I thought it would be interesting to keep track of the five ‘23 commits during their senior season. There have already been a few such posts and I know the Men’s bball Twitter account will be posting too. Any contributions to this thread appreciated. Illinois has started and Kentucky starts this week.
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Mekhi Cooper with 26, 28 and 16 points in first three games for 2-1 Bolingbrook.
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Elmer had a great game for Taft. Had a game high 23
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Reece Potter finishes with 21 pts and 11 reb. Had 12 pts, 7 reb, 5 assists, and 4 blocks in the first game. Good start to the season!
Also stealing the work of @Digitalhawk to add Cooper’s stats in here. They also mentioned Evan Ipsaro went for 20 pts and 7 assists in his first game.
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Hope Potter remains committed to his game (I know he will) and Miami (I hope he will). Turned down X.
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Evan Ipsaro scores 32 in 75-60 win over 5th ranked Georgetown Great Crossing in big early season matchup. Great Crossing features big school target Malachi Moreno and Miami interest Vince Dawson.
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He’s having a great start to his season. Also passed and rebounded well
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Evan Ipsaro
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He and Cooper will give us two outstanding PG prospects. Add this years class and the guys with size in '23, and we will, I believe, be mentioned among the likes of Creighton, X, and other “mid-major” powers.
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Both already with 30 point games.
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I can’t wait to see these guys in Red and White. Most excited I’ve been about Miami Hoops since Charlie Coles.
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There’s not much “mid-major” about X basketball, in fact there’s nothing ;-). X have frosh with 50 to 100K/yr, car, etc. NIL deals.
Let’s start with Kent, Akron, Toledo, OU…maybe St. Mary’s, Davidson, Drake, then set your eyes Dayton.
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Creighton and X are Big East teams. They aren’t mid-majors any more.
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That’s why I put “mid-major” in quotes. Ask most bball fans of P5-type schools and X comes up well short of a “major”. I agree they have a very, very good program. But they ain’t a “major power” on any regular basis.
Plus, they have the distinct advantage that bball is pretty much all they have. No D1 fball. No D1 hockey. They are all-in on bball. A nice way to spend big on one sport. If we dumped both, it would add millions of dollars annually to our bball program. Build a new facility? No problem. Give the coach $1M/yr–not an issue. Recruiting budget–quadrupled. Buy games to fill Millett/new facility? Sure. Bring in Indiana, NC, Purdue, Mich St, etc.
Life would be less interesting but much more fun if we had those distinct advantages.
Would I want to do that? No.
Nah X is a major…no one thinks that anymore, they are complete Major - so is Gonzaga (although an argument can at least be made for Zags). There’s major $$ tied to X Bball + BEAST.
I guess being a member of a “major” conference is all it takes. However, that’s why many of them are/are not regularly in the Sweet 16, Great Eight, Final Four or N.C. Creighton has a great team this year. Watched them last night. May reach those goals. But not consistently. If being a member of a P5-type school/conference is all it took, Butler, Northwestern, Rice, Cal, etc. would be "major " powers. Right? Conference affiliation has little to do with the success of many members.
Sorry–I don’t consider any of them “major” bball powers…
Creighton shouldn’t be in the Big East because they’re located west of the Mississippi River. Geography matters people!
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To be clear, his offer from X was when Steele was the coach. I’m not certain that he still had an active offer through Coach Miller. But I get it - the X offer shows he is a great get for MU.
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How did a thread about our signee’s senior season devolve into discussing the definition of a mid-major and who we should be comparing ourselves to?
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