MT / WY All-Star Boys (Round 1)

Last night the Wyoming and Montana All-Start laced it up it their first games. In the boy’s game it really was not much of a game. The game started out a little slow at the beginning of the first quarter but then the Montana boy’s got it going. the Montana coaches went with a troupe substitution pattern, subbing in five players at a time. The starting line up (Brumwell, Pierson, Stulc, Miller and Overstreet) seemed to be the more effective line up the first half playing better as a unit and letting the game come to them. the second unit (if you can call it that) seemed to be trying to hard to pound the ball into Huestis and Muller really seemed to be hoisting up a lot of forced shots.

By the second half though both units were playing much better all around ball, and the coaches seem to switch up the line up much better. With Brumwell, Huestis and Pierson shutting down the interior Wyoming went to the perimeter hoisting up a load of 3 point range shots but simply could not hit them.

It was a dominating performance by the Montana boy’s, and by late in the third quarter it really got to be rat ball. The team also started to get a little chippy and there were a few “hard fouls” that really hurt the enjoyment of the game at least by me.

The teams now return to Billing tonight for the second game in the serious, and it should be interesting to see how both teams react to Friday’s blow out. In the early 1990’s a Montana team routed Wyoming by 66 points in Casper only to lose to Wyoming in Billings. Word on the street back then was that the Montana boys got too confident, and the Wyoming boy’s got pissed. This is actually a pretty talented Wyoming team with some great shooters, and if they shoot the ball better in Billings it they could turn the tables.

Montana-Wyoming All-Star 2010: Montana Boy’s

The Midland Roundtable has announced their Montana rosters for he annual Montana versus Wyoming All Star games that will be played on June 11 in Sheridan, Wyoming and June 12 at Rocky Mountain College in Billings. The men’s All star series dates back to 1997.

This years boy’s roster features one major star in Stanford bound Josh Huestis of CMR high school. The roster, though, is one of the deepest and most balanced, in quality talent, that the series has seen in a few years with 5-6 other players who got, or are getting, serious looks from some D-1 schools. Matt Miller was offered by a number of D-1 schools in basketball before signing with Boise State for football, while Blake Brumwell signed with Montana State last fall while. I have also heard that Overstreet, Pearson, Stulc, and Muller have or were given serious looks from D-1 clubs.

Scoring will not be a problem with this team with Overstreet, Muller, Stulc, Brumwell, Huestis and Pearson having put up 25 points or greater multiple times this past season. Additionally Brumwell, Pearson and Huestis each averaged double digits rebounds this past season, with Stulc and Miller not that far behind them. The Montana team will have great perimeter scorers, as well as strong physical inside presence. With this much quality balanced talent this team will be difficult to defend.

Signing day Odds and ends

I really have not done an odds and ends post in quite some time, mainly because I have not been coming across enough little pieces of info that would warrant a whole column, but here is one.

• I forgot to mention that a few other Montana high school athletes should be signing letter of intents with Division teams today, Namely Josh Huestis with the Stanford men’s program and Jordan Phau with Weber State women’s program. If I have missed someone please let me know.

• To my surprise Libby’s 6-1 forward Jackie Mee will not sign with a d-1 team this fall. In my humble (and sometime wrong) opinion she is at least as talented as some of the Montana women who will be signing today. Before I get hate mail this is not a knock on any one, but an acknowledgment that Mee is a very good player.

• There was a nice article on Bobcat recruit /Signee Casey Trujeque and two other of his Price high school teammates were featured in a LA Times article yesterday. The main thrust of the article was about how tiny Price high school will have three players signing letters of intent today with Division 1 schools. One thing to remember though, while Price has a student population of about 100, for some odd reason a lot of the better high school students in the area seem to find themselves at Price high school. Imagine that!

For the record: Price’s, Richard Solomon and Allen Crabbe will sign with California and Casey Trujeque will sign with Montana State.

Go here to read the whole article.

More on Josh Huestis’s commit to Stanford

News of Josh Huestis’s commit to Stanford is all over the net today, being reported by Rivals, Scout, ESPN and countless other web sites and it should spread further as the day continues. While the local Palo Alto papers have some short blurbs about Josh’s signing I have not seen any from the local papers, but again they should come later today or tomorrow.

ESPN had a nice short little article on Josh’s signing that I thought was the best of what I have read so far. ESPN also gives Josh a rating of 90. Although I am look forward to see what the Great Fall Tribune has to write on the subject, and hopefully also get a few nice quotes from Josh.

