bruce and his value diminished on the Baylor roster over time.

I get the point you're trying to make, I just don't think it applies here b/c I think in recruiting guards, Drew is just looking for agressive scorers.

I would be worried though, if I were a post player. In the 09-10 season Baylor is likely to have A. Jones, Lace Dun, Tweety Carter, AJ Walton, Kendall Wright and John Wall on the roster. Where the hell are the touches for the post players going to come out of?

I hate to say it, but it seems like Baylor is building a Duke type roster...
 
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What's the problem with a Duke type roster?

Name the last relevant post player to come out of Duke.

Boozer in 2002 (who had such an inspiring career in the Duke system that he fell to the 2nd round).
 
Nobody said it was a problem. Don't take this the wrong way, but I think alot of the Duke players were above average in intelligence. We don't know that about your Baylor Bears.
 
Name the last relevant post player to come out of Duke.

Shelden Williams graduated from Duke in 2006. Would you consider him to be "relevant"?

- NBA first round draft pick in 2006(fifth overall)
- NBA rookie of the month(April 2007)
- First team college all american 2006
- 2006 Wooden award finalist(national player of the year)
- Set all time school records for blocks and rebounds
- Two time national defensive player of the year in college
- Third player in NCAA history to score 1500 points, grab 1000 rebounds, block 350 shots, and pick up 150 steals.
 
Off topic, but I would unequivocally offer a scholarship to any zygote produced by Shelden Williams and Candace Parker.
 
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