Here is what ESPN had to say”

 

Josh Huestis to Stanford

It is being reported on Scout.com that Josh Huestis has committed to Stanford University of the Pac-10 conference. It appears it came down to Stanford or Harvard. When I have more info I will post it.

ESPN: Huestis top 4 Harvard, Stanford, Montana and Montana State

According to an article in ESPN this afternoon CMR’s Josh Huestis lists 4 Harvard, Stanford, Montana and Montana State, although it states that Harvard and Stanford are in the clear lead. Here is what he had to say about Harvard and Stanford:

Harvard: “I visited three weeks ago and found it different than I ever imagined. I was expecting rich, spoiled kids but came away with a different view. The players are regular guys, really cool with high intelligence. I guess that stereotype was off.”

Stanford: “Coming from Montana, you can’t beat the weather there. I met a lot of special people. I also met a friend, Joslyn Tinkle from Big Sky in Missoula [Mont.], who plays for the women’s team. Joslyn was a McDonald’s All-American [the first from Montana] and feels it has the best of both worlds.

The article also said that neither Harvard nor Stanford can officially offer Huestis until he is cleared by each schools rigorous admissions department. That said according to source who posted earlier today on my site Huestis received admissions acceptance to Harvard yesterday. I believe this is a solid source.

Josh Huestis Update 10-22-09

Since it has been a while since I have done an update on Great Falls, CMR’s high school player 6-7 Josh Huestis basketball recruiting by passing along a few rumors that I have been hearing.

It appears that he recently took an official visit to Stanford to go along with trips previously to Harvard, and Southern California University. I am hearing he is now considering whether to take any other trips, with Georgetown and Arizona State being a couple schools I am hearing may be under consideration.

Eric Bossi a recruiting analyst for Scout.com recently had an interview with Huestis about his trip to Stanford

“For now I’m done,” said Huestis when asked if he had any more visits planned. “I don’t have any more set up. I don’t know if I’ll continue taking visits or if I’m done, I’ll still have to talk to my family and make a decision.”

“When I went to Stanford I got to see a lot more because they had started official practices,” Huestis told The Bootleg. “So I was able to watch a whole practice and see how they run things. I got to see Coach Dawkins in action which was great.”

“It’s a beautiful place,” said Huestis. “There definitely aren’t many college campuses that beautiful.

More Huestis updates

In the last week Josh Huestis has been featured in a couple Rivals.com sites. The first was by Chad Groth of BeaverBlitz.com an Oregon State site. After doing the obligatory “when was the last time a Montana player was recruited by Oregon State” (the answer is Jack McGillis only a few years ago… BTW). They reviewed Huestis’s history and then had a short interview with Josh. The only thing I found particularly interesting was when Josh was asked about his favorites.

BeaverBlitz: Top schools on your list?

Huestis: In no order, Oregon State, Gonzaga, USC, Stanford, Harvard and Georgetown.

BeaverBlitz: What interests you about Oregon State University?

Huestis: They play in one of the best conferences in the country and the location is close to Montana. I also like the job Coach Craig Robinson has done so far in turning around the program. I also like the assistants David Grace and Doug Stewart I have talked with both of them.

The second article appeared yesterday by Max Mandel of CardinalReport.com a Stanford Rivals site. In the article it mentions that Stanford did a home visit with Josh in Great Falls on September 14th which included a trip CMR high school where they watched him play. Josh has set up an official visit to Stanford for October 15th.

Odds and ends: 9-15-09

Another week and another odds and ends post.

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• I have heard that Thurmond Woods, who signed with the Grizzly program last November, will now be attending Santa Ana junior college in California this fall. It sounds like he will need to attend the JC for two years to get his D-1 eligibility, but I am not sure about that. Woods is originally from Dominguez high school in California, and was on the Montana campus this summer. From what I saw of him this summer I thought he had the chance to make an impact on the Griz this year as a true freshman.

Josh Huestis update: 9-11-09

Thought I would update you folks on what I am hearing on Josh Huestis’s recruitment. This comes from a few sources, but the major source is from Eric Bossi from Scout.com who writes for the USC and Stanford scout site among others.

Josh took an official visit to USC last week end and seemed to really enjoy the trip. It sounds like a lot of his concerns about USC – they face NCAA sanctions – and its coaches were answered. Here is a quote about his trip.

“I had a great time. I got to meet all the players, other recruits and the coaches. I really liked everybody,” Huestis told SC Playbook. “There’s been those rumors circulating about Coach O’Neill and how he is as a coach and person, I got to see for myself and he’s a great guy.”